Will we see a drifting back to the High Street?

Never left the HS either and never will! I enjoy the experience of walking into a shop and picking up what I am about to purchase!

Interesting to read your comments about John Lewis, grovesy. We went to the smallish Horsham branch for the first time last week to exchange one of Mr Akimbo's xmas presents ( a clock radio/bluetooth speaker ..the clock only visible when playing music or the radio, so pretty useless for checking the time at night). The "final reductions" were poor, but more frustrating few items (full price or sale stuff) were priced! I 'm in the market for a set of kitchen utensils and hoped for a bargain so asked a "partner" for the price of a set. I'd seen her checking bar codes with a hand held gadget so thought it would only take seconds but she lead me through the shop floor to a distant till to scan it "£86 do you want it?" Er no thanks. Meantime Mr A was asking to have a look at the 3 or 4 alternatives he'd seen online but none of them we available to view instore so we just left with a refund. So all the advantages of standing in a bricks and mortar store were sadly lacking. For the DHS shops to compete they need to up their customer service and buying experience.

My daughter had a holiday job at a tiny branch of Next which acts mainly as a pick up and return place for online orders and even though the refunds they process often exceeded their sales revenue they were still issued with impossible sales targets which leads to high staff turnover. The next decade will see firms that don't adapt to changing buying (and returning) patterns falling by the wayside. I wonder whether we'll start to see high street "show-rooms" of products that can be ordered online. The business rates paid by shops local to me are very high and I imagine if their footfall and sales drop they'll close branches. If the council hopes to attract small independent businesses which will offer an alternative shopping experience with personal service being a focus, it may have to lower it's revenue to avoid ghost town centres.

Back to QVC- it's already showing definite "dinosaur" tendancies; reluctant to evolve even though QVC in other European countries is managed differently but the UK channel resists changes to its original model.

loveallthingsitalian said:

We don't have a JL (long running planning saga - Donna is it about 20years now?) but I often buy on line and the dilivery is great, last year bought a new TV was here next day which is quicker than Currys which is just down the road.

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Yes, I expect to be on a zimmer frame by the time they if they ever do open here.:mysmilie_17:

john lewis dont do great sales anymore. i prefer fenwicks always have keen prices all yera round and 20% off everything sales around christmas time

donna255 said:

Yes, I expect to be on a zimmer frame by the time they if they ever do open here.:mysmilie_17:

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Well it took them long enough here.
We had a Waitrose about 20 years ago, it closed and we're coming back even had site that had been sorting office, just as planning was about to expire they decided to pull out.

donna255 said:

Yes, I expect to be on a zimmer frame by the time they if they ever do open here.:mysmilie_17:

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Every so often they raise our hopes then the b****rds pull the plug again.

I'm planning to retire this year so I'll either have all the time in the world to shop or no money to do it with.