Where have all the people gone?

• Lower Hutt’s main street is home to 42 vacant shops. Over the bridge, Petone is booming.

Ian Schofer can recall a time when shoppers flocked to Lower Hutt on a Thursday night.

He opened his pharmacy in 1967, and for many years it was where women went for their French perfume. Thursday was late-night shopping, and High Street was the place to be seen.

“It was huge, walking down High St you had to pick your way down the footpath, like pushing through the crowd at Athletic Park.”

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