
While the death of the high street may have been exaggerated, retailers still aren’t in the clear as many Brits have recently revealed what gets their goat about high street shopping.
Of course, Brits have been known to stand patiently in line, with it even having been suggested that in the London riots of 2011, looters adhered to the principle of “first come, first serve”. This was echoed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Richard Larson, who said: “I can’t even imagine any place else other than London that looters would be so civilised to queue up.” Even author George Mikes once said that “an Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.” And they certainly have practice at it, with 2014 research showing the average person in Britain spends one year, two weeks and one day of their life stuck in a shop. But it appears that Brits love standing in some queues more than others as 42 per cent of the 10,000 people surveyed by Sinso Retail Support claimed queues were their greatest annoyance. This came hand-in-hand with a hatred for small stores, as well as 34 per cent of Brits laying blame on their fellow shoppers for destroying the high street experience – you wouldn’t get far with an “ugly” display either.- The ten unhealthiest high streets in the UK
- British high streets could gain £7.8bn if stores harness mobile
- Holland & Barrett quietly bucks downward trend of the high street holistic approach
- Queues: 41.8 per cent;
- Misleading offers: 36.9 per cent;
- Cramped shops: 35.7 per cent;
- Aggressive salespeople: 35.3 per cent;
- Other customers: 33.5 per cent;
- Poorly informed staff: 25.1 per cent;
- Poor product selection/low stock levels: 25.1 per cent;
- Poor access: 19.5 per cent;
- Poor quality products: 17.5 per cent;
- Limited opening hours: 17.1 per cent;
- Mislabelled products: 15.5 per cent;
- Ugly displays: 10.6 per cent;
- Other: 6.4 per cent
Share this story