Locally available goods of any description

Chat about anything local that doesn't fit elsewhere!
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Richard
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Locally available goods of any description

Postby Richard » Thu Nov 29, 2018 7:21 pm

What shops would like to see in Hastings that don't meet your needs currently ?
Clothing, Fresh food, Antiques, Wine / Beer, you name it.
Choice is important and, of course, price.

There may be a 'Primark' on the horizon - but what would you really like to see as well?
Perhaps even shops that have long since disappeared!

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seahermit
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Re: Locally available goods of any description

Postby seahermit » Fri Nov 30, 2018 12:14 am

This is really a wish-list! Not much chance of retailers taking notice of consumers' desires and moving in unless there's brass in it for them .. Atleast half the problem is sheer greed on the part of property owners and local councils. Excessively high rents and business rates have resulted in only large national chain-stores being able to afford units in shopping centres or high streets. All the interesting small businesses have been forced out, leaving town centres which are bland and have exactly the same shops up and down the country.

My rant over! There used to be a couple of good "gents' outfitter" shops in Hastings, also one or two places selling leathers, good quality jeans etc. The leather shop in the Old Town is not bad but a limited stock of middle-range brands. Instead, I sometimes go to Wards in Bexhill (excellent quality clothing if you can splash out) or to Brighton (terrific clothing shops everywhere, retro, s/h and new). Tunbridge Wells is good for clothes too if you have just won the lottery. But the general quality of clothes in places like Peacocks, H&M etc. is pretty awful and even in Debenhams all the jackets and suits are made of polyester, You can get away with wearing it for a year or so but, after a bit of hard wear and a few washes, the creases and the shiny knees mean that you throw it away and get another one!

It is true that in a deprived town like Hastings there is less demand for higher quality, independent brands, but I believe that if good shops exist people will find them eventually, bringing money into the town which has a cumulative effect and so on .. but of course the process is slow, it can years for a town to pull itself up again after a decline.

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Richard
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Re: Locally available goods of any description

Postby Richard » Fri Nov 30, 2018 9:02 pm

I agree that there are raised rental and business rate constraints on smaller business ventures gaining a foothold on the High Street and in the Shopping Mall, closer to the town centre.
Hence we see the numerous hair-dresser's and knick-knack shops, mainly proliferating much higher up along Queens Road, where the calculated business values are generally well below the £15000 level, at which business rates kick in and the rent is also lower and hence more affordable.

Larger and more prestigious shops may have specially arranged lower rental costs, owing to their ability to draw people into town or they may even own the property outright.
It has been stated that M&S have some leverage to pay a lower rent in Priory Meadow, as they are seen as a valued king-pin customer to the Shopping-Mall owners.
Taxation on the takings may somewhat questionable for the American chain Coffee and fast-food shops but there again the smaller shops such as the hairdresser's have workers who receive cash in hand and yet who can prove exactly what they take and whether they declare anything?

Shops like 'Cafe des Arts' in Robertson Street may well have closed because owners demanded higher rents and these proved unaffordable.
Pound shops and charity shops can survive on high volume sales of cheap goods sold to hordes of poorer people.
I believe there is plenty of money in Hastings if the price is right or the demand is there.
There are several jewellery 'chains' (no pun intended) because people are prepared to pay to show they care and commercial jewellery is a valued token of that affection.

Also many people (even the relatively wealthy) much enjoy grabbing a bargain at the charity shops and would dislike parading around in the latest fashion, even if it were locally available.
Debenhams introduced designer brands from names like 'John Rocha' 'Jasper Conran' and 'Betty Jackson' but they don't inspire me one bit.
Debenhams seem to have lost the plot for many years now and I am quite underwhelmed.
The chain 'Jones Boot maker' closed a while ago in Robertson street and although some of the goods were fine I was appalled at the customer service and stopped shopping there on that account. I am a little sad that we now just have cheap shoe chains and yes! The only alternative is to travel to Brighton - if I can be bothered!

I guess you need the right people to set up a new business with genuinely motivated staff who are willing to go the extra mile.
I have found 'Sports Direct' to employ staff who do not always manage to be polite and courteous but then again the news media have shown the business model to be something of a sweat-shop fairly recently.

cbe
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Re: Locally available goods of any description

Postby cbe » Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:30 pm

it needs to be said that some charity shops (or is that ((charity)) shops ? ) can claim up to 80% relief on business rates. That will be fair old whack

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seahermit
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Re: Locally available goods of any description

Postby seahermit » Sat Dec 01, 2018 8:52 pm

Yes, several good jewellery shops - Moon's and the other one in Robertson Street are expensive but good. Funny how people can be hard-up and yet manage to find the cash sometimes for a really nice watch or a bracelet!

The "designer" labels introduced by Debenhams are a complete gimmick - I tried on some of their winter coats and they were so badly cut that I looked as if I was wearing an army bell-tent. Made for all sizes of human. The garish patterns of the shirts and T-shirts make me cringe ..

Sports Direct is great for cheap practical stuff, hardly the elegance of Austin Reed of course. I always feel a bit sorry for the staff, they often seem fed up, no doubt very poorly paid and there is a constant turnover of staff - always a bad sign for any retailer.

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Richard
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Re: Locally available goods of any description

Postby Richard » Sun Dec 02, 2018 6:54 pm

Poor people and bargain hunters like the cheap stuff, hence the success of the so-called charity shops which additionally benefit from free labour!

There is a huge new cheap shop being readied for opening now:
'Savers' near the entrance to 'Queens Arcade' Hastings.
I have never seen a premises converted and stocked so rapidly.


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seahermit
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Re: Locally available goods of any description

Postby seahermit » Tue Dec 04, 2018 7:11 am

I clicked on your link to the Observer article and was confronted by "Oh, no, you've switched on your Ad-blocker!" and a demand for me to register before being able to access the site. Followed by a pop-up invitation to some special offer!

I can't believe the arrogance of it and the fact that, in an age when there is access to so much free info and news on the internet (whether old-fashioned newspaper companies like it or not), the newspapers think they can still present themselves as offering something special and exclusive .. and set up barriers before you can access the website.

E.G. I have never for a second considered paying a "subscription" to The Times online in return for a bigger, more comprehensive edition of the news. The news generally is depressing enough already and some kind of "distillation" and summary as in a newssheet is all that you need to tell you the really essential stuff. In any case, I like spreading out an old-fashioned paper in the pub, reading the most shocking/rivetting/juiciest bits first, then attacking the crossword (you have to get your priorities right!).

My Ad-blocker was downloaded precisely to stop a lot of the irritating messages, pop-ups and offers etc. which flash across the phone screen when you are trying to enter a website. On the PC, if a website blocks my way with such things (including "customer feedback" before I have even been allowed to enter the site and do anything), I do what everyone else promiscuously does and instantly switch to a better site.

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seahermit
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Re: Locally available goods of any description

Postby seahermit » Tue Dec 04, 2018 7:32 am

And oh, yes, I will check out the new Savers shop in Queens Road! Not sure about the morality of these "bucket" shops vying with each other and competing with more traditional shops in order to shave a few pence off and attract the crowds. Pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap. For clothes and some other things, I would quite prefer to pay more and get decent quality ..

For fashion clothes, electrical goods, some other items, the public would be horrified if they knew the massive mark-up often applied by retailers - can be 100, 200 per cent or more all in the name of convenience and bringing goods near to you in some local store .. But the internet has levelled the field considerably.

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Richard
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Re: Locally available goods of any description

Postby Richard » Tue Dec 04, 2018 8:22 pm

'Savers' is owned by Superdrug.
Superdrug is not a shop I frequent as it has large queues and sells 'hair & beauty' stuff I don't really need, their main competitor seems to be 'Boots'.
I don't go into 'Boots' much either and I do not really see the need for the three outlets competing for whatever the women of Hastings seem to think they want.

Female beauty products and cosmetics I do not fully understand, especially when a girlfriend manages to spend over a thousand pounds a year on 'Botox' treatments.
I draw the line at 'Asses Milk'.
:)


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