kevofaz25 Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 Noticed today that Starbucks has shut/re-located to Golden Square. The number of empty units in Bridge Street is beginning to get out of hand. Has the council any plans to address this issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 Can't say I blame them (Starbucks that is). We keep reading about the so called future plans for Bridge Strret but unless something is done about the area VERY SOON no new business in their right mind will go there let alone any existing ones be able to survive its decay. It is even more important that something is done ASAP with the current economic crisis as so many local businesses are either failing or looking for any possible way to stay afloat. Bridge Street is a DEAD zone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 They could of course, close the Golden Square and demolish it; then the shops would have to re-locate back to Bridge St! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Settle Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Noticed today that Starbucks has shut/re-located to Golden Square. The number of empty units in Bridge Street is beginning to get out of hand. Has the council any plans to address this issue? I woner if we have any councillors on here who can answer the question. Bridge street is certainly becoming a no trade buffer zone. You have to admire McDonalds for staying their ground but are they loosing out financially and then there is Steve the Market Manager whose doing a great job I wonder what his views are? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 It's like drawing teeth: look, there is a finite level of customer demand, which implies an optimum level of supply in terms of retail outlets. Now you can bottle them all up in the Golden Square; locate them "out of Town" or locate them in your historic high streets - the latter option has clearly been discarded, hence the death of Bridge Street. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 I fail to see any benefit from carping on about the demise of Bridge street; you can't expect businesses to stay just because it is Bridge Street. Build some skittles at both ends and close it off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LymmParent Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Oh good grief! Major name retailers want large, modern stores. Shoppers want major name retailers. Offer modern units in a mall and you bring business to town. To rejuvenate Bridge Street, build the Mall into a major attraction. Bring in big names, add in smaller shops and specialists, finish with good coffee shops and nice toilets plus free parking, including coaches, and you create wealth for the town. THEN you can slipstream by using the extra rates to pedestrianise and install beautiful fountains and plant trees to tempt people out into the wider area. Then you offer advantageous terms on Bridge Street premises to businesses wanting to get into Warrington's thriving shopping centre. Or you can sit on your gormless backside, whining about skittles and saying "Bridge Street or bog off" to everyone and watch them pick the latter option! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 LP you are talking sense Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Kennedy Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 I wonder if we have any councillors on here who can answer the question. Urrrr.... No. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LymmParent Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 LP you are talking sense Well, I just get cross when people start being silly. WBC are duffers indeed at times, but how are they supposed to make major retailers WANT premises in Bridge Street that aren't fit for purpose? I can't make my kids WANT sprouts at Christmas..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 I can't make my kids WANT sprouts at Christmas..... But I bet they have to eat them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LymmParent Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Nope. I was forced to ingest them on a weekly basis as a child, which in my case invoved cutting them into sixteenths and swallowing them like pills with a mouthful of water. I swore I would never make my children eat something they had tasted and genuinely disliked. They eat and enjoy plenty of equally beneficial fruit and veg, so why hassle? It saddens me to find you think I'm a fire-breathing dragon. I'm very nice really - bake cakes and don't put stingy stuff on cuts. I just get a bit riled when people are being silly or unfair, or both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Sprouts! How can anyone NOT like sprouts?? They're lovely!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Oh good grief! Major name retailers want large, modern stores. Shoppers want major name retailers. Offer modern units in a mall and you bring business to town. To rejuvenate Bridge Street, build the Mall into a major attraction. Bring in big names, add in smaller shops and specialists, finish with good coffee shops and nice toilets plus free parking, including coaches, and you create wealth for the town. THEN you can slipstream by using the extra rates to pedestrianise and install beautiful fountains and plant trees to tempt people out into the wider area. Then you offer advantageous terms on Bridge Street premises to businesses wanting to get into Warrington's thriving shopping centre. Or you can sit on your gormless backside, whining about skittles and saying "Bridge Street or bog off" to everyone and watch them pick the latter option! LP .... YOU have got the job Pitty those in charge don't have the same level of sense and foresight as you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 ...thinking about it though Bridge street is already padestrianised and already has fountains and trees (and that's not tempted any new businesses yet)... so did I misinterpret what you meant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LymmParent Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 My point was that WBC is already doing the things that give Bridge Street the best chance of recovery. The fountains and seating are lovely, the pedestrianisation of that great big section has created a great area for shopping with the kids - fast food, kiddie rides, street entertainment; it all draws people out of the Mall and into the town. A push on targeting desirable businesses and offering some financial incentive for the first few years should see everything blooming again. As for new business, deary me, there's a mall full of them! Not to mention someone wanting to tag a supermarket onto the Mall...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LymmParent Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Sprouts! How can anyone NOT like sprouts?? They're lovely!! Apparently it is genetic. Some people have tastebuds that object to the chemicals in brassicas - cabbage, sprouts et al - and that's that. I love cauliflower, but really cannot stand green cabbage or sprouts, even now. I am growing some for my nephew, who adores them, and my sister seriously thought about serving sprout soup at her wedding. What kind of lunatic put it on a wedding menu selector is yet to be established - can you imagine 200 people in an enclosed space after that and a load of booze? Fortunately, I prevailed, otherwise it could have been right up there with other natural disasters!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 You have saved the ozone layer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LymmParent Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Dunno about that, but I reckon several of the smaller kids would have been at serious risk in the lower atmospheric layers in there, and with one stray spark off the lucky horseshoes..... well, they'd have been cleaning wedding cake off the ceiling for weeks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Alas, LP fails to address the supply and demand equation - demand is finite and skittles and fountains won't cure that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Surely supply and demand works both ways? If the council are demanding too much in tax and car park charges to attract business to the town then the obvious answer is for them to lower the charges and, eventually, to reap the reward of higher revenues. Unfortunately the socialist ideals we are subjected to these days don't accept such radical ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Errm nope: throughout the N/West or at least a Warrington catchment area, their is a finite level of potential demand; with each Town and retail centre competing for a piece of that foot-fall. Now we could, instead of charging for car-parking, actually pay folk to park in the T/C; but then so would other Towns, so you'd be back to square one. As I've said. Golden Square has hoovered up the high street shops, with "out of Town" s/markets claiming the rest - so basically a catch 22. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LymmParent Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Supply and demand is finite? For shopping? Please don't talk nonsense..... if you were correct to any degree, then the diversion of this finite purchasing resource to the buying of computer games, consoles, ipods and mobile phones would have led to the depletion of funding for groceries and half the population would have starved to death, wouldn't they? Or be compensating from their clothing allocation and running round naked whilst M&S went bust. Not happened, has it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 EERM yes! Make your town more attractive and people will come. It comes down to more than shops, as LP said there need to be coffee shops, restaurants (NOT McDs!!) events. Come on, people are paid good council tax money to come up with ideas, I'm just a simple sailor! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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