Man in a Shed: Retail waste land

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Retail waste land

I'm Getting the car fixed in Aldershot today and thought rather than waste my time going home I'd look around.

What I've found is a retail wasteland. One end of the indoor shopping centre is a graveyard of closed shops.

I'm slightly puzzled as to why given its a large military town and the cuts haven't started yet.

Anyone any ideas as why ~~thongs~~ things would be so bad in Aldershot ?

(I'd take a picture to show you, only my experience of doing this in the past is that it brings security down on you. )

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Update. I think some of the units have moved to the other end of the centre. But the question is perhaps still was this amount of shops ever viable, and if so why are things so dramatic here ?

3 comments:

Autonomous Mind said...: As a former resident of Aldershot maybe I can help.

Military Town has a fraction of the number of troops and families that used to be based there, so there is less spending power. It's the nominal home of the British Army, but the various corps and regiments that used to be homed there have been sent to barracks in the north and east.

The town itself is small (its Council, 'Rushmoor', combines Aldershot and Farnborough) and its demographic (ACORN 41 with low to moderate incomes) means anchor stores will not locate there.

It's easier for residents to go shopping in Camberley or Guildford, so even less money is spent in the town's retail sector.

It is true that 'thongs' are bad in Aldershot as any evening visit to a pub will reveal ;); 11:15 am
Man in a Shed said...: @AM: Thanks - that makes a lot of sense. It does also rather show Labour having created misery with it relocation of the military program.

I blame the text auto complete on my smart phone, rather than a Freudian slip.; 2:24 pm
James Higham said...: Ah, AM covers it.; 4:58 pm

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