Posted on 11/27/2011 2:58:57 AM PST by Cardhu
The ubiquity of McDonald's golden arches in Britain's high streets is such that it's hard to imagine a large town without the logo emblazoned on a prime retail spot.
But in Rochdale, the restaurant's windows are boarded and its familiar red and yellow sign, a visible landmark in the Lancashire town for 28 years, has been removed.
Last week McDonald's shut up shop, joining a growing number of key businesses deserting the town centre, and in so doing, according to shoppers and some retailers, banging another nail in the coffin of its struggling high street.
If Ronald McDonald can be relied upon to only go where the money is the corporation pulled out of Iceland after the country's 2008 financial crisis a retreat from Rochdale's principal shopping thoroughfare is being seen by some residents as an indicator of the town's high street health, or lack of it.
"I don't know of any other town that's shut its McDonald's," said Steve, as he rearranged unsold bouquets at the flower stall he has run in Rochdale's covered market for the past 18 years. "If fast food is at a low ebb, what chance do the rest of us have?" His turnover is 35% down as footfall and spending power has collapsed in the last 12 months, he said. "It's just been dreadful"
McDonald's is not deserting Rochdale. It has two other shops but both are in out-of-town retail parks. It says it closed the branch on Yorkshire Street, right in the heart of the town, "after seeing trading patterns in the town centre change". Perhaps that can be explained as you make the 200-metre walk up Yorkshire Street, and count nine charity shops, eight pawnbrokers-cum-jewellers and cash converter stores and three pound shops an increasingly familiar sight...
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
And charity shops fill otherwise empty units. A 2009 survey indicated Rochdale was the third worst-hit retail centre in the country, with 29% of stores standing empty.
Life goes on.
/johnny
They should see Detroit.
McDonald’s only leaves ~after~ the people are already gone.
They follow the crowd, they don’t create it.
Exactly.
You'd have NEVER seen a pawn shop or car title loan place in the heart of Chicago's financial district even 3-5 years ago. That alone is a HUGE indicator of how bad things are.
I live out in rural Will County, 35+ miles from Chicago. Same thing, car title loan places popping up out here like weeds. I think the economy is in far worse shape than most people suspect.
BTW: Average home price where I live is still north of $375,000, so what does it say when these places start popping up within a mile or two of where you live? Ain't good, that's for sure.
Rochdale sounds just like McKeesport, PA.
McDonald’s left downtown McKeesport when that area went downhill.
Is a “pound shop” like a dollar store?
Yes but it is about $1.54 at today’s exchange rate.
They were left that way deliberately to "send a message."
I've got a life long friend that taught in McKeesport and still lives there.
He is an former Vietnam Combat Marine, tough as nails, and liberal as Nancy Pelosi.
We have lunch once a month, and he is still doing volunteer work in the projects in the center of Mckeesport.
The stories he tells about drugs, pimps, whores and gangs make your skin crawl.
Why he is still a lib must be just a habit.
One day he will be a no show, and I'll know that some one split him open.
Not enough fresh blood. The evil clown moves on.
I’ve got a life long friend that taught in McKeesport and still lives there.
________________________________
McKeesport used to be a nice little city, lots of shoppers in downtown, a lot of industrial activity, well kept.
The projects are really ugly and dangerous down there nowadays, as well as much of the rest of the town.
Many of those areas that aren’t totally dangerous are still very gritty, poor and rundown.
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