Shops in general have been struggling. It is unrelated to COVID. Rent and rates are too high. Simple as that. My dad was talking to our local hairdresser, and

Shops in general have been struggling. It is unrelated to COVID. Rent and rates are too high. Simple as that. My dad was talking to our local hairdresser, and she explained the huge costs involved for such a simple business. Water rates were well beyond what she considered reasonable. She closed her business (before COVID), which is sad. Rent is, presumably, something fixable by the market (although there's scant evidence of it so far). Rates, not so much. When I explained online that business rates needed to come down I was greeted by the response "but councils NEED that money". It didn't seem to occur to the woman online that business people make business decisions. If it's not profitable to run a business, then they won't. Businesses are not geese that lay golden eggs in the quantities required. You throttle their necks too hard, then they die. Then you get nothing. There's no doubt, of course, that Amazon has had a huge effect. I can get things that would be very difficult to get otherwise.