Closing down
The life lessons we’ll lose when the high streets fall
Hephzibah Anderson
When the pound shops are in trouble you know it’s bad. The British high street has been tottering for the best part of a decade, but this year has brought gloomier news than we’ve heard since 2012. Toys R Us is toast. House of Fraser, New Look and Moss Bros are in varying states of peril.
M&S is poised to close 100 stores and, yes,
Poundworld has gone into administration.
Business rates, out-of-town shopping, Brexit—they may be contributing factors but it’s fundamentally e-commerce that has struck the death knell for brick-and-mortar vendors. As Amazon gobbles their business models, the deafening clunk of shutter after shop shutter is sounding out across the land. It’s left the average high street raggedy and gap-toothed, a place to hurry tactfully past rather than tarry in.