Nigel
I agree I have Boycotted Amazon for a long while. They are tax avoiders , yet knowing this millions of Briton's give them money rather than a localish shop.
Sydenham has an excellent book shop , also Bromley has a good Waterstones.
Come on everyone please shop in the local ish area. Does not have to be only Sydenham High Street but a High Street store.
'What if'... two new exciting venues for SE26?
Re: 'What if'... two new exciting venues for SE26?
If you can't buy what you want on your local high street, or any high street, then there is nothing wrong with buying stuff online.
Online, offline, on high street, they are only places to buy stuff. We use some local shops in Sydenham. But we buy far more online, although we source ethically. There are lots of small start up's online.
HIgh streets will have to adapt. They didn't when supermarkets came along. If they don't adapt, they will suffer like all businesses that don't change with the times.
Some businesses are leading on our high street, like the Alexandra Nurseries, The Marketplace etc.
I hope whatever opens on our high street is a business with a future.
Online, offline, on high street, they are only places to buy stuff. We use some local shops in Sydenham. But we buy far more online, although we source ethically. There are lots of small start up's online.
HIgh streets will have to adapt. They didn't when supermarkets came along. If they don't adapt, they will suffer like all businesses that don't change with the times.
Some businesses are leading on our high street, like the Alexandra Nurseries, The Marketplace etc.
I hope whatever opens on our high street is a business with a future.
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FromCtoShiningC
- Posts: 127
- Joined: 26 Jul 2013 11:28
- Location: SE26
Re: 'What if'... two new exciting venues for SE26?
I would agree with the point above that if the items one wishes to buy cannot be found locally, then there is no option but to buy elsewhere. The same goes with most things e..g. pubs, restaurants, swimming pools, churches, etc....
We DO have some great independent shops and where possible I will certainly shop there firstly, before venturing out of SE26, but SE26 (like most high streets) doesn't cater for all needs. And besides, variety is the spice of life....
I would love to see a day when more people OUTSIDE of SE26 would view Sydenham as a venue of choice to travel to (much as many posting here would see Crystal Palace, Dulwich, Greenwich etc, just to name some local towns)...
Certainly, for now, for books, groceries, pet items, and some other bits and bobs, I wouldn't go elsewhere but our dear high street...
We DO have some great independent shops and where possible I will certainly shop there firstly, before venturing out of SE26, but SE26 (like most high streets) doesn't cater for all needs. And besides, variety is the spice of life....
I would love to see a day when more people OUTSIDE of SE26 would view Sydenham as a venue of choice to travel to (much as many posting here would see Crystal Palace, Dulwich, Greenwich etc, just to name some local towns)...
Certainly, for now, for books, groceries, pet items, and some other bits and bobs, I wouldn't go elsewhere but our dear high street...
Re: 'What if'... two new exciting venues for SE26?
Bromley and Croydon are always going to be the likely place for me to shop because I hate Oxford Street and never seem to be able to get what I want at Westfield Stratford City but locally I'd find far more in any other local area to Sydenham, than in Sydenham. Penge, East Dulwich, Beckenham and Catford have more than I can get in Sydenham Road so I tend to just drive through Sydenham to get to these places. Even after work coming out of Sydenham station I would love to have a mooch around but there isn't much to look at, and if I wanted something from the 'cheaper' shops I'd probably just go to Poundland so I can expect a certain standard of quality and not pay £1.99 or £1.49 for the same item in Sydenham.Pally wrote:You can fro the shops I mentioned above ...Billings; Fresh and Fruity; Opticians by the bridge; key cutter and shoe menders in the high street.... and Atlanta dry cleaners is friendly and helpful tooparker wrote:What one can't get in Sydenham neither...Robin Orton wrote:I had a wonderful experience in Bromley M&S yesterday, doing my triennial clothes shop. The assistants showed me where everything was, suggested things I might like (but in a non-pushy way) and laughed at my jokes. I came out feeling twice the man. That's what one wants from the High Street which one can't get on line.
It is because shopping is so poor that I gun for better night life here. It would be great to see more of what we can see in Forest Hill, with the Golden Lion shifting towards this as well as the other developments it is this that feels will become more relevant to Sydenham than the shopping experience in the near future.
Re: 'What if'... two new exciting venues for SE26?
Lee
Re your point about on -line ; there is a difference between amazon ( hate them , don't use) and mail order , which of course need not be on-line .
More than keeping up with the times I think shopkeepers have to keep up with the people - that's why you have nice shops in say Corfe Castle and slightly crappy shops in New Cross ( generalising of course ).
There is of course a huge difference between buying on line and using a shop - to state the bleeding obvious if you only buy on line then the shops will be converted to flats in some kind of complex but ultimately doomed to failure way that Tim would enjoy telling us about - or all become bookies until even that exists only on line .
It's about a balance of course but lets not pretend the funky " on line " side of the business is not losing out to the big faceless ones - it's all too often presented as independent young men with beards and iPads living in the country/shoreditch/the beach but the reality is that the online market will tend to be eaten up by the powerful operators , as they do in the high street .
That's why I think a bit of support is due from us because the loss of the high street is everyone's loss , except those handful of misguided souls that say with pride "I buy everything on line " as though they invented the Internet - that type wouldn't notice the loss of trees , nice buildings, green spaces or pubs either .
A very good afternoon
Nigel
Re your point about on -line ; there is a difference between amazon ( hate them , don't use) and mail order , which of course need not be on-line .
More than keeping up with the times I think shopkeepers have to keep up with the people - that's why you have nice shops in say Corfe Castle and slightly crappy shops in New Cross ( generalising of course ).
There is of course a huge difference between buying on line and using a shop - to state the bleeding obvious if you only buy on line then the shops will be converted to flats in some kind of complex but ultimately doomed to failure way that Tim would enjoy telling us about - or all become bookies until even that exists only on line .
It's about a balance of course but lets not pretend the funky " on line " side of the business is not losing out to the big faceless ones - it's all too often presented as independent young men with beards and iPads living in the country/shoreditch/the beach but the reality is that the online market will tend to be eaten up by the powerful operators , as they do in the high street .
That's why I think a bit of support is due from us because the loss of the high street is everyone's loss , except those handful of misguided souls that say with pride "I buy everything on line " as though they invented the Internet - that type wouldn't notice the loss of trees , nice buildings, green spaces or pubs either .
A very good afternoon
Nigel
Re: 'What if'... two new exciting venues for SE26?
I agree and avoid on line . It has become more and more difficult to buy some products in a High Street.
When saying I support the High Street , ideally the local one but say Bromley and Croydon quite acceptable . After all they are shops employing localish people and paying local business taxes etc etc .
When saying I support the High Street , ideally the local one but say Bromley and Croydon quite acceptable . After all they are shops employing localish people and paying local business taxes etc etc .
Re: 'What if'... two new exciting venues for SE26?
It would be very easy to 'shop locally' if you lived in Bromley or Croydon as there is little you can't buy there. I think the idea of shopping locally is about supporting independents and smaller businesses, which surely wouldn't apply to most large town centres like Bromley and Croydon as they're largely home to the multi million pound retailers, the landlords are mostly owned by the shopping centre's and only a fraction by the local authority.
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FromCtoShiningC
- Posts: 127
- Joined: 26 Jul 2013 11:28
- Location: SE26
Re: 'What if'... two new exciting venues for SE26?
Returning to the original spirit of my post, it would be a wonderful thing if we could use some of our beautiful venues (currently lying idle) for something (possibly anything) to stop them being empty. It wouldn't have to be just retail.
The reason I tend not to spend too much time on the High Street is there is little to do apart from transactional shopping.... A Town centre should ideally be somewhere to wander/people watch/enjoy oneself, rather than simply functioning as somewhere to purchase things from shops.
The people in SE26 CAN support a much broader set of activities on our High Street (if they would ever be there) - I think businesses need to realise this and widen the net to who is catered for, as otherwise people will continue to drain away to other more (on paper) salubrious areas for their shopping and nightlife.......
That said, I'm very much a glass half full person, so here's to the future!
The reason I tend not to spend too much time on the High Street is there is little to do apart from transactional shopping.... A Town centre should ideally be somewhere to wander/people watch/enjoy oneself, rather than simply functioning as somewhere to purchase things from shops.
The people in SE26 CAN support a much broader set of activities on our High Street (if they would ever be there) - I think businesses need to realise this and widen the net to who is catered for, as otherwise people will continue to drain away to other more (on paper) salubrious areas for their shopping and nightlife.......
That said, I'm very much a glass half full person, so here's to the future!