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Wanderers Ways. Neil Thompson 1961-2021

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5 hours ago, DazBob said:

It's been said a million times before, but Bury does well because the shops there are in a very small area. In Bolton they've always been far too spread out.

Most of Bolton town centre needs flattening and for all the shops to be put in a dedicated smaller area.

It also doesn't help with the train and bus station being fucking miles from the market place.

Blackburn town centre seems to have been compessed into a smaller area with most of it now all within one building with the good market downstairs & the "same shops as everywhere else " upstairs, & it seems to be busy, maybe because they're in a smaller area !! ....even the bus station has been moved closer.

Against that, there's hardly any town centre pubs left, worse than Bolton, even The Adelphi has gone.

 

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I was talking about sport shops that were in town around 30/32 years ago. I think we counted 11. Now you can pretty much get everything sports wise in sports direct and JD. (I think these are the only ones in town)?  Online isn’t the only problem some shops are just a lot bigger and others can’t compete. 

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10 minutes ago, bolton va va said:

It's a myth that online shopping has killed town centres. On recent football trips alone, i've been to lots of town centres that are busy & thriving in places as diverse as Peterboro, Plymouth, Greenwich, Cheltenham, Portsmouth, Derby, Barnsley & others (only Burslem was deader than Bolton ) & locally Bury, Blackburn, Preston, Blackpool ,Stockport still have busier town centres than Bolton.

It was Morris & his Labour council who did the lasting damage to Bolton TC & it's hard to see it being reversed with so many decent places gone for good.

Can't blame Morris, but it'll be another nail in the coffin if the last traditional town centre pub, The Greyhound, is a goner. 

Yep. AO were due to buy/lease the crompton place, it was going to go through a massive transformation and be turned into offices and a massive showroom, just before completion they turned to AO and said you can’t have the free parking which is under the CP and added loads of other ridiculous charges. In the end they just fucked them off and moved to Middlebrook. 

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27 minutes ago, royal white said:

I was talking about sport shops that were in town around 30/32 years ago. I think we counted 11. Now you can pretty much get everything sports wise in sports direct and JD. (I think these are the only ones in town)?  Online isn’t the only problem some shops are just a lot bigger and others can’t compete. 

So you offer something different from the larger brand chains - you can't beat them on price but you can on something they can't offer. Obviously that's why you now very rarely see independant sporting goods shops (Although I;m sure Len Torbutts is still going on my last trip back home but god knows how) 

I mean round here I've seen three independant mower shops for servicing those massive sit on things, never even occured to me those are actual shops!

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1 minute ago, Not in Crawley said:

So you offer something different from the larger brand chains - you can't beat them on price but you can on something they can't offer. Obviously that's why you now very rarely see independant sporting goods shops (Although I;m sure Len Torbutts is still going on my last trip back home but god knows how) 

I mean round here I've seen three independant mower shops for servicing those massive sit on things, never even occured to me those are actual shops!

There is a small independent sports shop near us, one of our neighbours sons owns it.

They make their money on good quality cricket equipment and stuff for local schools that is either non standard colours or branded  so not worth the big lads selling it. Think the local schools have deals with the shops either in terms of commission (most likely) or lower prices for pupils. 
 

They do not try and compete with JD Sports so do not sell Lonsdale sweat shirts 😂

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1 minute ago, Ani said:

There is a small independent sports shop near us, one of our neighbours sons owns it.

They make their money on good quality cricket equipment and stuff for local schools that is either non standard colours or branded  so not worth the big lads selling it. Think the local schools have deals with the shops either in terms of commission (most likely) or lower prices for pupils. 
 

They do not try and compete with JD Sports so do not sell Lonsdale sweat shirts 😂

So sort of specialist stuff - people who are buying that will also be ok paying that bit extra for the advice they get in store.

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30 minutes ago, Not in Crawley said:

So sort of specialist stuff - people who are buying that will also be ok paying that bit extra for the advice they get in store.

Yes. They are based round here rather than in the city centre, so it is 5 or 6 decent sized local schools . As it is Yorkshire there are a million cricket clubs. 
 

As much as advice they get business based on reputation so they stock more cricket bats than the large sports shops so get a lot of people going in to get a feel of the bat for instance. The customers come in and get to choose exactly what they want. Tends not to be the 'just getting started' players. 
 

 

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53 minutes ago, Not in Crawley said:

So sort of specialist stuff - people who are buying that will also be ok paying that bit extra for the advice they get in store.

Yep, sports shops that specialise can still do alright if they're good enough, and people will visit the shop for advice, to handle the stuff & pay a bit extra for that.

In A/B there are 2 that seem to do well , Len Tobutts who have specialised in joggers/runners' gear, trainers mainly i suppose, and also have a sort of health clinic for injured joggers/runners and there's Cricket World at A/B cricket club. I went in their previous shop & there's loads of different cricket stuff & a steady number of customers.

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3 hours ago, bolton va va said:

It's a myth that online shopping has killed town centres. On recent football trips alone, i've been to lots of town centres that are busy & thriving in places as diverse as Peterboro, Plymouth, Greenwich, Cheltenham, Portsmouth, Derby, Barnsley & others (only Burslem was deader than Bolton ) & locally Bury, Blackburn, Preston, Blackpool ,Stockport still have busier town centres than Bolton.

It was Morris & his Labour council who did the lasting damage to Bolton TC & it's hard to see it being reversed with so many decent places gone for good.

Can't blame Morris, but it'll be another nail in the coffin if the last traditional town centre pub, The Greyhound, is a goner. 

Wouldn't say Greenwich is a fair comparison given it's a tourist destination with the Cutty Sark, Maritime Museum etc 

Derby city centre is shit and Peterborough not much better. Not been in Bolton for years so it must be bad if it's worse than those two 

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56 minutes ago, DirtySanchez said:

Wouldn't say Greenwich is a fair comparison given it's a tourist destination with the Cutty Sark, Maritime Museum etc 

Derby city centre is shit and Peterborough not much better. Not been in Bolton for years so it must be bad if it's worse than those two 

Boltons is much worse than Peterboroughs, but not as bad as Luton or Stevenage. 

Most town centres are shit these days to be fair. 

Edited by Sweep
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1 hour ago, DirtySanchez said:

Wouldn't say Greenwich is a fair comparison given it's a tourist destination with the Cutty Sark, Maritime Museum etc 

Derby city centre is shit and Peterborough not much better. Not been in Bolton for years so it must be bad if it's worse than those two 

It's not that the likes of Derby or Peterboro town centres are better than Bolton TC but that they are much, much busier & livelier with lots of people about, whereas Bolton is dead even on a Saturday,

& don't get me started on town at night, as someone who remembers Bradshawgate in its heyday, it's depressing to see it deserted at 10pm on a Saturday. 

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I've said before but aside from the big cities and historical places like Plymouth and Stratford, Bolton is about the same levels as the vast majority of places I've been to recently and better than plenty of them.

Nuneaton takes last place of shit town centres. Made Bolton feel like a bustling metropolis 

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37 minutes ago, bolton va va said:

It's not that the likes of Derby or Peterboro town centres are better than Bolton TC but that they are much, much busier & livelier with lots of people about, whereas Bolton is dead even on a Saturday,

& don't get me started on town at night, as someone who remembers Bradshawgate in its heyday, it's depressing to see it deserted at 10pm on a Saturday. 

Both of those are surrounded by pretty rural areas rather than town centres of similar sizes, so for people in those rural areas are more likely to go to the likes of Derby as there's not really anywhere to compete for their custom 

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a typical town center 

vape shop, nail shop, news agents, sunbed shop, another vape shop, 5 barbers, another vape shop, another nail shop, newsagents, salon, charity shop, another vape shop, nail shop, takeaway, charity shop, takeaway, rinse and repeat 

thank fuck for amazon 

bulldoze them all

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1 hour ago, L/H White said:

a typical town center 

vape shop, nail shop, news agents, sunbed shop, another vape shop, 5 barbers, another vape shop, another nail shop, newsagents, salon, charity shop, another vape shop, nail shop, takeaway, charity shop, takeaway, rinse and repeat 

thank fuck for amazon 

bulldoze them all

With you on the bulldozing. Worried about 'center' and apparent devotion to Jeff Bezos.

You'll be wearing a stetson with your orange warrior type gear before we know it.

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1 hour ago, L/H White said:

a typical town center 

vape shop, nail shop, news agents, sunbed shop, another vape shop, 5 barbers, another vape shop, another nail shop, newsagents, salon, charity shop, another vape shop, nail shop, takeaway, charity shop, takeaway, rinse and repeat 

thank fuck for amazon 

bulldoze them all

When was the last time you went to Bolton? You missed off pound shop, pound bakers and a gazillion bookies. 

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4 minutes ago, royal white said:

When was the last time you went to Bolton? You missed off pound shop, pound bakers and a gazillion bookies. 

few weeks ago, show at the albert halls, before that, 3 years ago 

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1 hour ago, L/H White said:

a typical town center 

vape shop, nail shop, news agents, sunbed shop, another vape shop, 5 barbers, another vape shop, another nail shop, newsagents, salon, charity shop, another vape shop, nail shop, takeaway, charity shop, takeaway, rinse and repeat 

thank fuck for amazon 

bulldoze them all

Most will be gone when the Home Office start the raids.

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7 hours ago, L/H White said:

a typical town center 

vape shop, nail shop, news agents, sunbed shop, another vape shop, 5 barbers, another vape shop, another nail shop, newsagents, salon, charity shop, another vape shop, nail shop, takeaway, charity shop, takeaway, rinse and repeat 

thank fuck for amazon 

bulldoze them all

Loads in Radcliffe just fronts for illegal activity Albanians are now setting up 

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On 21/07/2024 at 23:51, MancWanderer said:

Fuck all to do with the Tories, or Labour before them. Towns are subject to their local councils. Granted, money flows from the top, but I’ll give you Cliff Morris as an example of how to mismanage spending, management, investment, foresight, planning, infrastructure, etc. Rinse and repeat across the UK

Too many local councillors are pound shop versions of MPs. In it for themselves or the folk who voted for them?

Kin hell. 

This man gets it.

Walrus ruined this town and I'm sure his offspring has his snout in the trough.

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