High Street : How Our Town Centres Can Bounce Back from the Retail Crisis

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. 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 Ł understand the present Ł find a better future. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents About the Authors Preface Introduction Part 1 The Root of The Crisis Chapter 1 Places of Exchange Chapter 2 Death by Supermarket Chapter 3 Heading Out of Town Chapter 4 From Boom to Bust Part 2 Future Retail Chapter 5 Independent and Creative Chapter 6 Grocers and Purveyors of Fine Food Chapter 7 Food and Beverage Chapter 8 Online and e-Commerce Chapter 9 Sound and Vision Chapter 10 Home and Garden Chapter 11 Fashion and Beauty Part 3 Future High Street Chapter 12 The City Chapter 13 The Mall Chapter 14 The Town Chapter 15 The High Street Chapter 16 Conclusions: New Life for Town Centres Notes Index Image Credits