cotty1974
A few posts under my belt
I've recently made a rare trip into stafford town centre last week.I had only popped into grab some euros for my holiday .I was absolutely horrified with what I saw.this was meant to be the historic county town of stafford and what I was greeted with was a town centre not to dissimilar to Cannock. note there is no disrespect to Cannock but have you seen the state of cannock town centre ... Yes I have I work there.
After my stressful trip which involved negotiating hundreds of set of traffic lights and utter traffic chaos and then falling victim to a crime by way of the car parking charges I ventured into the town centre. I turned the first corner to be greated with some claim shop solicitor type of mess,swiftly followed by something called cash converter. I didn't know this shop sold staffy dogs but I soon realised they weren't for sale and that they were tied up outside whilst their owners were converting something into cash.mmmm
My journey continued in disbelief, the town was absolutely littered with these type of shops. Cheap pound shops,cash for gold,and empty shops everywhere. What shops were left appeared to be closing.
I heard a rumour that primark were moving into the co op when .....yes you guessed it ....it closes. Now as much as I do like to go to primark for some cheap holiday clothes, it does fit in with what Stafford appears to be striving for and primark will fit in nicely besides cash convertors and many of the pound shops.If you should hurt yourself in the rush for all those cheap clothes or get bitten by a staffy as you walk by some gold for cash shop then you can feel safe that there are plenty of accident claim shops for your consideration.I was starting to feel overdressed in my smart jeans and shoes and primark jacket. Even the staffies were looking at me in a strange way.
Then there was the guildhall shopping centre and I use the phrase shopping centre very lightly.oh my god..... this has to be the worst indoor shopping centre in the u k....period. Its ideal if you want to weigh some gold in,grab 45 packets of crisps for a quid or pick up a decades worth of birthday cards and grab a mobile phone.
Now I,m not a snob but experience tells me that all these ghastly so called shops attract a different clientel. They are candy shops for the criminal and just what we all need to shift that stolen jewellery and nicked Xbox.
I,m now beginning to see that the major stores we once had in stafford
Didn't close but they actually jumped a sinking ship. JJB, hmw,co op the list goes on. The council are left with all these empty shops and in their utter desperation they are filling them with anything that surfaces from the sewers. Yet all they are doing is shuffling the chairs on the titanic.
what appears to be the biggest shop in stafford is that jumble sale of a shop called sports direct.I think the last time I went in there I ended up catching pneumonia it was that cold. What a complete mess inside,my 6 year olds bedroom is tidier.
I work hard,I work long unsociable hours and at the end of my week I want to spend some quality time with my wife and kids ,maybe browse some shops,treat the kids and grab a meal. Quite frankly that is not going to happen in stafford. In fact I only use stafford for a few things now and one of them is the train station,which enables me to get the hell out of stafford in a speedy fashion. Where do I go you ask.....
Well stafford needs to take a leaf out of Solihull. Its no bigger than stafford but its sheer class. Its a town centre that's been overhauled,nothing fancy in fact its probably not as attractive as stafford in terms of buildings however its a shining example as to what can be done with a town centre. It has an indoor shopping centre which isn't,t that big but its absolutely class,in fact the whole town centre is littered with high quality shops like John lewis,apple store,karen millen,Kurt Geiger,French connection, Pandora,phase eight the list goes on and on and on. You will NOT see pound land,cash for nicked gold,claims this and that. Nor are there 50 mobile phone shops like stafford is trying to achieve. There are no groups of chavs hanging around,no litter and no staffies tied up outside cash converters.Instead you get families browsing the many quality shops and food outlets on offer and the whole experience leaves stafford in its dust.
Solihull has a different class of shops which ultimately attracts a different type of folk. If you haven't been then I urge you to go ,I would much prefer to spend a tenner on fuel and a few quid on a world class car park and travel 40 mins to have a lovely day out. Its a sad state of affairs when I intentionally try and avoid my town centre. A town where I've lived all my adult life. In its current state Stafford is a disgrace. Its an awful shopping experience and with the influx of these cheap tatty bargain shops its getting worse. I suggest each and every council member who can influence any change pop over to Solihull and see what can be done.I just hope the penny drops because I no longer wish to take my young family into such a dive of a place on a Saturday afternoon and have to pay for it serves up.which is very little.
After my stressful trip which involved negotiating hundreds of set of traffic lights and utter traffic chaos and then falling victim to a crime by way of the car parking charges I ventured into the town centre. I turned the first corner to be greated with some claim shop solicitor type of mess,swiftly followed by something called cash converter. I didn't know this shop sold staffy dogs but I soon realised they weren't for sale and that they were tied up outside whilst their owners were converting something into cash.mmmm
My journey continued in disbelief, the town was absolutely littered with these type of shops. Cheap pound shops,cash for gold,and empty shops everywhere. What shops were left appeared to be closing.
I heard a rumour that primark were moving into the co op when .....yes you guessed it ....it closes. Now as much as I do like to go to primark for some cheap holiday clothes, it does fit in with what Stafford appears to be striving for and primark will fit in nicely besides cash convertors and many of the pound shops.If you should hurt yourself in the rush for all those cheap clothes or get bitten by a staffy as you walk by some gold for cash shop then you can feel safe that there are plenty of accident claim shops for your consideration.I was starting to feel overdressed in my smart jeans and shoes and primark jacket. Even the staffies were looking at me in a strange way.
Then there was the guildhall shopping centre and I use the phrase shopping centre very lightly.oh my god..... this has to be the worst indoor shopping centre in the u k....period. Its ideal if you want to weigh some gold in,grab 45 packets of crisps for a quid or pick up a decades worth of birthday cards and grab a mobile phone.
Now I,m not a snob but experience tells me that all these ghastly so called shops attract a different clientel. They are candy shops for the criminal and just what we all need to shift that stolen jewellery and nicked Xbox.
I,m now beginning to see that the major stores we once had in stafford
Didn't close but they actually jumped a sinking ship. JJB, hmw,co op the list goes on. The council are left with all these empty shops and in their utter desperation they are filling them with anything that surfaces from the sewers. Yet all they are doing is shuffling the chairs on the titanic.
what appears to be the biggest shop in stafford is that jumble sale of a shop called sports direct.I think the last time I went in there I ended up catching pneumonia it was that cold. What a complete mess inside,my 6 year olds bedroom is tidier.
I work hard,I work long unsociable hours and at the end of my week I want to spend some quality time with my wife and kids ,maybe browse some shops,treat the kids and grab a meal. Quite frankly that is not going to happen in stafford. In fact I only use stafford for a few things now and one of them is the train station,which enables me to get the hell out of stafford in a speedy fashion. Where do I go you ask.....
Well stafford needs to take a leaf out of Solihull. Its no bigger than stafford but its sheer class. Its a town centre that's been overhauled,nothing fancy in fact its probably not as attractive as stafford in terms of buildings however its a shining example as to what can be done with a town centre. It has an indoor shopping centre which isn't,t that big but its absolutely class,in fact the whole town centre is littered with high quality shops like John lewis,apple store,karen millen,Kurt Geiger,French connection, Pandora,phase eight the list goes on and on and on. You will NOT see pound land,cash for nicked gold,claims this and that. Nor are there 50 mobile phone shops like stafford is trying to achieve. There are no groups of chavs hanging around,no litter and no staffies tied up outside cash converters.Instead you get families browsing the many quality shops and food outlets on offer and the whole experience leaves stafford in its dust.
Solihull has a different class of shops which ultimately attracts a different type of folk. If you haven't been then I urge you to go ,I would much prefer to spend a tenner on fuel and a few quid on a world class car park and travel 40 mins to have a lovely day out. Its a sad state of affairs when I intentionally try and avoid my town centre. A town where I've lived all my adult life. In its current state Stafford is a disgrace. Its an awful shopping experience and with the influx of these cheap tatty bargain shops its getting worse. I suggest each and every council member who can influence any change pop over to Solihull and see what can be done.I just hope the penny drops because I no longer wish to take my young family into such a dive of a place on a Saturday afternoon and have to pay for it serves up.which is very little.
