How's your High Street?

[Phoenix]

So far, we've had close:

A coffee shop
A charity shop (became a hairdressers even though our high street has plenty of those)

Closing:

A fish and chip shop
Our local costcutters

all because of tescos

[yola]

Yes - Tesco . . . don't get me started on that 'virus' . . . . I refuse to shop there! Reading has 9 Tescos; including the supermarket-cum-petrol station variety and 2 monster hypermarkets. I HATE the control that ends up having on the retail environment . . . still, Mr n Mrs Average want in cheaper and cheaper (and stuff the consequences) so that's what we all end up having to suffer with!

[dandysmom]

Originally Posted by yola

Yes - Tesco . . . don't get me started on that 'virus' . . . . I refuse to shop there! Reading has 9 Tescos; including the supermarket-cum-petrol station variety and 2 monster hypermarkets. I HATE the control that ends up having on the retail environment . . . still, Mr n Mrs Average want in cheaper and cheaper (and stuff the consequences) so that's what we all end up having to suffer with!

Like WalMart here, Yola; they've devastated small shopkeepers all over the country ........

[angieh]

Not really wanting to ruffle feathers but I was a Tesco shopper online and was satisfied with their delivery and customer service, but latterly have been shopping at Asda (WalMart) and have found not only are they cheaper but IMO their quality is better than Tesco, especially their bread which is delicious. There are a few annoying things I can't get at Asda, but probably can at our local Co-Op store.

[yola]

I don't doubt their quality Angie - it's just their stranglehold on the competition and the fact that they are responsible for many environmental horror stories in developing countries (like starving whole villages of water when they diverted water sources to nourish their own crops) It is also they (and those like them) that are putting our farmers out of business by essentially forcing them to sell their stock for less than it took to raise the animals!

And then they bang the 'cheap' drum in their ads . . . well that's how they manage to get things so cheap!!

Anyway - off my soap box now - however I don't condemn those that shop there, I simply chose not to myself!

[PoshPuss]

Our 'High St." is a joke. A card shop, a cheepo supermarket, 3 estate agencies/building society franchises, 2 banks and 2 'pound shops' of tat stuff. A tatoo artists and 2 hairdressers ( for teens only).No shoe shop, clothes, gifts etc. Have to take a car to next town which isn't much better, then there's the retail parks. Thank goodness I drive and can get to nice market towns, 20-30 miles away for quality stuff, or get in a train to Cardiff ( 40 mins away).

25 years since the miners strike battered our community. Now all thats left is retirees/redundant miners and their families, many of whom are unemployed and have been for 10+years with kids who have never known a working wage come into their home! its like a ghetto here, I'm sorry to say. So different from when I grew up in a miner's home. My mum worked part time in a factory and every man had a job worth doing, but not earning very well. The community had associations, choirs, church clubs, the school was a espectable place to go to and teachers well liked. I'm not talking just post war either, the 60's and 70's, were good days.

the High St. in my village then ( just a mile from me now) had a fruiterers, 2 butchers, a sweetshop, a mini -department store, grocers and haberdashers, cafes and ironmongers. It's now a ghost town; betting shops and kebab palaces, a newsagents and post office. What a shame!

This has been a long post, sorry, just it took me back some.

[angieh]

You paint a worrying picture that unfortunately is found in lots of communities that used to be thriving, PP. Then you get the well-off walling up their communities and engaging security guards and before you know it, we're all back in the Dark Ages with the fortunate living in their castles with their families and entourages, staff etc. and the multitude of poor in differing stages of decay both moral and physical. Reminds me a bit of Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake! And all because the powers that be allowed out of town shopping centres ................ that old horse shoe nail.

Sorry for mixing the literature a bit, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

[dandysmom]

I do, Angie, and it's very depressing. Apt reference to Oryx and Crake. Those megastore chains that sell cheap have done an enormous amount of damages to communities, not only in our countries but in the developing ones also... see no way that things will change for the better. I can only refrain from shopping at WalMart and urge my friends not to also, but it's a futile gesture, really.