Mercenary Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 (edited) 53 minutes ago, Passing Time said: Better still, turn that site that 1886 are using as their private parking area into a parking area for shoppers. Next, stop those tin pot Hitlers going around booking cars. Who gives a flying fart how long they park. If they are shopping they are helping the shops out No matter what time of day the prom spaces are 80%+ full. There is barely any correlation between shopping hours and utilisation. Chucking more parking in without sorting out parking overall is pointless. Residents passes/commuters/shoppers current situation would not be solved by however many hundred imaginary spaces can be magicked up (only have to look out how there is always space in Chester Street to work that out). Politically unpalatable though. Edit: even better example, the old Lord Street bus station experiment is another good example of how well free for all parking works Edited January 16 by Mercenary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gizo Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 2 hours ago, Omobono said: No need to dig it up again get rid of the silly weed beds (wild flower gardens) to introduce diagonal parking reinstate all the parking in front of the war memorial get rid of the silly pollags that stick out taking spaces , get rig of the psudo illegal crossings and have all the zebra crossings the same , I recon you could create 70 to 100 spaces if you went about it the right way , park in the middle of the road. Problem solved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hissingsid Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Why does Banker not want this to happen ? it is a great idea. They keep sneaking the price to park at Marks and Spencer’s up too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heroes Wear Lycra Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 4 hours ago, forestboy said: We desperately need more out of town stores with onsite parking. 'We' perhaps need to move back to England or the USA 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ham_N_Eggs Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 4 hours ago, Omobono said: you can blame the DOI and the city fathers for this ,I was down in the town the day after they stopped the parking on the promenade walkway , the street was deserted and one shopkeeper told me the town was unbelievably quiet , what I cant understand is if shoppers could park on the prom walkway the shops would be busy , more cash spent in the local economy more VAT and taxes for government , All the parking spaces lost through the ill thought out promenade scheme are really having an effect on the footfall who can blame any business for wanting to relocate or open a branch out of town where there is plenty of parking and no hassle from traffic wardens , someone in the government should be revisiting the prom with a view to remodelling some of the areas wasted in the refurbishment and turn them back into parking spaces or they could just reduce the prices in the car parks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forestboy Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 7 minutes ago, Heroes Wear Lycra said: 'We' perhaps need to move back to England or the USA Bye 👋 then. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0bserver Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 2 hours ago, Gizo said: park in the middle of the road. Problem solved. Are you a taxi driver? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bastard Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Douglas does need a bit of competition in the shopping market. Rents in Strand Street are unsustainable and holding back retail diversity, and with rising sea levels, a shopping street essentially built on the back of the beach is not going to have much of a long-term future. An out-of-town shopping and entertainment centre would be a nice pipe dream, and potentially encourage the lowering of rentals in the "old" shopping centre in the short term. As Gladys points out about Aldi though, the IOM doesn't have much of a population to support it. Stores aren't going to locate here when we have the population of a small town spread out over 200 square miles coupled with all the complications of shipping and staffing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoops Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 (edited) i wonder how much affect this would have on their 'flagship' store, and thus on the high street. But yes, high street rents are ridiculous, and need examining, possibly legislation. As, of course, do all rents. In fact, fvck the rentiers. Edited January 17 by Hoops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2112 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 51 minutes ago, The Bastard said: Douglas does need a bit of competition in the shopping market. Rents in Strand Street are unsustainable and holding back retail diversity, and with rising sea levels, a shopping street essentially built on the back of the beach is not going to have much of a long-term future. An out-of-town shopping and entertainment centre would be a nice pipe dream, and potentially encourage the lowering of rentals in the "old" shopping centre in the short term. As Gladys points out about Aldi though, the IOM doesn't have much of a population to support it. Stores aren't going to locate here when we have the population of a small town spread out over 200 square miles coupled with all the complications of shipping and staffing. An in town entertainment and shopping centre was a real pipe dream, masquerading as a reality, afforded almost royal like status and trappings, even when money, materials and labour was available. Any in or out of town shopping or entertainment is a definitely now a pipe dream, and pie in the sky. As for shop rents, I would argue that IOMG have been telling everyone for years that the island is permanently booming, money oozes from the pavements and grows on the trees on Douglas Promenade. Landlords aren’t interested in reducing rents when they think the island is the land of milk and honey, and Strand Street is paved with gold. The only likely to appear in Douglas is outdoor clothing stores, new charity stores or pop up shops selling up market designer gear (cheaper second hand Flannels). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wright Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 I’m all in favour of an M&S Simply Food, but I don’t see it happening, and Douglas/Isle of Man isn’t listed in any coverage I’ve seen. But what would make a real difference would be an IoM order on line home delivery, or efficient, click & collect service. I don’t think population size/catchment area is the limiter for ALDI/LIDL. We’ve more than enough population and a strong grocery market with little low cost competition. We’ve also a very weak retailer in Shoprite. The limiter is distribution costs. The sea fare for freight. Lancaster & Morecambe have a population around 140.000 with 5 ALDI & Lidl stores, plus a Farmfoods and Iceland. Currently in Spain. Vilafranca, nearest town, has a population of 40,000. Two Lidl, one ALDI. One Lidl is brand new, the other rebuilt and doubled in size in the last 6 months. it’s got two largish Esclat stores ( Waitrose ), a Carrefour hypermarket ( Tesco ) plus two, large, newish ( 1 year and 5 years old ) coop food stores, Bon Area and Mercadona. They’re all on the outskirts. Plus they’ve all got express/convenience shops. In town. I reckon minimum catchment area for an ALDI or Lidl is around 20-25,000. one interesting thing with M&S food is that many smaller ones are franchises. Sandpiper CI, that used to run JUDI in IoM, run them in Jersey. They’re now expanding into Cornwall & Devon. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asitis Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 7 minutes ago, John Wright said: The limiter is distribution costs. The sea fare for freight. Perhaps naively, I had hoped when we bought the spco there may have been some headroom for Government to use the investment in a positive way to enhance business on the island. I guess that was a pipe dream now we've blown 300m on it ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bastard Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 7 minutes ago, John Wright said: I’m all in favour of an M&S Simply Food, but I don’t see it happening, and Douglas/Isle of Man isn’t listed in any coverage I’ve seen. But what would make a real difference would be an IoM order on line home delivery, or efficient, click & collect service. I don’t think population size/catchment area is the limiter for ALDI/LIDL. We’ve more than enough population and a strong grocery market with little low cost competition. We’ve also a very weak retailer in Shoprite. The limiter is distribution costs. The sea fare for freight. Lancaster & Morecambe have a population around 120.000 with 4 ALDI & Lidl stores, plus a Farmfoods and Iceland. Currently in Spain. Vilafranca, nearest town, has a population of 40,000. Two Lidl, one ALDI. One Lidl is brand new, the other rebuilt and doubled in size in the last 6 months. it’s got two largish Esclat stores ( Waitrose ), a Carrefour hypermarket ( Tesco ) plus two, large, newish ( 1 year and 5 years old ) coop food stores, Bon Area and Mercadona. They’re all on the outskirts. Plus they’ve all got express/convenience shops. In town. I reckon minimum catchment area for an ALDI or Lidl is around 20-25,000. one interesting thing with M&S food is that many smaller ones are franchises. Sandpiper CI, that used to run JUDI in IoM, run them in Jersey. They’re now expanding into Cornwall & Devon. Interesting viewpoint. As mentioned though, the IOM has more complications to opening a retail outlet than just population, and if it was practical to open a store here, there would probably already be one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wright Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 1 minute ago, asitis said: Perhaps naively, I had hoped when we bought the spco there may have been some headroom for Government to use the investment in a positive way to enhance business on the island. I guess that was a pipe dream now we've blown 300m on it ! It was always made clear it would be run independently and at arms length. The deal agreed was neutral in revenue terms. SpCo either washes its face or it’s taxpayer subsidised. None of us want a CalMac style debacle. Every passenger fare subsidised by 60% and freight on Road Equivalent Pricing. Politically attractive but economically unsustainable 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wright Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 3 minutes ago, The Bastard said: Interesting viewpoint. As mentioned though, the IOM has more complications to opening a retail outlet than just population, and if it was practical to open a store here, there would probably already be one. I think the new licensing legislation will make objections much harder to make and sustain. Whilst Tesco lost in Castletown it won its licensing application at the Strand Centre. The precedent is there. Tesco just lost interest. Population/catchment area justifies opening. Freight costs change the equation. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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