What can realistically be done with the old Co-Op?

Tumble weed

Well-Known Forumite
No doubt xD, still it needs a lot of work internally now, might be a serious contender, and bring something useful to the town.

Place your bets now ! I vote a change of use to apartments, or maybe they're just getting a slice of it.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Let's not **** about.

Castle Bravo came as a bit of a surprise - It was supposed to be about 6 MT, but there was a weird Lithium reaction that they hadn't considered that increased to yield to around 15 MT, destroying a lot of the monitoring equipment and making it the biggest of all the US test explosions.
 

Tumble weed

Well-Known Forumite
These guys.
 

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Tumble weed

Well-Known Forumite
What surprised me though, is most of the empty properties in town according to that website already have let agreed status.
 

Gareth

Well-Known Forumite
I wouldn't hold your breathe nor be surprised if this is nothing more than a portfolio purchase just as the old m&s is
 

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
Walking past today and seeing quite a lot of people visiting the street stores outside the old Co-op........then me going out of my way to use the market loos, and walking through an empty indoor market .... decided the indoor market would be better off in the old Co-op building !
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Walking past today and seeing quite a lot of people visiting the street stores outside the old Co-op........then me going out of my way to use the market loos, and walking through an empty indoor market .... decided the indoor market would be better off in the old Co-op building !

You do have to wonder if the indoor market is honestly a little past its prime for quite a few of the stalls.

Yes there are some good stalls there, and some good butchers, grocers, etc. But there are a hell of a lot of people selling any old crap you could walk a little further down the road and get from Home Bargains, B&M or Aldi for significantly cheaper. I’m surprised half the stalls are financially sustainable at all really - I wonder if because of the dwindling stall numbers there’s quite a few that are basically paying no rent so it’s a case of “I have this inventory, might as well try and sell it”

A space is certainly warranted for quite a few of the businesses in there, such as charity stalls, but the space is clearly far too big judging by the fact that half the stalls were vacant last time I went through there. I don’t think putting it into a bigger space is a terribly good idea.
 
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staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
You do have to wonder if the indoor market is honestly a little past its prime for quite a few of the stalls.

Yes there are some good stalls there, and some good butchers, grocers, etc. But there are a hell of a lot of people selling any old crap you could walk a little further down the road and get from Home Bargains, B&M or Aldi for significantly cheaper. I’m surprised half the stalls are financially sustainable at all really - I wonder if because of the dwindling stall numbers there’s quite a few that are basically paying no rent so it’s a case of “I have this inventory, might as well try and sell it”

A space is certainly warranted for quite a few of the businesses in there, such as charity stalls, but the space is clearly far too big judging by the fact that half the stalls were vacant last time I went through there. I don’t think putting it into a bigger space is a terribly good idea.
Maybe just the front part of the ground floor , fronting onto the main street , for the few stalls that are actually open to be together to create a better atmosphere.

I felt quite guilty walking through the market this morning, when the only other people in there were the store holders . Most of them standing in front of their stalls watching me just walking through to the loo. Then came out of the loo to find myself being watched again by the storeholders as I made an exit through the nearest door. (I did buy a wallet from there before xmas and went back in after to see if they had the same one for a spare as it was a decent one. The bloke was going to try to get one , but wasnt behind the stall as I passed this morning so missed out on a potential sale)

The area outside the front of the Co-op ,where the open market stalls were ,was quite packed as I came past.
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I wonder why Market Square is so named? Could it possibly be a good location to hold the market permanently?
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I wonder why Market Square is so named? Could it possibly be a good location to hold the market permanently?

I think you might be on to something there.

Maybe they could take over the space from the stalls reselling Fruit of the Loom shite and overpriced milkshakes.

Of course many of those stalls wouldn’t necessarily fair well outside, but the current location buried away in the corner of a dead shopping centre certainly isn’t the place to be. I imagine the only reason it’s there is because of some long term lease by the council on the unit or something like that. There wouldn’t be a whole let left if they let them break it early...

Takes me back to my childhood town a little, Aldershot. We had the Wellington Centre and The Galleries with an indoor bridge between them. The Galleries emptied out to the point that the last shop in there was a Cotton Traders that soon disappeared and then the whole place was abandoned. An abandoned shopping centre is quite a place to walk through...

Pretty sure they’re turning them into apartments now with a small retail space downstairs. I don’t think I’ve been down there enough to actually see what’s been made of it though, certainly not venturing into the town centre. What was unfortunate is it was the nicer of the two shopping centres, would have much rather seen the other one emptied out
 
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