Forum Topic

Hounslow is full of low cost chains and cheap pound shops. It has a similar clentele too. I actually use Hounslow quite a lot (for Primark before Ealing) and for the M&S outlet shop in particular. That was my thinking. I think the council (and landlords of course) can 'encourage' certian retaliers surely? By offering favourable or unfavourable terms? I may be ignorant here but surely there is still some town planning !

Penny Crocker ● 6664d

I think that you may also find that a lot of the shops which have closed in Ealing Broadway are owned by the same group.

Philippa Bond ● 6664d

Maybe the new owner of Ealing Broadway will have more motivation to fill the empty shops. Legal & general have sold the Centre for a rumoured £175 million. After spending that sum, am sure the new owner will want to fill the empty shops. Or maybe they will want to redevelop the whole thing!

Nadia Shaw ● 6664d

I don't agree that shopping has long been bad in Ealing. Just a couple of years ago, when we still had a department store, you could get pretty much anything you wanted there; or maybe I should say I could, but then my wants are modest.The worst bit now is the long, gloomy corridor stretching away to the right from Tesco towards the Broadway; hardly a unit left occupied!

Susan Kelly ● 6664d

It's sad to see closed shops in our shopping centre.  Apart from their not making good profits, what are the main reasons for their demise?Is the new and brash Primark a good thing for Ealing or is it a bad happening?

Gerry Tan ● 6654d

I hear that even Primark is seeing a downturn in sales.

Susan Kelly ● 6654d

I wonder if the new empty building rates will encourage property owners to reduce the rents they are asking or will they just make the building unusable and continue to avoid paying rates that way. If the latter, the High Street may well look worse than it is now, with empty building plots. Perhaps a modern day equivalent to the post war years of bomb sites? I can think of two sites on the Uxbridge Road in West Ealing and there is that recently demolished pub on the Western Avenue.

Peter Wright ● 6652d

We must hope with the centre that new owners are able to rent and manage at a more competetive level and aren`t just looking at the site as an investment because of the possibility of Crossrail.The latest to confirm permanent closure is JJB Sports (sportswear and footwear) although they havn`t replied to say if they are going to White City. Part of their business lends itself to internet sales which I`ve read is taking 17% from the high street - not just EB.

Robert Darke ● 6649d

Re -" Is the new and brash Primark a good thing for Ealing or is it a bad happening? "          xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx      Quite definitely I would say, a bad move. That " spot " has got worse each time it's occupiers have changed. Bentalls was a good quality business, a longstanding quality well respected store of Ealing. With the advent of Beales, it went down a notch ( imo of course ) but now it has got to a much lower level. I went in there last week and was not impressed in the slightest, and as I have said many times, Ealing in general ain't what it used to be, sadly.

Tony Price ● 6648d

Re the original comment " I see the shoe shop on the corner of The EB Shopping Centre has closed down....to add to Evans, Wallis, Miss Selfridge, Dolcis and others I've forgotten no doubt."          xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx          It looks as though another one J J Sports  could well be pulling down the shutters. They are selling everything off, so I assume they are off?.

Tony Price ● 6643d

Yes, JJB Sports have confirmed permanent closure direct to me by email - please refer to 18th July posting.

Robert Darke ● 6643d

Re :-"Yes, JJB Sports have confirmed permanent closure direct to me by email - please refer to 18th July posting."          Just have, thank you. Be a ghost town soon?

Tony Price ● 6643d

Its difficult to call because not only is Ealing Broadway in the White City retail shadow but is facing five years of disruption with the possible building of Arcadia.Everything hinges on who buys it and their motive. The best hope is that they are experienced centre managers, rather than developers, able to offer lower rents which would attract specialist and top-end shops who don`t need the high turnover of chain-stores, currently departing.

Robert Darke ● 6643d

Realistically will the Glengherkin and Dicken's Yard projects get started any time soon?We are into a recession and all the cheap labour's b*gg*red off.

Alan Brainsby ● 6643d

A worst case scenario could be planning permission granted to these giant developments with no action being taken for several years resulting in "planning blight".Have just read that Legal & General have entered into talks with Doughty Hanson and Plus Shops for the Ealing Broadway Centre. (Source is Property Week 15th July edition)

Robert Darke ● 6643d

But Amazon's turnover - or was it profits?- have beaten all expectations.Isn't the lesson that only things you have to do personally - like get your haircut and try on shoes - are going to survive the combination of economic downturn and enormous growth of internetshopping.

Sara Nathan ● 6643d

Surely the new Westfield centre will be far enough away not to have too much of an impact on Ealing?

Susan Kelly ● 6643d

Sir Peter Hall`s lecture at Ealing Town Hall for the Ealing Civic Society indicated it would affect every town as far as Reading to the west and Kingston to the south.However whilst agreeing with Sara that internet sales are affecting every high street I think the Broadway Centre is pleasant, functional and blends in well (brick finished rather than concrete) for a modern development and is sustainable.

Robert Darke ● 6643d

Re:- "Surely the new Westfield centre will be far enough away not to have too much of an impact on Ealing?"            Well it will if it is to  have what we won't. How many persons who would shop in Ealing but go as far afield as Brent Cross,  would they not go to White City, it being much closer. But I wish Ealing would do as Chiswick does, retain it's own flavour with privately owned shops etc. That I think in the long run would pay dividends and not  create the upheaval as when a large store ups sticks. Bring back Bentalls, Sanders  and Rowse's by all means with all the small businesses that Ealing used to have. More upmarket, much nicer.

Tony Price ● 6643d

The owner-owned shops are able to weather the poorer weeks or months of retail sales without the burden of the centre`s rent.Heard this week that Sports Direct will be replacing JJB Sports after refurbishment, and its no surprise that they are related. My feeling is that its part of the necessary adjustment to lower rents and operating costs.

Robert Darke ● 6637d

Re:- "The owner-owned shops are able to weather the poorer weeks or months of retail sales without the burden of the centre`s rent."          xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx          I might be saying something that many Forum readers already know but Photo Optix have gone bust, and did so sometime in June according to the notice on the door of their vacated shop.

Tony Price ● 6637d

I had to pop into Barclays bank the other day and paid £2 for just over an hours parking, thats why I prefer to go to Greenford westway centre or Brent Cross. I don't like being ripped off. Even Hammersmiths car park is a lot cheaper!

Pete Gregory ● 6634d

We've been away for three weeks - returned to see yet three more shops shut in the shopping centre, which looks even more depressing.  When will all these closures end?  :-(

Gerry Tan ● 6634d

when there's nothing left to close?

Sara Nathan ● 6634d

We passed by Primarks on Saturday and it was seething with customers - never seen it so busy.  What's the secret of their success, when so many other retail outlets seem to be closing?

Gerry Tan ● 6629d

PIle em hihg, sell it cheap.....up to minute copies of styles which chnage fairly often and unbeatable prices.

Penny Crocker ● 6629d

Gerry - Primark is cheap as chips. Great shopping for the young who get bored with clothes quickly and prefer quantity over quality (but they'd look good in a bin bag at that age anyway!). Latest styles at bargain basement prices - what's not to love?

S. D. Brock ● 6629d

But I am wracked with guilt at the thought of buying from Primark - you don't need an injuncted Channel 4 documentary to  tell you that, at those prices, there's no way they can be paying the workers anything approaching a living wage. The things still have to be cut out and stitched together and someone has to do it.Did it once, never again. But find it difficult to stop teenage kids who love it.

Sara Nathan ● 6629d

I worried about that too but have read a convincing argument from an independent source that a black and white sundress which retailed for £12 in Primark and £35 in Monsoon was EXACTLY the same (barring the style of the buttons) and from the same supplier paid the same wage............I'm not sure that retail price is a fair indicator of price paid to supplier. I warked many moons ago for a very large central London store where we were told to take out labels from cashmere jumpers and sew in the store's own labels. That was in 1978......plus ca change.

Penny Crocker ● 6629d

and the same applies to electrical goods today.

Peter Wright ● 6629d

Sara - we can't impose our values on other countries - and the pittance they work for can be the difference between eating or not eating.  They depend on Western countries buying their cheaply made goods.  Wipe out the cheap factories and you wipe out a source of income (albeit very small) and food on the table for thousands.

S. D. Brock ● 6629d

Did anybody see this program - http://www.bbc.co.uk/thread/blood-sweat-tshirts/

Peter Wright ● 6629d