The high street.

This morning I read an article on The Drum about 'can social media save the high street?'. I thought it was a pretty interesting question to ask, considering more and more high streets and town centres are dying a rapid death, and more and more people take to online shopping.

I think the reasons for this shift in shopping style were highlighted in the article when it said that there are not as many stay-at-home mums and people generally work longer hours now and don't have time to walk around the shops, or the town centre shops are not even open when they finish work! Also, mostly you can find what you want cheaper online, and you have the zero-hassle of trying to transport bought goods home - especially if you use public transport.

But what is to be done?

I think that generally, people want their high street to be a great place to shop and eat. There seems to be a shift in values where people want to make their area more of a community and encourage local produce and small to medium businesses rather than the national chains, but this is hard to do because of their domination in the market place and their ease of use.

So what can I do to help?
I can visit my local high street to buy my groceries instead of going to the ASDA supermarket. I can buy from small local businesses and then promote them through word of mouth/social media.

Sometimes I think our grandparents got it right. When everybody in the street knew each other. You could talk with your butcher about how the family was doing and buy your bread fresh from a bakery. It may seem a simpler way of life, but maybe it was a better way of life.