{"id":5530,"date":"2020-03-27T14:45:58","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T14:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=5530"},"modified":"2021-06-15T16:18:45","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T15:18:45","slug":"how-will-covid-19-affect-our-high-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/how-will-covid-19-affect-our-high-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"How will Covid-19 affect our high streets?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr Jake Monk Kydd looks at the problems that have affected our high streets and how they will cope now.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

UK High Streets have been under pressure for well over ten\nyears. With the majority of us in \u2018lock down\u2019 in response to the Coronavirus the\nhigh streets are the most deserted they have ever been. The viability of the\nhigh street, already struggling, is facing its sternest test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be argued that the notion of the traditional high street\nstarted to disappear as early as the 1970s. The rise of ubiquitous chain shops\nwith their familiarity and cheap goods led many to believe that our high\nstreets were becoming anonymous and interchangeable. For many people on a\nshopping trip this didn\u2019t matter; they knew what they wanted, and they knew\nwhere to get it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the 1980s the shoppers and the chain stores found an alternative\ndestination away from the often crowded and poorly presented high streets,\nexposed to the changeable weather and expensive parking. The rise of the shopping\ncentre, most of all the out-of-town shopping centre was something new, and something\nworth travelling to. Once there, they were not only exposed to a bewildering choice\nof products, but the comfort of shopping indoors with cafes, restaurants, cinemas\nand other side shows \u2013 all with ample, free car parking too. All they had to do\nwas spend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With spending comes the biggest change. Online shopping has\nits roots in the 1990s. By the 2000s we saw the emergence of companies such as\nAmazon, eBay and Paypal. It should not be overlooked that many high street\ncompanies joined this on-line trade. Each sale on-line means fewer sales on the\nhigh street, or in Bluewater and those out-of-town centres. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The financial crash of 2008 saw a major blow to the high\nstreet. There was a time when discount stores were only for those with a\nlimited budget but the 2008 crash changed that and the effects are still being\nfelt. Shopper attitude and behaviour changed, now people will shop in both Waitrose\nand Lidl on the same trip, something that was unheard of before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoppers, fuelled by a want to save money flocked to stores\nthat traded on price, and often on their fashion appeal. On the high street the\nnew kings were Primark, Zara and Sports Direct. Old favourites like M&S and\nDebenhams faded, while the likes of BHS and Woolworths died. The demise of\nWoolworths after its 98-year reign should have surprised no one. The insipid\nstores with the uninspired merchandise had consistently failed to draw\nshoppers. With internet shopping fuelled by tablets and smart phones the drift\nfrom the high street became an exodus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, before the lock-down, even some of the once popular out-of-town\ncentres were facing bankruptcy. Coronavirus hasn\u2019t caused this, but it will hasten\nthe demise of the weak traders, and impact the high streets further. The high\nstreets of the 1960s and 1970s were never coming back, what we must do is to\nre-imagine them for post-corona times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Jake Monk Kydd is a Senior Lecturer in the Christ Church Business School.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Jake Monk Kydd looks at the problems that have affected our high streets and how they will cope now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":5537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[533,3902],"tags":[3393,3358,3365,3390],"class_list":["post-5530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-research","tag-business","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-high-streets"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Jeanette Earl","featuredImage":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/437\/2020\/03\/High-Street.jpg","postExcerpt":"Dr Jake Monk Kydd looks at the problems that have affected our high streets and how they will cope now.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5530"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7493,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5530\/revisions\/7493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}