Argos

[mrs maggot]

in Kettering they have ripped apart the town, the old market square a vibrant place to shop 10 yers ago and even 5 years ago, is now a granite water feature, and the few market stalls that are left are now strewn along the high street on a saturday and just look a mess, we have highish parking charges here 70p an hour (and for very little in the way of shops) less than 10 miles away in Wellingborough you get free parking - thanks to land given by amongst others the Saxby family.

we need more of the vacant shops to be opened up for small businesses

[Charlie_]

in Kettering they have ripped apart the town, the old market square a vibrant place to shop 10 yers ago and even 5 years ago, is now a granite water feature, and the few market stalls that are left are now strewn along the high street on a saturday and just look a mess, we have highish parking charges here 70p an hour (and for very little in the way of shops) less than 10 miles away in Wellingborough you get free parking - thanks to land given by amongst others the Saxby family.

we need more of the vacant shops to be opened up for small businesses

With the free parking, we still have far to many empty shops. It will be interesting to see what Mary Queen of shops comes up with, as this area she has taken on to get the hight streets back......

[WorthDoingRight]

Well, the main issue with why high streets are deserted is the cost of the shop rental is too much for a small business to cover with current trade levels. I would like to see more of an effort by the local authorities (and the landlords) to offer an incentive to small businesses to occupy these empty spaces at an affordable rent/rates cost.

I really think there is scope for a group of small traders to 'share' a larger store to create a kind of mini-market however this seems to be easier said than done.

[purpledragon]

Do The local authorities want the hasstle thats the problem . Haverfordwest (where i live) is a beautiful market town yet shops are closing almost by the day rent is astranomical and rates of 10 grand upwards make trading in the town centre almost impossible large stores like m&s comet etc have now built on the outskirts of the town and how do they local authoraties respond to this ? they lay on a free bus out of the town centre ????? it almost begs belief its as if someone has said "how can we kill the town off oh i know lets bus the shoppers away from the small shops " i can see this town turning into a ghost town for shopping and what will follow then ? a drop in tourisam and probably a rise in crime and vandalisam ..... rant over

[Earl Smith]

And they need to change some of the laws regarding shop rental. Make it easier/possible to hand the keys back if the business doesnt work. Take the risk of opening a business but not at the cost of loosing your house, car and everything you have worked for if it doesnt work out.

[jennywren]

I do think the time of the town is now coming slowly to a end, as how we shop is changing ever faster than we can keep up. I've only got three years left, then I'll be moving on and do it all the the web.

[WorthDoingRight]

Well the way things are going we will not have any real shops to visit soon. If we are realistic we can now order pretty much anything we could ever need direct from the net and get it delivered. I however miss 'window shopping' for items. I think a number of retailers have realised that unhappy customers are less likely to return goods they receive by mail order and they can employ people abroad to handle complaints at a much lower cost. Sad really.