The shape of things to come .........

..... Be a part of it.

This marketing material has been around a long time, and messaging which seemed perhaps optimistic, now seems ironic. This empty end unit lies at the end of a row of empty shops.

I recall a time when the Precinct had a Woolworths, a record shop, two butchers, a dry cleaners, and two greengrocers. All gone.

And it will continue to change. Low - and negative in real terms - wage growth, the concentration of grocery spend by the “big four” and their challengers, combined with people getting more confident about shopping on-line is changing the “high street” irrevocably. These inward looking 60’s and 70’s shopping precincts are finding it particularly difficult to adapt and survive.