HMV are actually having a bit of a renaissance, since they've recently cashed in on the vinyl revival and booming demand for pop culture items.

3 words: Car centric lifestyle Back in the day, you would walk/train/cycle/bus into the town. Now everyone drives, the aim of the game has changed.

Maplin was a huge loss. Often you are in a position of having to get something to work again and Maplin could help you out. For example at work a vendor wanted a cable for a projector, they just went across to Maplin and got one. Both Maplins in the London Square mile had to operate multiple tills just to keep up with the demand.

In Wales it’s not out of the ordinary to see a prison near a high street, Cardiff and Swansea have prisons in the city centre. Around Swansea prison there are signs saying ‘no drones’. But of course, that won’t do anything.

30 years ago there was shops like Dixons that sold overpriced fat back 24" TV's and VHS video recorders for around £400 each. And in those times it was old fashioned British customer service where grumpy shop assistants had moods like the weather. I am 46 years old and I love the availability of cheap consumer technology. Now I am living a nerd dream where I have a collection of retro computers and other stuff.

6:09 That building with the clock on it was Times Furnishing. It used to have the store's name on it with animated neon. You can see it in action in this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/lclpo9yUv6qmn3U.html (10:27, if it doesn't skip there automatically.) Sadly, that building is being mostly converted into flats too, with an extra floor being added on too. They've removed the clock (which hasn't worked for years) too. 7:58 This is now a furniture/tat shop. 12:08 Not only was this Woolworths, that building was built specifically for them. 13:40 That's not just any M&S clock, that's an M&S clock that hasn't show the correct time for quite a while and both sides say a different time. 13:51 That M&S was the women's one, and has closed. The one with the clock was the men's one. 15:27 Fremlin Walk was built where the Fremlin's Brewery used to be. They knocked it and several other old buildings down to build... that... thing. 18:52 This building was built for Burton. I think someone said there used to be a pool room upstairs? Yes, this building is now empty. 19:29 Yep, there are way too many of these around. You can see another one from there a few doors up from Burton. 20:03 The Royal Star Arcade, originally the Royal Star Hotel, which was a coaching inn. The lights are often buzzing in there. Sadly, they removed the bandstand. David Bowie played there before with The Manish Boys, and there's a blue plaque there. 22:32 Oh, they're planning on building apartments there too. 23:01 That old design was so much better than the horrible light-up blocks and no canopy... Yeah, that's not the original design. Just search for Stoneborough Centre and you'll find a photo of the original design. 23:21 I hate the makeover they did. The old ceiling and floor were fine and looked better. 26:18 They're giving the bus station a makeover too. It was meant to be finished in June... They're still working on it. Gone are the glass blocks, now you get coloured pillars and metal railings... Ugh.

The bus station has been revamped recently and its nowhere near as grotty as it used to be though there is a muriel just outside and that got vandalised within a few days of it being open

Just look at Rotherham town centre. Even Poundland has closed down now

M&S just annoucned today they are closing the store with the clock.

Great "Time Walk".....I've done this with my local area, luckily it's aged better than Maidstone, but everywhere history is great via Street View!

RIP Blockbuster, Woolworths and BHS (as physical shops)

What’s happening to town centers in the UK is sort of like the dead mall crisis over here in the US, These huge and ugly shopping malls aren’t doing well because of many different reasons (tacky shops, bad decisions, anchor stores like macys/Dillards/JCPenny/Nordstrom/other department stores leaving, and also COVID as well as the main reason being that there are too many of them that are too close to each other for example, there are TWO BIG WESTFIELD malls that are only 7-8 miles apart and are both off the same highway meaning they are litterally like a 10-20 minute drive between the malls) most people have migrated to those big shops and surprisingly town centers.

Sauchiehall street in Glasgow and Princess Street in Edinburgh have been hit hard as well. They just have crappy tourist shops, empty units and overpriced small shops

18:53 Arcadia, they also owned Debenhams.

It's really a shame that retail on the high street is declining. It's nice to be able to shop and have a look at things in person before buying them. This isn't gonna last long due to online shopping getting really big.

I quite liked department stores and computer stores such as Dixons. As a kid I regularly visited video rental stores, kind of have nostalgic memories to them. I think one of the problems is that there so many chain stores that are more of the same dominating the town centers. It’s not much different in the Netherlands, lots of vacant stores and brands that have gone the past 20 years.

5:55 a sue rider shop took place in a carphone were house that didnt do to well near me thinking theyd not last long they seem to still be oddly still active

It’s sad, since even in the 90s shopping was going slightly downhill.. a big department store in my town closed in 1998, and that was around for 120 years! It was one of the only two locations in the uk, the other one was in Oxford I believe.

I think a big contributor to the death of the UK high street is the growth of big shopping centres outside of town (or in the suburbs) anchored by a big supermarket.

somerfields ? i used to have a somerfields (now waitrose) but it was a very small one but it did have lifts it only went 1 floor up tho so the shop is downstairs and the tiny car park is upstairs

Lmao at your colourful description 😊❤️

oh yeah this is also happening where i live in southend lots of the shops in the high street are closed

Debenhams is closing, gap is closing. Whats next Mc donalds

I am a teen but know my stuff about business, I am very interested in your explorations and information. I also like department stores. Thank you for your channel.

Lived in Maidstone for the majority of my life. When i was a kid in the 2000s, i remember everything so fondly and i haven't been in about four years and it was a SHITHOLE.

We had a scare when Myer temporarily shut quite a few of their stores due to COVID-19, leading many to believe the end was nigh. Thankfully they came back; I wonder what about Australia is more conducive to high end department stores surviving.

Do Chatham

Interesting video, Beno!

Places I know that shutdown: M&S, Debenhams, BHS

Excellent video, and very interesting.

This reminds me of Stockholm City's decline of BIG CORPORATIONS office space. Back in the 1950's, the entire city center was utterly destroyed and redeveloped, replacing beautiful city architecture to make room for the new fancy metro and the BIG CORPORATIONS office complexes. Now, 70 years later and the BIG CORPORATIONS are moving out to Kista and Solna as the rent are way too expensive and neighbouring communes and office zoning competes to have the BIG CORPORATIONS headquartered there. The empty office spaces in the city center has been converted to hotels or are rented out to small business.

My local is actually owned by Morrisons. It’s a bit like their version of a Tesco Express or Sainsbury’s local.

It happened in Bangor Northern Ireland it has absolutely nothing that town has had a bloody awful decline

yea offices especially bank offices not needed as the banks dont have to pay rent as employees at home working from now on it seems.

14:21 Speaking of multiple shops my local boots has 3 stores in the same high street boots 1 pharmacy boots 2 makeup health and beauty and boots 3 optisions

What keyboard switches do you have?

I do expect that the city center streets that have been redesigned to be pedestrian only are gonna be turned back into normal streets cause, well, every shop there will be a shitshow. Eh, what do you expect when online shops exist, like for example in the United States, shopping centers die and have almost no shops because of online shopping. It's interesting to see that in England shopping centers still survive, and in my home country (Romania), shopping centers are very popular from some miracle. I guess we will have to wait and see what will happen to Maidstone's city center 🤷.

I’m so last but it’s fun to see my own town

When ever I go to Matalan I feel like those Otis lifts are still there but they have turned into a staff area. But they are probably gone

Rents, Business Rates, and Parking prices... the free market economy alone is not going to solve the problems here. In my opinion rents and rates need to be charged based on the profits the actual shops make. Unfortunately, that level of control is a dirty word. However, the free market alone cannot solve the problems.

Totally Agree Beno

Interesting stuff.

I agree with you Beno. I think its so sad that retail industry is failing and so many high street shops are closing because of Covid-19 and Brexit. As most people blame Brexit for it. But there's more than that. Even the government are also to be blamed.

Maplin went bankrupt but they are now back but unfortunately they are now online only

Funny how Wilko has “disappeared” and is meant to return after December

Should try bargate Street in Southampton a lot changed and around Central Southampton

YAY MAIDSTONE

town centres need more than shops to survive but even the leisure activities like restaurants & cinemas are pushed out & with it most retail parks are a nightmare to get too as a non driver as the car is king, bus users are 2nd fiddle, although given the way some in the community treat their assets no wonder we are all separating there is no community spirit anymore,

Hi do you still work on skyscrapersim?

Interesting video, some good insights. Have you ever, or would you ever do a Q&A/ Ask Me Anything about you, your videos, your interests and how you got started?

As a gerodie I was glad when Mike Ashley sold Newcastle United football club because he ran the club down and it was embarrassing to support them because of how much of a shithole football club he made it and I only buy my trainers at Sports Direct because they sell Nike air max which I need because if I need to walk I walk for 1 hour

I live in Maidstone

Block buster still exists in America in bend Oregon

National lockdowns should never have went ahead, it’s been bad for peoples mental health. The elderly and vulnerable should have been the ones who were shielding

Where Primark is used to be the Littlewoods store before it was a Primark and yes it is not big enough that one They closed one of the Marks and Spencer's when the new one opened in Eclipse Park near the out of town Next/Next Home keeping the one with the food hall open, now they are closing the one with the food hall on January 8th and consolidating to the one store in Eclipse Park which is sad. Also thee used to be a Next in Fremlin Walk where River Island is and they closed that one when the big one in Eclipse Park opened which surprised me as I thought they might have closed the Next in the Chequers Centre because it's tiny Maidstone might be "failing" in your opinion but I think it's doing slightly better than Canterbury which seems to be doing even worse IMHO

Swindon beconing very like this its sad to see a once good town go to wast swindon town center looks a dump latly thay cant even keep on to of pulling the weeds out the pavements

Hey Austin this is guys If CEX ever goes belly up, good fucking riddance, overpriced games, consoles, graphics cards and phones, that place is a major scam sometimes

First