It's been a long time. When the pandemic first hit, I pretty much moved all my shopping online. I was also working from home which meant I wasn’t going into Glasgow city centre any more. A few weeks turned into a few months which turned into two years. On Saturday, I decided enough was enough.

We carefully planned what we should do. A wander round TK Maxx, a wee browse in Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street, a few things in the M&S across the road, maybe a mosey on down to Fopp, definitely a look around John Lewis, and finally a bit of lunch at a new Indian eatery we’d spotted on St Vincent Street. I have to say: I was really looking forward to it.

But oh, it was terrible and I think it was terrible for two reasons: first, the centre of Glasgow has changed profoundly in two years and the whole effect has left me feeling depressed if I’m honest. And secondly, I’ve changed – as a person and as a consumer and as a Glaswegian and lots of other people have changed too – albeit unwillingly because of the pandemic – and that is not a good sign for the centre of Glasgow and other places like it.

Let’s start with M&S. I used to visit the shop on Sauchiehall Street four or five times a week, mainly for food, but my visit at the weekend will be my last: the store is closing for good this week. On Saturday, the last of the stock had been spread out to make it look like there was more of it than there really was and the staff were getting ready to move to other branches (thankfully, there have been no compulsory redundancies). The atmosphere, I have to say, was pretty bleak, funereal even.

It was the same in the Savoy Centre next door, which was always cheap n cheerful n busy but not now - and we know the reasons don’t we? The high street was in decline before the pandemic but the last two years have sent it over the cliff edge. Sauchiehall Street also has problems that are specific to it and it alone: retail has effectively moved to the other side of town and the street is now “in the wrong place”.

I realise, of course, that I am part of the problem: I haven’t been physically into the shops for two years and may have lost the habit. The other problem is the cost: in Waterstones, I was looking for the new Ishiguro but it was £8.99 in the shop and £4.99 on Amazon and that difference is hard to ignore. I want to resist the pressure to go online, I really do. I want to support the High Street. But it’s hard to do it when something is pretty much double the price. I left empty-handed.

Talking of the price of things, what was also obvious during our wander round the town was the pressure on people’s finances and livelihoods. The empty shop units for example, quickly claimed as litter bins and toilets and canvases for the graffiti artists. Also, the number of beggars and homeless compared to two years ago was striking, but are we surprised? The Scottish Government’s most recent report on the subject showed the number of people with mental health problems assessed as homeless or at risk of homelessness has almost doubled in under a decade.

Those two problems – the struggle to afford to live and the decline of the High Street – are probably becoming more and more intertwined – in fact, retail sales showed a decline last month that’s probably driven by the pressure on people’s budgets. But I wonder if the solutions could be intertwined too? The experts often say that the answer to the decline of the High Street is to look at alternatives to shops and M&S on Sauchiehall Street could be a good example. Let’s face it: it will never be a big store again so why not use it for affordable accommodation? It would be good for the people who live there but it would be good for Sauchiehall Street too.

The other possible solution that the experts often cite is food and drink, but here too the long-term signs are not good. We went to Mowgli on St Vincent Street which was very nice and everything, but lunch for two – no starters or puddings and I was on tap water – cost over £45. The place was relatively busy but how sustainable are places like this in the long term? I know that, at 45 quid for lunch, we could afford it as an occasional treat only so the number of restaurants and cafes that can open in town must be limited and is probably over capacity already.

Other costs also have their effect on the town – the parking for the visit on Saturday cost £11 when it would have cost nothing to park at Braehead or Silverburn – but I also worry about whether we’re getting the shape of the town right. We could see that there are plenty of new buildings going up in Glasgow: the new hotel opposite Central Station, for example, and the Barclay’s complex on the other side of the river is almost complete. But the question is: are these kind of buildings really the way forward?

A lot of people think not – the architectural expert John R Hume for example who I spoke to recently. Mr Hume said that the problem with modern architecture in the centre of Glasgow is that it’s way too big for its setting. The city, he said, is a beauty scarred by decades of flawed development and it’s still happening.

Having spent the morning in the centre of Glasgow on Saturday for the first time in two years, I couldn’t agree with Mr Hume more. Glasgow’s beauty is scarred by many things: neglect by the council, large and ugly development, years of ignoring the need to find a different solution to empty shops and years and years of thinking we can squeeze more and more money out of consumers and businesses while the product they get back in return declines and atrophies.

I accept that I am part of the problem: I haven’t been into the centre of Glasgow for two years. And I accept that I could be part of the solution by going into town more often, along with people who might still, even now, be reluctant to go shopping because of fears about the virus. But I, and everyone else who isn’t going into town – we’re only human. A solution has to be found that works for how we are now.

I am not optimistic. Two years ago, I went to M&S almost every day and shopped mainly in physical shops. But I’ve changed and my habits have changed and the financial realities have changed and I’m not alone. It can never be two years ago again. We can never go back.

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