Town Centre Shops
- 8 October 2016 11:10318684People will always have to. Buy food ,however Clothes you can wash .and if need be repair .Books. Buy on line or second hand shop.Jumble sales may soon return!
The art of writing letters is dying out.. - Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,939
8 October 2016 12:55318686Sue,
Today, as many as half (48%) of Brits are current online grocery shoppers. One in ten (11%) do all of their grocery shopping online, with a further 12% doing most of their grocery shopping online.
Article here:- http://www.mintel.com/press-centre/retail-press-centre/29-of-uk-online-grocery-shoppers-are-shopping-for-groceries-more-online-now-than-a-year-ago
With all due respect I don't think you or indeed most people realise realise just how disruptive to what you think people 'always have to do' the onset of 'big data', AI and the data revolution are about to become.
Here's an article on transport from last weeks Economist http://www.economist.com/news/international/21707952-combining-old-and-new-ways-getting-around-will-transform-transportand-cities-too-it Yet local councils are still planning parking spaces as though we will all continue to stupidly spend our money on half a ton of metal which even now we use less than 5% of the time.
Right now we are like people who have seen the introduction of the Spinning Jenny locally and have heard about the Stockton and Darlington Railway and think it is not going to affect us.
It will.
Unfortunately in the UK and indeed Europe we are doing the same as the Wright Brothers. Having 'invented' flight we are spending our lives fighting patents to stop others improve on our invention rather than developing further.
The EU is spending all it's time trying to control/tax Uber/Amazon/Google etc rather than asking why the Hell we have not set up such a system ourselves if we are really so bloody talented (which most international comparisons show we are NOT).
As the great Ken Kesey said you are either on the bus or you are off the bus.
IF you are tech savvy, scientifically trained, innovative etc you are still looking to a highly paid career and a fantastic future.
If you are not, frankly you are slowing down the rest of us and are bloody lucky to have a zero hours contract job because the planet does not owe you a living. Perhaps you now regret not listening in school - as you were sure you were going to be a footballer! If only you'd at least scraped up to 5 GCSEs at least McDonalds might have made you a shift leader.
Yes, I know you all keep whining on about being in the 'fifth biggest economy in the world' but what make you think, that just because by accident of birth you were born here rather than downtown Calcutta, you have some God given right to a standard of living, which for even the poorest in this country, is well above what my hard working middle class aspiring parents enjoyed?
Losers.Button likes this"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
8 October 2016 15:46318691captain cods cousin,there are still people who prefer to handle/look at etc at goods they wish to purchese,it is ok for every thing elseGuest 1831 likes this - Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,939
8 October 2016 16:10318694Brian Dixon wrote:there are still people who prefer to handle/look at etc at goods
Yeah, right. In Deal we call them shoplifters!
Guest 1862 and howard mcsweeney1 like this"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
8 October 2016 16:19318696in dover they pay for the stuff with cash,not with a dodgy credit card - Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,939
8 October 2016 16:31318697Excellent news. Glad you've moved on from using cowrie shells!
And there was me thinking the hunter-gatherers of St Radigunds were still bartering animal skins for grain with the more settled community of River."We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson - 8 October 2016 17:10318698The amount of courier vans flying around all day and every day tells us that the High Street has to adapt to survive. They will have to be more compact with outer sections converted to residential usage. The type of businesses that are best placed to survive are butchers and greengrocers mainly because people like to see before they buy and bakers because of the same day products.
Hairdressers, dry cleaners, shoe repairers, key cutters and micropubs should still flourish.Guest 1862 likes this - Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,939
8 October 2016 17:40318699Howard, 100% correct there."We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson - 8 October 2016 18:17318700Some very narrow sighted views from Cpt Haddock. Here's another:
Deal High Street is thriving with a record shop, hand made gifts and toiletries, craft beers, even the Oxfam bookshop is doing a roaring trade. How can this be possible in this technological utopia?
A: Because the tech savvy and creatives who spend their working hours online like a bit of tradition and authenticity in their lives.Paul M likes thisJack of Hearts - 8 October 2016 18:34318701The new technology is not all good, when mobile phones first came into use the level of dialogue in public was hardly inspiring. "what's for tea" and "Just coming up to the station" were the most common bits I heard. Now with smart phones dead faces stare into them as if wisdom would come from them. Yesterday at the bank the lady being served before me done her business with the member of staff without ever looking at her.
Newspapers I read online but although I have a Kindle I never use it preferring to hold a real book. - Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,302
8 October 2016 18:48318702Last time I went into my bank it was devoid of customers. Without looking up, the young lady teller said "Sorry to keep you waiting".
Terryhoward mcsweeney1 likes thisQuis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,028
8 October 2016 19:22318703I don't get this retailing business, particularly high street. Mrs Button and I bought a Pyrex measuring jug today for £3.99, it weighs a ton and apparently it was made in the USA. Yet presumably manufacturer, shippers and retailer each made a profit and each paid employees. The irony is that I probably used more than that in petrol going to Westwood to get it.(Not my real name.) - Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,939
9 October 2016 00:59318709I don't get this retailing business either.
Yesterday I bought Pilgrim's Way: Shrines and Saints in Britain and Ireland (Hardcover) for 1p on Amazon second hand in very good condition + £2.80 postage.
The alternative was to buy it 'new' for £27.99!
How can it possibly be worthwhile someone even bothering to type the details in for 1p?"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson - Reginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,231
9 October 2016 05:03318710That's easy captain you paid £2.80 postage, they didn't! I thought you where suggesting you understood this ecommerce society we are transitioning into?Jan Higgins likes thisArte et Marte - Andy B
- Location: dover
- Registered: 10 Nov 2012
- Posts: 1,741
9 October 2016 17:10318722Noticed today that the cut price ladies clothes shop that s called Exstacey or something similar has closed its doors,just across the road from Marks n spencer. - 10 October 2016 11:03318737Maybe they had a rent free period then decided the rent was more than they could afford?
- 16 October 2016 11:24318972Noticed earlier that the units above Savers and former furniture shop seem to be mostly empty, 3 storeys that most could be converted into residential accommodation. The window smasher has struck again with another one in Costcutter.Guest 1862 likes this
- 17 October 2016 12:59319017This is a positive to GOLDEN STITCHES in Worthington Street.
Took some alterations in which were fiddly and complicated. The Chap in there is ofcourse a "foreigner" he he. He is indeed most charming and polite. Excellent service and my alternations are great.
Sometimes you have have a broken zip, or a favourite piece of clothing, which just needs a tweak here or there to save it, and yourself, some money.
Recommended...Thank you.howard mcsweeney1, Jan Higgins and Brian Dixon like this - 14 November 2016 14:34320443The Good Luck Chinese opposite the Charlton Centre has closed.
http://www.goodluckchineserestaurant.co.uk/ - Andy B
- Location: dover
- Registered: 10 Nov 2012
- Posts: 1,741
14 November 2016 16:45320451Probably one of the oldest chinese restuarants in Dover.We,ve used it for years,it used to be very busy once but i expect its trade has declined like many.People just cannot afford to go out as much anymore.Its a shame as we,ve celebrated quite a few family birthdays there over the years.
