The large shop next door to me, that was vacated by the chemist that moved to the Montefiore medical centre when it opened about two years ago and has been empty since is being fitted out as a general store.
The recession is a peculiar thing as it tends to work in favour of some of the shops, particularly when they are cheaper than the out of town shops.
Although King Street in Ramsgate is fairly scruffy and has quite a few closed shops it also has a good share of cheaper than the out of town shops, butcher, greengrocer, fishmonger, my bookshop, several secondhand furniture shops and Iceland.
Whatever it is that’s causing this I don’t really know I have been trying to puzzle it out, I wouldn’t have thought with all of the empty shops around that this would be the most desirable available place to start a new business.
It's a shame that no new stores (apart from restaurants & art shops) seem to be opening in Margate, instead we're losing more & more shops that sell essentials such as groceries & clothes. I was dismayed to read in the local press that Margate's one remaining greengrocer's is probably closing soon: just a few shorts years ago we had three greengrocers + another one in westbrook, but all the others have either closed or stopped selling fruit & veg.
ReplyDeletePeter the only solution I can see is to boycott out of town shopping and encourage others to do likewise. Frankly though I am amazed to see shops opening with Westwood Cross and the present economic climate I think it may be that the shops in this part of Ramsgate have had their rents reduced considerably, several businesses have moved to different building in the same street because the rent was lower.
ReplyDeleteWhatever is causing it if one could find out what it is perhaps it could be applied to Margate.
Unfortunately these out of town centres are very popular (particularly) with younger people: an example of this is a current campaign on FaceBook to get Primark to open a store in Westwood Cross, despite the fact that if (or when?) they leave Margate it would be another enourmous blow to the town.
ReplyDeleteMyself, I almost always do my weekly shopping in Birchington (my favourite place to do shopping in Thanet), Westgate or Margate, but occasionally I have to go to Westwood Cross for things that I can no longer get in the towns (such as reasonably priced but good quality blank DVDs, something I previously bought in Woolworths).