The last thing town needs!
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Posts
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Plans by Lidl to build a new supermarket on the site of the current police station make absolutely no sense at all. I would suggest the last thing the town needs is more shops! Perhaps Lidl would like to locate their new shop on the site of the old BHS or T J Hughes or Woolworth. Lidl also say it will increase the shop offering in town. Well, it is a long way to go to Salop Road to their current shop isn’t it!!
I’m not really knocking Lidl, I quite like shopping there, but they’re over egging the pudding with this plan!
This is what I love about the diverse views of the town. In the other thread I’m commenting on someone is lamenting the lack of shops in town and now in this one it’s about the last thing that town needs.
I think Lidl have pulled off quite a coup by securing this location.
A new Lidl being positioned at the police station site is all about strategically competing with the other discount supermarket Aldi who have 2 relatively in-town sites and also about being positioned to directly poach sales from Asda and Tesco. The discount supermarkets are a bit like leaches – they know people will want to buy items from the bigger supermarkets but will know at the same time people will be tempted to do a bulk of their shop for discount groceries and save money. So people drawn into Morissons/Sainsbury’s will do some of their shopping in the Aldis. So a diversion into a Lidl at the police station site will be highly convenient for those heading to Asda/Tesco for a big shop.
I know there’s a Lidl not that much further up the road for drivers but people really value a few minutes based on location if they perceive a shop to be on the wrong side of town. It’s also out of the way for foot shoppers.
Also, foot shoppers who use the bus will find the new Lidl location ideal – easier and quicker to get to than Iceland on Island Green & would cut an unfortunate hike all the way to Asda/Tesco in half.
Also if they offer some kind of free parking incentive if you shop there – like Iceland do on Island Green – then it will pull in loads more driving shoppers parking back up that end of town and hopefully by knock on effect drive more footfall into the streets up on the top end of town so the surrounding existing businesses also benefit.
I’m sure Lidl’s procurement and marketing people have done a lot of research before recommending the police station as a new site.
I wonder if the town’s planners are yet sensing a pattern. Supermarkets all setting up in a lovely circle around the town creating a wonderful doughnut. Each armed with a Car Park free for customer use, costs helped out by the lower rates outside the town centre.
Meanwhile, in the town, the once social hub of the community, top dollar Rates blended delicately with either no access, no parking or parking charges. It does seem perverse that the powers that be (and we’re not talking about WCBC alone) seem determined to see the old towns across the UK replaced by out of town shopping malls merely to have the towns looking run down and depressing.
There’s a huge amount of work going on to turn the town around but it does need a bit of the old common sense to come into play.
Based on all the information we provide on the internet when buying products, answering surveys, the profile of jobs and social status in the area Lidl will be armed with all the statistics necessary to determine that the site has a significant profit earning. They will have their target to shift some of the spends from all the other supermarkets and discounters before the ink was even dry on the contract paperwork.
With this level of data, the High Street retailers know where to invest and which shops they need to close due to making a loss.
You can’t blame the planners for permitting the development as commercial competition is not the grounds to refuse planning permission – if they did there would be an appeal and undoubtedly be successful and the Council would have to pay costs to the developer.
All that can be hoped is that the Council have secured Section 106 funding from the developer to invest in local amenities and schools.
Matt says “This is what I love about the diverse views of the town. In the other thread I’m commenting on someone is lamenting the lack of shops in town and now in this one it’s about the last thing that town needs.”
I should have written more clearly. My intention was to suggest that the town needs to fill the empty TC shops rather than build new ones.I agree, Lidl will have done their homework and yes Alunh, I agree with your second paragraph!
Rex Ham, that’s how I read your post, i.e. that the location of the new store is not what I think of as being in the town centre. It might be because I don’t have my own transport. The furthest I go on foot is to Tesco. I don’t go to Asda and I won’t be going to the new Lidl either. I’m disappointed because I would like to see more in the actual town centre. If the bus station were in a more central location I’d be pleased with the new Lidl location, but it does seem as though there are loads of facilities (outside of the town centre) for people with cars, and very little planning in terms of what’s available for people who do not have their own transport – both in terms of shops in the town centre and public transport.
I think the planning of retail locations is strange and haphazard in Wrexham – we have a town centre, but retail parks exist not actually in out-of-town locations but on the periphery, e.g. Plas Coch, Dunelm, Wickes. Even the newer shopping “hubs” in Wrexham were sited outside the actual town centre – Island Green and Eagles Meadow. It sometimes feels to me as if they (the council?) are doing all they can to avoid developing the town centre or that they’re even drawing people away from it. If you do not have your own transport and are on foot, it’s a lot of walking to do. It must be even more difficult for the elderly or infirm.
With what I consider to be a poor shopping experience in the town centre and the inconvenience of shops I would otherwise be interested in were they not on the periphery, I find myself doing more and more of my shopping online. Shoes, clothes, home furnishings, etc.The only way any Council can influence a development and its location is by controlling the infrastructure of connecting roads. As most Councils across the OK do not own much of the land in a Town Centre or peripheral areas they cannot determine who develops the sites that are often owned by a very large number of landlords. It is only the likes of Llandudno where a single landlord (Mostyn Estates ) that a greater influence can be brought to bear.
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