TOPIC: Primark

Been shopping with the family in Newcastle and went into Primark for the first time ever.
WTF is all the euphoria about it coming to Carlisle?
I have never seen so much tat under one roof.
It's like Danny's Discount on a mass scale.

Was in the Metro Centre one earlier with the girlfriend, most of the stuff seemed to be on the floor.

Race to the bottom......its what the people want cheap tat.!!

People seem to like buying things that they don't really need.
Some people spend their money on booze, some in Primark, so each to their own.
Went up the town earlier, some kind of charity/awareness stuff going on, which was a noble cause I am sure but wish they would find a more suitable location for all those tents and that. Also the usual chuggers on the go.
Primark will be easy to avoid at least.

You are right 182 the British see shopping as s hobby ,spending money on ,as you say, things they don't need...then pleading hard up!

I'm all for value but the town is being dragged down with the likes of Primark 3 Aldis possibly 2 Lidls.

Was in the Oxford Street/Tottenham Court Road one the other day.

What a load of shite! Hate the place.

i see they've got Alex McQueen on the boards of the one in Carlisle.

Scotch Street needs renamed Tat Alley

seesaw50 wrote:
What Carlisle needs is a modern and progressive council. We have a 2000 year old city - Only London can match that -whose historical importance is given hardly any recognition by our council leaders.
We have a rich history and we are surrounded by amazing countryside with so much potential for tourism and yet we have a council that resembles the cufc holding company board.
Primark and it's ilk are fine in their place and will bring in shoppers but I think the city centre could lead the way by offering smaller shops or units for local traders on low cost or low risk rents. Imagine a family business who have a great idea and being allowed to sell and trade to make their new and original business work. If it was on a years contract on a reasonable rent then no harm done if it goes belly up. Brilliant if not. Imagine a 100 places like it along with all the usual bigger shops. Carlisle could lead the way with a new way of retailing in the city centre. I'd much rather visit a city centre like that than any other bog standard mall. Carlisle could and should be progressive and original. Instead, it is a historic gem lost in a world of political point scoring and lack of ambition and foresight

bruntonpete wrote:
Don't worry though Pete.
Once our council gets its wish and installs a crossing on the busiest road in Carlisle, thousands of tourists every week will be flocking to the castle.
(With the odd one occasionally being rushed to A&E; or the morgue after being hit by a car)

Apart from Brucianis and Alternative,l can't think of any other shops on English and Scotch Streets that aren't a chain you could find in any town. The council are too greedy with the rates and landlords with the rents. Small local businesses just cannot afford the outlay.

Have we reached 'peak charity'? Bank Street is full of charity shops (They get rate relief,the council use them to fill empty shops) there's always some tents in town and the Chuggers on Scotch Street. I'm all for giving, but it can wear thin. Last week l had 5 clothes bags through the door,and one doorstepper giving the spiel.

A case in point is when the 'old' market was upgraded 20 odd years ago. All the traditional butchers, fruit and veg merchants and other stallholders were forced out as the rents became unaffordable

The Centre of Carlisle should be around the top of Botchergate, the Crescent, Station, Courts.
Loads of history and buildings- what is it, traffic chaos, fast food takeaways and bars, great image to portray to new visitors.
Last time I looked, over 20% of the lanes units were empty, the reasons are well put by High Street.
One of our most historic stores is empty, and looks like it will be for some time, one of our most historic hotels will be soon be held up by the scaffolding that has surrounded it for a decade.
The covered market has never fully recovered from it's renovation, the Sands is past it's sell-by-date and it appears there is little to no progress about protecting the City from future flooding.

All will pale into insignificance when Primark opens.........not.

Ventured south of The Griffin recently and noted the amount of fast food shops around The Cumberland now shut. On empty shops yes The Council would rather a shop was paying rates than not , but surely the quality of that shop, or not, needs addressed......BUT Carlisle city centre is dead after 3pm and the small individual shops must find it hard to make ends meet.

We need a City of Culture ticket to bring the investment required to keep people in and around Carlisle, our demographics are depressing, the chance for our young to go to University will see them fly the nest forever, unless we can attract them to stay, and that does not mean bars and clubs !!

A modern vibrant City needs jobs of the right calibre and income level, we need the airport, affordable rail services and facilities to attract investment. at the moment our demographics are going to be well and truly battered as all those flooded houses are flogged of cheap at auction.

Sport facilities and recreation (we don't do much outside of athletics and footy) we need investment now ! and Carlisle Council, please, please understand paying your salaries and pension funds out of a parking fee's is a policy of diminishing returns.

Trouble is the City Council treat the city centre as a cash cow with sky high parking charges and over zealous traffic wardens.
No wonder shoppers have moved to edge of town retail parks and other towns further afield.

I dunno - Carlisle isn't perfect but as an incomer, it sometimes seems strange that locals barely have any idea of what's happening on their doorstep.

The city even has a roller derby team now, I'm not sure how niche you want to get before trying to argue there's nothing sporty happening away from football and athletics.

And the city centre is hardly unique. Retail is *really* hard now. You'd need to have balls the size of watermelons to open a luxury slipper outlet on an independent basis. Go to Glasgow - when you walk down Buchanan Street are you greeted with row upon row of quirky little Mom & Pop stores? No - the high street is about chains now and Carlisle City Council can't wave a magic wand to reverse 20 years+ of decline.

The problem for Carlisle is it is not one of the classic retail towns like Chester, Cheltenham, Tunbridge Wells or York so it isn't high up on the list for the smaller fashion chains. There's also the trend towards edge of town retail parks with easy parking where the rapidly expanding retail formats such as Next Home and Zara Home prefer to be. Even Ikea are considering smaller stores as Next and Zara are costing them sales.
In the circumstances having a Primark in the city centre will be a big draw for shoppers so well done the council for making it happen!

I agree about the high streets they have changed for ever I buy almost everything online apart from food
Clothes,birthday xmas presents diy stuff household goods and electricals shops just cant compete with the choice and price online

One thing Carlisle should have is a thriving market though I have Bury market a couple of miles away and its a busy place and its covered market is not a patch on what Carlisles is facility wise its a crying shame how under used the market is it should be packed with farmers produce and local business and if they filled the market other surrounding shops and cafes would benefit also


Why modernise a market to a very high standard then leave it half empty for 20 years is beyond incompetent

Zebby wrote:
Got to agree with you about Bury Market people travel from miles away to shop there yet as you say its a dump compared with Carlisles market hall but i wonder if thats the problem [because just up the road in Accrington they have the same problems as Carlisle but there theyre pretty efficient at letting the space but its become way too diverse.] is it that because its not a large Victorian building with all the costs that brings and the costs of trading there are only high because its successful and traders are willing to pay to be on a successful market..

From what youve said sounds like youre located pretty close to me and i.m just interested to know if youre hearing the same things about Bury FC.s finances that i am.

Not really heard much about their finances as I know fans of every team in the region apart from Bury despite living off Bury New Road lol

I have heard rumours they are struggling but nothing concrete

Unless you post what youve heard Barry hows he gonna know?

thesilentone wrote:
A good point. The Capital of Culture money worked absolute wonders in renovating parts of Liverpool, the rest of the City now seems to be following suit. It just needed that initial injection, that it never would have received from successive Tory/New Labour governments. But just so we are on the same page here, you are aware that the money comes from an EU fund? So I guess you'll be voting "in" at the referendum now then!

Dancingbear wrote:
I already have on the Halam Hope thread

cufcmike wrote:
Simple plan double the business rates in the city centre then offer all local businesses a 50% rebate use the money raised to lease any shops that become vacant on the councils terms [ the extra rates should prove a good incentive for the absentee landlords to come on board ] then rent them out as incubation units to local start ups on very low rents.

What do you then do when the chains which employ lots of people leave due to high rates/rents only to be replaced by startups who hire comparatively few ?

DeckchairBlue wrote:
Rents the big chains pay are nothing to do with the council and wouldnt be affected by doubling the business rates

And as a proportion of costs in the turnover of a national chain stores branch even a doubling of the rates would be pretty insignificant and in very few cases would result in a store closing.and a small price to pay for a thriving city centre full of independent stores which would probably then result in even more chains wanting to move in.