SCOTLAND'S high streets have been plunged into a fresh crisis as thousands of shoppers desert city centres due to bad weather and the ongoing recession.
The rise in online shopping is also being blamed for the dip in fortunes for retailers. Figures published today by the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) show the number of people visiting shopping areas dropped 8.2% between May and July – almost four times the fall across the UK as a whole.
In addition, more than one in 10 shopfronts in Scotland remains empty as the recession continues to bite, with high-street sites particularly vulnerable compared to out-of-town complexes and undercover shopping centres.
SRC economist Richard Lim said: "People are short of money. They are worried about jobs and not spending, which is hitting shoppers and shops. The fact town-centre shop vacancy rates are better than the UK average offers a bit of comfort, but Scotland still has one in 10 premises standing empty."
Apart from a Christmas boost in December, footfall has now been down in Scotland for 12 months in a row.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: The Scottish Government and our enterprise agencies are working to strengthen the economy with the powers we currently have and our economic strategy is delivering results."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article