Another Proposed Supermarket for the Town.
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Border retail park has plenty of empty units and a rather large car park, which is free of charge. Why not there?
[quote quote=97465]Border retail park has plenty of empty units and a rather large car park, which is free of charge. Why not there?
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Because they obviously don’t want to!!!!!!!I despair!
[quote quote=97419]With TKMaxx relocating , their old store on the Island Green would be ideal for a supermarket in the town centre , that car park is privately owned so perhaps they could come up with scheme that would cover the car parking charges making it free for Aldi shoppers. We need something creative to bring new energy to the Town Centre.
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Yes.. perhaps a supermarket that specialises in frozen food? Like… Iceland?
[quote quote=97465]Border retail park has plenty of empty units and a rather large car park, which is free of charge. Why not there?
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Benjamin despairs Pinky02……never a good sign. To answer your question more directly. Aldi are a commercial operation which requires a low cost, accessible, large, well located unit to retail from. They probably prefer to customise their units to a template and will build from scratch if they can’t find an existing suitable unit. The shops within the town are often large (like TJ Hughes) but they are not accessible where Car Parking is concerned. Additionally, whilst town centre units lack the vital Car Parking amenity, their Rates are nevertheless top dollar. This could be addressed if the Council were to act imaginatively and make space available for town centre parking for the shops accessible and free (and time limited where free). It could also be addressed ifv the Welsh Assembly addressed the Rates question which makes it much cheaper for Aldi to operate outside of the town and perhaps even cheaper on non-traditional land. Ultimately, Aldi, as Benjamin insinuates, will open where it makes most commercial sense….and so would I. Aldi is not the problem here but it is the upside world that encourages town centres to die that must be blamed
Fully agree with Alunh that there is no commercial sense for a supermarket chain to establish a town centre shop whilst there are so few people living in the town within walking distance to compensate for lack of car parking and the creation of a’destination’ shop.
The social / demographic profile information that supermarkets use to assess site potential is based on predictability of spending power and location footfall and traffic flow. We should remember that the supermarket chains and marketeers gather so much information on our buying habits that they know within aprox 10% what everyone will be buying (very scary stuff but we readily give info through the use of loyalty cards, credit cards , on line surveys etc)
I would hope those involved with the development of the ‘Master Plan’ are using all of this predictability data as well as the Council as currently the largest town centre employer informing the Plan about how many staff they will have office based in the town within 5 year as lots of these are part of the lunch time economy.
The second largest town centre employer Colleg Cambria should be a major influence in the provision of shops and services for staff and the ever increasing number of students,The discounters seem to be doing this nationwide these days, setting up as near as possible to the big boys knowing that they are likely to take a notable percentage of their business. This strategy appears to be working for them, for example it wasn’t the Lidl store in Gwersyllt that closed was it..? Doubt many have much sympathy for any of the big four TBH, this is only what they have been doing to their competition for the past 30 years or so. That said, Wrexham is raining supermarkets already, for the size of the town the amount it has is ridiculous.
[quote quote=97465]Border retail park has plenty of empty units and a rather large car park, which is free of charge. Why not there?
[/quote]Isn’t there currently restrictions in place on the type of commercial property use for the shops on Border retail park?
I’m sure I recall something on here saying no food related business is allowed on there?
The new gym had to get a slight change to allow them to open there.
**Ignore this – I am thinking of the central one by Pizza Hut**
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