My own belief is that the High St as we knew it is finished. Those that survive will move online and utilise out of town parks. I actually blame the councils for a lot of this with their unfair rent and rate demands. Ironically, the very same councils are now letting charity shops have premises at little or no cost purely to keep footfall going on the High St.

Rather a long while back myself and a couple of friends looked at taking a shop in Coventry city centre. The costs were horrendous. We abandoned our idea pretty quickly and the particular shop we were interested in remained empty for years.

[quote="rebbonk"]There appears to be a lot of murkiness behind EWM going under, but I really don't think we can put it down to Brexit.

Many companies are blaming Brexit or covid for their demise, when if you look at their finances they were in trouble long before. I think brexit and covid are often being used as convenient scapegoats for managerial incompetence and short-sighted, short-term, thinking.[/quote]


There is truth in what you say ,Rebbonk, but there is a worrying amount of shops closing, I tend to think that Brexit was the final tipping point for some of these firms that have shut shop. Very sad situation indeed.
When I first came to Leamington about 15 years ago, it was fabulous, I loved the variety of shops.
I do hope the local economy will boom again soon.

.

There appears to be a lot of murkiness behind EWM going under, but I really don't think we can put it down to Brexit.

Many companies are blaming Brexit or covid for their demise, when if you look at their finances they were in trouble long before. I think brexit and covid are often being used as convenient scapegoats for managerial incompetence and short-sighted, short-term, thinking.

[quote="Lex"]I think the whole business has gone to the wall. Stratford's branches have gone as well.[/quote]



That is so disappointing. Such a great shame, because visitors to Stratford loved those shops.

I think the whole business has gone to the wall. Stratford's branches have gone as well.

It looks like Leamington has now lost the Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop.
I remember being really happy to see one open In Leam, not it has gone.
:(