Maidstone businessman fears rise in online shopping could close his market

KentOnline / KMTV

Despite hundreds visiting the high street every day, traditional business owners say shoppers are turning to online shopping which is leading to stores shutting their doors.

Transcript

00:00 Lunchtime in Maidstone. The High Street is full of hundreds out to meet their

00:06 friends, to get some food or perhaps just do a bit of window shopping. But one

00:11 business says although it looks busy most residents out and about are

00:14 actually just looking to do some window shopping and will actually end up buying

00:17 what they want online instead of from the High Street. Chris has earned a living

00:22 on the High Street for close to 30 years selling fresh fruit and veg. The change

00:27 in consumer shopping habits has left him concerned for the future of his business.

00:33 You get a lot of people in Maidstone now but not a lot of shoppers. A lot of

00:38 them are using the shops as window shopping to then go home and order online.

00:42 People coming out for a day out a lot of the time. Don't get me wrong, there's obviously

00:45 still people shopping but not like it used to be. The internet has taken a lot

00:50 of the shopping away from town centres. Obviously very detrimental for me as

00:54 well because less and less people coming into town. All these things are having a

00:58 knock-on and there's so many knock-ons everything can take. Another local man

01:03 who helped design Fremlin Walk says it's the creation of Eclipse Park, a nearby

01:08 retail park, that led big names like M&S and Next to move out of the town. It also

01:14 lost its Zara last month. It's set to be replaced soon. He fears other household

01:20 names will follow suit and soon leave the town. If a retailer can move out of

01:25 town, and they are anchor stores because that's why they're attracting them out of

01:29 town, into a cheaper box, their costs go down, why wouldn't you do that as a

01:35 retailer? But the council should never allow this to happen. They should

01:39 never allow. They've destroyed their own town centre by giving planning permission.

01:42 The leader of Maidstone Borough Council said traditional shopping streets are

01:46 under pressure and we anticipate further consolidation of these areas. Out-of-town

01:52 areas such as Eclipse are another factor and whilst we would perhaps have preferred

01:56 the two retailers there to have remained in the town centre, we have to acknowledge

02:00 that their business model is designed to meet their customers needs and is

02:04 different. They're also developing a town centre strategy aiming to take into

02:08 account trends over the coming decade. In other parts of the high street, stores

02:13 are left with shutters down and empty shelves and little talk of what it's to

02:17 be replaced with. It is horrible when you walk past like Dorothy Perkins right

02:22 next to us and it's all shut up and I say that it seems to be more vape shops

02:27 than anything now in Maidstone which is not very good really for the younger

02:32 generation. It's lovely and very active. I won't use the word active because

02:38 compared to other places I've seen, some high streets like in Chatham is a little

02:43 bit going down but this they've maintained their pace since I came here

02:47 and improving even. I don't even come to town anymore to shop if I want anything

02:52 I buy online now. As the habits of shoppers change, local businesses are

02:56 calling for consumers to think closely about where they're putting their money

03:00 and they're hoping they won't be one of many who've had to close their doors.

03:04 Sophia Aitken for KMTV in Maidstone.

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