Death of the High Street?

[Im-a-Ridah]

Two more problems:
1. Have you got 20p/50p?
2. The risk of getting stabbed/robbed/raped by youknowwho

[Ste]

Government subsidies for electric cars and hybrid cars are less attractive than they used to be. I see it a bit like solar panels and feed in tariffs, the initial attractive rates help get the industry going and once it's going, the benefits of the product alone are enough to keep demand going.

A hybrid XC90 is purely for VED reasons and subsidy reasons. On top of that, they're part of the reason why subsidies are being cut.

Electric vehicle running costs will be significantly reduced if you have a reasonable sized solar panel array on the roof of your house and a domestic power bank.

All of this will be unnecessary once we're being driven around in driverless electric Uber cars.

It's the way things are going and resistance is futile.

[The Shaggy D.A.]

Free rides!

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=101529
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[Ste]

[Tierbirdy]

Bollocks to the highstreet, I hate it with a passion. I avoid it like the plague and only time I really have to go there is if I need to go to the bank for something.

You spend 2 hours on congested roads trying to find a carpark, finally get to the carpark and spend 45 minutes waiting for the single mother in a Ford Galaxy dithering about trying to park in a space and holding everyone up, pay £742 per minute to park, now you have to set off with a sherpa for the 3 day hike from the carpark to the actual high street whilst running the gauntlet of charity "Hi do you have a moment, Im going to stand in your way and wave a clipboard at you" direct debit save the ________s, try not to make eye contact with the ISSSUUUUEEEEE seller, step over at least 3 dozen homeless people all asking for 'spare change guv?' (no, its 2018 who the fuck still carries cash, also fuck off), try not to get knifed by the gang of feral youths on the corner, finally make it to the shop you want only to find out that on Thursday for some reason they close at 12 and now you have to try the other shop on the other side of town, only to find out theyre out of stock, but can order it in for £4.99 delivery in 6 weeks. Defeated you slump back to your car, where you overstayed your parking by exactly 8 seconds and now have a £90 parking charge.

Or you can do it from the comfort of your own home, lazing about your underwear in front your PC scratching your balls with one hand, cuppa in the other. Flicking between amazon and pornhub as you fancy and nobody can judge you. Plus itll be half the price, and for the cost of a few hours parking you can have it delivered same day by Amazon Prime.

In summary, fuck the highstreet. Every other shop is either a Costa, Chikkin Cottage, Hair/Nail salon, or Paddy Power now anyway.

[Sister Sledge]

So we all agree the high street is a nightmare of sorts and is for the most part avoided.

What do people think will become of them? All residential? A few pubs and residential?
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CCM 404 DS

[Dave....]

[Riejufixing]

[Ste]

[chickenstrip]

[BTTD]

[M.C]

Also rent prices in the popular malls shopping centres (we're not American ). A lot of the independent stores can't afford a popular location, hence why at the bigger shopping centres they tend to have the same chains.

[B5234FT]

Increasing fuel prices will get me into an electric car, probably sooner rather than later based on my mileage, but it will not get on on the bus, mainly because they dont go where/when I want to travel.

Delivery vans and online ordering make much more sense, as I dont really care what time of the day my parcel is delivered as long as it's there when I get home.

I have to agree with MPD that the current trend of 2-3 year leases isnt healthy

[M.C]

[rpsmith79]

[Ste]

[B5234FT]

[M.C]

[Pigeon]

[Ste]

UK High Streets 'have twice as many shops as needed'

Britain has twice as many shops as it needs, according to the author of a report looking at how to revive the nation's High Streets.

Retailer Sir John Timpson said local councils must be given more money to turn town centres into communities and meeting places.

Sir John told the BBC revival should be a "bottom up" job, with councils taking the lead.

"People should be allowed to get on and do it themselves," he said.

Sir John, a member of the founding-family of shoe repair and key-cutting business Timpson, said each town centre needed to establish a task force to address issues such as planning. He said "planning must be made simpler and quicker".

...

However, Sir John told BBC Breakfast that reviving High Streets and town centres was not just about shopping. "It's about communities and creating a hub for entertainment, medical facilities, housing. We probably have about twice as many shops as we need. But we are short of housing."

An immediate measure he wants introduced is a National High Street Perfect Day - one day a year where local communities would take ownerships of ensuring their town centre looked as good as possible.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46630861

[chickenstrip]

[Diggs]

Ste most of it has been tried before unfortunately. Many towns have an appointed Town Centre Manager who's job it is to co-ordinate spending. Planning regulations regarding conversion of buildings have been relaxed a lot in recent years, yet we will continue to see 'empties' until viable uses can be found. If people don't want to shop in towns anymore, there isn't much a day a year making the place pretty will do about it.

Chickenstrip you are correct. Most people don't look above ground floor level when they walk about so don't appreciate what is going on above. Trouble is, seeing an attractive 1st and 2nd storey to a shop they don't want to go into isn't really a help.

After a couple of decades of pain where we shed our reliance on cars as personal transport, town centres will come back into their own, assuming the zombies haven't taken over by then...
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[Im-a-Ridah]

Just construct a tax system that requires Amazon and eBay to offer collection from an eBay or Amazon store on the high street.

Ultimately we will end up with collection lockers on every street corner.

[Ste]

How close is your nearest Amazon pickup location?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/css/account/address/view.html?ie=UTF8&ref_=s9_acss_bw_cg_x_6a1_w&storeSearchRedirectUrl=%2Fa%2Faddresses%3F&viewID=searchStores&

[Im-a-Ridah]