Will the High Street Die by 2025?

There's no denying that the high street is in bad shape at the moment.  The question is: will it be able to recover?  The economy, in general, has been difficult for the last couple of years, and it's normal for footfall in high street areas to decrease when people have less disposable income - but is that what's going on here, or is the dying high street just a sign of the times.

People are Shopping Elsewhere

Instead of heading to the high street, people are now shopping elsewhere - they're heading to out of town shopping malls where they can get everything done in one place, and they're shopping online.  Now that web order processing is something that most companies have down to a fine art, there's little reason to brave the bad weather for something that you don't urgently need - just sit down at your computer, click a few links, and sit back and wait for the product to be delivered to your door.

Saving The High Street

It's almost impossible for shops to compete with mail-order companies.  The overheads of running a shop are far greater than the overheads of running a site, web order processing, and a warehouse. However, there are some goods that people are still reluctant to buy online.  Anything that needs to be touched, tasted, or smelled is a good candidate for buying from a shop, rather than online.

The question is, where will those physical purchases be done?  Is the future huge, out of town shopping malls, or is there still hope for the high street?

Once It's Gone, It's Gone

It's hard to be sure what the future will hold for the high street, but one thing that many towns have learned is that once the high street becomes a ghost town, it's almost impossible to turn that around.  As shops start to close, footfall decreases even further, and that leads to the few remaining stores also closing down - from there, encouraging any new businesses to even try opening up in that area is a difficult task and one that requires a focused revival campaign.

Other Options

Phil Wrigley, former director of several chains, including New Look and BHS, has suggested that ailing high streets be converted into housing areas, with some shops remaining open, but the focus being housing rather than retail.  That could be a way to solve the country's housing crisis, and it would allow stores that are still popular to remain open, but it's a controversial solution.

Perhaps this is a problem that needs to be solved on a community by community basis.  In some parts of the country, ailing high streets are considered to be blighted areas that need to be fixed as soon as possible, but in other communities, the residents look on their high streets with pride and want to preserve them as key parts of the community.  Wouldn't it be best to let each community build its own area and its own personality?

Our high streets are slowly declining and many think it will only a few years before they disappear from our lives altogether. This article looks at why and how we can stop this happening.