M + S in the Boro shutting

Subbuteo_171 said:
Destinations are the name of the game for physical shopping, Leeds, Newcastle , Manchester etc that can support shoppers plus have the added benefits of more restaurants, bars, things to do etc

York is dead on its **** shopping wise its all about the food/drink/sniff/fight (delete as applicable).

Some smaller market towns appear to be doing ok from what I’ve seen, Beverley, Northallerton as examples although I concede the sample size is small and I don’t go to either too often.

Maybe if we binned / massively reformed business rates then physical shops would be more attractive.
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True about business rates - seen as a cash cow for many many years by Councils and General Government. Now retailers are no longer willing to pay or able to pay.

The markets towns listed are middle class - look at Bishop Auckland or Redcar and they are struggling, Scarborough too.

I agree the major cities are destinations and have a significant number of young professionals. In some cases work has been moved from town to the cities.
 
Years ago we didn’t have department stores etc, we just ate from the fields and asked auntie to sew something on the singer!

With so many stores electing to move to a more digital format with their brands I don’t think it’s such a bad thing although you could argue it leaves the Boro looking like a ghost town in the interim.

Personally I think it’s happening just about everywhere, so don’t get too discouraged just because M&S has been such a part of the Boro decorations for such a long time. It’s all part of the process of building a better future. Maybe we can level Teesside park and return back into farmlands— back to the future.
 
Expat Smoggie said:
Years ago we didn’t have department stores etc, we just ate from the fields and asked auntie to sew something on the singer!

With so many stores electing to move to a more digital format with their brands I don’t think it’s such a bad thing although you could argue it leaves the Boro looking like a ghost town in the interim.

Personally I think it’s happening just about everywhere, so don’t get too discouraged just because M&S has been such a part of the Boro decorations for such a long time. It’s all part of the process of building a better future. Maybe we can level Teesside park and return back into farmlands— back to the future.
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Are you sure the future is going to be better 😗
 
Keats wrote of the joy of seeing fields of daffodils.

In the future poets will write about the beauty of fields of giant grey windowless warehouses and vast fleets of anonymous white vans. While Middlesbrough will be like New York in the film "Escape from New York City".
 
There were a few shops that I loved in London. The big HMV and top man on Oxford Street. The big Tower records store in picadilly circus. And paperchase. Now they all gone. I would quite happily turn the internet off. Am thinking of forming a terrorist group to do this. First step get employed by civil contingency in the home office to find out where the internet is kept. Step 2 blow it up.
 
Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret said:
There were a few shops that I loved in London. The big HMV and top man on Oxford Street. The big Tower records store in picadilly circus. And paperchase. Now they all gone. I would quite happily turn the internet off. Am thinking of forming a terrorist group to do this. First step get employed by civil contingency in the home office to find out where the internet is kept. Step 2 blow it up.
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Is that you Mr Robot?
 
The business model of M&S in non-affluent towns doesn't work anymore. It hasn't for quite a while now. The demographic who made it work are largely not coming into town centres. They're going to places like Teesside Park. It's almost like a two tier society in some respects. A large % of people in town centres like Middlesbrough will be not so well off compared to those at Teesside Park who will be better off. That's why you see so many vacant shops at one and full occupancy and long waiting lists at the other.

When you think about it, it's a seismic change historically. Previous generations didn't experience this and it's a shock to the system for some. Town centres that were once the hub of the wider community are losing their identity and significance. I think there'll be a fair number of local people who might have hardly visited Boro centre in the last decade, if at all. That's a sign of the times.

How does everyone think Middlesbrough's town centre strategy will go? That's turning Captain Cook square into a leisure park. One would of thought it will be a hub for gangs of kids to hang around. Or is it aimed at students? Will be interesting to see.
 
Redwurzel said:
True about business rates - seen as a cash cow for many many years by Councils
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How long is it since councils had a say in what business rates apply?

The deterioration in Teesside's main towns are all about poverty and the inability of the local populace to spend enough to keep the shops open.

Areas where High Street shops are still managing to hold their own are in major cities and pockets of wealth.
 
i heard that it was (at the time a few years ago) cheaper to keep the store open making a loss than paying the owner of the building out of the lease that they had just signed. So the writing was on the wall back then.
 
adammarc_98 said:
But if you dare to question why so much has shut in the last 4 years, you’re told to “stop talking the town down”. Only one thing has changed from then, and the blame squarely pointed at one small group of people running things across Teesside and the country.
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We shouldn't be letting their predecessors off the hook either. This is the result of long term decline brought about by hideous decisions taken in the 1980s.
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
We shouldn't be letting their predecessors off the hook either. This is the result of long term decline brought about by hideous decisions taken in the 1980s.
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I believe the word that was used back then was “managed decline”. Industrial towns and working class communities disenfranchised and left to rot and turn on one another. Truly shameful that the people of this country let them do it.
 
adammarc_98 said:
I believe the word that was used back then was “managed decline”. Industrial towns and working class communities disenfranchised and left to rot and turn on one another. Truly shameful that the people of this country let them do it.
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The divide and conquer strategy never fails in this country. The development of 'the other' is what keeps our weapons of mass deception busy, and the populace soaks it up.
 
It's a massive shop that, be a big loss. I hope they dont try and fill it with a go kart or bowling or a bistro and they get another store in, the town is dying, me and the mrs only ever go into town now for Wilkos or Primark.

FAO: Anyone who knows - Is this a case of the rent of the building been too high? Will they have approached the council for a reduction before making a decision like this, or have they wanted to focus on out of town retail regardless of anything the council did to try and keep them there?
 
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