Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Moss
It doesn't happen very often, let me assure you! However, I still maintain I can't have been the only person in Accrington today that happened to have a bit of spare cash.
It may well be on the list of deprived areas but being all sarcastic about luxury retailers isn't very constructive, is it? I know you call it 'realism' but the whole of Accrington isn't exclusively populated by chavs so where are those people shopping? They will have to travel out of town because the options are not there in Accrington. Rather than the council encouraging more betting shops and pound stores that give town centres a run-down appearance, they could save themselves a future headache by halting the decline now and giving incentives for better quality shops to remain within the shopping centre.
I simply do not believe that Accrington residents are all too poor to need a decent standard of shops. Half of the unemployed people I see are in more expensive designer gear than I could ever reasonably afford! It must come from somewhere.
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It wasn't sarcasm.
I prefer to deal in facts.
If there was a population to support mid to high end retailers, they'd be there, to mop up the profits.
Fact.
If you'd taken the time to read what I actually posted, rather than trying to spin some Utopian shopping fantasy, you'd have read that there are of course lots of social groups in the area, just as there are poorer people in wealthier areas, but you can't get away from the figures in black and white, which state this area has a higher percentage of low income households, with less disposable income to spend on luxury items, other than putting food on their tables, and clothes on their kids backs.
Fact.
Believe me, check the press if you don't, but over the years the council has always been heralding the arrival of new 'big name' retailers to the town.
This has never materialised, in part due to the fact that companies employ retail analysts to report on the socio-economic demographic of the catchment area, and in Accrington's case they've chosen to stay away, and those few who took a gamble, came, and have since departed.
Fact.