All change now for the old high street
Widdecombe
SOMETIMES we have to face up to unpleasant facts and stop blaming others. It is not Amazon or the banks that have killed the high street but principally consumers themselves. Let us begin with Amazon and the row over its tax bill. Of course Amazon should pay according to the law, although I think if we are wise then after Brexit we will impose the sort of tax regime that will encourage big business to come to Britain. Amazon’s obligations to HMRC however have nothing to do with the impact on the high street.
The company could pay several times more in tax (and maybe should) yet still be able to price competitively.
As I wrote a few weeks ago, rent and rates could be reduced and parking could be made easier and that would help the high street but the only thing that can save it is for us to use the shops. Instead there is now a huge growth in online shopping which is a very convenient way for busy people to buy what they need.
Nobody is dragged kicking and screaming to a computer and tortured until agreeing to click on Amazon: it is a completely free choice. Anybody who uses Amazon is driving a nail into the coffin of ordinary shops but to blame the company itself is childish.
And now the anger has switched to the banks, which are similarly responding to trends set by consumers. There was a time when in order to get your own money you had to queue up at a counter between certain hours and cash a cheque.
Now you just nip to a machine at any time of the day or night. You no longer need to ask a teller coyly for your “position” because you can look it up yourself with just a few clicks.
So we use the banks less and less and can therefore hardly blame AT LAST! I have a hedgehog! After living in the country for 10 years and lamenting the complete absence of these charming little creatures in my garden, I found one at the weekend when a visiting dog discovered it, driving it to curl into a ball. I dashed off to a pet shop for hedgehog food and each morning the bowl is empty but that could be because a fox or badger has found it. Watch this space! them if some branches become unviable and close. No social custom is pickled in aspic and THE BBC poll to determine the most influential women in the world has produced some odd results. Jane Austen beat Mother Teresa. One was a highly entertaining novelist who portrayed but did not change the social conditions of her time. The other made a massive difference to the poorest in the world.
Mary Shelley whose contribution to history was to pen Frankenstein beat Elizabeth Fry who pioneered the way we shop and bank is simply changing.
The advent of the motor car destroyed the trade in horses, grooming, livery stables and carriage
A CONTEST BETWEEN A TRULY GREAT NOVELIST AND A SAINT
prison reform. The Virgin Mary who bore a son who changed the entire world ranks below Eleanor of Aquitaine whose lasting legacy is difficult to ascertain. The first woman peer is there but the first woman MP is not. Pioneers of airflight feature but not the first woman in space.
I suppose it all depends on how you define influential but it was an intriguing exercise. building. The advent of online shopping is now doing the same to our favourite shops.
There was a massive outcry when Woolworths went down but who misses it now?
I would have been bereft if House of Fraser had collapsed but I would have quickly adapted.
Future generations will regard today’s high streets as quaint – just as we regard old apothecary shops in the same way.
We happen to be caught in the transition phase and the best way to deal with it is to work out what future town centres may look like and try to get ahead of the game.