Welcome to Stafford Forum. Please or sign-up and start posting!
I'm quite aware that things change and we have to move on with the times but Stafford isn't doing anything. By looking at what we had we can see how bad things are now. The town is fast becoming a ghost town. We may have some decent trade still left in the town but how long will it stay, everything is closing down fast. It's okay to say we're lucky to have these shops but for how long. Even with the farmers market. The indoor market is slowly disappearing too, have you seen the empty stalls there? Apart from the market butcher I cannot think of a town centre butcher either, just some that are local to certain areas. You may not have had these things where you come from but we have had them and we want to keep them.Wormella said:Hey - I'm a newcomer here, I'm not talking about what used to be. From what I see now you still have butchers, fishmongers, bakeries, veg shops in the centre of town - not to mention the market. A art supply shop, framing shops, haberdashery, camping shops.
I lived in the centre of Liverpool for 3 years - there was none of this - we had to use the little Tesco or Sainsbury in the town (the expensive ones full of ready meals and no actual ingredients). There was a market but primarily it sold trainers and hand bags - not much in the way of food. There was one or two delicatessents but they increasingly sold faddy things (multi coloured pasta and £8 a bar chocolates etc), not proper food or ingredients.
It is possible to do your weekly shop in town - but Tek Monkey does raise a good point when he says it's inconvenient if you work 9-5, but town is bustling on a Saturday, especially if it's a farmers market (2nd Saturday of the month) - but it will only stay that way if people use it. We do use Supermarkets too - but we try and balance what we buy. If we can get it in town, then we will.
I couldn't beleive it when I walked past on the way to work and they were putting up the 3 mobile sign!?! Eh?MISS T said:The former TSB branch on Gaolgate St is opening as Three Mobile, cos we need another phone shop. The other half of the unit is to be converted for a new Betfred shop.
The main thing to do and the thing we can all do is actually shop at the local shops. It's all very well saying this and that needs to be done by the council or the lease holders or who ever else but the main reason why the independent shops are failing is that people don't buy from them. If you want them here then you need to go and support them. Yes you might have to pay a bit more but the cost of not doing is a shopping ghost town serviced by supermarkets.labcm said:If nothing is done about Stafford soon it will end up the same way, if not worse.
sorry but talking from expererience i disagree - people would shop at them if they were more central. basically people dont want to have to work hard to try and find/walk a distance to a shop...thats just human nature.Doctor said:The main thing to do and the thing we can all do is actually shop at the local shops. It's all very well saying this and that needs to be done by the council or the lease holders or who ever else but the main reason why the independent shops are failing is that people don't buy from them. If you want them here then you need to go and support them.
That was Joystix, used it a lot. Closed a while ago though, Ron now works for the CPS.FooFighter said:a long time ago (20 years) there used to be something similar where the Two Fat Goblins are housed
With a lot of retail jobs being 7 days a week you quite often find you have days off in the middle of the week, or at least my husband does.tek-monkey said:To be honest, I am always amazed at how many people are in the town in the week. Do they all have jobs outside standard hours, or do we have more than our fair share of people on benefits?