In its heyday when walking around the high street there were varieties of different kinds of shops, which had something for everyone. You could get a new outfit from one store and a pair of shoes from another, not to mention a bottle of wine from an off-licence to enjoy later.
But nowadays the high street is beginning to look a little repetitive with certain types of shops popping up everywhere. But which shops are becoming the faces of the high street and which ones are slowing declining?
According to research conducted by the Local Data Company (LDC) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) the high street saw 55 new pawnbrokers, 53 new bookmakers and 45 more payday loan shops opened in 2012 alone.
With the administrations of so many high profile retailers last year, it is no surprise that clothing shops, computer games shops and toy shops were the biggest casualties of the year with 276, 177 and 103 stores respectively disappearing from the high street.
But why did these struggle the most? Online competition is one factor, but also the fact that they had multiple stores in the same towns, as Mike Jervis, Insolvency Partner for PwC explained.
He said: “All retailers in distress have too many locations. The insolvencies of Game, Peacocks and Clintons demonstrated this in spades.
“Relatively long leases, with inflexible terms, have been entered into in a growth phase of the economy which is no longer appropriate.
“Where over-expansion has already taken place, retailers need to face that reality and formulate a strategic plan in partnership with landlords, not in confrontation with them.”
It is worrying that the running theme with new store openings is that they are all connected with obtaining money in some form or another. How do you feel about the changing face of the high street? Do you think there should be a limit to how many payday loan shops can open in one particular town? Share your stories with us below.
