Where Do People Work

[matticus]

That said, when I did for a different call centre it was pretty soul destroying, and that was even with a room I could call an "office" to separate from where I lived.

A pal of mine and his wife both work from home and sit opposite each other in their dining room. He's a good guy but used to drive me insane when we worked in an office together, so I can't imagine it being a healthy working environment for either of them.

So my main point/feeling is that working from home isn't a great thing, it's removing natural interaction. My good lady works in education on a flexible role where she works 3 days in the college and 2 days at home, which is a pretty spot on balance for her. I appreciate that's a personal example and doesn't work for everyone, but I also feel that people can be afraid to speak up about how and where they work.

yes, thrice yes!

I think a lot of folks choose WFH for the convenience/cost (i.e. zero commute, mainly). They then put up with the downsides.

During Covid lockdown I was one of a few staff here who opted to work on site every single day. I dont' regret that decision at all - partly due to my nice ride in, but mainly cos I'd have gone bananas at home with the missus for 5 months.

 

[Evil_Breakfast]

It'd be great to be able to work from home, and I very easily could, but we're not allowed to. That said, when I did for a different call centre it was pretty soul destroying, and that was even with a room I could call an "office" to separate from where I lived.

A pal of mine and his wife both work from home and sit opposite each other in their dining room. He's a good guy but used to drive me insane when we worked in an office together, so I can't imagine it being a healthy working environment for either of them.

I could, if I wanted to, work from home; but I want....no....need a clear demarcating line between 'home' and 'work'
Blurring the two would not be to my benefit.

 

[Psamathe]

The main street, shopping centre etc were rather depressing and consisted of circa 50% empty units. Even Greggs, Starbucks etc and some pound type shops had closed.
...
Retail is struggling in most places

Supporting the "High Street" is something that confuses me.

Why do we need high consumption? - it's unsustainable and if people can be happy without needless purchases why encourage them into excessive consumption. Plenty of useful productive things for people to do other that in retail consumption.

If shopping patterns are changing such that people have moved away from attending town centre shops to purchase through other means they find more convenient then why should we be acting to maintain a system people no longer want nor seem to need?

 

[matticus]

Supporting the "High Street" is something that confuses me.

Why do we need high consumption? - it's unsustainable and if people can be happy without needless purchases why encourage them into excessive consumption. Plenty of useful productive things for people to do other that in retail consumption.

maybe I'm on my own here, but I think you've missed the point:

It's about supporting the 'Street by reducing your retail-park/internet spending; NOT by spending/consuming more!

 

[Evil_Breakfast]

maybe I'm on my own here, but I think you've missed the point:

It's about supporting the 'Street by reducing your retail-park/internet spending; NOT by spending/consuming more!

Personal anecdote. to illustrate the point being made here.

I needed, recently, some photo A4 'clip' frames, as the minimalist style suits my taste. A fairly innocuous item no?
Spent 90 minutes traipsing round town, without success.
Argos, Dunelm, Home-sense. Not stocked at all.
Employed some lateral thinking : Primark, Snappy Snaps and (local) department stores and other shops (Poundland etc.) with 'homeware' aisles.
Nowt.
Amazon it is then. 🤬
General stuff like this, in the past, could have been, easily, picked up @ Wilko's; and since it's High Street demise, stuff that I've needed has required an online purchase.
Before that, it was a spindle of CD-R's

 

[Pblakeney]

maybe I'm on my own here, but I think you've missed the point:

It's about supporting the 'Street by reducing your retail-park/internet spending; NOT by spending/consuming more!

The “street” is dying as a concept, if not dead already. Certainly on life support.
The question is, why support something that very few actually want?

 

[Evil_Breakfast]

The “street” is dying as a concept, if not dead already. Certainly on life support.
The question is, why support something that very few actually want?

I've concluded that the 'high street' is just another casualty of our continually clumsy adoption of 'the internet' in our lives.
The ripples that a 'digital' lifestyle creates are ones that we're, still, trying to get to grips with.

 

[spen666]

maybe I'm on my own here, but I think you've missed the point:

It's about supporting the 'Street by reducing your retail-park/internet spending; NOT by spending/consuming more!

I am not sure I agree with you.
It is nice to see a bustling high Street, but retail is a service sector and it must serve its customers. If it does not provide the service I want then I won't use it.
The service I want is not just the item in question, its the ease of getting it, cost of getting it etc.
As an example, I am currently looking to get a new printer for personal use. If I go into my local town there are very few places I can get a printer and therefore I have limited choice. I also have to go into the town, paying either for parking and fuel or paying public transport costs. I can only go there when shops are open. I work Mon- Fri 9-5 pm or longer if adding commuting time to the office. This only leaves me a weekend to go shopping, but on Saturday I go to football, often away games travelling from early in morning. On a Sunday I ride my bike


If I look online, I can have a much wider choice, and using IT I can find and compare suitable items in minutes, often whilst at work, eg on a lunchtime or I can do it at home on an evening whilst watching Scott & Charlene in Neighbours.

Then there is getting the item to my home. If I buy it in the town, I have to lug it home. If I buy it online, I can often choose the delivery date and have it delivered on a day when I am working at home.

The online experience for this sort of item suits me far better and so I tend to buy online more frequently.

Bricks & mortar retailers have not adopted their business plan or delivery to match changing consumer needs and as such are dying out.
Take another retailer - the local butchers. In this area they are all but extinct, except the halal butchers . Why? Because they open 9-5 Monday to Saturday.
Around me people work during these hours so can't easily go to them and go to the Supermarket which opens early and is open until 10pm or midnight allowing people to go after their work. If butchers had changed to meet the changing times and say opened 12 noon to say 8 pm or 9pm then they could have competed. Sadly they didn't and became extinct.


Adapt or become extinct

 

[matticus]

The “street” is dying as a concept, if not dead already. Certainly on life support.
The question is, why support something that very few actually want?

I wqould argue that plenty of people want it - it's just becoming financially unviable. The latter is effected by tax and legislation, not just human factors. It's much more apparent in many EU towns+cities.

 

[matticus]

I am not sure I agree with you.
<blah blah ...>

Bricks & mortar retailers have not adopted their business plan or delivery to match changing consumer needs and as such are dying out.
...

Err... I'm not sure what you think you're disagreeing with. But it's certainly not the post you actually replied to:

maybe I'm on my own here, but I think you've missed the point:

It's about supporting the 'Street by reducing your retail-park/internet spending; NOT by spending/consuming more!

THAT'S what "supporting the High St" means.

 

[CXRAndy]

I am not sure I agree with you.
It is nice to see a bustling high Street, but retail is a service sector and it must serve its customers. If it does not provide the service I want then I won't use it.
The service I want is not just the item in question, its the ease of getting it, cost of getting it etc.
As an example, I am currently looking to get a new printer for personal use. If I go into my local town there are very few places I can get a printer and therefore I have limited choice. I also have to go into the town, paying either for parking and fuel or paying public transport costs. I can only go there when shops are open. I work Mon- Fri 9-5 pm or longer if adding commuting time to the office. This only leaves me a weekend to go shopping, but on Saturday I go to football, often away games travelling from early in morning. On a Sunday I ride my bike


If I look online, I can have a much wider choice, and using IT I can find and compare suitable items in minutes, often whilst at work, eg on a lunchtime or I can do it at home on an evening whilst watching Scott & Charlene in Neighbours.

Then there is getting the item to my home. If I buy it in the town, I have to lug it home. If I buy it online, I can often choose the delivery date and have it delivered on a day when I am working at home.

The online experience for this sort of item suits me far better and so I tend to buy online more frequently.

Bricks & mortar retailers have not adopted their business plan or delivery to match changing consumer needs and as such are dying out.
Take another retailer - the local butchers. In this area they are all but extinct, except the halal butchers . Why? Because they open 9-5 Monday to Saturday.
Around me people work during these hours so can't easily go to them and go to the Supermarket which opens early and is open until 10pm or midnight allowing people to go after their work. If butchers had changed to meet the changing times and say opened 12 noon to say 8 pm or 9pm then they could have competed. Sadly they didn't and became extinct.


Adapt or become extinct

Butchers near me are some of the best in the country winning awards. You want the best, go out of your way to get it

 

[Evil_Breakfast]

Does an, increasingly, online 'existence' aid/augment our, increasingly, complex lives?
Yes.
Are there consequences?
Yes.

 

[Psamathe]

I've concluded that the 'high street' is just another casualty of our continually clumsy adoption of 'the internet' in our lives.
The ripples that a 'digital' lifestyle creates are ones that we're, still, trying to get to grips with.

I'm uncertain whether it's a cause/effect or just things change. When I was in my teens my Mum used to buy food at small local greengrocer shop, then on to butchers, etc. Then supermarkets started round where we lived small (compared to today) close to the local shops. Then the supermarkets got larger and moved further out of town. Things change.

Does the internet drive that change or just steer the direction of change? For me I gave up using high street as I had better things to do with my time and even before the internet where I needed something I'd work out what I wanted, call round shops to see if or which had it then go to those shops buy the item and then home. I had better things to do than spend ½ a day aimlessly wandering round shops when I didn't really need anything.

What I'm questioning is why people seem to want to save our High Streets when people don't want to use them any more.

 

[Evil_Breakfast]

I'm uncertain whether it's a cause/effect or just things change. When I was in my teens my Mum used to buy food at small local greengrocer shop, then on to butchers, etc. Then supermarkets started round where we lived small (compared to today) close to the local shops. Then the supermarkets got larger and moved further out of town. Things change.

Does the internet drive that change or just steer the direction of change? For me I gave up using high street as I had better things to do with my time and even before the internet where I needed something I'd work out what I wanted, call round shops to see if or which had it then go to those shops buy the item and then home. I had better things to do than spend ½ a day aimlessly wandering round shops when I didn't really need anything.

What I'm questioning is why people seem to want to save our High Streets when people don't want to use them any more.

Leaps in technological change/advancement is, pretty much, a given.
The point being debated here, I think, is our reaction to it. As a species.
I defer to Douglas Adams; who, opined :

"I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."

 

[spen666]

Err... I'm not sure what you think you're disagreeing with. But it's certainly not the post you actually replied to:


THAT'S what "supporting the High St" means.

Clearly you do not understand my post - that's fine.

My post was directly related to what you said , but if it is too advanced for you to understand, then no problem at all.