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Comment by fumblebee | Hacker News Reader

> Disappearance of the high-street due to Amazon

My own anectdata, but I've made the opposite observation. At least in my hometown (~10k population), I've been pleasantly surprised at just how resilient the high-street has been. In the past year, we've had a new bakery, a new arts and craft shop, a new cafe, and the farmer's market is going from strength to strength.

While several years ago, I would order relentlessly from the likes of Amazon, I've found myself purchasing local goods in local stores far more, and am better off for it.

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> I've been pleasantly surprised at just how resilient the high-street has been. In the past year, we've had a new bakery, a new arts and craft shop, a new cafe, and the farmer's market is going from strength to strength.

That's awesome. To qualify my comments, I've also seen some of that change. New shops I've noticed filling in are

- a bike repair shop

- a "slow living" craft shop

- a tailors/upholsterer

- a fishmonger (haven't had one for 20+ years around here)

But in my town (city >300k) the decline has been significant with large chains, banks, clothing and brand retail shuttering up.

I do my best to support local trade and petit commerce. The ability to use cash and just browse in spare time is a factor.

I think it’s a it of winner takes all paradigm. The good places are getting better and average places decline as business and wealth moves to the better places, driving up prices.

Banks disappearing is awesome though. They're a blight and the small branches offer usurious services almost exclusively.

Large chains being replaced by smaller establishments would be great but I don't have high hopes here.

I don't see them as a blight. I just am always rather amazed how much prime real estate bank branches take up. Yes, people need bank services now and then and often want a convenient branch to conduct business in. But I know I like doubtless many/most others, rarely use an ATM any longer much less go into a branch to interact with a human. Even the very small city nearest to me has 3 or 4 different bank branches in its tiny downtown.

A cluster of new shops isn't necessarily a sign of boom though, that's also how it looks like when landlords still haven't yet failed finding substitute renters in an ever accelerating sequence of try-and-fail. I know places where the same "newly opened!" signs in the windows keep getting reused since the aughts.

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