[jdietrich]

It's a symptom of the decline of high street retail and high long-term vacancy rates for many retail properties.

For commercial landlords, a charity shop paying little or no rent is usually better than no tenant at all - the property is less likely to be smashed up by vandals, burned down by arsonists or occupied by squatters if it's occupied. The landlord would be liable for business rates after three months of vacancy, but not if there's a tenant.

Charity shops get an 80% relief on business rates, pay nothing for their stock and get some or all of their staff for free; obviously this allows them to operate profitably in circumstances where no normal business could.

As I understand it, the landlords are holding on mostly in the hope that their properties will either be compulsorily purchased as part of a regeneration scheme, or granted planning permission for redevelopment as housing.

[hakfoo]

Where I am in the US, it seems like there are two endgames for the "anchor" of a strip mall.

Typically this starts as a grocery store, but sometimes it will be some other larger retailer that collapsed (see Bed, Bath and Beyond or now Jo-Ann Fabrics)

They either become a Goodwill or they become a gym.

It's interesting that they are almost never subdivided-- they'd rather have a single 2000 square metre shop, presumably paying a concession "better than leaving it empty" rent, than to modify the layout of the building to open it up as two or four smaller shops.

[Suppafly]

>It's a symptom of the decline of high street retail and high long-term vacancy rates for many retail properties.

Do you guys not have pawn shops, smoke shops, and check cashing shops over there?

[HansardExpert]

Not so much Check-cashing (although they do exist in some parts of larger cities) and I haven't seen a pawn-shop outside of London in ... forever.

We do have Vapeshops (before that 'Legal High' shops) but apart from those Charity Shops you get a lot of 'Gambling' (aka 'High Street Bookies') chains in those areas where the footfall has gone away to the out of town supermarkets or where the landlords are sitting on what they hope will get turned into flats so they can make a profit.

What I would say regarding Oxfam, at least in the area I live is that the book selection is suprisingly good, both in Oxford and Chipping Norton's where the second hand book selection has given me some great reads and I have seen them refuse the 'Celeb/Sports star' biogs and bundles of Harry Potter cast offs from people while waiting to be served.

[samarthr1]

Wait, why do you need a shop to cash a cheque? Isnt that one of the last few things you go to a bank for?

Also, how do you cash a cheque without validating signature (from whichever bank)?

Here in India atleast, cheques are cashed only at banks, and often are a/c payee only (no cash disbursed, only account transfer). They get truncated at the bank (basically scanned), and cleared overnight as a part of the CTS (a NPCI product).

However DDs (Demand Drafts) are your equivalent of cashiers cheques, and can be redeemed at par instantly, anywhere (or paid into an account).

[globular-toast]

You go to the bank to deposit a cheque into your account. But you need to have an account. Cheque cashing services will essentially buy the cheque from you for a bit less than the value written on it. It's mainly for people without bank accounts.

[Suppafly]

>Wait, why do you need a shop to cash a cheque? Isnt that one of the last few things you go to a bank for?

In the US, a lot of poor people (and illegal immigrants) are unbanked. But also check cashing places also tend to do title loans (turn over your car title for a temporary loan) and other sorts of "fast cash" loans with usurious rates. They and pawn shops are they type of businesses that show up in areas of town where the cost of retail spaces drop.

[Macha]

Nah, the other big tenant of dying shopping streets is the phone repair/resale shop, which never seem to have remotely enough customers to justify their quantity.

[vintermann]

In my touristy experience, it's more gambling shops, payday loan shops (surpised UK had these) and real estate agents.

[fidotron]

Yeah the bookmakers (gambling shops) are a huge industry in the UK.

A surprising amount of the UK tech industry has history connected to the gambling sector one way or another, be it sports tv, online related, making parts for pub slot machines etc.