The state of the high street: Newcastle

We take a look at how the high street has changed and ask if they’d still shop on the high street.

Transcript

00:00 Do you still shop on the High Street? Not particularly no because I think we're

00:05 finding there's an awful lot of shops have closed down and where I live in

00:09 South Shales and Jarrow a lot of them are just like Wilco's just gone this

00:13 week. Poundland went a few years ago, Argos has closed. Really they're getting

00:18 quite desolate. I do like High Street shopping because I like fresh produce,

00:23 bread, fruit, that type of thing but I'm afraid the shops aren't there to shop in

00:27 them now. Newcastle has changed over the 40-50 years I've lived here. You walk up

00:32 as I say the roads here and you see all of the closed shops. A lot of them are

00:37 specialists as well and I wonder where people are getting the money from in

00:41 such hard times. Do you still shop on the High Street? I do yeah. Why do you

00:46 still shop on the High Street? I've got my free bus pass so I come to the

00:51 town every day and it's just cheaper than going to these local shops. Do you still shop on the

00:58 High Street at the moment? Not a lot, it's mostly online. Why is that? I just find it

01:03 quite depressing coming in the town now because everything's half closed or

01:07 it's not as it was when I remember. Do you still shop on the High Street at the

01:11 moment? Sometimes I do yeah, yeah I do. Why do you still shop on the High Street?

01:16 Charity shops, love them. Bank. Well this is what we were saying, a lot of people

01:24 don't have any money, any spare money whatsoever. Mortgage rates are going up,

01:27 household bills are going up so really it's quite, people are struggling but

01:32 they seem to be out and about but if you look at the demographics here, if you

01:37 have a look, they're all people of mature people who are out shopping, similar age to

01:41 myself, very few young ones. The High Streets in Newcastle are forever changing with

01:48 more and more places opening and closing. Even going back to the time that we asked

01:53 people if they shopped on the High Street earlier in the year, Granger

01:56 Street has changed so much with different shops opening, different

01:59 restaurants and there's even some development going on behind me. But it

02:03 sounds like a lot of people in Newcastle still shop on the High Street. Many have

02:09 not lasted on the High Street as people now turn to online shopping. The latest

02:13 shop to announce their closure is Wilko's and the people of Newcastle seem

02:16 to be pretty gutted that it is closing. I generally go to Wilko's every Saturday, so it'll be a big miss.

02:24 What are your thoughts on Wilko closing as well because that's a big, could be a big miss.

02:28 I mean it's just people's jobs all over the place isn't it, it's everywhere and

02:33 it's just shattering, it's shattering people's worlds but this is the world

02:37 we live in at the moment, well this country anyway, it's going to the dogs I

02:40 believe. So don't know what the answer is but looks like nobody else does either so

02:44 here we are. What are your thoughts on Wilko closing down? I'm actually going

02:49 there now to pick up some stuff. I think it's because of other stores the same,

02:54 selling the same, are opening up all over the place and I think they're just one of

02:59 the same and I think it's just the weakest has gone down basically.