The restaurant industry is in a somewhat more fortunate position than high street retail. Despite the rise of food delivery services (if food swooshed around on a bicycle and turning up cold is your thing) you still cannot replicate the act of breaking bread in a restaurant on the web.
The British high street is in rapid decline. Dave Lewis, the CEO of Tesco, reminded the government last week that if there is no immediate reform in the hefty business rates bills that bricks-and-mortar operators have to pay, then it will have actively led to the decline of the high street.
Surely restaurants, cafés, pubs and more leisure-focused operators can help save the high street and bring life back into declining town centres. However, as a client of mine reminded me over the weekend – one of the reasons they’re now opening in Paris instead of London is because there are no business rates there.
Have a good week.
Adam