Matt
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That’s an internal intranet URL so the good folks of the rest of the internet can’t see it – getting a 404.
Trouble at the old mill – council workers criticising the council from within – seems to be a lot of that lately – well done WCBC.
Minor Injuries Unit – that’s an incredibly sensible and reasonable suggestion and for that reason we’ll never get one in a million years.
Alun – you fall into my special category of ‘unless something is being offered that isn’t available cheaper elsewhere then people won’t bite’.
Vinyl scene is incredibly trend bucking – I know from being dragged round all the record stores & record fairs by my dad back in the day that these places especially now there’s been the revival that it’s something you would struggle to replace with just the internet. Music enthusiasts just love the mystery of what they might find amongst the thousands of titles.
There’s no mystery online when you search eBay, Google, Discogs etc… and you instantly know what’s there and you can’t inspect the quality of the vinyl – no tactile element – can’t ask for it to be played etc. That’s the type of store where you build up a community of regular buyers who will tell their friends via word of mouth etc…
I dare say the same would apply to other collectible type second hand stores – but Wrexham doesn’t seem to have as many in general of this type of specialist store as the lines of Mold & Oswestry. Nothing has ever replaced Granny Midges.
My main line of attack was on the generic high street stores really – a long time ago I got bored of traipsing round shops in various towns and cities because they were just cookie cutters – like we have in Eagles Meadow. Who wants to go to Liverpool to visit a slightly bigger Primark or you get people desperately trolling round Cheshire Oaks hoping for a few quid off some designer sunglasses. It is so bloody tedious – far better things to be doing with time. Find me the cheapest of product x online and click, click – bought – next day delivery.
So despite my lack of optimism – I do hope for the best for stores that are a bit different & are worth recommending to friends and family. I do think they could do with serious rate relief for smaller units then as you say it would give the likes of craft businesses or specialists to have the incentive to perhaps move their cottage industry from their homes out into Wrexham.
These remaining spaces – what would I want from them? Perhaps more entertainment type businesses – there is a distinct lack of imagination when it comes to things to do in Wrexham – other places even have things like Indoor Crazy Golf, there’s no decent indoor soft play area in Wrexham (the kids love the one in Oswestry). How about a comedy club – people go in their droves to William Aston – so there’d be a market for people to enjoy more local talent.
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.
Thanks Councillor x, I like the glitter analogy – sounds like unicorn shit!
Rondetto, just for clarification when I say high street – I mean the concept of the high street in general – as in retail units within a town centre area that people typically would walk around and shop – so I also include Eagles Meadow within that general concept – as it includes what we would call essentially high street national chain stores such as M&S, Debenhams and Boots. So I very much suspect that is also going to run into the same problems if we see any more major chains closing down more stores (I know M&S is – but Wrexham is safe for now).
If either M&S or Debenhams does leave town centre then Eagles Meadow will be in big trouble as there’s nobody to fill the void of such huge units (House of Fraser anyone – haha).
The fact that the other thread got derailed means it sounds like very few people really care about whether or not some block paving is refurbished. Things wear out – people soon complain if the roads get worn out and I daresay it’s the same if paving starts to wear down. Seems relatively sensible to me.
Your original post wasn’t really all about block paving – in reality it was just another reason to have a dig at the town centre. Find me these fabled retailers who are going to occupy retail spaces when large national stores are closing down hundreds of stores each across the country and laying off thousands of retailer workers – Not opening new stores. Meanwhile the likes Amazon buys up more and more warehouse space on the cheap and the cheap supermarkets Lidl, Aldi etc… lay out more and more discount stores.
The high street is dead – long live the high street. To be fair in the last 12 months various initiatives have been put in place to move different commercial things into town and try and rejuvenate the centre – but you can’t force landlords to put tenants into buildings if good quality tenants don’t exist.
Organically the middle of Wrexham will change – it’s currently in a transition period – but for those still hell bent on looking at the high street through rose tinted glasses of the golden days of shopping in the 80s and 90s need to accept it’s just not going to happen whilst the costs to run a retail establishment in the middle of town with town centre rents/rates and the cost to employ enough staff to run a shop to then charge someone £5 (plus parking charges) for an item being sold for £3 online with free delivery just isn’t going to work as a sustainable business model. People can bang their fists on the table all they like and say SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES – but as people are price sensitive unless something is being offered that isn’t available cheaper elsewhere then people won’t bite.
[quote quote=154562]Being obscenely wealthy, I never visit Wrexham in person.
I gently glide above, silently, in my enormous gold-plated Zeppelin whilst sipping vintage champagne and laughing maniacally.
It’s a grand life.[/quote]Now that they know – they’ll be onto you – to invade your space.
My favourite thing about your story eyeman is that the town’s name hasn’t been mentioned to protect its identity & reputation. We should play a game of guess the town.
[quote quote=154503]They had been sitting outside the lady told me and was asked by a woman for a cigarette, when they said they didn’t smoke the woman let fly with: You F…G snobs, who the F..k do you think you are. It’s my home town but I admit I feel ashamed at the way it is right now.[/quote]
You’d think with the cost of cigs these days that things would rapidly be the reverse case. The state on some people.
AMA I have no measures. I just know about the shocking amount in the thousands that certain large stores are losing through theft just within half a year period and nothing is being done about it.
Some of the larger retailers honestly don’t seem to care about it. You see how many have store detectives present every day. Not every store has its security tagging measures up and running. CCTV not consistently being checked and monitored.
Perhaps it is the case that they view the £££ thousands in lost stock not as worth as much as cost of security measures to prevent it from happening and have relevant insurance cover to offset some of those losses as well.
To point out an issue doesn’t mean you have to have a comprehensive plan to prevent it. I know you work security and I’m not saying it’s those firms that are useless. I’m saying retailers in this hostile economic environment are cutting costs and basically just writing off loss of stock.
You look at how many hundreds of large retail chain stores are being proposed to close down across the country and you can see a losing battle is being fought across the board.
