Stafford town centre shops - Bad shopping experience?

cotty1974

cotty1974

A few posts under my belt
Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt said:
I'm getting a bit confused with the main thrust of your argument, are you now saying that people swear less in Solihull than they do in Stafford and that this is somehow connected to the type of shops? I have seen little evidence of this, indeed I have a friend who was mugged in broad daylight in Solihull - I don't personally know of anyone who has suffered the same in Stafford.

As I say I am confused, on the one hand you seem to be saying that you pretty much detest Stafford and the cheap shops, you then say well actually I use these shops from time to time and also in an earlier post claim to have lived in Stafford all of your life which begs the question if it is really that bad why are you still here? To my knowledge we don't enforce a Royston Vasey style "you'll never leave" policy - if there is one thing Stafford has going for it it is great access to transport links, perhaps you should use them - I hear Solihull is nice.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply, my main gripe with stafford is how I feel it has detoriated over the years and I refer to the town cente. From my early memories stafford had a decent town centre where you could pretty much get everything you needed. I feel nowadays the range of shops is very poor. Yes the current climate has led to some stores closing but I feel stafford has got it wrong with their balance of shops, just how many mobile phone shops can stafford have? On the queens retail park we already have b and m, pound world extra and pound stretcher. There is also a poundland in the guildhall and I,m pretty sure there is another b and m in the old sheriden centre.
I feel the powers that be are filling every vacant shop premesis with some cheap discount store. I feel stafford has it fair share of these shops and I would rather see something else. Whatever happened to Roy Townsend,Rowney s,fosters,Burton,good old radio rentals,etc.
I do feel that certain shops attract a small minority of individuals,and I refer to cash converters. It is an outlet for stolen goods.I have a friend who works in one in Birmingham and tells me some classic stories. I don't,t like these shops full stop and I don't,t like to see them in stafford. Hey I may have had a one off bad experience but if that shop wasn't there then I,m sure the idiots hanging outside wouldn't have been there.
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Shops are fluid, they reflect what people buy. If people don't buy then the shop closes, if they buy lots then competitors spring up. We have lost shops that weren't profitable and they have been replaced with ones that are (for now). There are no 'powers that be' in it I'm afraid, it is simple supply and demand. We have just come out of a very affluent period with a rather large bump, people paid over the odds for things so that shops like Roy Townsend could flourish. Now they are more careful with money, and can get the same products online cheaper anyway.
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
The vowels will be the first to go, apparently it is linked to curvature of the spine.



Click for the full comic.
 
A

andy w

Well-Known Forumite
Anyway, welcome Cotty1974 to the forum where your opinion is worth as much as anyone else's on here.
Whilst i agree that people shouldn't hold back and say it as it is, I class Stafford Forum as a 'Force for Good' where positive news and experiences can be shared by it's members and read by an even greater number of guests(as I write there is 61 online and this thread alone has had 615 visits) and I'm sure businesses have benefited from honest positive feedback(those Johny-one posts with gushing praise for particular businesses are pretty obvious).
As an aside I have been trying to find the thread started a few months ago when one member was exhaulting us all to spend a little extra locally to support local businesses. I'm sure someone with a better memory can point me in the right direction.
 
Wookie

Wookie

Official Forum Linker
People who complain about "bad language" - in fact, those who think that there *is* such a thing as "bad language" - should have it pointed out, with pretty pictures if possible, that language is just sounds.
What they are complaining about is the expression of "bad" *ideas*.
And if you want to control the ideas that people can express, might I suggest you move to Iran?
 
S

Serendi

Active Member
I feel a bit suspicious of these cash converting shops. Every time you hear about a burglary the things they take tend to be jewelery and small electronic goods like cameras, ipods, etc. And these are exactly the type of items that these shops will hand over cash for. They say they need ID but I have to wonder how much effort they put into checking that the ID is legitimate (ie. not fake or stolen).
 
age'd parent

age'd parent

50,000th poster!
Serendi said:
I feel a bit suspicious of these cash converting shops. Every time you hear about a burglary the things they take tend to be jewelery and small electronic goods like cameras, ipods, etc. And these are exactly the type of items that these shops will hand over cash for. They say they need ID but I have to wonder how much effort they put into checking that the ID is legitimate (ie. not fake or stolen).
Click to expand...

My wife does a bit of buying gold, (car boots etc) and reselling to these places, and I can confirm that they don't check hardly at all, a bill from any of the usual sources with your address on will do!
 
loveatfirstbite

loveatfirstbite

Well-Known Forumite
I cant speak for any other shop but I think I deserve an opinion on cash coverters... I stare at it all day!! I can only say that I worked opposite the cash converters unit a long time while it was empty. And those sweary naughty lads/ladettes WERE hanging outside of it before cash converters came along. And also there is a remarkable range of different ages/classes etc that go in and out. I also know a member of staff there (btw I've seen Ann from stafford ale house in there working - I beleive shes a manager) and most ppl who trade stuff in are just clearing out their lofts
 
The Tanning Shop Stafford

The Tanning Shop Stafford

A few posts under my belt
cotty1974 said:
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.
Click to expand...


I think we are missing the point. The reason why Stafford has so many empty shops and shops on low short term rent/Charity shops is because the town is completely over rented. JJB were paying over £150,000 per year rent and service charge and the unit next to Toni and Guy is up for rent for the last 7 years at £80,000. In addition to this Stafford Business rates are the highest in the Midlands and are based on out of date rents that were never achieved.
 
John Marwood

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
I think we are missing the point the reason why Stafford is looking so bleak is well documented in these pages.

Stafford is not unique in looking bereft of charm

Stafford is not Rochdale but it certainly will never be Chester or move to the sunny south east

We shop online, we are half an hour from the Bull Ring, we have had virtually no
new industry in the last ten years, we have a high reliance on fading public sector work, we also save money
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top