B&M Kingsmead to open 26th August

Really?

Well-Known Forumite
In my opinion, the councils decision to encourage out of town centres in an effort to drag people away from the centre so they could make it ..er....more vibrant (?) started the rot. People left the centre in droves and never paid for parking again. I won't even begin to talk about the massive car park that has been closed for yonks (not the Councils land, but their "nuffin we can/want to do guv" attitude is wrong. They have spent the last five years claiming Stafford is brilliant and ignoring the growing problem of homelessness (who all seem to be coming from Stoke for some reason), the empty shops, the empty rooms above the shops, the dying market, and even the rise in litter and anti social behaviour. But it's ok, we have a shiny new row of shops and new council offices - away from the centre, so we should all just forget all the bad and say all is good because "shit happens". The Borough Council gets lost amongst the County Council and the talking shops continue. "let's have a meeting about a meeting, about a meeting about a plan". I think the Borough Council would like to think Stafford is like Chester when, in reality, it's going the way of a small West Bromwich. It really is a poor County Town at the moment.
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
In my opinion, the councils decision to encourage out of town centres in an effort to drag people away from the centre so they could make it ..er....more vibrant (?) started the rot. People left the centre in droves and never paid for parking again. I won't even begin to talk about the massive car park that has been closed for yonks (not the Councils land, but their "nuffin we can/want to do guv" attitude is wrong. They have spent the last five years claiming Stafford is brilliant and ignoring the growing problem of homelessness (who all seem to be coming from Stoke for some reason), the empty shops, the empty rooms above the shops, the dying market, and even the rise in litter and anti social behaviour. But it's ok, we have a shiny new row of shops and new council offices - away from the centre, so we should all just forget all the bad and say all is good because "shit happens". The Borough Council gets lost amongst the County Council and the talking shops continue. "let's have a meeting about a meeting, about a meeting about a plan". I think the Borough Council would like to think Stafford is like Chester when, in reality, it's going the way of a small West Bromwich. It really is a poor County Town at the moment.


But 'you' voted for this

The people of Stafford vote in Conservative Councils and Conservative Governments and then wonder why things go tits up

Over

And over again

But

West Brom it aint ...

Just yet
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
THEY did, I can't deny that.



It won't be long at this rate.


Perhaps I am just a bit depressed today, sitting on the bench outside of Barclays used to be quite a nice experience, today I just felt that I needed to go home and have a shower - or arm myself !


Furry Nuff
 

Frontal

Well-Known Forumite
As someone who's live here for getting toward 15 years - Stafford hasn't been a thriving hub of activity that people seem to make out it was in all that time.

Lets go through the provided list of shops of significance that closed....


Next - Moved into a bigger premises they had purpose built in Stafford.
Co-op - Genuinely only know one person who shopped there, and that was because it was christmas eve and wanted a £1 Mug for a terrible secret santa present.
Gamestation - As a national company went under. National chain was bought by Electronics Boutique who had a shop 10 doors up .... which is still there (Current company name: 'Game' after they consolidated
Discs & Disks - Overpriced. We now have CEX which is bigger, cheaper, and gives better prices for trade ins.
HMV - National chain went bankrupt. The new owner closed the vast majority of the outlets, and currently only operates in major cities.
JJB - Closed due to lack of sales. Recently saw enough profit in Stafford with new developments to RETURN to town.
Adams - Butchers nationally faced a massive downturn as people went for the cheapest options. Many closed, most still havent recovered but the recent trend in cooking is rising them up again.
Hudsons - No idea who these are.
Roy Townsend - Priced himself out of the market. Could get most things cheaper and easier elsewhere,
Rowneys - Same.
The Guildhall Centre used to be full - These are both due to poor management of the Private Owners
The market used to be full - These are both due to poor management of the Private Owners

Virtually none of these have anything to do with the current state of Stafford, and have more to do with bad management, and a failure to adapt to the marketplace (tech companies lost out badly to the internet boom - CEX for example, adapted and rose massively through it.)


Stafford isn't in a great state .... but I don't buy into the "hay day" ideology about the good old days .... Stafford has never in recent memory been a thriving hub of activity.
 

Jonah

Spouting nonsense since the day I learned to talk
As someone who's live here for getting toward 15 years - Stafford hasn't been a thriving hub of activity that people seem to make out it was in all that time.

Lets go through the provided list of shops of significance that closed....


Next - Moved into a bigger premises they had purpose built in Stafford.
Co-op - Genuinely only know one person who shopped there, and that was because it was christmas eve and wanted a £1 Mug for a terrible secret santa present.
Gamestation - As a national company went under. National chain was bought by Electronics Boutique who had a shop 10 doors up .... which is still there (Current company name: 'Game' after they consolidated
Discs & Disks - Overpriced. We now have CEX which is bigger, cheaper, and gives better prices for trade ins.
HMV - National chain went bankrupt. The new owner closed the vast majority of the outlets, and currently only operates in major cities.
JJB - Closed due to lack of sales. Recently saw enough profit in Stafford with new developments to RETURN to town.
Adams - Butchers nationally faced a massive downturn as people went for the cheapest options. Many closed, most still havent recovered but the recent trend in cooking is rising them up again.
Hudsons - No idea who these are.
Roy Townsend - Priced himself out of the market. Could get most things cheaper and easier elsewhere,
Rowneys - Same.
The Guildhall Centre used to be full - These are both due to poor management of the Private Owners
The market used to be full - These are both due to poor management of the Private Owners

Virtually none of these have anything to do with the current state of Stafford, and have more to do with bad management, and a failure to adapt to the marketplace (tech companies lost out badly to the internet boom - CEX for example, adapted and rose massively through it.)


Stafford isn't in a great state .... but I don't buy into the "hay day" ideology about the good old days .... Stafford has never in recent memory been a thriving hub of activity.
It wasn't a list of "shops of significance", just a list of shops I remember closing.

I certainly remember Stafford being far busier before the 2008 recession. That hit a lot of national retailers who then closed stores especially in smaller locations such as our town.

Where in town are JJB if they have returned to town?
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
As someone who's live here for getting toward 15 years - Stafford hasn't been a thriving hub of activity that people seem to make out it was in all that time.

Lets go through the provided list of shops of significance that closed....


Next - Moved into a bigger premises they had purpose built in Stafford.
Co-op - Genuinely only know one person who shopped there, and that was because it was christmas eve and wanted a £1 Mug for a terrible secret santa present.
Gamestation - As a national company went under. National chain was bought by Electronics Boutique who had a shop 10 doors up .... which is still there (Current company name: 'Game' after they consolidated
Discs & Disks - Overpriced. We now have CEX which is bigger, cheaper, and gives better prices for trade ins.
HMV - National chain went bankrupt. The new owner closed the vast majority of the outlets, and currently only operates in major cities.
JJB - Closed due to lack of sales. Recently saw enough profit in Stafford with new developments to RETURN to town.
Adams - Butchers nationally faced a massive downturn as people went for the cheapest options. Many closed, most still havent recovered but the recent trend in cooking is rising them up again.
Hudsons - No idea who these are.
Roy Townsend - Priced himself out of the market. Could get most things cheaper and easier elsewhere,
Rowneys - Same.
The Guildhall Centre used to be full - These are both due to poor management of the Private Owners
The market used to be full - These are both due to poor management of the Private Owners

Virtually none of these have anything to do with the current state of Stafford, and have more to do with bad management, and a failure to adapt to the marketplace (tech companies lost out badly to the internet boom - CEX for example, adapted and rose massively through it.)


Stafford isn't in a great state .... but I don't buy into the "hay day" ideology about the good old days .... Stafford has never in recent memory been a thriving hub of activity.
Ha, ha, ha.
 

The Notorious A.N.T.

Well-Known Forumite
I'm fascinated to read the all the opinions folks on here have about Stafford. I went to Stafford College for 3 years in the 90's & moved here permenantly 3 months ago (after 12 years in Hednesford). I still think Stafford has got plenty going for it (hence why we moved here!), like most places it is just changing. I think sometimes it is easy to not appreciate what is on your doorstep. If you really want to see a town on it's arse then pop down the road to Cannock!.
 

Entropy

Well-Known Forumite
As someone who's live here for getting toward 15 years - Stafford hasn't been a thriving hub of activity that people seem to make out it was in all that time.

Roy Townsend - Priced himself out of the market. Could get most things cheaper and easier elsewhere,

Stafford isn't in a great state .... but I don't buy into the "hay day" ideology about the good old days .... Stafford has never in recent memory been a thriving hub of activity.

Having worked for Roy Townsend for a number of years...it was only after he passed away from battle throat cancer (for the second time) that the business was left to his daughter and sons....From what i understand they did not manage the business as well as Roy did during its hay-day. Piss up in a brewery springs to mind. Stores in Winsford, Nantwich and Newcastle etc..suffered from locations and dwindling sales due to various reasons.....The deals that were in the Stafford branch were competitive and Jason (the gaffer) would happily do a good decent deal for you. Sad to see it go.....Roy himself was a good decent guy often playing visits to the Stafford store and speaking with customers....They usually had no idea it was him which was often quite funny sitting back and watching him.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Having worked for Roy Townsend for a number of years...it was only after he passed away from battle throat cancer (for the second time) that the business was left to his daughter and sons....From what i understand they did not manage the business as well as Roy did during its hay-day. Piss up in a brewery springs to mind. Stores in Winsford, Nantwich and Newcastle etc..suffered from locations and dwindling sales due to various reasons.....The deals that were in the Stafford branch were competitive and Jason (the gaffer) would happily do a good decent deal for you. Sad to see it go.....Roy himself was a good decent guy often playing visits to the Stafford store and speaking with customers....They usually had no idea it was him which was often quite funny sitting back and watching him.
Were there two locations in Stafford? I seem to remember there being a move to where the pawnbroker is now, where Bookland was?

I always found the staff in there to be very good, even though I think that I never actually bought anything in the end...

I also seem to remember some people being rather appalled by the purpleness - rather in the same was as Brain's Wallpapers had "sharpened up" what was River Island recently.
 

The Notorious A.N.T.

Well-Known Forumite
Roy Townsend - my Grandad used to get all his electrical appliances from there. He didn't care that Currys etc. might have been a few £ cheaper that was where he went because he liked the store/people. Old skool consumer loyalty!
 
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