A sign on the window says Edinburgh Woollen Mill closing subject to rent negotiations.
I checked with staff. They do not know when or if closing, as per sign, but acting as though it will close, as unless obtain a rent reduction, it will close.
The same applies to their store in Winchester.
I had never set foot in before, top of North Street, corner of Jeffries Passage. A very shabby shop. I have set foot in better charity shops.
We see deserted town centres, but greedy landlords and developers refuse to drop their extortionate rents. They would rather see empty boarded up units than charge realistic rents. And for new businesses, additional hurdle of six months deposit up front.
The reported 9% footfall reduction in national High Streets and shopping centres last weekend is calculated how?
Last Saturday, heavy rain, Farnham was deserted.
How many retailers will be around in the New Year?
House of Fraser bankrupt, Debenhams on the verge of bankruptcy, at least one coffee shop closing, others on the verge of closing, The Edinburgh Woollen Mill will close if unable to negotiate a lower rent, Tunsgate Quarter boarded-up units, corporate chains selling overpriced tat, devoid of people other than those using as a short cut when raining.
It is difficult to see how coffee shops that are always empty can survive into the New Year and beyond, not unless drawing on a hidden pot of gold.
In Jeffries Passage, the only business I see busy, Bamboo Shoots.
In Tunsgate, Ben’s Records and Krema busy.
Visit North Laine in Brighton indie businesses and not a chain in sight is always busy.
There is a pattern emerging here, indie businesses offering quality of service are surviving.
Chains, be they shops or coffee shops or restaurants, the answer to on-line competition, falling footfall, cut service, longer wait at the checkout, automated checkouts, dirty tables, dirty dishes piled up, poor quality ingredients. A death spiral to extinction.
Why go out in the cold and wet, to have to tolerate appalling service in a corporate High Street chain, to find they do not have what you want, are talking to ignorant staff, when can order on-line and have it delivered to the door the next day?
I ordered books late Monday night, if not early Tuesday morning. Delivered Wednesday.
Why have coffee in a coffee shop where they have not a clue about coffee?
Town centre planners have much to answer for. They are clueless on what constitutes good town centre design or how local economies function, in the pocket of greedy developers and big business, our town centres are trashed, every town looking the same, loss of sense of place, increased alienation.
Rents are too high, far to high, they bear no resemblance to the current financial situation, which is likely to continue to the foreseeable future.
Local councils should maintain a register of rents. Where this happens, it has helped to force rents down.
Business rates need to have a complete overhaul. They are based on the property value, but it is not the property value that is generating revenue for the business.
A new system needs to be brought in based upon turnover. Not profit, as that can be too easily fiddled, as we see with Starbucks, leading to non-payment of tax.
On-line business need to be taxed on the turnover in the country they are operating, and that would also apply to tax-dodgers like Starbucks.
For those companies where we generate the revenue, for example Google and Facebook, 10%of company shares to be placed in a community trust. This would fund a basic income and community projects.
A basic income would mean people would no longer be forced by poverty into soul destroying McShit jobs.
On-line retailers are also seeing a collapse in sales, at least those selling tat.
This is a good thing, as maybe it signals an end to pointless consumerism.
