The Covid 19 pandemic has affected us all and many changes arising out of the pandemic may have a long lasting effect upon our collective behaviours.
I had never used a debit card as a contactless transaction before the supermarkets wanted to avoid cash and now I would never think of not doing so. Online shopping has grown hugely and even the supermarkets who operated their delivery services at a loss must now look forward to being able to do so profitably with the much larger customer base. Large events create societal change.
On a lesser scale the high street bookmakers, who had become little more than glorified amusement arcades, face a much more difficult future. The restrictions in stake to £2 is a good thing for the customers and it had an immediate effect on the bookmakers. The customers who migrated to online during the lockdown may be customers who never return given they now have convenience, higher RTP's and access to promotions never offered in a bricks and mortar bookmaker.
The death of these sites appears to be inevitable unless they can reinvent themselves or morph into something more friendly. The companies that own them may themselves have to concentrate totally on the online digital offerings of risk being sidelined permanently.
Should we lament their passing or is it just the natural order of things that they will just become outdated and wither and die to be replaced by yet more artisan coffee shops and estate agents?
You're pumping out some great threads at the mo
My view is its the natural order of things. Kinda like video shops becoming obsolete because of streaming.
Both bookies and arcades should completely shut. Gamblers spend hours there and it's not healthy. The x return is lame in comparison with online. I've spent way too many hours in arcades back in the day. Never did bookies. Do not miss those days at all.
I cconsider both as something that could thrive only if the online world did not exist. A reason many physical stores of all sorts are no longer around
Interesting one. I used to work for William Hill around 8/9 years ago and the difference in shops from then till now is certainly noticeable
I still pop into shops where I'm friends with the staff occasionally, usually have a quick spin on a FOBT or chuck a fiver on the next race whilst chatting
I've not heard of any job losses or seen any shop closures directly after this virus (there were a few after the £2 stake change)
What I have noticed is that the groups of regulars in each shop are all still there, all 8 or 9 years older than they were when I was working there - and there's no new faces to take their places when they're gone. Right now there's still money to be made but it's certainly only going to decline as generations pass. 30/40 years assuming no massive legal changes I reckon they'll be all but gone from the high streets