Whats Killing The High Street

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/what-really-killed-hmv-jessops-and-blockbuster-180416602.html

interesting yahoo article why lots of store are closing down , reason is why ?

there sereval reason , for me its price

there were so expensive in the first place

its cheaper to buy online and its posted to you for free (Amazon)

its more expensive to go out and buy whatever you wanted

can retailers not compete with amazon ? , in my house were big nintendo fans and a new release for nintendo is about 60 euro in HMV , it was only 44 euro on amazon and posted free .

smash

Why go to Grafton street when you can go to somewhere like Dundrum and be indoors? Then again, why go to Dundrum when you can be at home buying cheaper online?

admiralofthefleet

rent, rates, and shopping centres that were built away from main street's during the boom

SEPT 23 1989

commercial rates is the big one in this country

will the councils reduce it and help save small business?

will they fcuk

not yet

Greedy multi-nationals with no soul.....

Mr Simpson

smash wrote: »

Why go to Grafton street when you can go to somewhere like Dundrum and be indoors? Then again, why go to Dundrum when you can be at home buying cheaper online?

Solution - Put a roof on Grafton Street! Problem solved, recession over

Dravokivich

Here's a novel idea, there's only so much shít people will buy.

ejmaztec

The robbers operating car-parks don't help either. Multi-storeys were thrown up all over the place because there were tax incentives to build them, and you get robbed blind when you use them. :mad:

My name is URL

The High Street is killing the High Street.

Zebra3

We have High Streets?

Gummy Panda

I blame Tomo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX1ZZNw-sq0

I never go to shops in towns due to the rip off car parking prices. If parking were free or reasonable, i would go browsing and maybe make a purchase.

ITS_A_BADGER

piracy sites, torent sites and cheaper sites like amazon etc etc is whats killing the high street shops

Recession.

Price transparency thanks to the web.

Kichote

Dravokivich wrote: »

Here's a novel idea, there's only so much shít people will buy.

This. I could walk into any given high street shop and not find a single item that would improve my life in any way that i couldnt get for half the price somewhere else. Most of what people have is good enough. Also here in Ireland particularly the shops have nothing unusual on offer only the same mass produced low quality garbage everyone already bought during the celtic tiger. Consumerism is still flourishing in China, the USA and England but it's days are numbered

squod

P-A-R-K-I-N-G

I don't want to spend an hour and a half of my life on a bus. I don't want to park may car a kilometer away from (and fourteen stories above) the shops.

Mostly I don't want to put my car in a place where its going to get clamped for some any reason. Too much hassle.

meoklmrk91

ITS_A_BADGER wrote: »

piracy sites, torent sites and cheaper sites like amazon etc etc is whats killing the high street shops

Yeah I just pirated a T-shirt and a Toaster there a while ago

Fratton Fred

All the time that the likes of Amazon can get away with avoiding tax, shops will never be able to compete.

Stupidly high rents and rates make life hard enough, plus stupidly high charges for parking. An afternoon shopping in Grafton street will cost €12 before you start.

Add in the likes of Dundrum and you have a recipe for disaster that the councils seem oblivious to.

steddyeddy

As the admiral says high rents are involved. Landlords are killing our economy for their own personal gain.

Thud

this is AH so I blame the chuggers, root of al evil

ITS_A_BADGER

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

Yeah I just pirated a T-shirt and a Toaster there a while ago

The likes of HMV and blockbuster come under the heading of high street shops too

stmol32

For me it has to be the ridiculous cost of bus fare.
It takes the best part of a tenner to get me and two kids into and home from town (Dublin).

It's about 8Km so walking isn't an option.
If I need to buy anything or go to the cinema then we walk to the nearsest shopping centre (2 Km).

Ten euros may not seem like a lot but it's a huge chunk out of my disposable income so I'm only able to go to town if it's absolutely unavoidable which is a shame because there's a much better buzz around than in any clinical staid shopping centre.

Dublin Bus can go and ask me hole the greed f**ckers.

Bullseye1

MarkMc wrote: »

Solution - Put a roof on Grafton Street! Problem solved, recession over

If its good enough for Fremont Street. Maybe we could also have a light show.

not yet

Video....

Video killed the radio store, there ya go.

FloatingVoter

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

Yeah I just pirated a T-shirt and a Toaster there a while ago

My 3D printer is working away nicely. And yes, I would download a car.

anncoates

The big suburban reatile4rs have cheaper rent than town.

They are indoors (important in climate like ours) and they offer parking.

dd972

I blame Michael Ryan and Derrick Bird

N64

Fratton Fred wrote: »

All the time that the likes of Amazon can get away with avoiding tax, shops will never be able to compete.

Stupidly high rents and rates make life hard enough, plus stupidly high charges for parking. An afternoon shopping in Grafton street will cost €12 before you start.

Add in the likes of Dundrum and you have a recipe for disaster that the councils seem oblivious to.

I think your talking a load of nonsense to be honest. I just checked my most recent amazon invoice and I was charged 23% Irish vat.

Got to love the AH economists

Baneblade

its more like they avoid corporate tax
there is a reason a load of online retailers are in jersy and im pretty sure its not the view

ejmaztec

N64 wrote: »

I think your talking a load of nonsense to be honest. I just checked my most recent amazon invoice and I was charged 23% Irish vat.

Got to love the AH economists

I don't think he was referring to VAT, and was probably talking about Corporation Tax.

Got to love the AH assumers. :P

Scanlas The 2nd

I fukcing hate the term " The high street".

ejmaztec

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

I fukcing hate the term " The high street".

We should call it the "Irish city-town main shopping road/street" to avoid confusion with the UK.

Matt_Trakker

Such a god awful term to be using.

admiralofthefleet

you should see Arklow main street, its a ghost town. everybody shops in the bridgewater centre. i am involved in a petition to have the town council secure a derelict site on the main street to develop for the benefit of the street.

however the council are only interested in putting square pegs in round holes

Fratton Fred

N64 wrote: »

I think your talking a load of nonsense to be honest. I just checked my most recent amazon invoice and I was charged 23% Irish vat.

Got to love the AH economists

Amazon don't pay corporation tax, thanks to their offshore model, so they can work on much lower profit margins than a shop can.

VAT is irrelevant.

meoklmrk91

ITS_A_BADGER wrote: »

The likes of HMV and blockbuster come under the heading of high street shops too

Yes they do but so does comet. JJB's, Woolworths etc. and that can't be blamed on pirating and torrents, frankly I think it's a pitiful excuse for retailers and business models that refuse to evolve instead on whining and failing. I don't think HMV is any great loss, especially seeing how they treat their staff and their customers.

Zascar

I prefer to buy from the little guy rather than the big stores if I can - so I buy a lot of stuff on ebay. Yes ebay get a commission but most of the sellers are small operations - I'd prefer someone with a small business to have my money than a big store. I will of course try to buy from an Irish seller as long as its not too much more expensive.

lucylu

The exchange rate from UK stores are making a killing on Irish Customers
along with Rent and Commercial rates are killing the high street

Take an example a double duvet cover (nothing spectacular) from Next on Next Directory in Ireland it is €41 + €5 delivery = €46
The same thing sold on the UK Next site is £30 + £3.99 delivery = £33.99

Current exchange rate is 33.99 GBP = 40.7508 Euro

average_runner

Shops need to go back to their roots where they treated customers like royality, prices have to at least match the web and just need a whole friendly vibe around it. Make it nice to go to town!

SunnyDub1

I find that most items from the "high street" can be bought for a fraction of the price either on line or in a different store.

Take the likes of top shop & river island. You buy something like a pair of jeans in River island for €50 and you can get more or less the exact style of jeans in Penny's for €15.

johnr1

MarkMc wrote: »

Solution - Put a roof on Grafton Street! Problem solved, recession over

Bullseye1 wrote: »

If its good enough for Fremont Street. Maybe we could also have a light show.

Swindon in England roofed the centre of the town about 25 years ago.

I shopped there 20 years ago and the place was flying. Dont know about now.

.

ITS_A_BADGER

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

Yes they do but so does comet. JJB's, Woolworths etc. and that can't be blamed on pirating and torrents, frankly I think it's a pitiful excuse for retailers and business models that refuse to evolve instead on whining and failing. I don't think HMV is any great loss, especially seeing how they treat their staff and their customers.

Perhaps i should have made my first post a bit clearer then i was saying HMV and Blockbuster were going down the tubes because of piracy and torrents and when i included amazon i meant that they do goods much cheaper then in these high street retailers and they contribute to the loss of high street shops. i wasnt saying you can pirate stuff from amazon, thats just silly

mike65

History

Beginning about 1,000 years ago the word "high" evolved into a term also referring to excellence or superior rank ("high sheriff", "high society"). "High" also applied to roads as they improved; "highway" emerged during the 17th century to replace "high street",[3] and "High Street" began to be used to describe thoroughfares with significant retail areas in villages and towns.

In recent years, although "High Street" is still used to refer to commerce shopping has begun to shift to purpose-built out-of-town shopping centres and supermarkets. However, compared to the United States town and city-centre shopping remains widespread. The town centre in many larger British towns combines a group of outdoor shopping streets (one or more of which may be pedestrianised), with an adjacent indoor shopping centre. The presence of chain stores on High Streets in settlements around the UK is part of the clone town theory, which has among its concerns the loss of "sociability" offered by traditional shopping. "The demise of the small shop would mean that people will not just be disadvantaged in their role as consumers but also as members of communities – the erosion of small shops is viewed as the erosion of the 'social glue' that binds communities together, entrenching social exclusion in the UK."[4]

Anyway nomenclature aside, whats killing the primary retail streets is a mix of prices and technology, the prices we all know about local council rates, parking costs, etc the other is the internet - there is a real squeeze now which is seeing off "beige" retailing - either you are cheap as chips and ubiquitous (Poundland/Lidl/Aldi etc) or you are upper end niche with quality presentation, products and service.

The rest - your HMVs, Blockbusters, Comets etc are doing nothing that cant be done better online now most people have the net at their fingertips and a credit card account.

ejmaztec

lucylu wrote: »

The exchange rate from UK stores are making a killing on Irish Customers
along with Rent and Commercial rates are killing the high street

Take an example a double duvet cover (nothing spectacular) from Next on Next Directory in Ireland it is €41 + €5 delivery = €46
The same thing sold on the UK Next site is £30 + £3.99 delivery = £33.99

Current exchange rate is 33.99 GBP = 40.7508 Euro

You can't ignore the fact that Irish owned stores charge more than would be charged in the UK for the same stuff.

Jay D

A sign of companies clearly unable to adapt to change. No? HMV, like come on.

wandatowell

Cheapest prices rains supreme for me.

I am being paid less and less every year for 4 years now so whoever has the cheapest prices gets my cash. Its as simple as.


Also people who work in shops (from my experiences) aren't great at times to deal with. I was buying a rather nice little hat and scarf for my girlfriend off a independent retailer in East Cork just before Christmas. The lady behind the counter was yapping on the phone to her friend giving her relationship advice and I was standing there for over a minute waiting to be acknowledged and served. Then the tutting I got when I asked does the shop provide a wrapping service.


You can **** right off high street if that's going to be your attitude.

Though after saying that I went to another shop down the street that was owned and operated by a husband and wife team and they were fantastic to deal with, polite, easy, relaxed and well, nice people. Been back since and will continue to do so.

RossFixxxed

Rude staff.
Expensive parking / transport.
Overpriced goods.
Cheaper online.
Cheaper up north (even with petrol costs)
Cheaper local alternatives.
Poor after sale service.
Stock on show but not available.
High rent on properties in city centre.
Greed.
Recession.
Digital distribution of certain media.
Internet ordering of goods, much cheaper and easier for many.
Torrent sites.
Aldi / Lidl / Dealz etc are far cheaper and easier to get to, free parking etc.
Same goods sometimes 60% of the price in UK than in Ireland. (I.e. more rip offs).

Ultimately if an alternative is cheaper / easier people will go for that. Driving into town in the insane traffic, going around and around a car park just to pay 2.90 an hour for the privilige etc is enough to put many off.

The pirates are providing a better service than many legitimate services (EA Origin I'm looking at you). The local centres are providing a better service, cheaper. I've found shops up north much friendlier and far, far cheaper...

gurramok

All the Main St retailers charge high prices no matter what business they are in, be it clothes or your local cinema. Expect more closures in the future as they won't\can't reduce their prices due to rates\rents etc and online retailers are competing. The sooner they reduce the prices things will pick up but then again transport costs for the consumer are a sticky problem in a recession.

OneArt

smash wrote: »

Why go to Grafton street when you can go to somewhere like Dundrum and be indoors? Then again, why go to Dundrum when you can be at home buying cheaper online?

Because it's nice to get out of the house and go for tea and a bun after.

I want a bun now.

ejmaztec

OneArt wrote: »

Because it's nice to get out of the house and go for tea and a bun after.

I want a bun now.

http://www.stickybunsonline.com/

hatrickpatrick

Because everything is so ridiculously overpriced.
Bit like when pub owners complain about nightclubs undercutting their business, without acknowledging that you can get a pint for 3 quid in a nightclub versus almost 6 in most pubs.

If you won't compete, you can't complain.