General The High Street

As we know, high street stores are closing at an alarming rate as people are realising that things are considerably cheaper online. But what can be done to encourage people to return to the town centres?

My suggestion is to ban chuggers. In town today, it was pouring with rain and in the space of about six shops there were SEVEN of them! Now I'm not a rude person by nature, but when they all try to stop you and you pass them four times, that's coming up to thirty strangers getting in your way, making your visit stressful and uncomfortable. So sorry to the person whom I told to **** off, but don't keep trying to stop people in the rain

 

Ouch. I agree on the chuggers though - they can't seem to take 'NO!' for an answer. And if you do sign up with one of them you get bombarded with junk mail from other charities. And any charity that can afford to pay their chief executives 6-figure salaries certainly doesn't need my money.
And here's another idea. In my town, there are three public convenience places - 2 sets (M/F/disabled) in the indoor mall and one set near Waitrose. If you're gonna close the set near Waitrose for remodeling put a sign up near the other two sites - don't make someone who is over near Waitrose find out then that they have to go all the way back to the mall (through the chuggers on the high street) to 'go'.

 

That's annoying too. Like when on a really hot day, McDonald's ice cream machine breaks down and they don't tell you til you get to the counter. It's a hot day! Put a sign on the door!!!

 

That's just crazy! I don't mind the odd one or two if the weather is nice and they're polite, but seven? And in the rain?

As for shopping in town centres, I still do it. It's not very convenient for me though, but I do like a nice browse of what's there. It's great for when you're looking for something but you don't know exactly what you want. I think it's sad to see the big names go, but when I've been in HMV it all seemed to be overpriced. I don't mean it's more expensive than the internet, it's more expensive than everywhere else. I think competitive pricing is the key. I think the being a little more expensive than the internet is ok, as long as it's not too much. If the difference isn't too much then shoppers will think it's worth it to walk home with it in their hands rather than sort out where to buy it from online and wait for delivery.

 

I know one thing that would help high street stores. Ban supermarkets from selling clothes, electricals and music/movies etc....

 

HMV is the only DVD selling place here in Gloucester, so I am glad it is staying open, but they are overpriced and have questionable selling tactics.

Last week, the Doctor Who series 7 Blu-Ray set cost £21 or £24 for the deluxe edition.

Today, they were priced at £28 or £32 but with the blue cross sticker on it meaning 25% off (ie the same prices)

Yoshee - A fair suggestion, though I think that online selling is more of an issue

 

Yeah, I wander into HMV now and then. I like shopping in bookstores - we have WH Smiths and Waterstones. But we lost Millets and Jessops. I picked up a pretty nice pair of compact Nikon binoculars in Jessops before Christmas - glad I didn't wait!

 

I love browsing Waterstones, but it's just so damned expensive!

 

I joined the Mail Rewards Club last year and one of the offers is a £10 Waterstones Gift Voucher for around 4000 points. I'm currently collecting toward my third one!

 

I like to look at stuff before I buy it generally, especially with clothing and whatnot. That is one advantage stores have over the internet and why I've never cared much for place like Argos.

It's hard for most places to compete with the online market where they can charge less because they don't have to employ very many people. Rent is also outrageously high on most places which means having to charge a lot just to stay open.

 

Yeah, I prefer to try stuff like clothes and shoes on before buying as well. We have an Argos but I only go in there if I really need something (like a shower attachment for my bath because the old one wore out). And I avoid the place like the plague when Christmas shopping starts.

 

From what I've seen in my local town centre, shopkeepers being just a little more friendly can make a huge difference. We have a local independent bookshop which is clinging on, however when you walk in - aside from the obvious advantage of being able to browse for things you may not think to look for on Amazon - you're usually offered a cup of tea (and dog biscuit if you bring a dog in with you, which is another bonus...) and end up having a natter about books with the owners and other shoppers. It sounds daft, but they never push you into buying anything and it makes a massive difference in terms of talking to other bookworms about what's good (and what's not), getting recommendations etc. Result? Despite being a bit more expensive than Amazon (although they do come down a bit for you if you regularly go in and buy plenty of books) they have a growing core of regular shoppers who keep going back.

Not sure if it would work with other shops though!

 

I used to work for Waterstones and even I didn't buy my books from them! Though to be fair as a xmas temp i didn't get a staff discount
But when I heard the the news that HMV was about to go under I did go to Waterstones and buy a book in a show of support as it could be the next shop underthreat.

I have to confess I purchase most of my media from amazon, I got tired of not being able to find what i wanted in HMV and having to put up with the far too loud music! Background music fine, but two floors playing different music full blast not my cup of tea I'm afraid!

 

I put the whammy on myself earlier in this thread - i had to go to Argos today as my shower attachment sprang a leak.
Luckily it was early so there was only one person in line ahead of me.

And I had the opposite problem in Waterstones today - had a £10 gift card and couldn't find anything I wanted. Oh well - I'll try next time I'm in town.

 

So HMV announced another round of store closures and it looks like the one in my town is on the list. Guess I'll be buying from Amazon in the future as the other places here (Smiths, Sainsburys) don't have a lot of selection on DVDs. You can see the new list here on the BBC website.

 

Yup, Gloucester and Cheltenham both going, so there will be zero places here to buy CDs or DVDs.

 

Well, at least Waterstones isn't part of them anymore - otherwise that would probably be going as well.

 

Seems we are keeping our store. Although the customer service in that place is awful!

Also, keeping it topical, I bought a suit today. In a shop. A real shop that I had to travel to! It felt good.

 

I've had no issues with the staff at my local HMV other than lack of at busy times (like around Christmas) - so of course it's on the closing list.

 

They are possibly the only company that won't accept returns that were ordered on line. But then that might just be the eejits working in my local store

 

I never ordered online from HMV - if they didn't have what I wanted in the store I usually went to Amazon UK since I already have an account there.

And my 'High Street' (expanded to include both the mall and shopping center near it) purchases this week included a new shower attachment for the bath at Argos and a pair of trainers at Deichmann (or however you spell the name of that store..).

 

HMV used to do some nice exclusive DVD stuff at one time, I mainly only bought there because my dad used to be able to get discount back when Waterstones was owned by them.

The price gaps in the shop compared to online could be mad though - The Harry Potter 8 film boxset was £50 in the shop and £30 online

 

Well, I spent £50 in HMV today. The shop, not on line. I won't tell you what I bought though. Need to know basis only.

 

Sounds like a good haul, whatever it was.

 

Oh really?

You know you can download that sort of smut stuff right? I mean, that's what I've been told...