This blog has continually speculated on the fate or otherwise of the town centre shops and Rhuthun/Ruthin’s two supermarkets. But what might happen to Bridge Services, aka Texaco service station/convenience shop?Last summer, the shop part of Bridge Services underwent something of a much-needed internal refurbishment. All well and good but now, under new management, it’s turned itself into something of a bit of a mess. Stock is repeatedly left in aisles, contributing to a crowded and unkempt look. The magazines are a particularly disaster area – just like it used to be in the ever-changing layout of Newyddion Rhuthun/Ruthin News on Well Street. The magazine shelves are literally stuffed to bursting with out-of-date journals mingling with current issues, so that the customer is faced with such a confusing display he may as well not bother to look.
Bridge Services stays open till 10 p.m. That’s the same time as Tesco, Co-op and Somerfield. The trouble with Bridge Services is that for convenience, it will become the shop at the wrong end of town. Its catchment currently is all of Rhuthun/Ruthin. Come Tesco, will those who live in the wealthier estates to the east of Erw Goch, Parc Brynhyfryd, near Red Rocks and Erw Las gravitate to Tesco for the odd pint of milk or magazine, thereby leaving Bridge Services with far fewer customers?