RIP: Blockbuster

WH Smith? M&S?

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Can be OK if combined with a decent Park 'n Ride scheme (we've used those in Cambridge, as well as Preston, Oxford & Brighton), particularly if you're over 60 and have a bus pass, which makes the whole thing effectively free.

No for nothing are they known as WH Smug.

Not if you are trying to get a 60" plasma screen home..

Assuming the bulk of in-store sales go to the over 60s, that's grand.

Maybe they won't go bust per se, but they might close some stores. I can see a really nasty viscous spiral forming, where shops closing leads to less footfall leads to shops closing ...

I think the question now is not "which chain will go", but "which shopping centre will go". At which point does the reduction in shops start to translate to a reduction in shoppers ?

My dear chap! You don't go shopping in Cambridge to actually *buy* things! You go there to be trendy, to be seen, and drink a latte.

Alternatively you just don't go at all..

That will depend upon whether the system is:

Free parking, pay for the bus

or

Paid for parking, free bus journey in return for parking receipt

tim

I thinking shoe shops, unless there's enough women about actually buying rather than wondow shopping.

Shoes are interesting, since the profit margin is probably quite high, and (unlike spectacles) you really need to try them on.

However, if someone can work out a way to translate foot measurements reliably and accurately into a web form, I would be very worried.

Tha last 3 pairs I've brought on-line. My vegitarian friend buy their shoes on-line

Even clarks sell shoes on-line I don;t see a problem

Why it's not rocket science

You need to overcome sentimental inertia ... we could have shopped for groceries online 10 years ago, but SWMBO really didn't like the idea. It was only noticing that quite a few of our neighbours did, and the Sister in Law starting it, and reporting it wasn't a problem before we tried it. Now there's no looking back. Ironically the fact we can now have shopping delivered means that weekends have become freed up, and we enjoy visiting local butchers for meat - something we didn't do before.

I have been buying my shoes on-line precisely because shoe shops do not stock them in my weird and wonderful size/shape. Now I know this company's sizing, it is easy.

But I'd be quite worried about 3D printers and similar devices if I were in the shoe trade. There again, maybe a 3D scanner would provide an excellent way of sending foot measurements over the internet? Thereby allowing shoes to be made very accurately to foot size and customers' other requirements.

OK, you can always find circumstances that don't fit a particular approach, but you can arrange to collect with your car during permitted hours.

We'll ignore how a 60" TV wouldn't fit into many people's cars. ;-)

Not that a city centre is likely to be your first port of call for such a purchase, but there are concessions - or permitted hours - for collecting goods.

In any event, not a problem for people who drive a Vauxhall Astra either. ;-)

The latter makes better sense, if only because it circumvents exploitation by cheapskates like me. ;-)

Sorry, didn't intend responding twice - newsreader crashed so I thought the other message had been lost.