We are, as
I write this – 6.30pm ish on Monday the 7th of December all
wondering whether the House of Fraser or ‘Fraser’ group are going to make a
successful bid to keep Debenhams – part of the Arcadia group.
This comes
on top of many big retailers already moving out of Bedford – British
Homestores, River Island, Marks and Spencers, Bath Store, we aren’t talking
small retail units here – we are talking significant sqM of a town that has
boasted having nearly 3million square feet of central retail space.
It can still
boast a huge catchment area, significant footfall and ridiculous traffic and
archaic parking strategy.
The current
‘strategy’ seems to be focusing on attracting business to its many ‘strategic
sites’ and yet, as you will see from the map I wonder if their strategies are a
bit mis-guided, in isolation. There are after-all may wealthy consumers in all
the surrounding ‘shires’ of Bedford.
The
‘Cultural Quarter’ hailed as such a huge success, is indeed a nice place to
visit – for a meal – but the culture – where exactly is the culture of Bedford,
or Bedford’s Cultural Quarter?
Time to reverse the tend. The worrying state of the high streets, seem to be being blamed on online. However, there is still footfall in the towns, even now, when theres nothing to attract them.
Many will remember me from some fairly busy years 2006-2014 whereby I was focusing on providing resources to the consumer, these stemming around areas of lifestyle, shopping, homes, the things that we enjoy spending our money on. Many more of you will nostalgically remember the days when shops were either cheap (and nasty) or expensive (and posh) and many more may hear the distant echos of ‘British Manufacturing is here to stay – to be world renowned as a TRADEMARK of quality’. What actually happened was all the Brits in their true wisdom took all their blueprints of their innovations to China to take advantage of cheap manufacturing, and, I have to say from my experience, avoid some exceptionally lazy owners of manufacturing output in the UK.
Why is it that when the whole of the marketing world is focusing on providing experiences that the entire retail sector has been too lazy to innovate, to redecorate, to invest in its customer service, designers and tech?
I believe Bedford is the result of many years of ignorance, and the shift we seem to have made towards dishonest business.
I am tired of hearing people say its online killing the high street – it isn’t at all, it’s the high street killing the high street. There are millions of people walking the pavements and past the windows and probably trying to avoid looking at the shabby, crumbling shop windows full of stuff that they don’t want to buy. It really is time for the big thinkers and the big spenders to get together – I am not one to harp on about anything unless it is something that we as a society, a community and commercially viable unit of progressive business should be thinking about. The facts are that our high streets, retail centres are decades behind – some of this is likely due to the councils and some likely due to the huge, once dominant retail groups and more-likely someone trying to get hold of cheap property to rent out cheaply or another town centre scandal.
However, right now we are in that space that more coffee shops and department stores or just plain greedy retail is not going to cut-it. And, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, there isn't time to wait and see what happens.
Please open this conversation – I have ideas, just as I know many do, that could produce drawn-up, feasibility tested and researched plans, there are organisations such as the IOD, start-up and community groups that when combined with architects and planners - are all able to make a real difference in the UKs visible economy and start creating some much-needed energy and employment for all Towns across the UK that will inevitably suffer the results of the pandemic – let’s start the conversation.
This page is put together in the hope of opening up conversation - there are many groups and individuals out there trying to do so much for Bedford - and they are making a difference, however, what the town needs is Money - and lots of it.
I appreciate that the strategies I have highlighted here and the efforts being made are perhaps taking a very simplistic view, however, my point is that the ideas are not strong enough to attract the investment, the past rather visible arguments between previous, prominant retailers and the council have rather a damaging effect and the current situation needs more attention.
Innovation, business and start-ups are areas that I care about and I will aim to create a number of articles on topics, towns and regions that are in the spotlight - for reasons of success - and those that are facing similar scenarios to Bedford.
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