I'm leaving it: McDonald's quits Rochdale's ailing town centre (England)

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

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.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/25/mcdonalds-quits-rochdale-town-centre

---

The boarded-up site of the McDonald’s branch in Rochdale town centre. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

[patrick t. cakes]

1. hopefully a locally owned market

could fill the space. Lucky town

[T_i_B]

9. I wouldn't get your hopes up

it's more likely to be Gregg's, betting shops and charity shops as in other places where the town centre is seriously depressed.

If people are not spending money in a place, then other people are less likely to set up businesses in that place. You end up with a cycle of decline.

[Bosonic]

2. A more serious sign would be Greggs leaving

Then it's zombie apocalypse time.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. That's a good point, really

it's quite possible the McDonald's has been outcompeted by Gregg's. A web search seems to show 3 in the town, 2 right in the centre (one on Yorkshire St., the same one as the closed McDonald's).

However, the rest of the Rochdale story sounds as though it is having a rough time:

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 in many recession-hit towns.

Indications are it is set to get worse. Philip Green announced this week that 260 of his Arcadia group's stores are at risk of closure. Arcadia's Dorothy Perkins and Burton pulled out of Rochdale 11 months ago, perhaps giving credence to a theory voiced by some that the town acts as some kind of barometer.

In the Wheatsheaf shopping centre there is a cavernous hole where TJ Hughes, the discount brand now in administration, was until two months ago. McDonald's empty building adjoins the premises where the Body Shop traded until last year. The stricken Ethel Austin clothing chain closed in April. Where there was Woolworths , B&M Bargains has opened. On the old Littlewoods site, there are hopes for an Iceland.

I've seen that on a smaller scale elsewhere, but that's a lot in one town centre.

[CanSocDem]

3. It's an opportunity.

Some local entrepreneur should jump in there with the same garish style that McD's cultivated. Hopefully all the negative aspects of industrial fast food chains will be avoided with the new ownership and a great lesson will be learned by the community.:hi:


.

[christx30]

4. I imagine that this could

hurt shopping in that area, depending on what other food places are in the area. They figured this out in the early days of Ikea. People could only shop for so long before they got hungry, which is why Ikea now has a cafe halfway through. It's good food there.
With McDonald's it might be the same. People will do a little shopping, then leave the area to go eat, and probably won't be back that day. Having low cost (even though low quality and unhealthy) food in the area would entice people to stay in the area longer and spend more money at the shops.

[Crowman1979]

6. Good riddance I say!

It won't be missed.

[flying rabbit]

11. Hey!

What's wrong with a shake, some fries and a vague meatlike substance?

[left on green only]

13. I Like Your Sense Of Humor!

.:fistbump:

[marasinghe]

7. time to return to the old English Village model. n/t

[DeSwiss]

8. When the rates of high blood pressure.....

...obesity and diabetes begin to fall, maybe, just maybe the connection will be made.


- Good riddance to greasy rubbish.......

K&R

[T_i_B]

10. Never been to Rochdale.....

....never made it past the Marble Arch pub on the Rochdale Road if truth be told. That said, this does sound very much like a lot of the problems facing Rotherham town centre.

High Unemployment, out-of town shopping centres taking all the trade, and the town centre being swamped with budget stores, Gregg's and charity shops.

[lbrtbell]

12. What a tacky place

No wonder nobody wants to do business there. It looks like a village whose best days are behind it. :(

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. A village with a pedestrian precinct?

But welcome to the real world - that's what town centres look like. People spend a lot of money on building brand new malls to attract shops and customers there instead of the existing shopping areas - which then become run down when shops close down and no-one can justify doing maintenance and gradual renovation on them. It moves the shops around, at great expense, but doesn't really make people buy more things. But one town or suburb gains a temporary advantage over another, until they in turn become the 'old' shopping area. Good for the construction business, but no-one else, in the long run.