High Street
UK Shoppers name ten reasons why they hate the High Street
These include expensive parking, yobs, and dirty streets for starters which should give Councils and retailers cause for thought.
With town centres fighting back in the retail wars the thing they should listen too is the shoppers instead of hastily contrived quango's with little or no knowledge on public views.
High streets across Britain are struggling to survive because customers hate the experience of town centre shopping, a leading supplier of store fittings says.
The biggest gripe is shoppers dislike having to pay inflated prices for parking with no guarantee that they'll find the goods or services they require at the right price all brought about by short sighted town councillors wanting to make a quick 'buck'.
Additionally, customers are also put off by the increasingly scruffy nature of many town centres, with boarded-up shops and gangs of youths cited as reasons they'd rather stay at home and join the online shopping revolution.
"It's become a vicious circle," says Ian Ashworth from the survey "As more people abandon the high street, the more shops close and the worse the shopping experience.
"As professionals in the shop fitting industry, we're in a unique position to see what's happening, but it's not all bad news. The more imaginative, customer-centred outlets are going to survive, and it's encouraging to see them fighting back."
According to the survey, shoppers cited these ten factors as reasons they avoid town centre shopping:
• Parking too expensive
• Too many closed shops
• Loud in-store music
• Yobs and drunks hanging around
• Far easier to shop online
• Pushy sales assistants
• Having to queue
• Finding item offered cheaper the next day by the same store
• Difficulty returning items
• Dislike of using money-off vouchers
"As you can see, just as much of the problem lies with the shops' attitude as it does with the state of the economy," said Ian, "Often they don't realise how big a turn-off loud music or bewildering returns polices can be."
"The bottom line is that stores have to face up to the fact that they are forcing customers and their money out of their doors through poor staff training who offer poor service. If the store and its staff make people feel uncomfortable they won't return. It's as simple as that."
Yobs on the streetAccording to the suryey's shopfitDIRECT.co.uk the ease of shopping on the internet wasn't a significant factor in people's opinions on High Street shopping.
"People just want a decent first-hand personalised shopping experience in pleasant shops," said Ian. "That's not hard to deliver."
What do you think, does this sum up the problems of shopping on the high street