Shopping, shops and more shops

Doing the weekly food shop at my local Sainsbury's on Thursday morning was quite an eye opener. If the media is to be believed, we are all busy counting our pennies, tightening our belts and generally hunkering down for a long, hard recession. Maybe some of Sainsbury's customers know something the rest of us don't but I was amazed at the sight of all the extra deep trolleys piled high with food and drink everywhere I looked. At the checkout next to mine a 'mature' couple had two trolleys, one full of food and the other full of bottles and cans and they were not the only ones to be struggling with two overloaded trolleys. I began to wonder if I had done a Rip van Winkle and woken up the week before Christmas.
Mind you, anyone who has money to spend or suffers from shopaholic tendencies is now spoiled for choice in the fair town of Wrexham. Not content with a bustling town centre and various other small retail parks on the outskirts, we are now blessed with Eagles Meadow. I haven't ventured in there yet although it opened last week but I am told that by no means all of the units have been let. Apart from the fact that we have suffered two years of traffic diversions, road works and widescale disruption for this white elephant to be built, many of the shops which are opening up there are closing their branches in the town centre, which leaves us with the strong possibility of that area becoming a ghost town with the attendant problems that boarded up shop fronts generally attract.
However, it was interesting to note this morning that the queues of traffic were not making their way towards Eagles Meadow. Maybe they were still all stocking up at Sainsbury's.


3 comments:

Can Bass 1 said...

Isn't the Eagles Nest that place Herr Hitler went on holiday? What the divvel is it doing in Wrexham?

Yorkshire Pudding said...

On the Eagles Meadow website it shows a rabbit bouncing along through a meadow. When you do venture there, please check if it is possible to buy rabbits there. To see what will probably happen to Wrexham town centre you might do well to visit Rotherham town centre that is now pretty much dead because of two shopping malls on the edge of the town - including the Meadowhall palace of consumerism.

Jennytc said...

He was supposed to have been a window cleaner in Liverpool, wasn't he, Can bass 1? ;)
YP, In the light of the present economic climate, it's more than possible that they are selling rabbits there - probably for stew!
On a more serious note, it is dreadful to see the heart ripped out of towns by these 'cloned' shopping malls.

Plaster board and dust

So, we're still no further forward on the British Gas smart meter front and I've given up making non-existent appointments with them...