Isn't it greed that's closing the High Street?

The news of high street shops closing seems to be broadcast as a sort of lament. Our tough new internet world is simply too rough for these nice shops and the gentle and caring way they are looking

after you and me. That’s the inference.

Then we learn that these long-established firms have suffered a shocking fall in profit, down from X trillion to scarcely only a few multi-millions.

The announcements seem to emphasise the heartlessness of the web and the penny-pinching customers of the newish approach to shopping.

That’s a frowning tut-tut to you and me.

Sales in the billions

I mean, what about this report that the Next group’s sales slipped by 0.5% to £4.5bn - yes, billion, not million - while profits were down by 8.1% to £726.1m over the year.

Look at the names of some of the companies suffering - Toys R Us, Maplin, Prezzo and Carpetright, Mothercare. Presumably the first and major reason why web shopping beats High Street is price. Surely - it seems to me, anyway - it can’t be that the big store proprietors are too mean or too staid to lower their prices.

Or could it be that they have made such a killing from the public – you and me – that they aren’t prepared to endure less of the, well, what some may feel belongs to the area of rip-off of you and me. Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventure book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com