Get Out (And Don't Come Back)

City centres are in crisis. They are not what they used to be.

Or, actually, they are what they used to be.

It's those pesky consumers who've changed.

I recently heard news that an out of town retail park (very close to my home) will be getting a new Marks & Spencer Food Hall and Boots, both of which will be open in just a few months time.

As someone who does their weekly shop at M&S I was, naturally, delighted. No need for me to go into town every week now. This will ultimately save me time. And further change my shopping habits. Forever.

Good news is worth spreading, so I've told others. It has been met with delight and, in some cases, ecstatic glee.

"Thank God for that. I won't ever need to go into town!" they've exclaimed.

Surprised by the veracity of their response to this, seemingly everyday, news (I mean, we're being told that retail is dying, it's the end of retail as we know it, and it is, after all, just another shop) I've dug a little deeper.

Turns out there are two factors that feature in their gleeful reasoning of why this "out of town" retail model works best for them:

1. Convenience
2. Parking

How simple. How interesting.

Have our city centres become inconvenient? Yes, I suppose you could say that. It takes ages to get into town and, once you get there, traffic lights, traffic delays, one way systems and pedestrianized areas hamper progress at every stage.

And how's parking? Well, aside from an additional expense, it's not easy. Even more than that, it can be downright stressful. Queues to get into car parks, queues to get out, people nicking spaces right out from under you, paying up front, tickets running out when you're in the middle of having a coffee, having to carry coins to pay (to be fair, not in every city, but in Perth, where I live, you'll find it challenging to park if you don't carry a trusty bundle of 10 pence pieces with you everywhere you go). It all adds up to one big mega hassle.

And who needs hassle, right?

So bin Mary Portas' "save the high street" report, and forget twiddling around the edges, if local councils really want to save the high street, they need to start looking at making it easier to get in and out of the city centre, and where to (conveniently) put all the vehicles when they are there. Heck, now here's a radical thought, they could even make parking free......

Because, you see, the problem is not that consumers aren't spending money (they are), it's just they are spending them in places they can get to easily and get parked for free.

The city centre is not it.