Having lived in the area for sometime, I got wondering about what types of shops are really missing in Surbiton, it's certainly not charity nor estate agents! Seem to have hair and beauty covered too. Not sure what I woud use? Is it really just amenities people want?
Shops lacking in Surbiton
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Comments
I am not sure it is missing that much, given that Kingston is under a mile away.
I must admit, I used to find Woolworths quite useful for bits and pieces that were hard to find anywhere else, but I tend to be able to get all of the essentials I need in Surbiton and go to Kingston for anything bigger.
I'd quite like a proper butcher in the town centre (I know there is a good one on Ewell Road but it is a bit of a walk!)
If Surbiton was car friendly and offered better parking it might attract more shoppers and thus more speciality shops such as a Butchers,Fishmongers etc.
I suspect the main problem though are exorbitant rents and rates that crucify small businesses and drive them to sell online.
Heh, there are too many cars in Surbiton as it is. Take the bus!
I walk as I only live in Berrylands,but you must move with the times ggbn.
Cars are here to stay whether powered by petrol or even worse electricity and small shops depend on quick pop in and buy customers such as the harassed school run mums etc.
LOL, I think the times are a-changing - but to a situation in which oil is no longer cheap and abundant and the motor cars simply become too expensive to run for anyone but the super-rich. The school run will have to become a walk or a cycle like it was in the old days. Or failing that, parents will have to come to terms with the fact that they can't have their cake and eat it and actually move to where they can be closer to the schools.
But anyway, once the oil becomes scarce, so will most products. So those small shops will disappear anyway I guess.
Not sure what your dig is re: electric cars... but we're going waaay off topic now...
If Electric cars become widespread we shall need even more power stations to generate the required electricity.
Now, with the moron Heuhne proposing no Nuclear Power stations just millions of hopelessly inefficient windmills, no new generating plants will be built, either coal,gas or nuclear so its Armageddon for the UK.
I don't know the details of the proposal but I'm fairly certain that nuclear power stations take at least a decade to build and they also utilise a resource that's finite on this planet. Renewables technologies are doubtlessly becoming more efficient and arguably we'd be much further ahead had proper investment gone into them over the last 20 years. It's a no-brainer that we need a combination of types of power generation but that long term energy has to come from renewable resources.
Combined with all of that, we have to become smarter at using it, i.e. use less. We are going to have to learn that consumption of all things cannot continue to rise inexorably, and it'll be more painful the longer we choose to bury our heads in the sand.
"Armageddon" as you call it will take one form or another, whether it's through over-population, lack of water, lack of food, lack of energy - we just need to prepare properly.
Quite so,my carbon footprint is embarrassingly small and my utility bills are minute so I guess I must be doing something right.
Totally agree. The good thing about Surbiton's selection of shops is that it is not designed to bring people in from miles away. Traffic has got worse over the years, and encouraging people to drive in will only make this worse.
With the exception of grocery shopping, those who are not within walking distance or a short bus ride away would surely be better served going to their local centre, be it Kingston, Tolworth, Thames Ditton etc.