Do you remember the good old days before the Ghost Town?

[Fullerene]

There was a time when the centre of Inverness was not pedestrianised and the High Street was full of shoe shops. 

Must have been heaven for anyone who liked to drive into town and buy new shoes.

[DA Baracus]

11 minutes ago, Mr. Alli said:

Must admit, I miss groucho's.  I spent a lot of time (and money) in there.

Yup, was a great shop. See also One Up in Aberdeen and Third Base in Dunfermline.

[Derry Alli]

1 minute ago, DA Baracus said:

Yup, was a great shop. See also One Up in Aberdeen and Third Base in Dunfermline.

Ended up at many a gig that I had no idea who they were purely because it was in the window. Same with Manifesto. I don't shop in there either now and as a result I only go to comedy gigs now

[Newbornbairn]

1 hour ago, Cosmic Joe said:

It was certainly open in 1983 when I became the proud owner of a pair of burgundy staypresses 

I got my pair from the Wonder Store. 

[effeffsee_the2nd]

7 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:

Absolutely - there seems to be a wistfulness about old established names disappearing, almost like people wish town centres could be artificially kept open as nostalgia theme parks for the once in a blue moon they deign to visit them.

Case in point was when Woolworth's closed...everybody seemed to be united in the view that it was "terrible" although they hadn't actually set foot in one for years. There was a kind of folk memory of pick & mix and record bars, whereas the truth was for decades the place had been an incoherent shithole of a shop that seemed to specialise in poor quality homeware that wasn't even that cheap. When you pointed that out it was always a case of "Still terrible though..."

 

Aye, folk forget that woolies had become a by word for naff. HMV and others had most likely just became casualties of the decline in physical media.

We had a local bakery chain in Falkirk called Mathiesons, Although they were once pretty good they had went majorly downhill in their final 5-10 years, to the point where you would go in at 1.15 pm and they would have nothing except a solitary cold scotch pie for sale. yet when they finally went to the wall social media was a wash with tears.

[Newbornbairn]

7 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

Aye, folk forget that woolies had become a by word for naff. HMV and others had most likely just became casualties of the decline in physical media.

We had a local bakery chain in Falkirk called Mathiesons, Although they were once pretty good they had went majorly downhill in their final 5-10 years, to the point where you would go in at 1.15 pm and they would have nothing except a solitary cold scotch pie for sale. yet when they finally went to the wall social media was a wash with tears.

You're right about Woolies - the fourth stripe of shame. 

['WellDel]

48 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

There are still plenty of places that sell vinyl where you can spend time browsing them, especially since it's become more popular recently.

Glad of this fact as my main gift today was a turntable and some classic vinyl, including the Pills n Thrills album I mentioned in my post above. Looking forward to trawling these places and building my collection.

[Derry Alli]

3 minutes ago, 'WellDel said:

Looking forward to trawling these places and building my collection.

Planning your own bankruptcy? I like it!

[Dan Steele]

29 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

We had a local bakery chain in Falkirk called Mathiesons,

Is Fisher's still on the go? I can remember their chicken pies being great. And served in the Wheatsheaf with a pint was a fine way to spend an afternoon. Had reason to be in Falkirk a few years ago, now there's a changed town. Jumpers for goalposts etc.

['WellDel]

3 minutes ago, Mr. Alli said:

Planning your own bankruptcy? I like it!

Aye, I've just been browsing online. Haven't bought vinyl for many a year, looks like it's a pricey old game these days!!

[Deanburn Dave]

32 minutes ago, Newbornbairn said:

You're right about Woolies - the fourth stripe of shame. 

"Just like Adidas......but better" said no one ever.

[pozbaird]

17 hours ago, Shandon Par said:

Dunfermline town centre is so sad these days. It was always a physically nice looking place. Lovely buildings, beautiful park, the Abbey, not far to East End. Now it’s shocking how dead it is. 

Went to Dunfermline on a glorious summer day earlier this year. I don’t know the town too well, but had a fabulous day out. Parked up across from the bus station. First place I stumbled upon was an independent shop where the guy sells fitba’ stuff - mugs, scarves, all sorts. Scotland stuff, club stuff, even had a nice set of St Mirren crest stone coffee mug placemats.

Then we walked the length of the High Street down to the Abbey end. Think it’s the town hall building or something at the bottom that is a very attractive building, the one with the big tower? Got some good photos of it while cutting out the clutter surrounding it. Strolled into the renovated building beside the Abbey that houses a new ‘Blend’ coffee shop - Abbot House (I think it was called). Out the back, beautiful gardens and a great photo opp’ of the Abbey. Left there and walked around the Abbey, out and down into that glorious big park. Lots of stone staircases leading down to hidden bits of the park. Park was very well maintained, went into the greenhouses, and the plants and flowers surrounding it were magnificent.

Ended up back on the High Street, enjoyed a great burger in an independent place, went home. Superb.

I can enjoy a similar type of day out in Paisley. The Abbey, the cobbled streets behind the poundland High Street, and a dozen other places besides…if you look for them, and look beyond the vape shops. Falkirk too - Callendar Park in autumn is stunning. The Kelpies, the Wheel…

The battle for the shopping in High Streets has been lost, but ‘normal’ Scottish towns have hidden treasures, still. Mon’ the towns.

[Busta Nut]

18 hours ago, Richey Edwards said:

I used to love going into Ayr town centre and browsing all the shops - Woolworths, the record shops, the video shops, the sweet shops etc. Now the town centre is an empty shell full of empty spaces, pop-up shops and phone repair shops. Independent retail is dead. Family businesses that existed for generations are dead. I once had to write an essay for school about my "favourite place in the world", and I chose Ayr. It used to be an absolutely tremendous place to go for a day out. Now I cannot bear to be there for more than an hour or so, because the decline is so depressing.

What's your local town centre like? Has it suffered the same fate? What were your favourite things about it?

 Only read the first page so far. I'd be surprised if every town centre wasn't the same collection of Betting shops, Turkish barbers, charity shops and discount stores.

Supermarkets then the internet killed these places.

[Hedgecutter]

This is the bit I manage to take the moral high ground by saying that I didn't buy a single Xmas present online.  Everything bought in town, much of it from independents.

'Mon the shops.

Eta: I've only used Amazon once. They sent me a kids colouring-in book set instead of what I ordered. An issue I've yet to experience in-store.

Edited December 25, 2022 by Hedgecutter

[Derry Alli]

9 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

 Supermarkets then the internet killed these places.

Councils and their rates have a huge part to play in it too.

[invergowrie arab]

16 minutes ago, Mr. Alli said:

Councils and their rates have a huge part to play in it too.

Councils don't set business rates they just collect them.

Merry non-domestic rate chatmas. 

I was in Wellgate for the first time in about 5 years yesterday.

From the heady days of Virgin Megastore to a boy selling fake leather goods from a barrow.

No wonder the young team are rioting if they can't go and get a shot of FIFA 95 or nick posters somewhere 

 

[Bert Raccoon]

Hamilton town centre was never the best but it's an absolute shit hole now. Even the pubs are closing 

[pozbaird]

Supermarkets, then big places like Braehead, Silverburn, The Fort, then the internet. Now the big places see their Debenhams-style big anchor stores close. Primark becomes the big anchor store. It’s always a state of flux. Just seems sometimes that the pace of change accelerates, and the changes to the ‘High Street’ become very noticeable, very quickly. I fondly remember the Listen record stores, Stereo One, Rainbow Records in Johnstone - then it looked like big HMV, Virgin, and Tower Records stores were the death-knell for them. Now Virgin and Tower have died, HMV died and came back. I thought HMV, Virgin and Tower were the bad guys… now I miss Virgin, Tower, and the bigger, old style HMVs.

Cannae’ win.

[TxRover]

So this has gotten me thinking deeply on Christmas morning, and aim wondering if there aren’t a a lot more parallels than I thought between the U.S. retail sector and the UK.

-In the U.S., the small town Main Street (hell, the whole town) is dead as a door nail…killed by population leaving and the small mom and pop stores being replaced with a Walmart or Dollar Store on the outskirts of the largest town in a 30-40 mile range.

-In the UK, I don’t know what the status of the small town local stores is, but it doesn’t sound good, and the supermarket/Variety Store in the town edge industrial estate seems similar to what happened here..

-In both the UK and the U.S. the interior city retail market is f**ked. It’s a wasteland of crap, supported by whatever decides to give it a try at rental costs of pence on the pound/pennies on the dollar compared to the suburbs.

-In the U.S., the suburban mixed use development is hot, especially in the wealthier areas, with shopping from a number of established national brands, a few local boutiques, and lots of coffee shops and restaurants. It’s a lure for the surrounding areas that seems to be working, and add to that the somewhat expensive townhomes and apartments in the development for a captive audience for the food/drink stores. Is there any traction in the UK for this?

-Some interior suburban towns successfully branded themselves as shopping destinations on their Main Street/High Street. In this case, it’s Antique Stores, Boutiques, dining and similar, but they tart it up with lots of seasonal tie-ins to get people to visit.

-Malls are dying in the U.S., about half of those around 20 years ago and now either demolished or converted into server farms or such.

-The one advantage smaller or local stores may have in the U.S. is suburban sprawl providing lots of spots on the side of highways or major suburban intersections.

-The advantage in the UK is the significantly higher acceptance of commercial areas within residential areas. In the U.S., zoning laws generally make it impossible to have truly local services, such as a corner store or a pub, within walking distance for 90%+ of the population. Maybe that’s the appeal of the suburban shopping destinations with residential in the U.S.

 

Maybe we need a thread for the “forgotten” names of the chains and local stores…

[tamthebam]

5 hours ago, pozbaird said:

 

The battle for the shopping in High Streets has been lost, but ‘normal’ Scottish towns have hidden treasures, still. Mon’ the towns.

As I think most of the sadly ubiquitous Greggs' stuff is substandard shite it's great to go to a wee town somewhere in Scotland, find a local baker that's been there for 100 years just about unchanged, and buy a decent pie/sausage roll and substantial cake.