oldbluefox wrote:Whilst the internet must have had some effect on the town centres I think the biggest culprit has been the parking issue, If not why is it that out of town shopping centres with their free parking have thrived and continue to thrive?..... Those shops which have embraced internet shopping stand to weather the storm but let's face it the internet, and all it brings with it, is here to stay.
I'm not sure that free parking is really the answer and I think that internet shopping is just moving sales from shops to warehouses and that shops that embrace it are on borrowed time.
My daughter was manager at a ladies fashion store in Cribbs Causeway (a mall in North Bristol close to the M5 with free parking), which over a couple of years she had built up to have the largest turnover in the brand after Oxford Street and Blue Water. Following internet sales her turnover slumped. They were suddenly forced to accept returns from internet sales. These returns figures were deducted from their own sales figures, and this led to them being in a loss situation. Stupid, I know! Not only that, but people would try garments on in her store and then buy them on the internet - or they would buy them in her store and later find they could buy them cheaper on the internet with the discount vouchers available, and return her shop sales. This, together with the recession and dwindling sales led to the store closing on expiry of their lease, and because there was not another vacancy within the brand of equivalent standing, my daughter was made redundant, as was the vast majority of her staff.
This happened to more stores both within and without the same group in the same shopping mall and it is certainly not thriving. The same will happen in Cabot's Circus in Bristol, a newer mall than Cribbs, as I know from inside sources that some stores are struggling and are waiting for their leases to expire to close there, too. That, however, has no free parking.
