| Comment | >Famously businesses only exist where universities are, if you ever go to a town without a university there's no shops whatsoever.
You're joking right? Have you even glanced at even a surface level piece of economic reporting in the last 3 years? 21 pubs close every week in the UK, 50 shops close a week across the country. There has not been a more challenging time for brick and mortar business locations since the end of World War Two. Commercial property values in Glasgow fell almost 55% after covid.
Some of the only brick and mortar businesses doing well in this country (especially in hospitality) rely on turnover from a dense population of customers in city centres. Used to be largely commuters but with most people in offices working at least a couple days a week from home that traffic has dropped significantly as costs have shot WAY up. Students provide this dense population and prop up countless business in Glasgow. Business that would fold instantly if they all went away.
I live in a very expensive, thriving part of Glasgow Southside and there are still 3 unoccupied commercial units within a 100 meters of my front door. It has almost literally never been harder for retail and hospitality businesses to succeed right now and your ideal outcome would be to remove as much of their remaining customer base as possible? |
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