Wednesday 16 January 2013

The internet isn't part of the High Street's problem..it's part of its solution

This week we have seen the holy trinity of shop closures on our High Street.
Jessops was the first to fall by the wayside, then HMV, now Blockbuster is in administration. It really is a case of "will the last person to leave the high street please turn off the lights!"
One thing is certain. Every time a high street store closes, people instantly start pointing fingers at those nasty old Internet companies. Undercutting on price, offering home delivery and robbing those poor little indefensible high street shops of trade that is 'rightfully' theirs.
But maybe we should start looking at the 'demon' internet as the SOLUTION to filling those vacant shops on the high street not as the cause of the problem?
After all, it is not technology's fault that consumers choose to shop where it is cheaper or more convenient. The trend we are seeing today was only replicated 20 years ago, when out of town supermarkets sucked the life out of the High Street. You could even go back over a hundred years, when handcart market traders were put out of work because shops were setting up on the High Streets where everyone chose to gather on a market day. Location change is nothing new to retail.
However, all these shops closing down does leave an expanding void and slowly chips away at the sense of community a High Street brings - leaving little behind bar charity shops, betting shops and pubs. By the way, I don't criticise bookies or charities for occupying that empty space -at least someone is filling them up and I believe that they could both play a role in keeping High Streets presentable and restoring a sense of community to them.
And there in lies my point. We have forgotten that the most important thing a High Street can be is a focal point for a community - not a harem of retail choice. A choice of shops does not make a community, but a place to meet, talk and share does.
And this is where -if the right people got their heads together on this - the internet could actually create that High Street community again, rather than be seen as the destroyer of it.
So, this is what I would do. When a shop closes down in the High Street, the council or town centre body (traders group) should take it over and turn it into a communications, conversation and collections centre.
Turn that empty shop into a place where people can come and pick up an order they have made on Amazon or Argos online or A N Other e-tailer. Put computers in there so those that cannot afford broadband at home can come into their town centre and participate in the digital world on the same level playing field as those better off than them can at home.
Shove a few Wiis or Xboxes in there and hold virtual fitness sessions; let kids come and play X Box games in there after school (because that's what they are doing on their own at home). Let people watch DVDs they have rented online there with friends over coffee.
If you build it, they will come - and then they will pop over to the butcher or the baker before going home.
The 'traditional' retailers that have done well get this. Look at Argos with their 'order and collect' service. In fact, you could even fold the Post Office and Library services into this place - securing their future for much longer too.
So, the question I hear you all scream is 'all well and good, but who is paying for this?' Well, the very people that will benefit from it in terms of extra business!
A lot is made about Amazon's corporate tax arrangements. I think the UK public (and the Government) could be and should be more forgiving to them if they were to fund these High St centres for the next 20 years. I think the same could go for Starbucks and Google who would all benefit from this retained community on the High Street. 
So, instead of 'gurus' launching forlorn campaigns to persuade retailers back into vacant shops, and us spending time on hand-wringing over the power of the web as a destroyer of a community, let's use the internet community to put the heart back into our high streets.