High Street

[amethyst]

Re: High Street

I Know next thing will be a post office in tesco imagine the consequences if that happened more little PO would close,bad enough with royal mail being privatised more job losses more closures how much would postage stamps rise to £1 a letter?

[sweep]

Re: High Street

Our post office moved from it's grand old building a few years ago and is now squashed into a corner of W H Smiths. I think the only hope left for our towns is if they could attract more exclusive higher end shops and cafes and maybe adopt a more continental approach, the supermarkets do seem to have the monopoly on everything else.

[amethyst]

Re: High Street

Our post office moved from it's grand old building a few years ago and is now squashed into a corner of W H Smiths. I think the only hope left for our towns is if they could attract more exclusive higher end shops and cafes and maybe adopt a more continental approach, the supermarkets do seem to have the monopoly on everything else.

There used to be 3 big PO at one time where I come from but as you say W H Smiths is where it is now

[barry21]

Re: High Street

I think you may find that once the PO has been sold off that we may see a few other operators such as TNT or UPS or the like opening up in retail shops.
all it takes is for one postal company to come up with the idea.

[PC66]

Re: High Street

I can't help but feel that Royal Mail (and related Parcel Force) is somewhat responsible in itself for the gaining popularity of some of the other courier services, simply because for anything but basic letters and the smallest of packets the alternate services offer considerably better value now. For anything over the 2kg limit, I get a far better price with Yodel, TNT et al via an intermediary such as Parcel2Go, and with faster delivery to boot. Not only that, but they come and collect right from my door, something which is a significant advantage for me as I live out in the sticks somewhat and work from home most of the time, so I'm not passing a Post Office on a regular basis. We have a couple of tiny sub-Post Offices in the back of two little general stores in nearby villages, each about 2 miles away, and a "full" Post Office in the small town about 5 miles distant. But as I sometimes go a week without having to go anywhere near them, it's certainly not worth a special trip, even for a slightly lighter package,

These days, I use Royal Mail's online postage to print pre-paid envelopes or labels for anything small enough to drop in the local box, and anything sizeable goes via courier and is collected. It's only a few of the "in between" small packets which I'll take to the P.O., and then only if the timing works out so that I can do it with another trip, otherwise it's not worth the time and cost of fuel.

[darren]

Re: High Street

oh i agree supermarkets are selling everything they have a finger in every pie.
sadly this is harming the smaller specialist shops some close down and the supermarkets now dominate high streets across the country.

thankfully though where iam its no too bad.

Certainly I can't disagree that the big supermarkets certainly have a huge effect when it comes to the smaller places. We had this happen a few years ago in the small town near me after Tesco arrived and built a new store. Not only did it have an effect on the independent food stores in the High St., but it also came with a cafe section. Was is just coincidence that one of the other cafes in town closed down within a short time? And then after about a year, the cafe was removed from the Tesco anyway. Not only that, but the supermarket was built on land which used to host a fair-sized open market each week, which is now gone.

The other thing I don't like is the way that some of these chains now seem to have a finger in almost every pie going - It's not just food and household goods, but they now have deals to sell insurance, mobile phone packages, and who knows what else.

[amethyst]

Re: High Street

It will probably get worse as the years go by in certain areas,I hope the traditional market towns stay as they are,but there is no guarantee.I wouldnt like to start off as a shop keeper now,where I come from we still have an indoor market,but I rarely go there anyway,the cost of fuel and parking not worth it.There was one young lady who gave up a good job in finance to set up a stall making hand made chocolates,she lasted for about 3 months by the time she paid rent on her stall,barely sold much stock because the chocs wore so expensive,most of the folk shopping in the market wore over 60 anyway and the money was not around to spend on expensive chocs,they wore probably spending their money on fruit veg meat fish etc.

[sweep]

Re: High Street

where I come from we still have an indoor market,but I rarely go there anyway,the cost of fuel and parking not worth it.

Good point who's going to pay two pounds for one hours parking when you can go to Asda park for free and get everything under one roof, the few people still using traditional markets tend to live within walking distance you cant even park on the outskirts of towns anymore the councils have put down yellow lines in order to ensure everyone uses there car parks.

[PC66]

Re: High Street

I'm afraid that as much as it would be nice to see all the small stores thriving, I do use online grocery ordering from Asda these days, simply because of the convenience and the cost of where I live.

We have a good-sized independent supermarket in a small town about 10 miles away which used to be my regular weekly shopping trip some years ago. I still go in there from time to time if I can combine it with some other task, but at over £4 for the fuel now plus the time involved, I'm afraid that the online ordering and home delivery won, given that I can order the weekly shop in about 20 minutes at the computer and pay only £2 for delivery. I can barely get to the High St. in the nearby little town and back for that with the cost of fuel as it is now.

And speaking of fuel, the other big effect Tesco had when it arrived was its filling station. One of the two existing filling stations soon went out of business following a slightly mysterious fire; the other one is still going, but it's a mile or so out and is a dealer workshop as well.

[PC66]

Re: High Street

P.S. This being rural Norfolk, we do have a nice farm shop a couple of miles from where I live which I visit fairly regularly for fruit & vegetables, eggs, etc. It's better quality for those items than the supermarkets, and at lower prices.

[battyrat]

Re: High Street

There was always the small supermarket chain shops around like Coop and Spar.But Supermarkets have got a lot bigger over tyhe years.Can certainly say the independants have mostly given away to chain stores.Those new independant shops that do open seem to be struggling.Most people where I live tend to shop at the supermarkets as everything is under one roof and its easy work without having to drag heavy bags of shopping from one place to another.But it's the shear number of them in our town,and it makes me wonder how they all survive.Somethings got to give eventually its a pity that the small retaillers get caught in this trade war between the giants.The biggest fad at the moment seems to be coffee shops.One in nearly every street of the town,even some of the superstores have started to reintroduce coffe bars into their stores again to cash in.

[amethyst]

Re: High Street

A new fad coffee shops,bars a lot of them are in towns or city centres.Wilkinsons has a coffee shop in the main store,but the smaller one hasnt.Tesco,Asda,Morrisons has a cafe raking in more money.When I was in Rye a few weeks back,they had an oldy worldy tea room where we had a cream tea,it was lovely tables with tablecloths a welsh dresser with all the crockery displayed,they played classical music quietly but it was such a relaxing atmosphere,it was a change to find a place so traditional and staff were so pleasant and helpful and we would return a visit if we were in the area one day.By the way the name was Cobbles Tea Room.

[darren]

Re: High Street

sound lovely this cobbles tea room nice staff as well nice to see.
we have a few like this one just opened lovely nice helpful staff.

A new fad coffee shops,bars a lot of them are in towns or city centres.Wilkinsons has a coffee shop in the main store,but the smaller one hasnt.Tesco,Asda,Morrisons has a cafe raking in more money.When I was in Rye a few weeks back,they had an oldy worldy tea room where we had a cream tea,it was lovely tables with tablecloths a welsh dresser with all the crockery displayed,they played classical music quietly but it was such a relaxing atmosphere,it was a change to find a place so traditional and staff were so pleasant and helpful and we would return a visit if we were in the area one day.By the way the name was Cobbles Tea Room.

[amethyst]

Re: High Street

Yes Rye is a delightful place to visit and the tea rooms was lovely