It’s surprising to see the Guardian ignore the elephant in the room – reduced demand for bricks and mortar retail shops in the face of online shopping. To tempt me onto the high street, town centres need to offer me something I can’t easily get online. In some cases this is obvious (being able to try clothes on, but even then free returns make this less of a downside for online nowadays) but in general shops don’t seem to have much to draw me in now.
Even if the issues of business rates, cost of living and the like were completely nonexistent, I think that physical retail stores are on an inevitable decline.
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It’s surprising to see the Guardian ignore the elephant in the room – reduced demand for bricks and mortar retail shops in the face of online shopping. To tempt me onto the high street, town centres need to offer me something I can’t easily get online. In some cases this is obvious (being able to try clothes on, but even then free returns make this less of a downside for online nowadays) but in general shops don’t seem to have much to draw me in now.
Even if the issues of business rates, cost of living and the like were completely nonexistent, I think that physical retail stores are on an inevitable decline.