Stafford shops closing - Turning into a ghost town?

Thehooperman

Well-Known Forumite
Mmm, “A Gathering of Politicians” Is there a correct collective noun for a group of (tory?) politicians ? If not, this could be a fun Around-the-Table Christmas game, how about . . .

A Corruption
An Incompetence
A Smirk
An Odium
A Backhander
An Abhorrence
A Smegma
I think "A Boris" covers all of those and so much more.
 

Zylo

Well-Known Forumite
Guild hall

We have been advised that NCP have returned the lease for the car park to the landlord.
Mailshots are currently being sent out by NCP to their season ticket holders, and in light of this they are informing customers that all cars need to be removed from the car park by 11.59pm tonight.
As we understand it at the moment, the landlord is subsequently not reopening the car park, though I should hopefully know more about this for definite tomorrow.
We can only apologise for the short notice on this, we only found out ourselves today.
Many thanks
Centre management
 

Tumble weed

Well-Known Forumite
Fone Junction has closed down.
 

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timmo

Well-Known Forumite
An AliExpress reseller has closed down.
I’ve no idea how retailers afford to keep going, looked into taking over the old bates’ when the gin parlour closed but the takings required to break even (even by our fag packet economics) was prohibitive.
 

Tumble weed

Well-Known Forumite
I’ve no idea how retailers afford to keep going, looked into taking over the old bates’ when the gin parlour closed but the takings required to break even (even by our fag packet economics) was prohibitive.
You'd stand a fighting chance if the businesses around you actually attracted customers to town, as is the town's extremely poor offering , it consists of second hand shops mostly, bars, vape shops, coffee shops and barbers .

Every business that goes has a knock of effect, noticed when the cinema closed, the tuck shop next door went a few months later.
 

timmo

Well-Known Forumite
You'd stand a fighting chance if the businesses around you actually attracted customers to town, as is the town's extremely poor offering , it consists of second hand shops mostly, bars, vape shops, coffee shops and barbers .

Every business that goes has a knock of effect, noticed when the cinema closed, the tuck shop next door went a few months later.
Too true, the domino effect is quite obvious as the top end of town shows. There's been a steady creep into the centre of shops going that's gotten more and more noticeable.
 

Tumble weed

Well-Known Forumite
Burger Priest has dropped their Stafford branch , but it's been took over by an independent company by the look of it.

Not sure if this is another indication that the Riverside development wasn't as great as first though, or maybe the company themselves just wanted to downsize / spin underperforming restaurants into a new company.
 

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Wormella

Well-Known Forumite
Burger Priest has dropped their Stafford branch , but it's been took over by an independent company by the look of it.

Not sure if this is another indication that the Riverside development wasn't as great as first though, or maybe the company themselves just wanted to downsize / spin underperforming restaurants into a new company.

Telford's is also a 'The Confessional', as are ones in York and Bury - I'm assuming spin off company too.
 
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Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Burger Priest has dropped their Stafford branch , but it's been took over by an independent company by the look of it.

Not sure if this is another indication that the Riverside development wasn't as great as first though, or maybe the company themselves just wanted to downsize / spin underperforming restaurants into a new company.
It wasn’t a very good place to get a bite anyway, not nearly as bad as Big Bite but their burgers were bland, dry slabs of meat.

They may well be rebranding given what @Wormella has said.

Free parking is what Riverside needs, right now there’s other places for people to park in town that will drive them away from the complex. I think some of the need stores swapping out too - IMO Vision Express isn’t a good store for there as you don’t pop into it spontaneously, and people only go once every year or so, so it’s hardly a footfall driver. It’s an “obligation” store more than anything, not something you want in a complex with limited units.

I imagine rent is a factor too, it absolutely could have been a good setup but I imagine the rent is probably stupid money.

On that note, there’s still a handful of units at Kingsmead that need filling too. I imagine that’s a mixture of rent and also anyone who’s even dealt with business property before will look at it and go “yeah this will cost a fortune to kit out” because they didn’t bother putting any AC in when building it, and we all know what happened when B&M didn’t bother doing that when they moved in.
 
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Tumble weed

Well-Known Forumite
Different limited companies set up for the same address though , I can only assume they either want to not pay a license for the brand , a franchise has went AWOL, and went alone, or they plan on ring fencing the good ones and liquidating the others, or selling them as a growing concern.


 
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