Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Moss
I've been in Accrington town centre today and I am still mightily impressed by it. It is well designed with lots of attractive old architecture into the bargain and not too empty shops plus free parking. It was also fairly busy considering the demographic....
If it really is only existing to cater for 35,000 residents then they are quite well served, in my opinion. I blew £80 this morning and I wasn't even there to go shopping! I was tempted in by what was there and I'm sure that if there were more of the big name outlets available I would have spent more money.
We should be proud of a town centre like that and support the shops that are there rather than talking it down with figures and statistics.
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It's nothing to do with pride, it's to do with being a realist, and living in the real world, not in the world of meaningless spin.
I'll proudly tell you I travel to shop there twice a week, year in, year out.
If there was money to be made, and a gap in the market, the shops and stores would be there to fill it, and make a profit for it's owners/shareholders.
The last figures I've found show that the Arndale has 12 empty units, and the town centre has 20. That doesn't include all the empty shops that are currently being used to sell charity/second hand goods.
For someone who's regularly shopped there for over forty years, that's not what I'd call particularly thriving.
The reasons I've given why most mid to high retail multiples aren't there, are based on the fact that retail analysts do look at the demographics of an area, and as the 40th out of 340 most deprived boroughs in the country, the lack of those shops in Accrington are futher testament that the area can't support them.
People who shop in Accrington regularly will remember all the stores and shops that opened when the Arndale was finished, and have sadly long since vanished.
Care to share which shop(s) benefitted from your £80, that so tempted you to spend money you didn't plan on spending?
I'm sure we'd all be interested to hear.