"You're Having a Laugh"

Some brave soul asked on Facebook, "With covid destroying many town businesses, what shop, business or service provider would you most like to see in Ruthin? What do we all think Ruthin needs the most?"

The interesting point is that the enquirer admits that coronavirus is destroying town centre businesses. Add competition from the internet and a 40-year swing to out-of-town retail and just who, then, is likely to open a new business in Rhuthun/Ruthin?

Soon to reopen, this shop promises to offer children's clothes

I have wandered around town virtually every day since lockdown. In the early days, of course, everything was closed. From June 22nd, we began to emerge from lockdown at least for now (a second wave notwithstanding). But I don't see too many locals in town. It's very marked, this summer, that visitors outnumber locals by a significant margin. And, while it's good to see tourists, we also need locals to support our services. It's a proven fact that locals don't and that, dear reader, is part of the problem. We take our town for granted. If we did champion our own back yard, we would have a very different town centre. The town we have mirrors our own choices and we shouldn't be surprised how this is turning out.

Boris Johnson yesterday urged workers (in England) to return to their offices. The reason was to help to breath life into struggling town centres. I wonder whether Wales will replicate this call to action. There is nevertheless an increasing concern about the economic impact of the shift towards home-working during the pandemic. Working from home is no bad thing, though, and most workers relish the freedom and productivity it offers. Our major employer, County Hall, closed five months ago and while now open for half-hourly appointments from Monday August 24th, it's unlikely ever to be the same again. The town can no longer rely on the passing trade that County Hall once generated during the working week.

It's clear from the debate on Facebook that there are a number of Ruthinians who don't come into town. If they did, they'd know the range of shops, goods and services on offer. It's rather stark that people who make suggestions about what they would like to see don't fully realise that town centre traders already provide some of the services requested. How can people who claim to use the town centre be so unaware of the shops it contains?

We should welcome Clogau into our midst but to be honest it's not the sort of everyday store people actually want... like predecessor Ethel Austin. But can Rhuthun support either genre?

A number of people called for a Primark in Rhuthun. Yeah, right. No doubt some were tongue in cheek but there was a consistency regarding a value clothes retailer, for adults and especially for children. There were fond memories of Ethel Austin, where Clogau will shortly start trading. Ethel's closed in 2010 not specifically because of a lack of trade in Rhuthun but the post-2008 downturn. A similar shop, Ellie Louise, previously Trade Secrets and Seconds Ahead, Market Street (now Costa) lasted no time at all. The reality is that such shops nowadays need a much larger catchment than Rhuthun & district can offer.  

In 2017, discount fashion chain Peacock's opened in Dinbych. Here is a less prosperous town which, for years, had no value clothes offer. Peacock's fitted the town's demographic. Dinbych has a population about double Rhuthun's. But believe me when I say that there's hardly ever anyone in the store—and I speak as someone who knows Dinbych almost as well as Rhuthun. Before lockdown, Peacock's was actually closing stores. Will Dinbych's last?

How the BBC shows our current economic predicament. Even the disaster that was 2008 is now nothing other than a mere blip. Who's going to open a shop in this climate?

It was inevitable that someone should raise the quantity of hair & beauty salons. Actually, in the last couple of years, the number has fallen. But the market must be there, otherwise these providers wouldn't be. These, cafés and restaurants are likely to grow in town centres because they are businesses unaffected by internet shopping. 

Everything else, well, let's be honest, is doomed in the long-term. To expect greengrocers and similar convenience offers is rather pie in the sky, especially with a third supermarket almost ready to open. 

A former children's clothes retailer in Rhuthun summed it up. "You're all having a laugh. You want kids' clothes shops. So people open them and you don't use them. You want somewhere selling underwear. You had one and didn't use it. No wonder businesses close or relocate. You want something but then you don't use them."