The Death (and Rebirth) of the High Street
With the recent closure of Debenhams and Topshop, brick and mortar retail seems to be in the death throes of its current iteration. This century we’ve seen substantial declines across Britain’s high streets, due to pressures initially from shopping centres and then from online retail. Now it appears that some of the stalwarts of the old guard have been beaten out of the picture. Could this pave the way for a return to a more communitarian high street?
My hope is that big-biz online retail proliferates so much that smallish brick and mortar stores become untenable for large conglomerates. We’re seeing the seeds of this planted, with Amazon’s expansion into the groceries market in the US, the advent of low-cost online fashion empires like Boohoo, and the move towards e-commerce necessitated by business-crushing lockdowns in the U.K.
Imagine for a moment that high street commercial units have their demand bludgeoned so heavily by online pressure that their rents become affordable for small businesses. If major business interests such as supermarkets and banks can be pushed entirely into the virtual domain, then a broad avenue of possibility opens up to pug cafés, patisseries, pseudo-Jewish delis, big and tall tailors, and second-hand science bookshops.
Edmund Burke, the father of contemporary conservative philosophy, opined that “little platoons”, or small local communities, are the glue that hold societies together. When we are involved with the lives of our neighbours, rather than just existing alongside them, we become accountable to one another. This means that we are more likely to act in the interests of our wider community rather than just those of our family, or more narrowly ourselves.
Clusters of small businesses catalyse the formation of new “platoons” and local economies. This kind of cluster fosters collaboration over competition, as businesses see each other as entrepreneurial allies rather than corporate antagonists.
The main obstacle here is posed by chain restaurants, cafes, and the like. Even without supermarkets, banks, and high street fashion stores, menswear boutiques and artisan bakeries will struggle to compete with the Wagamamas and Costas of the world.
It is up to us, then, to reform our personal economies, put our money where our mouth is, and support the kind of economy we would like to see in the world. Let’s signal to the market that this hopelessly optimistic future is actually possible.
P.S. an extra thought — what about tax relief for landlords who choose to rent to small businesses over big? Institutional support is a tricky one but could be crucial to this actually working.
