shopping in the high street

[Ylf]

Manifesto is a shit hole. Overpriced and occasionally pre-worn and returned to the hanger clothing. No thanks. 
Gazeleys is brae. The chilli sauce and pakora.
Grossetts for most of the butcher needs. 

never had any bother in manifesto. buy most of my clothes online but use manifesto on an occasion. grossetts [emoji122][emoji106]. my favourite butcher is mcdonald’s in lochee high street and the perth road one. need to try the chilli sauce and pakora though [emoji106]

[Highland Capital]

I only buy things online I can't buy in a shop.  We should have an investment in our local area to some degree.

[ICTChris]

Shops are generally awful. Has anyone been into a WH Smith recently, that must be the most horrible shop going, mountains of utter tat , e everything piled up higgeldy piggeldy and the shelves far to close together.

The only shops I ever browse in are book shops.

[Shotgun]

I'm firmly of the belief that we should do all we can to support independent retailers...in theory at least.

In practice, living in a rural location as I do, shopping at brick and mortar stores involves driving for an hour or more, finding somewhere to park (usually multiple times and often for a fee), battling crowds of people moving slower than me, then finding the retailers don't have what I want in stock anyway. 1/2 a day at least down the crapper, only to come home empty handed. Or, I could simply log on whenever it's convenient to me, choose from a myriad of options, check pricing, read user reviews and when I'm ready, make my decision. A couple of clicks and it gets delivered to my house the day after next.

I'll mourn the demise of the high-street shopping experience while acknowledging my part in its downfall.

[parsforlife]

Shops are generally awful. Has anyone been into a WH Smith recently, that must be the most horrible shop going, mountains of utter tat , e everything piled up higgeldy piggeldy and the shelves far to close together.

The only shops I ever browse in are book shops.

Not been in a high street branch in years, they must profit somehow but I’ve no idea how. They don’t do anything that’s easier/cheaper or better than anywhere else.

Must be subsidized by their travel shops, they have loads of these with a far more captive audience willing to pay their prices.

[Granny Danger]

High Street shopping in most of the UK is effectively dead.  I don’t take any pleasure in saying that (though I don’t enjoy shopping) but that’s the reality.  

[ForzaDundee]

Managed to remove myself from most aspects of consumerism which means I only really need to go to ASDA and Tesco once I week. Maybe once a month I'd take a browse through clothes shops like TK Maxx, Topman, River Island etc. to see what's on the sales racks but I have enough already and most of the time just taking a look is enough to remind me that I don't actually need or want anymore stuff. Other essentially come from Amazon but again I don't actually need much.

[D.A.F.C]

The local council have taxed the shops so much in Dunfermline that even a McDonald’s closed.

Compared to the 1980s its chalk and cheese. Shithole full of deadbeats and junkies.

[scottmcleanscontacts]

I don't generally buy anything at all other than food and I use mainly Aldi for that with Asda to top up a couple of things.
I only buy clothes in batches every 3 to 5 years and prefer to wear everything out before replacing.
Same goes with my cars. Drive them till they fall apart at about 250k miles on the clocks.
My big thing is technical books and only the internet would do for those choice-wise and price-wise.
If councils had any vision whatsoever, they would help to transform town centres into residential and entertainment hubs.
Sadly we all know the type of people who end up elected as councillors. Some of them post on here. The idea of any of them having any sort of coherent vision for the future would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic.

The town centre/entertainment hub idea is exactly where it had to be at.

Let's face it, the idea of 'the town centre' being a bustling shopping area is long dead in the water.

The local councils should indeed be looking at making their town and city centres places where the masses can go to enjoy cinema, bowling, pubs, clubs, eateries, theatre etc etc.......with a few wee shops thrown in for convenience - confectioners, places to buy juice, whatever when in town.

Leave what is left of brick and mortar shopping to the out of town retail parks.

[cowdenbeath]

1 hour ago, parsforlife said:

 

Not been in a high street branch in years, they must profit somehow but I’ve no idea how. They don’t do anything that’s easier/cheaper or better than anywhere else.

Must be subsidized by their travel shops, they have loads of these with a far more captive audience willing to pay their prices.

 

Quite a few of them like the Dunfermline one must be subsidised by having a Post Office branch as well and as you say the travel ones.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

2 hours ago, Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo said:

That's the best euphemism for 'porn video vendors' I've ever read.

In Elgin, we were well ahead of the game circa 1988. Johnnys Mobile Video Van was the place to procure said items. Moving target, difficult for the police to hit.

[cowdenbeath]

20 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

The local council have taxed the shops so much in Dunfermline that even a McDonald’s closed.

Compared to the 1980s its chalk and cheese. Shithole full of deadbeats and junkies.

Aye its went pretty grim compared to what it was back in the day even had a Burger King opposite the McDonalds back then and further back a Wimpy down Guildhall Street.

[Gaz FFC]

A few things I will love about shops not being there

The Next sale and the tragic people who get up at 5AM boxing day to save a few quid on clothes.

The women's shops that didn't figure out to put out a few seats for guys to sit in whilst slowly dying waiting for the Mrs.

Shopping in December basically anywhere.

This all been said I still like to wander round the shops on occasion and find that 1 purchase you didn't come out for.

Society is getting to the point people only talk to the guy who delivers stuff to your door and people are getting to the point they no longer need to leave the house.

With people working from home and able to get anything they need delivered to the house, we can't be far away from a situation people could actually go months without going outside.

How that is supposed to be better and the future is way over my head.

[D.A.F.C]

Future will be giant warehouses stocking stuff delivered from other even bigger warehouses.

High streets will be flats and cafes etc. Perhaps big cities can justify actual shops maybe? 

I think there’s a massive gap in the market for having a hub for all distributors in population hotspots. Giant warehouse that Amazon, DPD, Royal Mail, eBay etc all deliver to for a small charge and hold your items. This would be a secondary option if you’re not in and can select this option. You turn up and have a locker and simply get your goods when it suits 24\7. I reckon you would clean up with this if you had the capital to invest.

[Ludo*1]

5 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

Future will be giant warehouses stocking stuff delivered from other even bigger warehouses.

High streets will be flats and cafes etc. Perhaps big cities can justify actual shops maybe? 

I think there’s a massive gap in the market for having a hub for all distributors in population hotspots. Giant warehouse that Amazon, DPD, Royal Mail, eBay etc all deliver to for a small charge and hold your items. This would be a secondary option if you’re not in and can select this option. You turn up and have a locker and simply get your goods when it suits 24\7. I reckon you would clean up with this if you had the capital to invest.

Is that not pretty much what the Post Office Depot does barring the 24/7 part?

[Shandon Par]

Decathlon have a till system now where you just chuck your shopping into a trough and it knows what’s in there. It’s like witchcraft. Keep going there to buy tat just to use the checkouts.

[D.A.F.C]

3 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

Is that not pretty much what the Post Office Depot does barring the 24/7 part?

The post office is pointless. Let’s deliver stuff when people are at work. It’s terrible for the environment and totally wasteful.

[Ludo*1]

1 minute ago, D.A.F.C said:

The post office is pointless. Let’s deliver stuff when people are at work. It’s terrible for the environment and totally wasteful.

They offer a service where you can collect locally, much like the one you described:

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/collection-services

[BFTD]

Just now, Shandon Par said:

Decathlon have a till system now where you just chuck your shopping into a trough and it knows what’s in there. It’s like witchcraft. Keep going there to buy tat just to use the checkouts.

About a decade ago or more, Tesco were contemplating a system where you put your trolley through some kind of airport scanner and it worked out what you had. Would have done away with human checkouts altogether. Guess it didn't work well enough back then.

18 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

Is that not pretty much what the Post Office Depot does barring the 24/7 part?

 

14 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

The post office is pointless. Let’s deliver stuff when people are at work. It’s terrible for the environment and totally wasteful.

You're both referring to the Royal Mail. The Post Office is now a glorified franchise operator selling services from the Royal Mail, amongst others, alongside whatever tat the franchise owner wants to prioritise above postal services (usually fags, booze, and scratchcards).

[D.A.F.C]

19 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

They offer a service where you can collect locally, much like the one you described:

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/collection-services

If it was any good people would use it plus there’s so many random couriers and they are good and bad. When you order something online you should have the option of a delivery date and time or delivery to a pickup point. 

Current setup.

Bad

Royal Mail

 Buy a toaster from eBay . When is it coming. f**k knows. Get an email the day before it gets posted. It’s coming tomorrow. From who? No idea when will it be there. Dunno. Wasted journey for delivery driver, rearrange delivery. It’s arriving on Saturday now. Had to pay extra, when will it arrive. Dunno. Etc etc

Good

 Use a company that uses DPD and you select when it will arrive to the hour and track it to the actual delivery. 

Who do I order from next time? Royal Mail can do one. They’re miles behind DPD and Hermes. Companies should tell you the courier is on their sites and explain the delivery process. Russian roulette Royal Mail post service is a joke.