Don’t be fooled, we haven’t reached ‘peak stuff’. Our shopping addiction has become a dirty, hidden secret

No wonder the high street is in peril. I can’t remember the last time I bought an item of clothing from a shop. But that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped rapidly acquiring new things – and, I suspect, neither have you

Will shopping be extinct in 50 years’ time? Much has been written about the “death” of the high street, but what’s really happening is the death of shopping as a leisure pursuit.

Only 10 years ago, a huge number of us would spend hours shopping at the weekend – not just to buy essentials, but to hang out in shopping centres and meet friends. That habit is falling out of fashion fast. New figures from industry analysts show the number of people visiting shops has declined by 10 per cent since 2012, and that decline applies to malls as well as high streets.

Retailers want the government to help them out by relaxing business rates and imposing taxes on internet purchases, but would that be enough to make a difference to their fortunes? I doubt it; in the last year, 85,000 jobs have been lost in the retail sector and 16 stores closed every every day in the first half of 2019.