Wrexham Monday Outdoor Market
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Posts
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Why is it that hardly any stalls come to Wrexham any more, this morning there was the meat man and plant man and that was it, there aren’t that many more even on non bank holiday Mondays.
Mold has well over 50 stalls every Wednesday and Saturday, there must be a reason why they don’t come to Wrexham ?
Good question.
Markets are like everything else in life. Someone has to take them seriously and organise them for success. Success doesn’t come by chance. 5% of it is inspiration, 95% perspiration.
The Manchester Metropolitan University have reports available that estimate that Markets (if run successfully) can add perhaps 25% extra to the foot-flow of a town. The old-style Markets won’t do it anymore but modern facing Markets will. There are templates to follow, other towns to copy, ideas to pinch.
I can’t really understand why no one has convened a big meeting in Wrexham to explore what type of Markets the town should have going forward. The Peoples Market was canned before such an exercise could be undertaken but we still have the Outdoor Markets, the General Market, the Butchers Market and Ty Pawb. Questions need to be floated concerning the likely customers of our town’s Markets, the ideal location of the Outdoor Market, the brand identities of the various Market components, and so on. Bury, Shrewsbury and Altrincham appear to have got their act together and I went in Ellesmere Port the other week, and that was impressive. The Outdoor Market needs a high profile location that allows a spin-off for the indoor Markets, it needs a fall back ability to move indoors or even be located indoors……..in brief, it needs someone to sit down and ask the questions…..and come up with some answers
Alunh There are meetings presently being held by the Council to try and determine the way forward for the markets.
There has been a public consultation period, I think it ended mid August in which the public were asked what they required from the markets.
This is being followed up by a Task & Finish Group made up of Councillors.In 2016 there were sums of money quoted to bring the two indoor markets up to a reasonable standard. Alas that’s where it ended. So come 2019 and no further forward, the Council who have not a lot of ideas on how to run a market have resulted in asking the public. How much confidence one may have in a Councilor led Task & Finish Group I for one am holding my breath.
I was aware of that Jim. In fact, I filled in the survey form concerning the Markets.
The problem that I have when I hear that these Task & Finish groups are looking at the optimal way to develop the Markets is the level of expertise that they contain. Developing appropriate Retail strategies in a town like Wrexham for the Markets requires high level Marketeer skills and I really do hope that they have people on board in the group that understand the complex issues in play.
All decisions concerning the way forward for the Markets have to factor in the nature of the Wrexham consumer as it stands, the available consumers moving forward, the infra-structure available for usage, the budget potentially deployable and so on. Most of all, the Markets, both indoor and outdoor have been adversely affected by a one-size-fits-all approach to Rents in an age when something more subtle is required. After all, if a football team has to pay different wages to attract (say) a full back as opposed to (say) a striker, it may well be the case that Rents have to be tailored to need to gain variety of trader. Ultimately, it is the variety that will be important and whilst I am all in favour of having no Covenant, variety of stall is vital
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