Lockdown saw consumers embrace the concept of 'local', reconnecting with communities and supporting independents in ways that many high streets have not seen for decades. This may prove to be a short-lived trend born out of necessity, but with the shift to remote working expedited by COVID-19, where consumers live, rather than where they travel to, is likely to become more important to retailers and their store strategies.
Mobility data supports this view, with prime shopping locations in Central London and other major cities experiencing a far slower recovery in footfall since shops re-opened than towns and suburban areas. Affluent high streets home to a large proportion of remote workers are seeing the strongest pick-up in trading, such as Wimbledon, Hampstead, Sevenoaks, and Hale.
For many retail operators, the opportunity to meet customer demand by scaling back in urban centres and shifting towards an ultra-local high street model, where rents are much lower, will be appealing.