Aberdeen City Centre

[Redforever86]

43 minutes ago, Poodler said:

That's John Lewis away 

 

was always good for a perv

Paid me double time on a Sunday while turning up still pished fae the night before. 

[Poodler]

 

 

[Zeus]

Poundland to take over the lease. 

 

[daytripping]

4 minutes ago, Zeus said:

Fuck the ecomony and folks jobs and livelihoods 

Stay safe! 

It's the new norm, no one gives a fuck. Meanwhile B & Q and Home Bargains are hoaching. It's easy for those cunts being paid through the nose to stand in the assembly and mumble on about being cautious, it's not them who's life is being ruined.  

[Parklife]

6 minutes ago, Zeus said:

Fuck the ecomony and folks jobs and livelihoods 

Stay safe! 

You think Covid has killed the high street? 

[Zeus]

Just now, Parklife said:

You think Covid has killed the high street? 

Obviously not just covid. However being shut for a large chunk of the year hasn't helped and will have put even more emphasis on online retail. 

Hey we're a' safe though eh? 

[Redforever86]

2 minutes ago, Parklife said:

You think Covid has killed the high street? 

It has certainly sped up the process. Always going to happen but possibly would have been an easier transition for businesses and more importantly employees if it was gradual. 

The whole Bon Accord centre and George Street will suffer from just this one shop. 

[maryhilldon]

Here for a long time,  not a good time. 

[daytripping]

Just now, Parklife said:

You think Covid has killed the high street? 

Its speeded its death for sure. The likes of John Lewis in Aberdeen is massive and was always busy, without the virus I think it would have lasted a few more years yet.

It's far too big for anyone else to take over, probably best knocking it down and start populating the centre more, get people in and promote a cafe culture, give the remaining shops plenty people to trade of.

[Parklife]

2 minutes ago, Zeus said:

Obviously not just covid. However being shut for a large chunk of the year hasn't helped and will have put even more emphasis on online retail. 

Hey we're a' safe though eh? 

We're all responsible for the high streets the length and breadth of the country dying. Unless people change their habits, it won't change. 

[daytripping]

2 minutes ago, Redforever86 said:

It has certainly sped up the process. Always going to happen but possibly would have been an easier transition for businesses and more importantly employees if it was gradual. 

The whole Bon Accord centre and George Street will suffer from just this one shop. 

The Bon Accord centre would be as well just closing, without John Lewis it's just not going to get the footfall, shouldn't have been built in the first place, killed George Street.

[Parklife]

1 minute ago, daytripping said:

Its speeded its death for sure. The likes of John Lewis in Aberdeen is massive and was always busy, without the virus I think it would have lasted a few more years yet.

It's far too big for anyone else to take over, probably best knocking it down and start populating the centre more, get people in and promote a cafe culture, give the remaining shops plenty people to trade of.

Councils definitely need to do something to get people back in to town centres. 

The Calendar Square centre in Falkirk has announced its closing and there's been talk of Falkirk Council taking it over and using it as their main offices. It'd get folk back in to the town centre and hopefully help cafes/bars/restaurants in their thrive. 

[Poodler]

JL own that building. Bet the top brass make a pretty penny on it. 
 

ive always enjoyed a wander round the 'high street', perving on women, working up an appetite for a lunch/ stopping in by various boozers. 
 

online shopping isn't the same. No perving, the only winner is Amazon 

[spamspamspam]

Just now, Parklife said:

We're all responsible for the high streets the length and breadth of the country dying. Unless people change their habits, it won't change. 

I cant remember a time when I built a huge, soulless box and rented out smaller boxes inside that soulless box to shops and a pizza place.

Wish I could. I'm sure there's coin in doing something like that. 

[Parklife]

Just now, Poodler said:

JL own that building. Bet the top brass make a pretty penny on it. 
 

John Lewis is an employee owned business. So money made on the building should be diverted back in to the company for the benefit of its employees. 

[Poodler]

Don't you take truth and reason around here boy 

[Zeus]

4 minutes ago, Parklife said:

We're all responsible for the high streets the length and breadth of the country dying. Unless people change their habits, it won't change. 

No doubting that however, folk who always shopped in store previously now will have switched to online due to shops being shut for a massive proportion of the year? 

[Redforever86]

3 minutes ago, daytripping said:

get people in and promote a cafe culture, give the remaining shops plenty people to trade of.

This is the right idea, but when you take a lot of the shoppers and workers out of the centre you need even less cafes than there are already there. 

It will balance itself out over time but the next decade or so will be brutal for most high streets. 

Problem Aberdeen has is it's impossible to bring the industrial estate jobs into the centre and demand for offices and shops is plummeting. 

Also a lot of people don't want to live in the centre with no car parking, gardens etc.

[Joe pike]

John Lewis,Debenhams,Burtons,Thorntons gone.

We are left with Poundland and mini supermarkets.

I happen to think the John Lewis building should be demolished,it's a carbuncle.

[Zeus]

Prime location for Primark iyam 

[Parklife]

2 minutes ago, Zeus said:

No doubting that however, folk who always shopped in store previously now will have switched to online due to shops being shut for a massive proportion of the year? 

In the short term, definitely. However if JL thought the store was viable long term anyway, I doubt this Covid period would've made them shut. 

If high streets and local shops are to thrive, most of us have to change our shopping habits to help them. 

[daytripping]

1 minute ago, Poodler said:

JL own that building. Bet the top brass make a pretty penny on it. 
 

ive always enjoyed a wander round the 'high street', perving on women, working up an appetite for a lunch/ stopping in by various boozers. 
 

online shopping isn't the same. No perving, the only winner is Amazon 

I'm renovating a place just now, have had Amazon parcels through near every day, the service and price they provide is second to none. There's a reason they're massive, it's because they're so good at what they do. Shame them and Google appear to be taking over the World and the high street is dying, guess it's called progress.

[Redforever86]

1 minute ago, cheesepipes said:

Is the old Capitol not ram packed with Oil & Gas companies 

Ones that agreed leases during the boom years before the oil price crashed yes. How many companies aren't going to have a blend of working from home and hot desking now? 

Plenty empty office buildings in Aberdeen, before the pandemic. 

[spamspamspam]

1 minute ago, Parklife said:

In the short term, definitely. However if JL thought the store was viable long term anyway, I doubt this Covid period would've made them shut. 

If high streets and local shops are to thrive, most of us have to change our shopping habits to help them. 

The change has to start with the landlords and business rates.

Cost of a small shop on Union Street is crazy. You're paying for 4 and 5 floors and usually only have stuff on 1 or 2 of them. That pushes the cost of shopping up and people will always buy things for the best price. 

 

[Joe pike]

10 minutes ago, daytripping said:

The Bon Accord centre would be as well just closing, without John Lewis it's just not going to get the footfall, shouldn't have been built in the first place, killed George Street.

What other council would close a main road through to the harbour and station and build a shopping centre in the middle of it.

They wonder why Union St is dead as they continue to give planning permission for new shopping centres .

[Zeus]

1 minute ago, Parklife said:

In the short term, definitely. However if JL thought the store was viable long term anyway, I doubt this Covid period would've made them shut. 

If high streets and local shops are to thrive, most of us have to change our shopping habits to help them. 

Aye, also think the council need to make the town centre in Aberdeen a bitty more enticing. 

Talk of a pedestrianised union street would help but also as mentioned promote a cafe culture/ place for small independent business.  

Also note the effect of miserable bastards who dinna like change kicking up a fuss 

Council neeed to make it attractive for business to move to union Street however. 

Fuck do I know though ?

[Bluto10]

17 minutes ago, daytripping said:

The Bon Accord centre would be as well just closing, without John Lewis it's just not going to get the footfall, shouldn't have been built in the first place, killed George Street.

the krew said same thing about BAC and George St.

IMO the TC also killed an part of Union St too

[Zeus]

3 minutes ago, Sooper-hanz said:

Nothing better than sitting in a freezing street drinking expensive coffee.

Exactly the type of comment youd get ?

Build a big fire pit? 

[Clydeside_Sheep]

34 minutes ago, Parklife said:

If high streets and local shops are to thrive, most of us have to change our shopping habits to help them. 

That is true, but the concept of the high street is defunct and wont recover.

In my childhood even Coatbridge could (believe it or not) boast a decent town center experience, but for the past decades has now been like a set from the walking dead (the residents always looked like that).  Empty units, boarded up shops, even burnt out buildings.  Remaining businesses are mainly the common mix of charity shops and outlets.  if it wasn't for ASDA (in an eyesore building) and St Pats Church, there would be fuck all there, beyond the underclass spending their benefits in dive pubs and bookies.  There is a big Boots which has been there for years, it keeps going thanks to prescriptions for work-shy malingerers and methadone etc (my wife was briefly the manager, before I met her).

(Faraday retail park is only a short walk from the town center, but its - obviously - a retail park focused on folk driving there and back, so there are no smaller shops, cafes etc).

I lament Coatbridge, but if you spend some time in Airdrie beforehand, it looks not bad.

Even Glasgow City Center has declined significantly in recent years.  Always bad under labour, it has become a real dump under the snp council.  Never looked worse.  20 yrs ago they built Buchanan Galleries which endures, but thats probably the City Centers last hurrah as the arse has fallen out of shopping on Sauchiehall Street and even the St Enoch Center.  Upmarket Buchanan St and the Italian Centre only adds  to the fur coat and nae knickers impression.  They are starting to talk about trying to make it a mainly residential area, which tells its own story (seemingly flats will replace the demolished Police HQ on Pitt St).

Limited choice, necessity and cost of travel and parking,  general poor quality experience, and the fact most places are shit holes are all against the revival of town and city centres.  Add in the fact that many ppl can now work from home, rather than offices, and the whole concept is bust.  Nightlife alone is not sufficient to support things.

It will all be online in the future, with any physical shopping done in drive-to retail parks.

A big problem is that the people tasked with meeting these challenges for town and city centers - council staff - are absolute clowns who dont know their arse from their elbow.  These wankers helped kill things off, with their one way systems, parking charges and low emission zones etc. 

You see it everywhere - in Bishopbriggs, which has a small town center, its like a ghost town. Theres a morrisons, but I dont know why because no one goes to it.  If I ever go, its only to use the toilet.  A Costa Coffee is the jewel in its crown, but its arrival buried 2 or 3 independent cafes.

Some may survive because - like your own Falkirk - they are actually attractive places to walk around, with some nice / interesting buildings, history and features.  But few places are like that, e.g. compare Falkirk with nearby Grangemouth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[maryhilldon]

3 minutes ago, Clydeside_Sheep said:

That is true, but the concept of the high street is defunct and wont recover.

In my childhood even Coatbridge could (believe it or not) boast a decent town center experience, but for the past decades has now been like a set from the walking dead (the residents always looked like that).  Empty units, boarded up shops, even burnt out buildings.  Remaining businesses are mainly the common mix of charity shops and outlets.  if it wasn't for ASDA (in an eyesore building) and St Pats Church, there would be fuck all there, beyond the underclass spending their benefits in dive pubs and bookies.  There is a big Boots which has been there for years, it keeps going thanks to prescriptions for work-shy malingerers and methadone etc (my wife was briefly the manager, before I met her).

(Faraday retail park is only a short walk from the town center, but its - obviously - a retail park focused on folk driving there and back, so there are no smaller shops, cafes etc).

I lament Coatbridge, but if you spend some time in Airdrie beforehand, it looks not bad.

Even Glasgow City Center has declined significantly in recent years.  Always bad under labour, it has become a real dump under the snp council.  Never looked worse.  20 yrs ago they built Buchanan Galleries which endures, but thats probably the City Centers last hurrah as the arse has fallen out of shopping on Sauchiehall Street and even the St Enoch Center.  Upmarket Buchanan St and the Italian Centre only adds  to the fur coat and nae knickers impression.  They are starting to talk about trying to make it a mainly residential area, which tells its own story (seemingly flats will replace the demolished Police HQ on Pitt St).

Limited choice, necessity and cost of travel and parking,  general poor quality experience, and the fact most places are shit holes are all against the revival of town and city centres.  Add in the fact that many ppl can now work from home, rather than offices, and the whole concept is bust.  Nightlife alone is not sufficient to support things.

It will all be online in the future, with any physical shopping done in drive-to retail parks.

A big problem is that the people tasked with meeting these challenges for town and city centers - council staff - are absolute clowns who dont know their arse from their elbow.  These wankers helped kill things off, with their one way systems, parking charges and low emission zones etc. 

You see it everywhere - in Bishopbriggs, which has a small town center, its like a ghost town. Theres a morrisons, but I dont know why because no one goes to it.  If I ever go, its only to use the toilet.  A Costa Coffee is the jewel in its crown, but its arrival buried 2 or 3 independent cafes.

Some may survive because - like your own Falkirk - they are actually attractive places to walk around, with some nice / interesting buildings, history and features.  But few places are like that, e.g. compare Falkirk with nearby Grangemouth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fuck sake,  keep it brief.