Denbighshire Visitor journalist Justine Bailey always writes entertainingly under the “Hot Topic” heading (in fact, it seems she writes most of the Visitor single-handedly, but that’s another matter).
This week she asks whether our town centres are dying because of internet shopping. Justine concludes that Amazon & its ilk coupled with out of town retailing ultimately mean that our town centres have no future. This is a truly frightening thought, but the possibility’s a reality.
Matters, of course, are more complicated. Internet. Out-of-town retail parks. 24 hour large stores. Recession. Regional city shopping. Working parents with less time for multiple shop visits. Evening & Sunday warehouses. Free parking outside towns. Changing tastes. Greater availability of the car. High street lock-ups not of suitable size for modern shops. Frozen & convenience foods. Supermarkets stocking high street goods. Shops closing & less choice on the high street. Sometimes it seems a downward spiral.
We said on Tuesday that town centres are about to shrink. In fact, they’ve been shrinking since the 1970s or even before that. In many ways, it’s a natural process. Peripheral units have almost imperceptibly fallen out of capacity. The difference now is that in some places, even anchor stores are closing.
Rhuthun is a classic case of a town in transformation. Tesco has its effect. Rather unusually, it’s not just shopping capacity at the margins that has closed. In Rhuthun, conversions to residential use have punctuated the whole town centre itself for some time.
There’s always a natural churn in shops and in normal circumstances, about seven per cent of capacity is vacant. Recessionary times will mean this increases to 10 per cent.
In Rhuthun at the moment, it’s currently at about 16 per cent, not including Slaters. This 16 per cent doesn’t include units such as the former Blaze/bric-a-brac near the Anchor Corner (Penbarras), recently converted into flats.
Though it is with some relief that Justine says she is “not against high street shopping”, she does admit to online purchases so, presumably, she is part of the problem and not the solution. She isn’t sure what the answer is, though it may just be staring her in the face.
This week she asks whether our town centres are dying because of internet shopping. Justine concludes that Amazon & its ilk coupled with out of town retailing ultimately mean that our town centres have no future. This is a truly frightening thought, but the possibility’s a reality.
Matters, of course, are more complicated. Internet. Out-of-town retail parks. 24 hour large stores. Recession. Regional city shopping. Working parents with less time for multiple shop visits. Evening & Sunday warehouses. Free parking outside towns. Changing tastes. Greater availability of the car. High street lock-ups not of suitable size for modern shops. Frozen & convenience foods. Supermarkets stocking high street goods. Shops closing & less choice on the high street. Sometimes it seems a downward spiral.
We said on Tuesday that town centres are about to shrink. In fact, they’ve been shrinking since the 1970s or even before that. In many ways, it’s a natural process. Peripheral units have almost imperceptibly fallen out of capacity. The difference now is that in some places, even anchor stores are closing.
Rhuthun is a classic case of a town in transformation. Tesco has its effect. Rather unusually, it’s not just shopping capacity at the margins that has closed. In Rhuthun, conversions to residential use have punctuated the whole town centre itself for some time.
There’s always a natural churn in shops and in normal circumstances, about seven per cent of capacity is vacant. Recessionary times will mean this increases to 10 per cent.
In Rhuthun at the moment, it’s currently at about 16 per cent, not including Slaters. This 16 per cent doesn’t include units such as the former Blaze/bric-a-brac near the Anchor Corner (Penbarras), recently converted into flats.
Though it is with some relief that Justine says she is “not against high street shopping”, she does admit to online purchases so, presumably, she is part of the problem and not the solution. She isn’t sure what the answer is, though it may just be staring her in the face.
Tags:
Shops