T Death of the high street

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Death of the highstreet

With a decrease in number of physical stores, could the leftover space be used for other purposes such as housing to combat the housing crisis?

Or perhaps a more community inclusive program or infrastructure?

High streets have been affected by major changes in the past decades, and the speed of this change is increasing. Online shopping in particular has become significantly more popular than it was 10 years ago. Between 2007 and 2018, online sales increased 6-fold while growth of in-store sales has lagged behind. in 2000, online retail accounted for less than 1% of retail sales while in 2018, almost 20% of all retail sales took place online.

Another term that runs parallel with the death of the high street phenomena is ‘retail apocalypse’. The retail apocalypse is the closing of brick-and-mortar retail stores, starting around 2010 onwards. This is largely due to changes in spending habits, a shift in experience-spending versus material goods and homes, and the rise of e-commerce such as Amazon.com, Ebay and Alibaba. Large retails such as Toys R Us, Motherhood and Karen Millen have since closed many of its physical stores. Arcadia Group, which owns chains including Topshop and Dorothy Perkins had to negotiate rent cuts as well.

In addition to the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, an unprecedented number of businesses, especially those relying largely on its physical stores have felt the strain. The aftermath of the pandemic will definitely affect the way retail will be looked at -- is physical retail a necessity? With the convenience of deliveries, try-and-returns, perhaps we should rethink what the new retail experience is, and consequently how this affect what we know as the ‘highstreet’.

Refer to : Office for National Statistics and Policy paper of the Future High Street Fund published 29 Oct 2018.

Refer to : https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/nov/06/ high-street-crisis-big-names-joblosses-store-closures