Save Bookshops

[fozy tornip]

 

[Archie_tect]

Must get back to reading again... lost the urge after a lifetime of avid reading at the beginning of lockdown when I started needing reading glasses to read clearly, for the first time, and haven't taken to them at all- particularly at night when I can't sleep. Sad now.

 

[matticus]

my list of reasons for choosing a supplier was slightly longer than price and convenience, as I have already stated.

Well, not materially different:

I choose my supplier based on a mix of quality of product, service, price, availability.

(given that the product from bookshops is identical to the product delivered by Amazon drone.)

 

[FishFright]

I specifically said "I don't mean cheap"!, so, no, price is not everything.

Convenience, is relevant, be honest, given the choice between taking the bus or metro to Newcastle (my nearest city), and carrying a bulky purchase home, on bus or metro, versus, two minutes on phone, to have same, delivered to my door... no contest. However, there is nothing to stop one of the large stores or local stores in Newcastle, matching Amazon's delivery service, if they reply want my business.

Personally, I am not a purchaser of "take away" food, but, in the area I live, many people are, and, some local outlets have learned a lesson or two and now deliver. Full marks to them.

The high street is pretty much dead except in a few touristy places. Not a good thing of course but the writing has been on the wall for a decade at least. Although it makes me sad to see I can't see much improvement on the horizon. A few people here and there make a fuss but it's not enough to make any difference .

 

[BoldonLad]

Well, not materially different:

(given that the product from bookshops is identical to the product delivered by Amazon drone.)

I didn’t say I bought books from Amazon (I don’t).

 

[matticus]

I didn’t say I bought books from Amazon (I don’t).

Consider yourself verily cleverer, thou has bested me in this duel. :yawn:

 

[BoldonLad]

The high street is pretty much dead except in a few touristy places. Not a good thing of course but the writing has been on the wall for a decade at least. Although it makes me sad to see I can't see much improvement on the horizon. A few people here and there make a fuss but it's not enough to make any difference .

Quite.

I cannot see a return to traditional high street (whatever that might mean). But, being an optimist, I do hope that some businesses will adapt and thrive.

Being an old git, the future does not lie with me. However, I note, my daughters do tend to go “to the town”, but, it is more a social outing than “pure” shopping.

 

[Archie_tect]

There was a move in the 90s, called 'Living over the Shops' to get people back into town and city centres to make them more vibrant and try have people involved 24 hours a day to make them safer and more pleasant to live in.

There are thousands of perfectly serviceable upper floors that are unused in High Streets. We converted quite a few into flats for private and HA social landlords across the NE.

I like the mixed uses in many shops these days... the Costa coffee seating in Waterstones makes people linger and browse. Our library with a cafe and outdoor seating space is now in the large open plan reception area of the Sports Centre/ School complex.

Housing in High Streets makes it more attractive and safer for single people too as a community quickly builds up around small convenience shops and cafes, bookshops, along with services and better bus connections. Housing needs to be where people have everything close to hand, not in suburban or edge of town greenfield developments with no support,

 

[spen666]

Sadly Spen can't see the bigger picture. despite numerous posts here explaining the issues.
He is only able to count 1 type of bean, and is only concerned with whether the numbers work out for him.

(But he is persistent here; perhaps he thinks Amazon needs campaigners like him in every online corner, just in case their dominance ever comes under threat? )

i think its you who can't see the bigger picture - namely that customers have every right to choose.

customers are choosing not to shop on the High street for whatever reason.

if the High Street is to survive, then it must provide goods and services that the customer wants. It is not for customers to choose goods or services they do not want just to save a business that is not supplying what they want.

 

[BoldonLad]

There was a move in the 90s, called 'Living over the Shops' to get people back into town and city centres to make them more vibrant and try have people involved 24 hours a day to make them safer and more pleasant to live in.

There are thousands of perfectly serviceable upper floors that are unused in High Streets. We converted quite a few into flats for private and HA social landlords across the NE.

I like the mixed uses in many shops these days... the Costa coffee seating in Waterstones makes people linger and browse. Our library with a cafe and outdoor seating space is now in the large open plan reception area of the Sports Centre/ School complex.

Housing in High Streets makes it more attractive and safer for single people too as a community quickly builds up around small convenience shops and cafes, bookshops, along with services and better bus connections. Housing needs to be where people have everything close to hand, not in suburban or edge of town greenfield developments with no support,

Yes, on my frequent visits to “mainland” Europe, always noticed more people actually live in town centres than they do here. Also, apartment living appears more accepted.

 

[Bromptonaut]

The shopping scene has been through a rolling revolution in the 61 years of my lifetime.

In the sixties the small town high street began to move on from the model of butcher, baker, candlestick maker. Small supermarkets like Key, Hillards and Fine Fare began to operate in town centres. Sometimes in existing premises, perhaps knocked together or in new build units. One of those chains was Tesco.

By the seventies the supermarkets got bigger. Several in Leeds were in former cinemas. Morisons built new premises with larger car parks just off the high street.

Later along came out of town hypermarkets with extensive free parking. They gradually sucked a lot of life out of the trad high st. When I moved to Northampton in 1990 there were still loads of people doing a Saturday shop in the town and its market. Parking was a nightmare. Ten years later the town was quiet on Saturday.

Now its the web that's sucking life from the high st AND the out of town retail park.

@Spen is right up to a point; the local shop needs a new USP but they also need a level playing field. If light regulation allows the likes of Amazon to reduce costs while making absurd demands of 'self employed' drivers who have their wages topped up by the state then the playing field is not level. Neither is it level if rates and relocation incentives make it absurdly cheap to build and host warehouses and distribution centres while costs weigh heavy on the high street.

 

[spen666]

....

...; the local shop needs a new USP but they also need a level playing field.

Not sure there is such a thing. If the shops want to set up in low rateable value areas, they will pay low rates. In the same way if Amazon set up on the High Street, they would pay high rates.

it is a good sound bite to talk about a level playing field, but unless you force every business to be identical in everything, there is no level playing field

If light regulation allows the likes of Amazon to reduce costs while making absurd demands of 'self employed' drivers who have their wages topped up by the state then the playing field is not level.

The shops could choose to operate paying similar low wages and making demands on their staff

As before unless you are going to legislate everyone must do everything the same and pay everyone the same etc, then this level playing field is not going to exist

Neither is it level if rates and relocation incentives make it absurdly cheap to build and host warehouses and distribution centres while costs weigh heavy on the high street.

this mythical level playing field can only exist in a society where the state control everything and where there is no innnovation as they would create an unlevel playing field.

It boils down to businesses looking at what they do and finding their niche. Businesses need to attract customers to survive. It is not up to customers to adapt to businesses, unless you have a monopoly business eg Premiershit football - even there many, myself included have voted with our feet and no longer go to Premiershit football or even watch it because I do not like the product or customer service

 

[Rusty Nails]

Like I said, I will, indeed, I do, when they offer a competitive service.

The trouble with companies like Amazon is they thrive on a non-competitive service. They may start off offering a useful service, but once they get big they use their strength to buy up competition and freeze newcomers out of the ability to compete. The rates and tax structure that high street shops have to work within is hugely and unfairly more onerous than Amazon and other international online sellers, who have the ability to set up their structures/offices and HQs to avoid anything like a comparitive level of taxation.

It is only the weakness of our governments, and a cosy relationship between top politicians and owners/executives of internet behemoths, that allows this situation to flourish and prosper even more. So continue to use Amazon for whatever reasons you choose, but do not pretend that fairness of competitiveness is anything to do with it.

 

[BoldonLad]

The trouble with companies like Amazon is they thrive on a non-competitive service. They may start off offering a useful service, but once they get big they use their strength to buy up competition and freeze newcomers out of the ability to compete. The rates and tax structure that high street shops have to work within is hugely and unfairly more onerous than Amazon and other international online sellers, who have the ability to set up their structures/offices and HQs to avoid anything like a comparitive level of taxation.

It is only the weakness of our governments, and a cosy relationship between top politicians and owners/executives of internet behemoths, that allows this situation to flourish and prosper even more. So continue to use Amazon for whatever reasons you choose, but do not pretend that fairness of competitiveness is anything to do with it.

I will

 

[Deleted member 49]

Love this bookshop in Preston....feck Amazon.