A Wagga real estate agent has claimed it is a "fallacy” the internet will take over retail and has strongly denied main street rent is too high.
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Fitzpatrick Real Estate commercial consultant Greg Howick said the city’s main street was in a healthy state for the future.
It comes as a leading Wagga town planner predicted the city’s main street would eventually become a food and entertainment hub due to the ongoing power of online shopping.
That would mean those services would outweigh traditional retailers.
“I would say if you went through this whole building very few would buy off the internet,” Mr Howick said.
"They all like to touch it, feel it, buy it. But they also like to go on that website and see what they’ve got before they go to the store as well.
“All this ‘internet will take over retail’ is a fallacy.
“You’ve got to understand retail to understand that.”
Mr Howick also dismissed suggestions the rent in Wagga’s main streets was too high and "speeding up” the demise of retail.
“It’s market forces,” he said.
“If it was too dear they wouldn’t lease, if it was too dear the nationals wouldn’t lease, if it was too dear we wouldn’t be staring at a shortage of shops around about the 150 square metres.
“You can ask for a million dollars and no one will lease them because it’s not viable.
“It comes down to a level that the market will accept.”
Mr Howick said national retailers such as Noni B and Black Pepper would not rent in the city if it was not profitable.
“Really the market dictates,” he said.
“Whatever they can pay and make a dollar out of it, that’s all they will pay. If they didn’t see any profit in Wagga at those rents, they wouldn’t come here.”
One of the more high-profile retail closures this year was the departure of The Warehouse after 30 years.
Mr Howick claims that was because The Warehouse “had gone into distribution”.
“They’re much more tuned into distribution now rather than retailing,” he said.
“And that’s the reason they closed.”
In February, the owners told The Daily Advertiser they had been squeezed out of the market due to the web and heavy discounting of major retailers.
“The face of retail is changing dramatically, and quickly now,” owner Doug Boak said at the time.
“You’ve only got to see in country streets now, they’re either empty shops or they’re not filled with retailers, they’re filled with services – once upon a time you’d never see them in the main street.”
