Physical Retail Shops - Is it worth it?

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

There are plenty of 'successful' high streets in London!

Whether they are loaded out with independents is another thing.

Independent/small businesses thrive in niches, not in mass market. Niches, by their very nature, are not mass market, therefore, are not everywhere/on every high street.

 

[Great Food Van]

There are plenty of 'successful' high streets in London!

Whether they are loaded out with independents is another thing.

Independent/small businesses thrive in niches, not in mass market. Niches, by their very nature, are not mass market, therefore, are not everywhere/on every high street.

Like Turkish Barbers LOL. I knew a lot of independent florists in London that used their shop fronts as a cover

 

[fisicx]

Show me successful, thriving high streets where independent retailers have thrived for years.

All those I listed. Surrey and Hampshire not Kent. Loads of independent stores mixed in amongst the chains. Even Aldershot has a proper fishmonger. You don't get those in a dead high street. Cafe's and pubs all doing well and the Theatre is well supported. Like others have suggested, it's about finding your niche. Location obviously helps as well.

 

[Great Food Van]

All those I listed. Surrey and Hampshire not Kent. Loads of independent stores mixed in amongst the chains. Even Aldershot has a proper fishmonger. You don't get those in a dead high street. Cafe's and pubs all doing well and the Theatre is well supported. Like others have suggested, it's about finding your niche. Location obviously helps as well.

Right on the doorstep of Kent then

 

[Mark T Jones]

Are you and Mark T Jones the same person?

He can but dream...

We do happen to live quite close & from my front door:

Farnham has a long history of mixed independent retail, as does Petersfield.

Less than 20 miles in either direction are very busy towns - Guildford & Winchester - not brilliant for independents, but definitely far from dead or dying.

Alresford - extremely busy, almost entirely independent.

That's places I can cycle to....

 

[Great Food Van]

He can but dream...

We do happen to live quite close & from my front door:

Farnham has a long history of mixed independent retail, as does Petersfield.

Less than 20 miles in either direction are very busy towns - Guildford & Winchester - not brilliant for independents, but definitely far from dead or dying.

Alresford - extremely busy, almost entirely independent.

That's places I can cycle to....

Have you researched how many of the independent retailer survived past their initial lease? What did they have to do to even survive that period ... shows, farmers markets etc. Are you aware of grants and quangos that encouraged people to try to attempt to fill their empty shops, often owned by local business men who were affiliated to local councillors, if not owned by them?

The opening post was about opening a legit independent retail shop on a high street, not a cafe, bar, Turkish Barbers etc.

I have witnessed numerous indie shops go down and the transformation of the high street. I have also witnessed and know of indie shops used as a front for nefarious activities, even 20 years ago it was obvious in the outer London belt which were which

 

[Mark T Jones]

Have you researched how many of the independent retailer survived past their initial lease? What did they have to do to even survive that period ... shows, farmers markets etc. Are you aware of grants and quangos that encouraged people to try to attempt to fill their empty shops, often owned by local business men who were affiliated to local councillors, if not owned by them?

The opening post was about opening a legit independent retail shop on a high street, not a cafe, bar, Turkish Barbers etc.

I have witnessed numerous indie shops go down and the transformation of the high street. I have also witnessed and know of indie shops used as a front for nefarious activities, even 20 years ago it was obvious in the outer London belt which were which

The core of my customers base is independent retail and hospitality - both of which are magnets for dreamers and suckers.

I'm reasonably adapt at filtering proper businesses from dreams, fools and crims.

There are plenty of proper ones.

My point in this post was that neither High Street nor B&M retail are dead - which i think is proven,so I'll move on.

 

[WaveJumper]

He can but dream...

We do happen to live quite close & from my front door:

Farnham has a long history of mixed independent retail, as does Petersfield.

Less than 20 miles in either direction are very busy towns - Guildford & Winchester - not brilliant for independents, but definitely far from dead or dying.

Alresford - extremely busy, almost entirely independent.

That's places I can cycle to....

Not been to Petersfield in years and of course if you want to go a few extra miles Chichester is quite nice but Gosport high street on the other hand is a completely different matter ........... although it has quite a few "barbers" obviously aimed at the passing yacthy trade

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Have you researched how many of the independent retailer survived past their initial lease?

Have you researched why?

Many of them are down to:

• Poor planning
• Poor management
• Lack of funds

These are the same reasons most startups fail!

 

[Porky]

well most of the towns in the midlands and the north are full of vacant shops nobody wants to lease because the rents and rates are so ridiculously out of proportion in relation to the revenue a shop can drive, the rest are either charity shops, cafes and barbers and a few betting shops chucked in. Absolutely dead and the council have the brass nerve to charge for parking.

As for niche, it would have to be a bloody good niche, like the Harry potter shop in 9 3/4 ally or whatever it is - apparently that gets flooded with buyers. I guess if you live in some posh market town or tourist town like say Chester, or stratford-upon-avon that people come to for day trips or a weekend breaks you might have more chance although i suspect the council will want a bigger cut - when the big brands start leaving the towns you know its on borrowed time....

frankly, i wouldn't take a retail shop on even if it was rent free, the other costs alone now are so ridiculous - sorry.

 

[Great Food Van]

well most of the towns in the midlands and the north are full of vacant shops nobody wants to lease because the rents and rates are so ridiculously out of proportion in relation to the revenue a shop can drive, the rest are either charity shops, cafes and barbers and a few betting shops chucked in. Absolutely dead and the council have the brass nerve to charge for parking.

As for niche, it would have to be a bloody good niche, like the Harry potter shop in 9 3/4 ally or whatever it is - apparently that gets flooded with buyers. I guess if you live in some posh market town or tourist town like say Chester, or stratford-upon-avon that people come to for day trips or a weekend breaks you might have more chance although i suspect the council will want a bigger cut - when the big brands start leaving the towns you know its on borrowed time....

frankly, i wouldn't take a retail shop on even if it was rent free, the other costs alone now are so ridiculous - sorry.

Even Chester is struggling as far as independents go

Retail giants get incentives to open new stores in dying retail parks and a lot of them still don't last past the first lease.

There were incentives on Holyhead high street, offered by quangos, to renovate properties and offer peppercorn rents to small independents. All of the properties that took advantage were owned by local councillors and their mates. Every one of those properties were renovated so that they could very easily be turned into apartments. Every one of the small businesses that were talked into investing in their shops failed. The plan was that if small businesses on peppercorn rents failed then the properties could be turned into apartments!

I'm pretty sure this has happened in other small towns.

Simultaneously there were investments in out of town retail parks. Some of the retail giants were offered an initial term of free rents, most of them didn't make it past the first fully paid lease (same thing happened at The Trafford Centre).

I could go on but I think it's pretty clear that, "The odds are not in your favour" (to misquote from The Hunger Games)

 

[MOIC]

Any bona fide independent retailers who are successful on the high street, (which are non-food, barbers, batting shops, charity shops . . .), probably started many years ago, and built up a local trade over a number of years, as probably havie an online presence.

Why have a shop window in a local high street, when you can have a window to the world?!

Start online . . . for many reasons.

No brainer!

 

[alanicclothing]

Physical retail shops are still worth it for building trust, offering hands-on experiences, and driving impulse buys. However, high costs and competition from e-commerce mean success depends on location, branding, and blending offline with online strategies.​

 

[SillyBill]

Statements of vitality or death are one thing, the other is trend. And the trend for B&M retail is not done going down, that is my personal opinion. The whole sector remains a risk until the trend bottom plateaus or reverses - I personally can't see it for a good while.

I see so many factors on the horizon which increases the challenge too. Councils and government are getting hungrier for more income with bigger deficits, so the exhorbitant fees are at best going to stay level, at worst, yet more tax. Anti-car policy seems to be just about the most consistent policy intiative there is from Westminster to local authority; they could't be trying harder to make it more appealing to not go out and buy online, I expect this trend to continue too. We then have the rise of AI, a yet unknown but it seems logical to me that in 5 years time AI employed aggressively at scale will be getting very involved with our browsing and therefore shopping habits and therefore recommendations and therefore purchases, that is a benefit to the fittest and most adaptive online retailers, not B&M. We then have things like the employment bill of rights etc., not terminal but yet another challenge to a sector which relies on more labour than most other sectors, so disporptionately affected. I could go on and on. What factors are in the "for" column? Not a lot. Physical retail will always exist, and it will adapt, the question is what size will it be relative to now. My bet is quite a bit smaller!