They can open shops as many hours as they want. All that will happen is that the money that is available to spend will be spread over more hours, making the stores more expensive to run for similar income levels. Having longer opening hours does not generate any extra disposable money. If supermarkets closed two days a week there would be panic, people seem to be unable to cope with shopping a few days in advance. It’s not that long since Morrison’s floated the idea of closing Christmas day and boxing day. The amount of complaints it created was surprising.
With shops now being spread around various ‘‘out of town’’ or town outskirts, and people going from one to the other it encourages many extra shortish car journeys. Most of which are hardly necessary.
Feeling…
Pretty scared that the whole conciet of London as a thing has been revealed. The idea that a company needs expensive offices in London has been shown to be untrue. I’ve always seen through this conceit, now a lot of others have too.
A lot of companies were scared to let people wfh for productivity fears.
In my current job, we do control systems to make buildings smarter. Mainly in the office fit out market in London. I think a lot more offside blocks will be converted to flats over the next few years thanks to this.
I’m looking for new opportunities 
The internet has sculpted the local high streets over the last decade or so. Hairdressers, Coffee Shops, Bakeries seem viable…
Coincidentally their offerings are things you can’t buy on the net (OK some bakeries offer delivery) The proliferation of charity shops is down to cheep rent (Because many traditional businesses have been usurped by supermarkets / internet)
Supermarket online shopping is obviously ‘up’ (Through nessesity the elderly, last adopting, segment of the market have been forced online thanks to Covid) and may not return to previous levels as people have become accustomed to home delivery.
The convenience of shop opening hours is one thing but if you can do the shopping whilst taking a shit with your bat man pajamas round your ankles whilst listening to the radio even the megastores will be viewed as less convenient.
Once Amazon get their same day delivery together and people feel the pinch of the economy imploding the above will be accelerated.
Fortunately the Mr. MWS Coffee/barber/topless/petshop/Tattoo/ pasty house will be there when people need it.
Franchise options available.
Not sure how long for. Working in costa doesn’t pay enough to eat/drink in Costa (excluding whatever staff discount they may get), and other than a few rarities, you won’t get rich baking and cutting hair.
And as soon as they can the big chains will be pushing hard to bin the minimum wage again and taking on immigrants who’ll work for FA.
We don’t have anything approaching a sustainable economy and I think that will become very obvious when people emerge and see the wreckage
Our nearest town is Tenterden, a really pretty old place which has been spoilt in my view by the local landlords who own most of the high street. They are making the rents high to hopefully attract more of the same brands you see everywhere else ; Specsavers, Costa, Cafe Nero, Fat Face (!) , etc, etc. Consequently it’s as dull as dishwater. A lot of the shops are empty because the landlords are playing a long game and they have squeezed the independents out.
I was down there the other day and it is now a ghost town. There were a couple of little places that had started recently that now seem to be abandoned, as well as the usual empty shops. It struck me; how long will it be that the crappy chains move out as well, as these corporations withdraw and concentrate on more profitable areas?
Such businesses are canny, the fat face rice paddy / potato nursery is probably already in the planning.
Popped into Chesterfield yesterday morning to do bank things we could only do in branch…
Chesterfield is a ghost town, very bizarre feeling, a lot of permanently closed shops it seems 
, other than the usual covid closures.
I think most places are (unsurprisingly) ghost towns ATM. Hatfield town is not the prettiest of places, but over the last year or so it has been slowly coming alive again. Many of the units have been refurbished and have new tenants. Quite a few of the units were demolished to make way for new housing. Shops have sprung up to support these new communities. There are still charity shops, only one bank is left.
Just prior to lockdown, the town centre was busy, bustling, the twice weekly market was busy. I genuinely saw some shoots of regeneration and recovery in a place that was in reality a new town wasteland. Whether this continues to be sustainable post lockdown, who knows… I was pleased to see a queue snaking round the corner of Simmons the baker the other day, especially when there is an Asda right next.
We live quite close to a run of shop that is unusual in Liverpool (and a lot of the UK now) as there is a proper Butcher, a fishmonger, a greengrocer and a brilliant bakery/pie/cakeshop all within about 50 meters of each other. OK, there are loads of charity shops and a bunch of bookies, but throw in a Home Bargain and an Iceland and we do not need to go to the likes ofTesco, Asda or Aldi ever. I am pleased to report that the butcher, baker, fish shop and grocer are all coining it in and will more than survive. I hope that the increased footfall means that our local restaurants will survive (there is an epic Thai that has built a huge takeaway business and a smokehouse that I will really miss if it doesn’t reopen). The majority of my neighbours now shop with a granny trolley on the Allerton Road in preference to the Tesco. Long may this continue.
The row of shops near us (butchers, newsagents, deli, dry cleaners) is always busy.
And West Norwood (the nearest high street) is a madhouse. As is Herne Hill.
I love the kind of ‘urban village’ atmosphere and sense of community that grows up around these proper shopping strips. We could do with a good deli here.
I wish we had a decent butcher. As for a fish monger, we now have a lorry in the twice weekly market, run by an old and well established family fishmonger from a town a few miles away.
We have a range of small shops serving local communities, all of whom sell fruit and veg…yet no butcher.
The butcher’s shop is brilliant. I used to run into Ken Dodd in there. His attempts to buy lamb chops and sausages were often hilarious.
The butcher used to be crap. But then the chipper next door shut down, somebody bought up both plots, knocked through and went a little bit (but not too much) upmarket.
It’s now really good and very popular.
We also have these boyos down the road
(good but v expensive. Jay Rayner always seems to be in there when I go)
And an absurd hipster place with a giant perma-queue in East Dulwich.
did he get you with a tickling stick?
All of the little supermarkets; Chinese, S. Asian, Polish, African sell meat (frozen), i suspect that a butcher means very different things to each community, and a butcher made sustainable by supporting all communities is difficult to achieve.
Where my parents live in N London, there are 4 possibly 5 butchers I can think of, all serving communities of different heritage, my mum still goes to the one serving her community, but would never dream of going to one of the others. But in that part of London, the communities are large, so multiple suppliers are sustainable.
There is a local butcher on the other side of town that was well known for not being that great. But I’ve just looked at their website and matters might have improved…I might go and check it out.
???
Wednesday tomorrow, and I’m feeling rather odd about it all to be honest.
Don’t be daft - everyone knows he only eats locally mined jam butties 
Affluence helps.
They sell cheese, oil etc.