My concern that online shopping has had a detrimental effect on once-busy town centres that were a pleasure to spend time in was echoed in an e-mail I recently received from a mate who lives in south-east Wales.
His local town centre is a ghost of what it was.
Empty shops abound. Intimidation hangs in the air like an ominous sea mist. There’s little reason for residents to ‘pop into town, wander around the shops and have a bite to eat.’
Nevertheless, he and his wife paid a pre-Christmas visit to town and here’s an extract from the message he sent me . . .
‘We parked outside town, walked over the bridge and went into the market, once the bustling home of fishmongers, fruit and veg sellers, bakers, butcher, confectioners and a popular ‘faggots & peas’ café.
‘Upstairs, one enormous stall sold greeting cards and Mills & Boon romances. There was a vinyl record stall, a pet stall and, on Saturdays, rosey-cheeked country ladies sold fresh farm eggs. On my recent visit, niche street food sellers occupied the refurbished ground floor. Upstairs was closed.
‘We walked through into the high street which, on a Saturday before Christmas, was almost deserted.
‘Passing pound shops, cash-for-gold emporiums and Mothercare, W.H. Smith and a department store (all three closed), we recalled when British Home Stores, C & A, Littlewoods, Marks & Spencer and many other stores were around, we’d often spend all day in town. A Berni Inn steak was an occasional treat.
‘Now, with so few shops and no sign of the cinema re-opening after Covid closed it, the place has a grubby, depressed aura.
‘Perhaps the council is partly to blame for allowing too many out-of-town shopping centres, as are people who’d rather shop online than ‘pop into town, wander around the shops and have a bite to eat’.
‘Interestingly, a neighbouring town we regularly visit is thriving. If a shop closes, another business soon occupies the site.
‘Because people use it, they’re unlikely to lose it.
‘But my town is already lost.’
Think about that before you next shop online.