New shops / businesses opening in Stafford

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Feed The Goat

Feed The Goat

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Sorry but I can't see much character . Quality independents are leaving the town in droves. Looking at this list :

Sony Centre
Panasonic Centre
Greengate Deli
The Paper House
Guitar & Son
Cooks
Halpin Clothing

These are the sort of independent businesses that are regularly quitting the town centre and are being replaced by charity shops etc (currently totalling 19).

As long as people don't regard the place in the same breath of Chester and Shrewsbury and think of it as more the sort of as a poor quality Tamworth, this will be closer to the mark. Sorry Tamworth
 
ChrisLewis

ChrisLewis

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littleme said:
There's still too many Charity shops :(

We, the people of Stafford want REAL shops!!!
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Then the real people on this forum need to start frequenting the shops, using the town and surprise surprise it will happen, a vibrant town will appear, not immediately I agree, but it will happen given time because we are shopping in the town and that's what business needs prior to investing. It's a bit like the chicken and egg, which came first, the shopper or the nice shops

End of rant - more wine!
 
ChrisLewis

ChrisLewis

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Feed The Goat said:
Sorry but I can't see much character . Quality independents are leaving the town in droves. Looking at this list :

Sony Centre
Panasonic Centre
Greengate Deli
The Paper House
Guitar & Son
Cooks
Halpin Clothing

These are the sort of independent businesses that are regularly quitting the town centre and are being replaced by charity shops etc (currently totalling 19).

As long as people don't regard the place in the same breath of Chester and Shrewsbury and think of it as more the sort of as a poor quality Tamworth, this will be closer to the mark. Sorry Tamworth
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Given that one of these was mine, I base the fact that four years of recession killed it, not the fact that we were based in Stafford, I hear so many great comments about the town, we just need some positivity to encourage people and business that Stafford is worthy of is the right place to start a retail business.
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
ChrisLewis said:
Then the real people on this forum need to start frequenting the shops, using the town and surprise surprise it will happen, a vibrant town will appear, not immediately I agree, but it will happen given time because we are shopping in the town and that's what business needs prior to investing. It's a bit like the chicken and egg, which came first, the shopper or the nice shops

End of rant - more wine!
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I'll drink to that. The only real vote that we have is the pound in our pocket...
 
Feed The Goat

Feed The Goat

Well-Known Forumite
I loved the Stafford Deli and shopped there five or six days a week. If its closure was down to purely the recession I will have to agree with you as the owner of the business involved. I fear however the barometer of recession is one gauged by the Daily Mail and whether properties within the M25 are going up by x%. Ask the good folk of Bradford or Middlesborough whether they are feeling overjoyed by the leap from recession and you will get a short answer.

The closure of quality independents stores is Stafford is largely down to the mismanagement of the town centre by the Borough and County councils not having a cohesive vision of how the town should be run. Each department has its own schemes which it wished to implement, with little thought of the consequences. For example no amount of pro-Stafford positivity from the town centre management team can combat the shambles that is the traffic and parking in the town.

This is clearly illustrated by the reduction of independent retail trading in Mill Street and Salter Street, where confusing signage and over zealous parking rules have proved just too damn difficult for business owners to overcome. Many of these established traders have not closed there businesses altogether but moved out of the town centre and traded from out of town or online. The net result being a town bereft of quality and individualism. Stafford as a whole is fine for basing a company but the town centre is DEFINITELY not the right place to start a retail business as the odds are massively stacked against you before you start. Look at the number of independent businesses that are started, yet close very quickly because it is just too damn painful to keep trading.
 
ChrisLewis

ChrisLewis

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A
Feed The Goat said:
I loved the Stafford Deli and shopped there five or six days a week. If its closure was down to purely the recession I will have to agree with you as the owner of the business involved. I fear however the barometer of recession is one gauged by the Daily Mail and whether properties within the M25 are going up by x%. Ask the good folk of Bradford or Middlesborough whether they are feeling overjoyed by the leap from recession and you will get a short answer.

The closure of quality independents stores is Stafford is largely down to the mismanagement of the town centre by the Borough and County councils not having a cohesive vision of how the town should be run. Each department has its own schemes which it wished to implement, with little thought of the consequences. For example no amount of pro-Stafford positivity from the town centre management team can combat the shambles that is the traffic and parking in the town.

This is clearly illustrated by the reduction of independent retail trading in Mill Street and Salter Street, where confusing signage and over zealous parking rules have proved just too damn difficult for business owners to overcome. Many of these established traders have not closed there businesses altogether but moved out of the town centre and traded from out of town or online. The net result being a town bereft of quality and individualism. Stafford as a whole is fine for basing a company but the town centre is DEFINITELY not the right place to start a retail business as the odds are massively stacked against you before you start. Look at the number of independent businesses that are started, yet close very quickly because it is just too damn painful to keep trading.
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a point well made!
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Gramaisc said:
I'll drink to that. The only real vote that we have is the pound in our pocket...
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I drink where there is good cider but places shut down (e.g. P&A, Market Vaults is now a strongbow pub), its very rare I enter a charity shop yet they proliferate! I can only assume I'm not earning enough to keep these places going :(
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
tek-monkey said:
I drink where there is good cider but places shut down (e.g. P&A, Market Vaults is now a strongbow pub), its very rare I enter a charity shop yet they proliferate! I can only assume I'm not earning enough to keep these places going :(
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You can't keep a place going on your own, it down to what 'we' want, even if 'we' agree or disagree with your wants.

I remember somebody moaning at me about the Picture House closing and, when pressed as to the last time that he'd been in there, he had to admit that it was to see Blackboard Jungle.
 
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andy w

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It would help if the Parking Stassi were a bit more lenient. I'm sure I'll be told rules are rules but I read an article a few months ago how Swindon ( I think) had adopted a policy of encouraging motorists to visit the town by having a flat fee for three hours parking that gives people plenty of time to shop and have something to eat and drink as well rather than dashing round looking at their watch. The council had bought parking enforcement back in house and whilst they were still issuing tickets it was on a last resort basis.
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
They make a fair few quid on the parking nazis, can't see them letting up TBH. Pay as you exit parking should be compulsory, then we'd only need them for on-street offences.
 
Feed The Goat

Feed The Goat

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Wrong again, I'm afraid.

Halpin is run by Staffordian James Halpin and his mother, since the sad passing of the founder Chris Halpin of Derrington

Panasonic Centre was run in conjunction to the owners other shop in Stoke

Sony Centre was part of Victor Electronics. The owner had six stores based in the Midlands

None of these companies were national chains
 
M

marky

Well-Known Forumite
Feed The Goat said:
Wrong again, I'm afraid.

Halpin is run by Staffordian James Halpin and his mother, since the sad passing of the founder Chris Halpin of Derrington

Panasonic Centre was run in conjunction to the owners other shop in Stoke

Sony Centre was part of Victor Electronics. The owner had six stores based in the Midlands

None of these companies were national chains
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I know James Halpin, its not closing is it?
 
Feed The Goat

Feed The Goat

Well-Known Forumite
Go Carz are a subsidiary of Central Taxis who are one of the largest private hire companies in Shropshire, with over 500 vehicles and more than 60,000 bookings a week in the Telford, Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton areas.


No doubt they will start with the best of intentions then revert to form of the average private hire ie

Cars with those special I can feel a spring in my @rse seats

Cars and drivers that make sure you arrive into town smelling like a stale ashtray (Tip for those drivers - even though you open the window it still stinks)

Dubious pricing, especially for the alcohol impaired

Anyway - prepare for a taxi war, could be interesting.
 
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