That's your opinion mate but I don't agree with you. Those shops have been empty for some time on King St and that is Manchester's prime shopping area and that's during the increase in Manchester's city centre population, not in advance of it.
The High St is undergoing what has been described as structural change. Retail is declining. Every month you hear about a retail name going under, but there are no doubt some sectors that are growing. I haven't researched it but I think takeaways, bars, restaurants are moving in. Every town centre seems to have 5 nail bars and hairdressers.
King Street and St Anne’s Sq have been on their arse for years as shopping streets, it’s not simply down to a recent increase in online sales.
The rents on the units in that area are absolutely obscene, even Starbucks couldn’t afford to stay in the huge flagship unit because the rent was too high. That was one of the busiest Starbucks in the country, but they moved to a smaller unit across the way.
There’s been a huge drop off in high end retail generally as cheap disposable fashion becomes more prevalent. So high end retail like King St, St Anne’s Sq, Kendals, Harvey Nichols have been affected worse than the middle and lower end of the market.
But go on Market St, go in the Arndale, and they are absolutely slammed 7 days a week. Try going in Zara and see if you can buy anything without getting in a 10 deep queue at the till.
I’m sure the market will readjust to deal with the explosion of online sales, but to say the high street is dead is extremely premature in my view.
I actually think you might see a back lash against online fast-fashion in the near future. Millennials are overwhelmingly responsible for its popularity, but they are also the demographic most concerned about the environment, carbon footprints and exploitative labour. The trend may well move back towards high street shopping and buying quality that lasts longer.
Who saw the trend towards locally brewed IPA’s and artisan street food coming 10 years ago? Or boutique, local one-screen cinemas? There’s been a trend away from globalism. The same thing may well happen with fashion.
And the idea that high street retail is going to be replaced by food and beverage, I’m not sure that’s true either. How many chain restaurants have either gone bump or completely scaled back recently? Jamie Oliver, Prezzo, Frankie and Benny’s, Chiquito, Pizza Express, that’s just in the last 3 months off the top of my head.
It’s interesting times, but the idea that the high street’s problems are terminal, is premature in my view.
