00:00 The high street's been dead for years, in Glasgow anyway.
00:05 I mean, you go to the high street and there's hardly any shops open.
00:08 And the more you look about even Circuit Hall Street and Gale Street, there's more and more shops closing.
00:13 We're battling with landlords that want to increase rents and obviously have an income from obtaining properties.
00:23 So it kind of makes it difficult for small businesses to flourish because it's never kind of returned back into making those businesses better than what they could be.
00:34 So it goes on prices, unfortunately. John Lewis has a good record.
00:42 People of Bristol have supported them, but other shops are coming in now and taking that away from them.
00:50 And that's about it, I think.
00:53 I think in the smaller towns, definitely. I think in larger cities, obviously, now they're booming, which is great.
01:00 But in smaller local communities, I think there's been a definite kind of negative impact on them.
01:06 There was a point in time where many people considered online shopping to be the future of retail,
01:12 especially when pandemic restrictions shut down brick and mortar stores for a while.
01:16 During the peak of Covid, department store John Lewis saw their online sales reach highs of 81 per cent.
01:22 But now this has reduced back down to 57 per cent of their overall sales, with in-store sales also up 8 per cent on 2022.
01:30 But what does it mean for our high streets and how do you tend to do your shopping?
01:35 So it might be true that they're dying. I probably disagree with John Lewis in that regard.
01:39 I look in Wolverhampton, for example, if I run around the city, I just see McDonald's, Poundland just everywhere.
01:46 It's not particularly pleasant. So therefore, I feel like businesses probably have to adapt somehow.
01:52 I'm not sure what way, but I'm seeing brick and mortar stores becoming less and less popular and monopolies taking over in that regard, unfortunately.
02:00 But that might be the reality we're dealing with now.
02:03 The high street, as we know it, has changed. Life has changed. The whole life has changed as we know it.
02:09 When I grew up, you know, you pop to a shop, you get what you want, you go home.
02:14 Now you just go on Amazon, click, click, click. Yeah, it's there.
02:17 You know, it's not going to get any better, in my opinion anyway, because it's easy to shop online.
02:26 I think in Manchester, I think in city centres, it's definitely not dying, to be honest with you.
02:31 People do still enjoy going out and physically going into stores.
02:35 Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy going into stores, but also you see the benefit of buying stuff online.
02:40 It's quick, it's easy. Obviously, you still have to deliver stuff, but just by being able to sit in bed and click and get a jumper sent in the next day.
02:49 It's a real shame. Local ones and the town, even. I see these shops closing down.
02:56 And again, it's food shops all the time. I know I have a large student community here, which keeps this town alive.
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