Can High Streets be saved
SUPERMARKETS certainly have contributed to the demise of the small High Street trader (Letters). From 1920 until 1957, my grandfather and father ran Fred Brown Grocers Ltd in Bolton. Dad saw the writing on the wall with the advent of the supermarket, so sold 40 shops to the conglomerate ABF. Within two years, all but one had closed. So it is ironic that supermarkets, content to wipe out small traders, complain about competition from online retailers. ROGER BROWN, Worsley, Gtr Manchester. THE main cause of the closure of High Street shops is that they pay higher taxes than online retailers. Looking at clothes and shoes online can never replace being able to try them on. What would you rather do: have a day out at the shops with family and friends or sit alone ordering online? We won’t realise what we’ve lost until it’s gone. A. WILLS, Ruislip, Middlesex.
TESCO helped ruin our High Streets by putting butcher’s and fish counters in their stores. They have now begun to close these in favour of packaged food. Good luck to the independent butchers and fishmongers who survived — hopefully, they may do well again. I wonder if supermarket bakery and clothes departments will be next? Name and address supplied.
THERE should be a revaluation of High Street shops and online warehouses to recognise their changed economic value. Shops have lost out while online has taken a bigger share of the market. BRIAN NEWTON, Epsom, Surrey. INTERNET firms should have to pay a green tax to offset the air pollution caused by fleets of delivery vehicles. BARRY DAVIES, Chorley, Lancs.
WHEN my wife asked a shop assistant to order an out-of-stock item, he advised her to order it online herself. No wonder shops are closing when some sales assistants are apathetic. D. M. DEAMER, York.
WE NEED to abolish business rates and replace them with a higher turnover tax on all forms of retailing. ALAN FINLAY, London NW4.
IN MY village 40 years ago, there was a thriving High Street with three garages, four banks, three greengrocers, two butchers and other shops. There is now an out-of-town Tesco selling not only food, but electricals, computers, clothes, DVDs, books and fuel, and it has free car parking. Though several thousand new homes have been built nearby, we no longer have a garage, greengrocer or bank. Local shopkeepers simply can’t compete with the supermarkets. ROBERT BISHOP, Billingshurst, W. Sussex.
I HAVE urged Bexley Council to provide two hours of free parking for High Streets, without success. No wonder people go to out-of-town malls with free parking. Mrs JEAN GEE, Sidcup, Kent.