Major brands planning to flee Oxford Street because they are not attracting enough shoppers

Oxford Street suffers fatal blow after multiple retailers announce they’re leaving



Posted by Metro-UK

16 comments

  1. physical retail only exist if customers want it. Its only old fashioned thinking that says they do.

    It might at one time have been a thing of pride to have a store on “Oxford Street” but if your customers dont care, then there is no point in paying a massively inflated rent.

  3. Aside from online shopping…. Oxford Street isn’t a great environment. Id rather go anywhere else to shop.

  4. Oxford street is a shit, too many people, too much crime, grime

  5. Every single business there is trying to rip people off just because they are physically where they are and none of them provide a damned thing that isn’t better elsewhere. Pedestrianize, kick out the little parasite tourist trap thief “vape” shops and american candy shite, bring in some food/hospitality that isn’t muck fuckin donalds or pret, put some police on site to deter pick pockets, a few pubs, maybe a cinema or something. maybe, just maybe, people might want to go there to shop again. Tricking tourists into your shop because they don’t know better is a limited business model and deserves to die.

  7. You have too add in the fact that Westfield is very attractive for shoppers. The Stratford Westfields is always busy. I rarely go to West End except for the odd treat of going to Daunts in Marylebone High Street. You can actually get a better selection of smaller shops in and around Covent Garden. Just pave over Oxford street, have a tram system along it. Invite other entertainment possibilties for it. Cinemas, theatres, restaurants with large outside seating arrangements should be encouraged. Westminster council will have to be brave and do something other than build a hillside folly at Marble Arch.

  8. The death of the high street. The UK isn’t going to give up online shopping no matter how much the likes of Amazon et al exploit their staff, because, cheap prices. Gone are the retail jobs and youngsters instead can go work in a warehouse or a nailbar or Tiktok until the next monetised craze comes along. If you miss shops go to Poland, malls are amazing shops are incredible and still a bit cheaper than the UK. Meanwhile bite the bullet level the high streets make unaffordable rabbit hutch housing, to park a white Evoque outside a living room so small the sofa has been sawn off, give the British public what they want /s

  9. It’s depressing, full of scammers, pickpockets, shoplifters storming out of shops with their loot, aggressive beggars, litter, chewing gum on the pavements, balaclava wearing men whizzing past on their E bikes looking for mobiles to snatch

    British high streets are fucking abysmal places to be, online shopping is so much nicer

  11. The only reason I’ve been on Oxford Street in the last few years has been walking through because it’s between a tube station and where I need to be for work. Maybe I’ve popped into a Boots or one of the fast food places to get something quick, but to do actual shopping? Nah. Never saw the point.

  12. Could it be because… no one can afford anything there? I’m sure they’ll just fire a bunch of people so their CEOs can still have bonuses though

  13. I was in Gothenbourg the other week and I saw a busy and vibrant city with shopping centre that was flowing with people, no empty retail units.
    Even the shops were all occupied outside of the shopping centre.
    No homeless people begging apart from 2 blokes that I was informed by a local that they were dropped off in the morning by a “gang” to beg….ofcourse these weren’t Swedish beggars….

    So even though the weather was shit the vibrancy of the Swedes and how they run a city is superb…..

    BRAVO!!!!!

  16. Terrible shopping experience – pedestrianise it. Dodging traffic like a real-life game of Frogger isn’t exactly my idea of retail therapy.

    Rich tourists don’t want to deal with the crowds. Cost sensitive tourists can’t afford the wares.
    Londoners want to shop local.

    Brands should build smaller outposts in local high streets.
    Replace the betting/vape/off-licenses/estate agents with those.

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