Description
The high street is in crisis. How did we get here and what happens next? The global pandemic has made the crisis immeasurably worse but it wasn’t the cause. The crisis was already raging in 2019 with thousands of store closures. Large retailers became complacent and failed to respond to changing consumer behaviour. Town centres are the victims of these changes rather than the cause of them. To understand the current crisis and how it might be addressed, this book takes a long view of retailing based on a hundred case studies. It looks at the way town centres responded to previous crises and explores current trends affecting town centres and how places are responding. The message is optimistic: adaptable town centres can once more become the diverse, characterful, independent places that existed before they were homogenised by big retail. Explore the past – understand the present – find a better future.
Table of Contents
Introduction PART 1: The Roots of the Crisis 1. Places of exchange 2. Death by supermarket 3. Heading Out of Town 4. From Boom to Bust PART 2: Future Retail 5. Independent and Creative 6. Grocers and Purveyors of Fine Food 7. Food and Beverage 8. Online and e-Commerce 9. Sound and Vision 10. Home and Garden 11. Fashion and Beauty PART 3: Future High Street 12. The City 13. The Mall 14. The Town 15. The High Street Part 4: Conclusions 16. Conclusions
