Britain’s changing High Street - Poundland, nail bars and empty shops

This report on the BBC website highlights the shift, in times of austerity, away from browsing the High Street for luxuries towards browsing the web for bargains - one result is that on average 14% of shops in the UK are vacant, a massive increase from 10.5% a year ago. But, as ever, the answer to ‘Is the British high street a good location for retail businesses?’ is “It depends….”

It depends on what kind of business you are talking about. If the business is selling a product, then increasingly the answer is no, because they will do better to sell their goods online. On the other hand (....which, as every student of business knows, is a vital phrase) if the business is selling a service which cannot be delivered online, then the high street is the place to be. So that, while travel agents and off-licences are closing, some of the vacant shops they leave behind are being taken by restaurants and cafes, nail bars and hairdressers.

The report gives details of the large numbers of these businesses which opened in the first six months of this year - but it doesn’t go on to consider how many of them will survive. How many nail bars can one town or village sustain, as consumer spending falls and austerity becomes the economic norm? What will happen to their pricing, as more and more competitors open on their doorstep?

The first page of the BBC report offers an analysis of the nature of the changes in the type of shop-based businesses which are present on the average High Street, while the second page offers some regional data which looks at differences across the UK between the numbers of vacant shops, and the types of shops that appear to be flourishing. The growth of 11% in pound stores, and 9% in charity shops, is logical, given the times that we live in. A 4% increase in the number of estate agents is more of a surprise.