Town centre traders fear ‘death by thousand cuts’ (From Herald Series)

how about competing instead of nimbying... Did you complain when Waitrose opened their new bigger store?

Nimbys everywhere! Plenty of posh people in Wallingford I bet you'll see them shopping at Morrisons!

I'll travel to shop at Morrisons. Open the town centre shops on a Sunday and I'll go there regularly too, it's a nice place for a wander and then lunch. I often pop into Waitrose on an evening to check out the reduced stock after the parking charges have ended, but the other shops are closed. It seems daft that Wallingford's marketing itself heavily to tourists, but on a Sunday when they're wandering around looking for something to do, practically nothing is open.

Regarding Morrisons moving on to the outskirts of Wallingford I don't believe it will be detrimental to the shops in the town. Boroughbridge, in North Yorkshire is a small market town with a Morrisons on its outskirts and it has not been detrimental to the shops in the town. They have two butchers, a thriving fruit and veg shop, deli, a couple of newsagents, shops that sell clothes, gifts and other things, two or three tearooms, two or three hairdressers, a thriving hardware shop, one charity shop and probably others I have missed. The message though is that Morrisons has not caused any of the shops to close. There are no closed shops and none of the shops open Sundays (apart from the tearooms). Ripon Harrogate, York and Knaresborough are close by and they have not been detrimental to the town either. If a town provides good shops they will survive. If a town takes good care of its businessess it will do well. Morrisons will not make any difference.

online_reader wrote:
I'll travel to shop at Morrisons. Open the town centre shops on a Sunday and I'll go there regularly too, it's a nice place for a wander and then lunch. I often pop into Waitrose on an evening to check out the reduced stock after the parking charges have ended, but the other shops are closed. It seems daft that Wallingford's marketing itself heavily to tourists, but on a Sunday when they're wandering around looking for something to do, practically nothing is open.

Exactly. Morrisons will be a welcome addition. It will be nice to have a decent supermarket rather than having to rely on the ridiculous Sainsburys, the overpriced Waitrose or the omnipotent Tesco.
If the town centre shops in Wallingford feel threatened, then they should do something about it rather than just moaning. Open on Sundays when people have time to browse, or do something to attract people to the town. Wallingford is a nice little town, but a recent Sunday afternoon stroll in February was like walking through a ghost town.

online_reader wrote:
I'll travel to shop at Morrisons. Open the town centre shops on a Sunday and I'll go there regularly too, it's a nice place for a wander and then lunch. I often pop into Waitrose on an evening to check out the reduced stock after the parking charges have ended, but the other shops are closed. It seems daft that Wallingford's marketing itself heavily to tourists, but on a Sunday when they're wandering around looking for something to do, practically nothing is open.

too true.... prehaps if the small shops offered a service they would get hte custom

Wallingford has an above average number of Antique shops and a below average number of food stores.

Don't get me wrong I don't want to see Wallingford become an "average town" but the title of this story should be "Antique shop owners stereotype Morrisons shoppers"

Each morning I walk my daughters to school and planning in not normally a point of conversation among the parents. The Morrison application has enthused all of us with the possibility of escaping from the weekly drive to Didcot.

I have news for the "Town centre traders" of Wallingford I don't just shop in Sainsburys and go home. I carry on and look in the other shops. When I return I certainly don't have enough time to look around Wallingford as well. I'm not one of your customers today, but if the food store were closer to home I could well be.

Totally agree with happyhappyjoys I go out of town to shop and browse. If Morrisons was in Wallingford I would shop there and then go into town, It's not the people of Wallingford who are opposing this it is the traders who do not like or want it. I will now continue to shop in Didcot untill Morrisons arrives.

We so need Morrisons I have posted on other updates, Wallingford is sadly slipping into a ghost town,over priced florists chatity shops, no working class people enter the clothes shops, or youngsters. Waitrose is not affordable for every day people, we need to move forward put some life back into this town. Make people want to come and visit, I would travel to Didcot for Tesco let them come to us for Morrisons they will :)

cornflake girl wrote:
We so need Morrisons I have posted on other updates, Wallingford is sadly slipping into a ghost town,over priced florists chatity shops, no working class people enter the clothes shops, or youngsters. Waitrose is not affordable for every day people, we need to move forward put some life back into this town. Make people want to come and visit, I would travel to Didcot for Tesco let them come to us for Morrisons they will :)

Where is the like button for this comment? Cornflake girl is sooo right.

Are these moaners talking about the same town? Wallingford trade died off years ago. Take Pettits for example, it's like stepping back to 1988 and unfortunately Champions has gone the same way since being taken over. Clothing shops only seem to cater for a "particular kind of person", a couple of stores are thriving and the rest are antique shops full of expensive tat or charity shops full of cheap tat. As for moving Morrisons to the old Waitrose site, really? You really expect people to put up with the congestion nightmare when deliveries attempt to squeeze down Goldsmiths lane? Have you forgotten what it was like? Really? Tesco in Didcot is always low on stock and the Sainsburys is filthy and run by rude idiots, come on....wake up and get Morrisons in now!!!

I used to visit this town a lot for holidays since I was a child and very little has changed apart from more houses being built. The problem is times now are different but that does not mean that this Morrisons store will spell disaster for the town, infact it will be the opposite. Where I live its a small village but there is a larger town near but they only have one supermarket and maybe a few small shops, infact very few and the people of that town want more choice as there used to be another supermarket called Presto but when that closed along with quick save all we are left with now is one over crowded supermarket and some empty buildings that are in my opinion an eyesore, Now folk are moaning and rightly so as there is hardly any choice and not enough shops to support a growing population for all the houses being built.

The next town up the road is Consett and this has two supermarkets and a new Morrisons and folk are loving it, the small shops in that town have seen trade increase because folk are coming in to that town to shop thus also using small shops for those items that supermarkets don't sell, change is needed as when the steel works shut in that town in 1980 it was a ghost town that no one wanted to visit but now things have changed for the better and it has become the in place to live as more jobs have been created and a better infrastructure and most of all more choice as that's what people want.

Back to Wallingford. At one time it had two supermarkets and one was Waitrose and the other was Gateway, where the old Gateway was is now Waitrose which I find expensive as Hexham has a Waitrose but more folk use the Tesco there because of this. You folks now have to drive to Didcot for Tesco to shop because at this point in time you have little in the way of food shops and choice. When Morrisons is built this will benefit the town in lots of ways including bringing more folk in from other places, Small shops will worry it will take business away but infact from what I have seen of Consett town its the opposite so this should also be the case for Wallingford. It may take business away from Waitrose but the smaller shops should not feel much if any effect from this. Like Consett its being built not slap bang in the town centre but a little way outside. I don't blame folk of Wallingford for wanting change and more choice, we all want this and Morrisons food is a sensible price and very good quality to. As for the small traders there worries are unfounded in my opinion, they should welcome this as it will bring more folk in to the town itself. Wallingford has increased in size over the years and the infrastructure should keep pace with this. At the end of the day you can not please everyone and we had this problem in Consett as the small shops said oh god we are finished but this is not the case and the town is thriving even more so now as word spreads.

My mum lives in Didcot she can't wait for Morrison's to open in Wallingford - she said it will be a nice change and a reason to leave Didcot, whilst she is over this way I expect she will pop into town and maybe treat herself to some new clothes from the unique boutiques or some flowers from the florists or she might buy her lovely daughter a gift from the individual gift shops or just have a cup of tea and cake. Morrison's is not going to damage trade in Wallingford it is the type of trade that that is damaging Wallingford these are the traders that are worried - it is time to move forward and catch up with 21st century shopping habits.