High street banks have changed use over the past 30 years. They became bar-restaurants of one type or another. The same has happened to churches. Big department stores are harder to transform, so often stand empty.
Suburban high streets are now full of hairdressers, vape shops, takeaways and East European supermarkets. Subsidiary urban high streets are like that, but with more student targeted stuff, often Chinese.
The principal high street still functions as an area for female bonding through shopping. Teenagers also congregate there, with friction between 'Townies' and suburbanites. There are also lots of 'Homeless', occupying the vacant shop doorways.
My most recent retail foray was to pop into Sports Direct for a paid of size 14 trainers. I'd gone in to register my Father's death at the records office, and the need to get parked up in time gave me 15 minutes to play with.
On Friday we walked into town for a cheap ethnic meal and a drink in a traditional pub. On Saturday I went to a choir concert, slightly marred by the 'banging tunes' from a bar opposite the church. We live in a quiet rural enclave, so the centre of town is for seeing lots of people, and topping up my aversion to urban life.
As I'm a 59 year-old white bloke, who isn't a homeless alcoholic. I don't fit into any of the natural user groups for the high street. My retail preferences are builders merchants, wood yards, and tool suppliers.