And again, with the Gold Brothers...

[Jock Scot]

I can see all sides in this discussion and it is not an uncommon and world wide problem in these stringent times.. However having just walked down the High Street in Fort William, then I have to say the ever increasing number of empty shops and even some of the numerous "mountain ware" shops are now closing down. Too many, far too many for the good of a community. I see the same signs, although not yet on the same scale, in Inverness, Elgin, Nairn and other towns too. Empty shops help no one, least of all the local community, so I suspect that any local council will be very happy for shops to be open for business. Short termism(is that a word?) perhaps and maybe in the long run actions of today may be regretted, in the meantime some of us may squirm, but at least there is some cash coming in to help pay some of the bills. Morals, likes and dislikes can be expensive at times, particularly so for the affected local communities.

[Phil]

However having just walked down the High Street in Fort William, then I have to say the ever increasing number of empty shops and even some of the numerous "mountain ware" shops are now closing down. Too many, far too many for the good of a community. I see the same signs, although not yet on the same scale, in Inverness, Elgin, Nairn and other towns too. Empty shops help no one

Not to mention the profusion of charity shops which must deprive shops of much business. I also wonder how much internet shopping affects High Street shops who cannot compete on price. Even supermarkets are now encouraging on-line shopping and home delivery.

[Jock Scot]

Quite so Phil, Charity shops are springing up all over the High Street, but not enough to fill the gaps. I too wondered about the effect of internet shopping. The thought crossed my mind that it would only need the addition of tumbleweed blowing down the street, that it would look more like a Holywood version of Tombstone on a bad day.

[McClef]

Shop closures are are a sad fact in many towns and cities in the UK and indeed charity shops and pound shops proliferate.

Certain streets in capital cities though tend to have a much better take up of shop space, especially in tourist hot spots. One of these is most definitely the Royal Mile. If it were anything like what has been described elsewhere then Gold Bros would not be interested.

[Tobus]

Just so y'all don't get the feeling that this is only a UK problem, we have the exact same thing going on here. As I mentioned previously, my small town is a tourist town. There was a hotel right in the middle of town on Main Street that was not doing very well (mostly due to poor management and lack of upkeep). One night they had a mysterious fire that burned it to the ground. The well-insured owner then decided to take his settlement money and leave town. Guess what it's being replaced with? A dollar store. And it was our own city council that voted to do that, despite the fact that a new hotel developer wanted to put a nice new hotel there. It's almost as if they don't want tourists to come to our town, despite the fact that our economy is dependent on tourism. That decision boggles my mind, and the minds of all the citizens here.

Anyway, what you are describing is a common thing all over the place. It's the curse of a tourism industry. But you can't have it both ways. If your local small businesses are not able to stay afloat on tourist trade, then you're going to have to choose between annoying tartan tat shops or empty streets with tumbleweeds.

Everyone wants to have a booming tourist industry that supports small local business owners. But when those small businesses just aren't making it, the choices that are left aren't very appealing. You have to go with the one that continues to bring money into town, even if it means holding your nose to do so.