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hunkalove Sadly there is another way to wreck a town-centre, and that is by encouraging the supermarkets to collect on large trading-estates well outside the town.
The overall result is much the same - the central shops might not disappear completely but many of those left become charity-shops, "vape" dealers, betting-companies, US-owned chain cafeterias and the like.
London's world-famous Oxford Street - the main shopping-street through the city centre - was going that way. A lot of shop units ended up as garish, American-style, "candy stores" in dubious tax-avoidance schemes, but although selling sweets, I think their main trade was high-strength, highly-addictive nicotine products. The street became reported as sinking into tacky mediocrity, deterring visitors, risking a spiral of decline; but I understand London has fought back and thrown most of the dodgy businesses out.
Now though even the supermarkets are under attack - from the few, giant US- and China- based, Internet retailers like Amazon!
