Modern shopping

[Cliff Ton 10,569]

An interesting set of statistics, which reinforce what we've all seen when we go out anywhere. It applies to Nottingham and everywhere else.

In the first half of the year - nationwide - there were nearly 500 closures of clothing, shoe, furniture, photographic and video shops,

But....also in the first half of the year there were new openings of 97 charity shops, 62 cheque cashing outlets, 53 betting shops and 52 grocery convenience stores.

Wonga rules.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

So the world is to be run by a trio of elderly con merchants?

[denshaw 2,880]

Why not combine them, you could cash your cheque, bet on a horse, get fed and come out smelling of old clothes.

[Compo 10,334]

I get annoyed that the charity shops charge the earth, pay no rates and once ensconced in a shop they are virtually impossible to remove. They are living off teh backs of broken businesses and people's gullibility. Bring back good old fashioned second hand junk shops!

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

There's an on line second hand junk shop. It's called Ebay.

[DAVIDW 1,705]

I'm not surprised at the number of closures of those shops . Previously being in retail all my working life , I now wander around local town centre shops and wonder how on earth most keep going . They are either working for nothing or using the shops as a pastime if their partners have a reasonable job .

Very few independent shops these days appear to have many customers, as the money in the shopping publics purses seem to have polarised to the out of town centres and the internet .

I'm surprised that pound shops and the larger discount stores haven't made the list of the newly opened stores and not forgetting coffee shops .

All of these have just opened in our town and we have just lost a Dorothy Perkins that had been here for as long as I remember .

Even the charity shops are changing , we still have loads in town but now they are opening warehouse type units in industrial estates out of town . I only tend to look at cds and books and was amazed in one of these units that you could buy a carrier bag full of books for £1 !

[Andrea 5]

I'm just back from a holiday in The Netherlands and one thing I do see in most places, even small towns and right up to big cities, is the number and variety of shops. Also very few empty shops and charity shops are rare.

I suspect a lot of it is because there is less reliance on cars, most people cycle everywhere so the shops are needed perhaps more than in this country?

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

You're right Andrea. On a trip to Amsterdam with my family a few years ago I had never seen so many bicycles.

[mudgie49 401]

Charity shops or Good Will stores, as they are called here, are on the increase. Some of them are the size of a supermarket, and are always busy.

If there wasn't any need for them,there wouldn't be so many around,I have said it before, "the poor are getting poorer", and have to look into buying from these places.

Compo, we have a 'Junk market' out in the country-side,seven acres of every kind of item imaginable.I had to stop visiting, my garage is full of 'Treasures', from tin signs to late Victorian glass bottles, the cost was a dollar or two.

You would be in your element, visiting this place.

[Pixie 162]

I would much rather give my clothes strait to the people that need them. Mine and my partners clothes get sent to the salvation army and to hostels. Along with my daughter's out grown clothes. Once or maybe twice a year we fill up a box or two of my daughters outgrown clothes and shoes. And when places like Tesco have maybe a baby item of clothes for a quid or so, I'll buy it and pop it into the box to send to 3rd world countries, done it since a child when me and my mum would do it and send them through via my school.

In netherfield we have two second hand shops, not charity shops, just two shops opening up in empty old shops (the washing machine place opposite co op and the old farmfoods) I understand some people are hard up for cash, but I wouldnt buy from these places even if I was desperate.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

What about the one where 'happy shopper' used to be?

[Pixie 162]

They're more of a second hand furniture place. They buy the stuff from people at a low/reasonable rate and sell for much much more!

I enquired about a sofa they had once, it was just a 2 seater and it had seen better days but a friend of mine was sat on boxes and was looking for a sofa. Anyways they wanted £140! Rediculas.