EA

They blamed it on the Big Freeze. The January weather was enough to act as the back breaking straw that forced Ethel Austin into administration. Will others wobble where Ethel failed?

The eventual departure of longstanding clothes store Ethel Austin will leave a nasty, horrible & high profile gap just off the Square. Ethel’s in Rhuthun/Ruthin had its refurbishment in 2007 and survived the previous administration, in April 2008, when some of the company’s stores closed. Now, the bell tolleth for her, along with about 40 per cent of the chain’s 300 shops. The remainder are far from secure.

Discounting The Children’s Society and Sue Ryder charity shops (no relation to our very own former mayor Janet Ryder AC/AM), with the recent closure of Tresher’s and the pending closure of Ethel’s, Rhuthun town centre will have just one national chainstore left… Boots the Chemist. A positive spin on this might be that the percentage of Independents is higher. But we all know that everyday shops like EA are essential to the town.

Tresher’s succumbed to aggressive supermarket cheap discount booze. What about Ethel’s? Snow certainly but you’d expect a bread & butter store of this nature to have weathered the recession. Perhaps Ethel’s is just too basic and perceived as too old fashioned. The hotshot hired to reverse Ethel Austin’s fortunes has failed.

Upon its departure, just where in Rhuthun will ladies buy their everyday smalls and combinations? And not just Rhuthun. In 2007, one Dinbych/Denbigh woman lamented the lack of underwear in Dinbych, stating that she had to travel to Rhuthun to buy at Ethel’s. Nothing’s changed in Dinbych and it would seem that a trip to either Y Rhyl or Yr Wyddgrug/Mold’s now called for.

Kader Orlint, the shop selling all sots of fluorescent safety wear that used to be Studio 21 closed on 5 January 2010. In spite of the jazzy work wear within, we still managed to miss this one closing.

Tomorrow’s related post: will Rhuthun pass the 12 per cent test?