Get organised

21.02.12 | Matt Taylor

The high street is under threat as never before. Supermarket bosses and chain retailers are singing the praises of out-of-town shopping and at the same time the move to online is intensifying. A few years ago we feared the onward march of soulless clone cities, now we are fighting the threat of vacant ghost towns.

As a consumer it is easy to understand the appeal of retail parks and internet shopping and to see the relative downsides of the high street.  Retail park shopping is relatively easy to get to—often situated off a main road with free and ample parking next to large stores offering a wide range in clear categories. Similarly when you know exactly what you want to buy, online shopping is simple—type the product into Amazon, eBay or Google and within a few minutes you’ve made your purchase.

Both these shopping channels fulfil a shopping need but so do high streets and for this reason there should be a place for us all.

Town centres offer an eclectic mix of retail, offering the shopper an original experience and the chance to experience serendipity. Venture into town to meet a basic shopping need and at the same time you can pass by another window and find that perfect gift for your sister. Towns provide an area for new entrepreneurs to try out new business models. They allow family businesses. At their best a local high street says something about a town, it can be a vibrant place to shop (banishing the sense of ennui I regularly encounter out-of-town and the transactional nature of the web).

Town centres are not just a shopping channel and I would argue they are vital to the very fabric of a successful, prosperous local community. They are the beating heart of a town. A declining high street has an enormous impact on how residents feel about their area, their sense of wellbeing and their pride in where they live. High streets are not just about retail and the employment that gives. They are a social hub where people can meet.

The current problems have not occurred in a political and economic vacuum. Yes, there are changing habits of consumers, but it is local councils and national government that have encouraged edge of town developments, while at the same time ramping up the cost of parking in town centres as a revenue stream so that customers are now disincentivised from coming into their own towns. High streets originally developed because they were easy to get to; it is town planning favouritism towards out-of-town developments that can make in-town shopping relatively less convenient.

High street retailers can’t just roll over. They need to work with local councils to provide engaging reasons for customers to come down the high street. Cities are understanding this—visit Birmingham in the run-up to Christmas and you’ll find a fantastic German market well advertised and situated on the high street.  Even small towns like Chepstow are full of local volunteers, proud of their town, putting on town centre activities to draw people in year-round including music, markets and exhibitions.

Out-of-town shopping centres have a marketing plan for the year to maximise customer traffic, they advertise reasons to visit; a well-organised town centre can do the same.
 

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