The high streets have been dying since the previous recession...
Which we haven't recovered from yet, which is why the timing on this referendum was rubbish.
But, believe me, the last 2 years have be far worse than the previous 8 by some margin. UK consumers have gotten used to low mortgage payments, and are running scared at them returning to the "norm" of around 5% base rate... ...and are realising that a no deal exit will like push them up to the double figures last seen nearly 30yrs ago.
And online shopping is *NOT* the reason, and is not booming like the mainstream media would have you believe. With few exceptions, it has simply taken over from the old mail order and catalogue techniques. And virtually nobody is making any money from online shopping, certainly not enough to cover the loses in their bricks and mortar. Even Tesco have thrown in the towel a few months ago... ...and with their buying power, if they can't make it work...
. And that is the reason none of the bricks and mortar type places have decided not to close traditional stores and go online only. The dotcom boom and spectacular crash that quickly followed is still relatively fresh in many memories.
The online that is flourishing is the far east Amazon-esque type online outlets.
Amazon have traditionally done well, being one of the first, slick, efficient online retailers, which set the scen for how online shopping should work. However, it has become unstuck by its own size (if ever you have had the displeasure of having to actually talk to them over lost packages, you'd know what I mean), and is surviving by having a lot of unique items and subsription (or virtual subscription) such as the excellent Kindle reader and so-so Prime video, rather than traditional sales... ...and a lot of its money from traditional sales comes from the god awful Amazon Marketplace.