Bounce back or recalibrate? Reimagining the high street post Covid-19 and the role of surveyors in return to a ‘new normal’: Take on Tomorrow Presentation

Greenhalgh, Paul (2020) Bounce back or recalibrate? Reimagining the high street post Covid-19 and the role of surveyors in return to a ‘new normal’: Take on Tomorrow Presentation. In: Take on Tomorrow, 8 July 2020, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, online.

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Abstract

The UK leads the world in online shopping or e-commerce, with internet sales as a percentage of all retail sales now breaking 30% due to Covid-19 lockdown according to the Office of National Statistics. The seemingly inexorable shift from bricks to clicks is predicted, by some, to exceed 50% before 2030.
There is little dispute that high streets and shopping centres in the U.K. will need to adapt to survive. We know we have too much retail space, in the wrong format, in the wrong place, and many shopping centres both in and out of town in the UK were exhibiting systematic failure and waste of potentially productive assets, even before the fall-out from CV-19. The distinction between bricks and mortar and e-commerce is diminishing, through click and collect, multi and onmi-channel, show-rooming and, increasingly, for e-tailers to seek a presence on the high street. So how many physical shops does a retailer need in the digital age? Where should they be located? Will the high street ever recover? Can high streets bounce back or have we reached a tipping point?

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