Twitter Sphere: It’s NOT online that is killing the High Street

A not so quite, or pleasant week, on Twitter this week with the lowlight being the abuse I got for a joke I made with an actual friend! This was one of those ongoing jokes based on a bit of hassle they had received in the past. You know how, in real life, mates often use humour to confront an issue? Well appears that on Twitter it is acceptable for someone to jump into your conversation, have a go at one party, and when their error is pointed out to them, not apologise.

Lots of debate on cricket as well, but most of this has been covered elsewhere in the Cricket Debate posts so for today I am going to concentrate on a non cricket, COVID-19 related debate: that online shopping is killing the High Street.

Sorry, but this is just wrong! The out of town (America inspired) shopping centres based around branded discount outlets have killed the High Street. What makes it worse is that for those of us old enough to remember their introduction this was highlighted by many as a concern at the time.

My argument to all concerned is that the out of town shopping outlet centre is really a bricks and mortar equivalent of the likes of Amazon: a one stop shopping hub, with easy access, lots of discounts and a huge amount of choise.

The growth of online may well have killed off the out of town locations (time post COVID-19) will tell, but please don’t blame online for the death of the High Street. The wound that has all but killed off the High Street was self inflicted by the shops, pubs and restaurants who flocked to the out of town locations.