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Here’s something that passed us by. On April 20th, the Daily Post reported that Prestatyn was named the best shopping destination in Wales. So say the so-called ‘vitality rankings’. Prestatyn may have been first but Rhuthun/Ruthin came fourth.
These vitality rankings are a range of metrics used to rank the shopping offer for towns and cities around the UK. The Daily Post says that they use factors likes ‘the quality of the retail offer, shopper numbers and demographics as well as vacancy rates’.
We’ve recently reported that some believe we should not under-estimate the number and scope of shops and businesses in town. It would seem we have a lot for our size of population. So, that’s probably in our favour in the vitality rankings. We’re not sure about footfall, though. We know this has declined sharply. But, that’s universal. Dinbych is no different, for example. And you should try Bae Colwyn.
If by ‘demographics’ the Daily Post means our socio-economic status and our relative prosperity, then we should receive a further tick.
Vacancy rates were probably lower when the survey was undertaken. This year, we’ve seen a few more ‘empties’ to add to the vacant Square (Majestic Travel side).
Hidden within the Daily Post article, they say, ‘The other places in the Wales top five were Cardiff, Monmouth, Rhuthun and Blackwood. This meant Denbighshire had two locations in the top spots, as the market town of Rhuthun came in fourth’.
Not long ago, the Daily Post was telling us that the closure of Rachel’s Eco Store was ‘another blow to Ruthin’s retail offer’.
The rankings were by Newmark’s consultancy & analytics team (whoever they are) and there does not appear to be anything published directly by them to corroborate the Daily Post’s article or give any hint as to why Rhuthun was fourth.