Are empty High Streets the future?!!

    As more High Street shops and chains close down, due, as they claim, to online shopping habits, what does the future really look like?

     Experiments were done many years back where someone was moved into an empty house and had to survive without moving out of the door. It's possible of course. We buy our groceries online and have them delivered. Furniture is bought online and delivered, either flatpack or otherwise! Clothes and shoes are bought online. Technology - computers, phones, TV's, etc are carefully researched and then bought online. In fact everything can be bought online - except maybe a cup of coffee!

    So will the High Streets be devoid of shops? We won't need a physical M&S for either food or clothes. We won't need the supermarkets. We send e-cards so don't need Hallmark, Paperchase, Clintons, Cardies etc. We do still want to go out to have a coffee & carrot cake or light lunch, but usually while out 'shopping', not a special trip. What about Charity Shops? They're the kind of place we pop into while 'in town', how would they be able to survive without other shops around?

    For about three years I worked in South West London and lunch times were spent walking up and down Putney High Street - rather quickly I must admit, it wasn't my favourite past-time! So I have just gone down that street again, via Google maps - see, don't even have to go there! - to refresh my memory of those High Street shops:
   > Estate Agents - with Primelocation.co.uk or Zoopla.co.uk or Rightmove.co.uk, one doesn't even need a High Street office. See the property online, book a viewing, meet at the house!
   > Banks - when was the last time you went into a bank!? 
   > Hairdresser - ah, now there's one you can't do online!!
   > Paddy Power / Ladbrookes - online, even the Lottery can be played online.
   > Currys/PC World - all online.
   > Specsavers/Vision Express - they would probably be relocated to medical centres or hospitals, as would dentists.
   > Poundland - Ebay, Amazon, Freecycle, Gumtree, all just as cheap!
   > Even bicycles can be researched online and delivered to your door!
   > Blockbuster videos - with HMV just having gone under (CD's etc), I wonder if DVD shops will be next? 
   > Jessops, the camera shop, are also a recent casualty. 
   > Robert Dyas - although hardware and builders' merchants will probably last longer than most High Street shops, again one can buy all these things online and anyway the huge warehouse type places for builders are not usually on the High Street.
   > Employment Agencies like Brook Street, Reeds - we have Monster Jobs and the suchlike.
   > Flight Centre - book flights online and utilise the freely distributed airmiles!

    Is the future society going to be an isolated one with everyone huddled in front of their computers - in whatever form they may take? Are the streets going to be empty?!

I think it's time to support all those lone voices pleading for us to support the local traders! But perhaps the local traders should try and entice us by giving us as good a deal price-wise as we get online! Which means perhaps buying online should not be so attractive? And business taxes, rents and other overheads not be so exorbitant!?

It's not as simple as it sounds after all!  But we should all be at least a little more concerned and make a little more effort not to shop online, if at all possible, don't you think so?!!!