Arndale expansion?
 

SHOPPING centre bosses have unveiled a £15million expansion plan in a bid to 'fight back' against retail parks and other town centres
Bosses at the Arndale Centre, Accrington, said the development could include a new supermarket - and that talks with Sainsbury's were already at an "encouraging stage".:eek:
http://images.newsquest.co.uk/image....4675&type=fullHow the expansion of the Arndale Centre towards the viaduct roundabout might look

well i never:rolleyes:
is the new bit gonna face the vets?...cant think whereabouts that it only near the vets.

Re: Arndale expansion?
 

well i hope they go through with it, i like shopping in accy but it is going down the pan a bit aint it

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i dont know why they bother, they cant even fill the empty shops in arndale why do they want and expansion, is stupid

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Expansion.:rofl38::rofl38: half the shops are empty in the scratty one we got.:rolleyes:

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Hurray!!! more space for £1 shops :rolleyes:

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LMAO.....very true.

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Looks also like that the Tesco development might be losing ground too Panther due to the volume of traffic it will produce... YES!! Hope the planning committe seeing sense at last ...:rolleyes:

I think Sainsburys would be an excellent addition to the town, particularly in the centre .... is slightly different to Asda/Tesco and hopefully would attract people more from our surrounding areas. Also if based in the centre, people would be inclined to visit the market and Arndale more, therefore attracting more high street shops. Sounds good to me.

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they gonna have to build a bigger car park then:rolleyes:

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Just a bit of info for you, the planned Tesco on Eagle st would be seeing over 32,000 cars on the car park in a week, the Arndale currently sees 13,000. Lot of traffic on Eagle st that. Not to mention their deliveries, an estimated 15 lorries a day.
I would not know how to vote on it at the moment, I don't want a Tesco on my doorstep in the Arndale as they would have a pharmacy, hence touble for us, but I don't want one on Eagle St where it would pull all the consumers in and we wouldn't see any trade at all ! Hmmmm:confused:

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Surely the planners would make sure that the extension of the arndale was made out of the same brick as the arndale - all that glass and white stuff would make it stand out like the asda at Rawtenstall and now they are changing it adding stone cladding and altering the lights etc so it dont stand out as much.

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Sainsburys also have an excellent pharmacy Lindsay .. think the best thing Boots could do for Accrington is to extend their range (not sure if any room at the back of you) .. on their toiletries and definitely cosmetics .. not much competition on the latter apart from J & B/Superdrug .. who are very limited on the more up-market range. I go to Blackburn/Burnley for this reason which I am not too happy about, would prefer to shop in my home town. :(

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Range extended by some 400 items when we had the refit last in Oct 2006 !
There is no room for expansion where we are; except for the empty building next door that was Officers Club; think the lease is stillwith JJB.

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Also excellent pharmacy doesn't always equal excellent pharmacist and our Richard is second to none !:D

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Yeh, but the general public don't know your Richard, Lindsay .. and presume they all have the same qualifications whether good 'bed side manner' or not, and a modern designed counter says a lot to us numpties.

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Kate, we have a modern design counter; have you been in lately ?
We are also competing with a newer pharmacy just down the road at Asda and coming out on top.
But this isn't just about Boots it's about the whole idea of expanding a shopping centre that is already struggling and has been for years ( please trust me on this; I worked in it for 15 years and just outside it for 3) .
There are stores in our centre who every year aren't sure whether to give up or carry on and suitable incentives are offered to make them stay.
There is one unit in the centre that has been empty for at least 5 years, there are at least 5 that have changed hands many times in the last 5 years.
We have the same row every time new shops are mentioned; folk want River Island, a Next, it ain't gonna happen, Sainsbury's is too upmarket for Accy; it couldn't survive in Burnley !
I'd love a town where a Booth's could thrive and a TJ Hughes could come and make a go of it; sadly it isn't Accy.:(

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i go to boots, i like the way they did the new store in 2006 and the friendly staff, there is an asian lady there she is really nice, she comes to ethels a lot

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the staff in accy Boots are very helpful, but new things or not,i now have to go elsewhere for an item i always got before the alterations, so has paris for 1 of hers.:confused:

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Pm me with details Cashy; it maybe summat we can order in for you !

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Well, it did survive in Burnley, with a much larger store.

I have a positive confidence with the Masterplan and lots of 'Yuppie' flats in the centre going up that these stores could survive, and stop people like myself going out of town to shop.

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kate i luv ya to bits, but Yuppies in accy:rofl38::rofl38:yer losing the plot.:D

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We will see cashy, we will see .. all those modern flats in the centre are not going to attract many of our residents are they ? Will be too expensive for our young couples, but to someone who works out of our boundaries on a high income, with easy access to the Motorways plus cheaper living ..they will be a big magnet.

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sincerly hope yer right,cashys view= more chance of being struck by lightening.:D

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That artist's impression looks totally incongruous. If they do expand I too hope they do it in a way which blends with what we already have. However, just building more shop premises isn't going to improve anything if they end up empty. Look at Peel Street and the empty shops there in the "Wilkinson's block". They have changed hands umpteen times since being built and still ended up empty.

I would love there to be a supermarket in the town centre though. I think that would be a great asset for people without transport.

I would like to add a few words of praise for Boots pharmacy. Until recently I had been getting our repeat prescriptions from a particular chemist's because it was handy for me, being located near the bus I catch. Annoyingly nearly every time I go they had run short of something and could only give me some of one or other item and an IOU for the rest. I also seemed to have to wait an eternity, even if I'd left the prescription with them and called back later. An added complication is that our doctor will not issue a new prescription until you are almost out of the supply you have so it's a fine balancing act to ensure you don't run out. This last time I went to collect the stuff the pharmacy told me that they didn't have ANY of one tablet and it would be a couple of days before they got any in. That would have meant actually missing taking a repeat medication as we had completely run out by then. Just an unfortunate combination of doctors, chemists and my ability to get into town. They gave me the prescription back and suggested I try somewhere else so I went to Boots. Not only did they have the items in stock, the pharmacist assured me that they would always have them in stock and suggested that I left the re-order counterfoil with them and they would get the repeat prescriptions from the doctor and have them ready for me to collect every 4 weeks. I had made an attempt to do the re-order palaver through the previous chemist but it was only a half job because it still meant me taking the re-order into the doctors myself, on top of getting other forms filled in by each member of the family who needed repeats, and having to list what the current medication actually was (which is impossible as it can change month to month with some items only being required every other month) Boots made it so simple - all I do when I collect the next lot is tick the boxes for the following month's requirement. Couldn't be simpler. :)

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From what today's papers say it is Sainsbury's that are putting the money up
Sainsbury plan for Arndale? - News - Accrington Observer_

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I always use Boots rather than my local chemist, everyone is very helpful especially Richard.

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i have to say i am usually going with everybody in the arguement against tesco, but i decided to have a go at making my own sushi the other day
what did asda have ? none of the things that i needed not even the rice
so i ordered online at tesco ( yes i can hear the boos and hisses now lol)
there is a better and wider range of foods so is it any wonder they are taking over ?
maybe it's about time that other supermarket woke up and realised that people may want to make thier own foods - not buy ready made preservative filled stodge.

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I find that Tesco has a bigger range of organic food than Asda, so I usually shop with them.

However my last order was from Sainsburys because they were the only one which sells Rosehip teabags, (got 3 months supply)

I agree that Asda has a reputation for selling junk food cheap

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I use Tesco online, it's easy and reliable and they have stuff you don't get at Asda, I am happy to pay a delivery charge that would equate to what my taxi back from Asda would be !:)

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BTW the service Willow was describing is available to anyone, and it's free, if it might be of use to you or an elderly relative please come in and we can sort it out !:)

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The picture was part of the Town Centre masterplan I think. The new building added on to the Arndale is where the roundabout is now - I think it means that there won't be a roundabout but that the road will be a ringroad type affair. I'm pretty sure it's dependent on other things like the bus station relocation etc.

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Anything has got to be better than the town centre now.

The shops are empty because the choices are limited. With being an outsider just moving here I was gob smacked at the lack of clothes shops for anyone over 15 and the amount of pound shops.

I like to try and spend my money in the town but on a couple of occasions I have had to go to Blackburn or Manchester.

I doubt Accrington will ever be able to compete with these two examples but if they don't do something things will just get worse unfortunately.