Walking down the high-street of my small, Devon hometown, I am faced with nothing but chain stores and ‘To Let’ signs. To those of us who grew up in a small town, this is nothing new. For the past decade, any business owner who dares set up shop on our high-streets has faced closure within a few years, and that’s if they are lucky. Many of these shops nowadays barely last a few months unless they are cradled by a bigger company. Every time a new shop pops up, we say to ourselves, well that won’t last long. We’ve come to expect this failure. Where previously this issue has mostly only affected smaller towns, it has now become an inevitable threat to the once thriving high-streets of bigger cities. The death of high-street shopping is edging closer and closer and with ever-growing, convenient online shopping platforms, it is only a matter of time before our high-streets entirely kick the bucket - losing culture and originality with it.

In 2023, the BBC published an article with data showing that Cardiff has the second most vacant shops in the UK with the percentage being around 17% earlier this year. This data collected from the Welsh Retail Consortium also found that footfall decreased by 18.8% in early 2022 and when looking specifically at the city centre, the footfall had decreased by 33.2% in the same month. It is clear that even bustling city centres like Cardiff are beginning to face the same dramatic decline that small-town highstreets have been burdened with over the past decade.

With platforms such as prime delivery, in which you can order items online and have them at your door in less than 24 hours and in some cases like Argos, same day delivery. Online shopping has become a fast, convenient and often cheap alternative. While this convenience can be incredibly useful, especially for those who live particularly busy and hectic lives, it begs the question; is this convenience worth losing our high-streets to?

I spoke to a small group of Cardiff University students to assess their shopping habits and to ask their opinion. Firstly, I asked the group where they buy the majority of their clothing. Online shoppers made up 60.9% with only 39.1% buying them in-person. Secondly, I asked them where they would choose to shop if they were buying a gift, 60.9% once again said they would buy online and 39.1% said they would buy them in-person. I then asked them, hypothetically, if they had run out of something they needed urgently, where would they choose to get these necessities. This is where the results entirely switch up with only 17.4% buying these necessities online and 82.6% choosing to buy them in-person. It is clear from these results that when shopping in a non-urgent context, many of them would choose online shopping over in-person shopping. It is only when faced with an urgent situation that they then choose to shop in-person. This is likely because unless you are willing to pay a subscription or are willing to pay extra for delivery, those urgent items can sometimes take days to arrive and in an urgent context, you may not have days to wait. With these online platforms rapidly becoming quicker and more affordable however, it is only a matter of time before the matter of urgency and affordability is solved and when this issue is solved, what hope do our high-streets have left?

Lastly, I asked the group of students whether or not they believed that the convenience of online shopping was worth losing our high-streets. 78% of the group said flat out - no, they did not think that the convenience of online shopping was worth losing our highstreets. Only one student said yes, with the rest remaining mixed. One student stated that they believed online shopping should replace big chain stores but shouldn’t replace independent stores. Another student argued that while no longer necessary, high-street shopping has become more of a social activity that shouldn’t entirely be lost. Based on these results, it is clear that the general consensus is that while online-shopping can be a quick and affordable alternative, it is simply not worth losing our high-streets to. Instead, the general public must find a balance which allows the high-streets to continue thriving while using online-shopping where absolutely necessary. It is however important to note that those I asked were all young adults, had I asked members of an older generation, the results would likely be different.

While the increased use of online shopping has clearly had a dire impact on high-street businesses and those who rely on them for an income, we also have to consider the environmental impact of online shopping. When buying online you must consider the huge amount of CO2 that shipping packages all over the world produces. One study published on Earth.Org found that in 2020, the shipping of goods to and from the buyer and sender accounted for 37% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. The environmental impact is huge and this is without considering the amount of packaging that these online companies use when shipping. A 2017 study by Roland Geyer, Jenna R. Jambeck and Kara Lavender Law, published by Science Advances, found that only 9% of the world’s plastics are actually recycled. When considering the amount of packaging and plastics that these shipping companies use in conjunction with this horrifying statistic, the reality of online shopping and its environmental impact is entirely jarring. Choosing to shop with smaller local businesses greatly decreases both the CO2 emissions we produce and the packaging needed and, overall, hugely decreases the environmental impact of our shopping habits. At a time where the climate crisis is getting worse and worse at an alarming rate, it is vital that we consider the environmental impact of our everyday habits like shopping.

It is clear that we the public need to make a greater effort to support high-street shops, particularly smaller local businesses who may not have the additional support of being owned by a bigger business or chain. So, to conclude, next time you fancy a new pair of earrings or need a prop for your fancy dress social, don’t just whip out your phone and order it from a big company, as convenient as it may be. Instead, have a browse around your local high-street, especially smaller local businesses, and see what you can find. You may just find a favourite new piece of jewellery or clothing all while supporting a struggling business and helping to ease the climate crisis.