Town's boom and gloom?

PPPPPP

Well-Known Forumite
Whisper is that Riverslide developers are hoping to sign up a three-storey branch of Trilbies R US to fill the void. If all goes according to plan the council expect to attract a Werther's Original megastore. Exciting times.
 

Feed The Goat

Well-Known Forumite
The only boom required for Stafford Town Centre should have been provided by Fred Dibnah. The centre is now way too spread out, with the few decent shops being dragged down by all the dross. Most of people I speak to don't even bother going into town any more.
 

CreamCake

Well-Known Forumite
Just got back from sheffield meadowhall centre with £500 burning a hole in our pocket (birthdays and a bit of savings) blew the lot and had a brilliant days shopping. The traffic was a pain but it's a small price to pay for such a good shopping experience.
Stafford cannot compete with these types of shopping destinations so why do people expect so much from our town centre?
 

Wormella

Well-Known Forumite
I feel that Misters might have had greater footfall if their range of clothing extended to appeal to the under 80s.


Yes, I think this is a big issue with Misters, and I suspect Greenwood's more prominent location on Greengate street has done in it's rental trade.

I quite like the town center, I don;t think it's spread out at all, just the opposite, and I probably pop into town on a daily basis when I'm not in work, and even then sometime I'll swing by on my way up to work, but then I'm in 10mins walking distance of town - by design I'll add - so parking issues etc don't affect me. I'm also very aware of what's in town if I need to buy it, and if I need to save things up for a trip to Brum, which I do pretty much every month anyway, or buy online.

I'm not saying I'm not excited about the new development, I am, It's great to see large scale investment in this town, and I'm sure it will change the town as it is now, but that's natural in any changing environment.

It depends on what you desire from a shopping experience really...
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
It depends on what you desire from a shopping experience really...

Basically, what aldi offers.

Decent produce at good prices, no nonsense approach and a no f***ing about policy at the tills.

Stack 'em high sell 'em cheap - my kinda place.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
People are different, apart from Wilkinson's, Lidl, Maplin and Screwfix, I don't really care about anything that's arrived in the town in the last couple of decades. I do miss lots, though, Bagnall's, County Woodware, The Handyman, all the record shops, Harvey's Bookshop, Bob Picken's Book Cave, etc, but I suspect that there's not enough people like me for it to be worth them carrying on, and the world is changing...

I do know people who bought something online, when I pointed out that they could get it now for the same price from a shop (which is now shut) only 250 yards from their house - and also avoid all the delivery problems.

I'm probably just not a class of shopper that it's worth catering for any more.
 

andy w

Well-Known Forumite
And yet successive governments and landlords still treat town centre retailers as cash cows and are oblivious to the realities of the changes in retailing.
 

McPhee

Well-Known Forumite
I suspect Salter Street is the problem here. Nobody does well on Salter Street. There's practically no footfall. It's essentially Mill Street's poor, unloved cousin. Despite all the good press, even Bean enCounter isn't doing as well as it should - it's nothing like as busy as Number 15, Costa or Starbucks.
 

markpa12003

Well-Known Forumite
Hopefully, the footfall in Salter Street will be increased following the Kingsmead development. This area should be performing better than it does.
 

Gareth

Well-Known Forumite
Its a shame with these nice independent but I agree you have to cater to modern demand and Misters was in a prime place; as Mr Lewis points out shops come and go all the time and at some point the life of a certain will come to end. In the last 20 years how many premises in town have not had more than 1 owner.

It is odd though as no mention is made of Morrisons/ Pets at Home (or whatever) and B&M which will turn the weekday footfall at North Walls into from people parking for work to people shopping with 2 hours free parking thrown in (as is the plan at the moment).
 

Gareth

Well-Known Forumite
Depends as what you see as negative and positive really.

Negative- sad that the 2 mentioned have gone, but to compared to the positive:

positive: Big brand shops Stafford folk have been calling for years coming to town; Tesco car park gone and improvements to surrounding area, jobs in the region of 850 in total; money being spent in Stafford and its town centre improving economy, potential positive knock on effects elsewhere; new cinema, the fact that councils are not resting on their laurels and still looking to enhance the town; Stafford still at 91% occupancy compared to national 86%
Added to this it is announced that £600,000 will be spent of the riverside walk from the development to fairway bridge, improving, motorcycle parking near the river/ civic offices, removing graffiti, additional lighting and resolving the footpath flooding issue amongst a few things.

I know what I would take out of those 2.

Markpa is spot on is Salter Street should do better
 

ChrisLewis

Well-Known Forumite
Ice Cream.jpg
New Retailer on Greengate Street

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ChrisLewis

Well-Known Forumite
what is questionable is why do our local paper believe that a person retiring and at that point making a very usual business decision is front page news, shame on the Staffordshire Newsletter for now stirring up a hornets nest of doom and gloom when as Gareth mentions so much is going in a positive direction for the town. OK it could always be better, but you do have to look at all of the positive things happening in the locality and realise we are so much better off than some areas and towns.
 

PPPPPP

Well-Known Forumite
Agree with ChrisLewis: how can a shop owner retiring be front page news when the borough council leader is being investigated by the police, there have been two suicides in the planning department, and another councillor has been charged with benefits fraud?

Gareth: "... councils are not resting on their laurels and still looking to enhance the town"

Do you really think councils have any laurels to rest on, and / or ever enhanced the town?!
 

markpa12003

Well-Known Forumite
Do you really think councils have any laurels to rest on, and / or ever enhanced the town?!

We need to distinguish between Stafford Council and the local councillors. I think Stafford Council has done a good job in attracting new investment into the town, however, I do think they have been slow in bringing it forward.

As for councillors, they are law to themselves and in my experience they are only interested in serving their own interest. "Laurels, morals...many have neither!"
 
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