Retail and the High Street: Is It Really Dead? What I Found

Everyone keeps telling me the high street is dead. So I went to see for myself. Hi, I'm retail strategist and founder of Resilient Retail Club, Catherine Erdly. This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Capify - business funding made simple. Find out more at capify.com "The high street is dead" gets said so often that most of us have stopped questioning it. If you run a shop, hearing it week after week wears you down. It makes it sound as though you're fighting the tide, however good your shop is. But retail being hard and the high street being dead are two very different statements, and I wanted to find out which one was actually true. Since January I've been working my way through an A to Z of UK high streets for my Instagram, from Inverness to Fowey, and from Holywood in County Down to Brighton's North Laine. I've walked down streets so busy it felt like a football crowd had just been let out, and I've turned up on a Sunday to find a lot of the independents shut. In this episode I share the 10 things I've taken away so far, halfway through the alphabet: what makes one high street feel vibrant and another feel flat, why some places get three hours of your time and others get 20 minutes, and why a street can look like it's thriving to a visitor while the people running its shops are telling a very different story. By the end, you'll know what the busiest high streets I visited have in common, what independent shops bring to a town that nobody else can, and how to look at your own high street (and your own shop) the way a visitor does. If you've ever wondered whether your high street has a future, or what would make people want to keep coming back to it, this one's for you. Chapters 00:00 Is the high street really dead? 03:25 Independents, curation and a town's personality 07:32 Useful, busy and worth the trip 12:25 Opening hours, hidden pressures and what comes next Resources and links Follow my A to Z of UK high streets on Instagram (and tell me where to go next): https://www.instagram.com/resilientretailclub/ Episode 322, on how independent shops decide their opening hours: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast-episode/podcast-episode-how-to-decide-shop-opening-hours/ Stock Doctor, the service I mention for bricks-and-mortar retailers: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/stock-doctor/ Some of the shops I mention: Pencil Me In, Elgin: https://pencilmein.co.uk Seasgair, Elgin: https://seasgair.store/ Leakey's Bookshop, Inverness: https://www.leakeysbookshop.com All episodes of the Resilient Retail Game Plan: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast/ Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherineerdly The Resilient Retail Game Plan shares retail industry trends, insights, and best practices for the retailer who's serious about building something that lasts. New episodes every Thursday morning. Mentioned in this episode: Capify