Going right back to the basic question, I don't think we need high streets in their present format. Even the most devoted amongst us can't really say why they are wanted.
To my mind, and as mentioned previously, a future high street should have specialist shops, a decent baker, dairy products shop, butcher, delicatessen and somewhere to get a hot drink and snack. All independent. Why do we need anything else?
Even open markets these days offer nothing special so why have them?
In my nearest town the high street is full of closed shops, very cheap cafes, charity shops, three or four banks and beggars. The bus station is a shit-heap and the train station is in the wrong place. Where BHS, M&S and Debenhams used to be could be bulldozed and made into a park.
High streets are no longer busy places where folk wander round browsing and we don't have the weather for a proper cafe society as in the Mediterranean countries.
A hundred yards in any direction from the high street, right out to the edge of town there is a convenience store on every other corner, usually run by Asian families and open from 7 to 11 to supply immediate needs.
It is now down to our local authorities in their ivory towers to provide good housing for families very close to town centres on sites of closed shops, and give up the idea of happy high streets full of joy and bustling, smiling people - we don't need them.
The one thing that people are craving is social interaction. High streets are rather good for that - even if you're strolling anonymously through a crowd, it's still being a part of the herd. Browsing would happen more if there were things to browse. That doesn't happen if everything is the same.
But those specialist shops have to compete in a market where much is price-pointed. I'm happy to use specialist shops. An example: I was making a lamb curry at the weekend and needed some neck fillet. A quick drive to my local butcher's and there was a queue outside. Supermarket it was, then, as I was running against the clock.
There, two youths behind the counter who couldn't convert pounds to kilos. Nor were they going to cube the meat for me - I got handed vacuum-sealed bags from the cold cupboard.
Two points: I'd have happily used my local butcher because the service is better but it costs more; and SWMBO and I are lucky being dual-income no kids and so probably have more money floating about than many people.
A lot of those specialists shops can only exist in relatively affluent areas, otherwise they're simply priced out of existence. And, to compete/differentiate on quality, they have to be really good. My local butcher does superb steak, and is my first choice. My local supermarket does steak which is more than passable. Go figure. I'll try to use the butcher first but I'm not disappointed if I have to use the supermarket.
In terms of independent eateries, habit accounts for a lot. Just up the road from me is Horley, near Gatwick. There used to be a very good cafe, 51 North, which did the best coffee for miles - and it was nice inside, not just a 'caff'. Two doors up is a Costa. The Costa is still there, 51 North isn't.
It's not even a matter of price; an independent in Crawley went to the local paper and got a story published which said pretty much, "We're the same price but our quality is better and we're a local independent. Please support us."
Again, though, it's about real differentiation. Unless the independent is really good, Costa etc. are good enough.
In terms of cafe culture, go to somewhere like Northern Italy - hardly balmy, but a cafe culture exists. The same in Northern France. It's a culture in many respects - societal and business. I'd love there to be a decent coffee shop near me but, unfortunately, the ones that do exist keep business hours. Come 5.30, they're closed.
A cafe culture is do-able, it just needs the right facilities and the right business hours. Interestingly, the couple round here that do do well are again privately owned. I can think of a very good Turkish one local to me which does very passable food and cakes, and is clearly a bit of a hub for the local ethnic community from that part of the world. I've no issue with going in there but, again, there's probably a wider cultural issue of a different nature - suspicion of immigrants. Note: that isn’t racism but a comfort-zone thing.
Markets? I was walking through Redhill a couple of summers back. There was a van doing chickens. A woman went up and asked how much they were. The guy in the van told her. Her response was, "But I can get it £2 cheaper in Sainsbury."
Yes, she probably could. But his point about quality and so on was lost on her.
There are some bargains to be had in that market - veg, plants for the garden - but the rest is stalls full of cheap clothes for people of XXXXL size. Go figure.
By contrast, the Christmas market in nearby Reigate is a trove of top-quality foods and craft items. But £££... Reigate is rather more affluent. On the other hand, when that market's on you see a lot of Redhill faces over there.
Which comes to one of your points: a lot of the high street offer is just dross. I had a discussion some years back when I went into M&S in Crawley looking for new t-shirts. Last season's £15 product had been replaced with a paper-thin £3 offer. The shop assistant's justification was that "That's what the local market wants" - and it was wrong. Not all of the local market wants Primark quality. A LOT of that local market has either moved online to specialists, and are prepared to pay, or sod off to such as Bluewater where better quality can be had directly from shops.
There's a distinct point about M&S: I used to go there for quality. Then, it decided to try and compete with Primark but retain M&S pricing. That doesn't work. A lambswool sweater at M&S costs within sight of what it cost 20-odd years ago. Quality, though, has gone through the floor. Look at the price of a lambswool sweater from a quality UK manufacturer online. But the product
lasts. Guess where I'm shopping.
A lot of the high street shops/chains need to get past the obsession with price points. Unfortunately, it's too late for many of them.
Many local authorities are already converting a lot of commercial properties into residential, particularly social housing. That's not a new development. But there's a risk associated with that, which is this: the kinds of people who end up in that type of housing aren't affluent. They are your Primark/discount store shoppers. And, they tend not to be especially mobile as they don't have access to a car. If you concentrate them around town centres, you juxtapose a large community of the un-affluent with the outlets you propose which are designed to attract affluence.
...that doesn't work. I don't know what the answers are and I'm not advocating creating ghettos away from town centres which socially exclude. Nor am I stereotyping people and their behaviour based on economic potential. Nevertheless, there needs to be a balance.
Edited to sort spelling.
