high street retail

13:06 Dec 15, 2018 

Cafés and betting shops aren't much affected by e-commerce and "high street retail" excludes shopping malls and off-high-street supermarkets, both of these being part of the reason for the decline of "high street retail" and the high street in general. The term "retail bank" notwithstanding, the term "retail" doesn't apply to restaurants, pubs and bookies. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/...

11:42 Dec 15, 2018 

In my view, the biggest issue here is really 'retail'; the classic translation of 'détail' really only covers one traditional meaning of the word, which involved selling things in small quantities to the general public, as distinct from 'wholesale', generally trade suppliers in large quantities.
Nowadays, 'retail' has taken on a new connotation, which simply means 'intended for the general public' — so we have, for example, 'retail banks'; likewise, in many contexts, 'retailer' will nowadays mean any kind of trader operating for the general public — so could include cafés, betting shops, etc. It no longer necessarily means a 'shopkeeper' who actually sells 'things'.
I believe in this modern sense, the FR 'commerce' is really enough to convey the same idea (when, as here, the overall context is clear)
France is suffering from the same desertification of traditional town centres, and 'commerce' is the term I've most often heard bandied around in the French press etc. in discussions on this topic.