H&M Retail Parks v Middleton Grange

[for fawkes sake]

There must be cause for serious concern here.

The food part of M & S is the one part doing well and opening a new food store on the Marina will inevitably impact on the Shopping Centre store. Add to that the closure of the South Shields and Redcar stores - both seaside towns - and you start to see a pattern. In Redcar, for example M&S opened a food outlet in Skippers Lane and then announced the closure of the town centre store.

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/marks-and-spencer-redcar-closing-7398719

[seaton]

M&S have just announced the closure of the Middleton Grange store !

[steveL]

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/key-hartlepool-store-to-close-early-next-year-1-6757482

[not4me]

. . . and is this part of 'The Vision' too?

Notice that M&S give 'free parking' as one of the deciding factors.

[steveL]

When free shopping centre parking was suggested at the Vision presentation Dave Stubbs was heard to mutter under his breath 'over my dead body'. It's when you have inflexible Dinosaurs like that in control that you get situations like M&S upping sticks.

[craig finton]

Argos and Boots will be next now that Marksies is going. I'm assuming that they're just waiting for their leases to expire. Who could possibly fill the M&S Store and exert the same pulling power? A shopping centre without an M&S is no shopping centre at all - it's just a collection of pasty shops and pound shops - just look at Peterlee.

[for fawkes sake]

Well it's not as if they haven't been warned. The public have been telling them about the parking charges and the high rents for years but what do we know eh? It's the public who really have 'The Vision' - the trouble is that no one is listening.

I can't wait to hear Mark Ryecraft's spin on this one.

[mk1]

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/key-hartlepool-store-to-close-early-next-year-1-6757482

Do you wonder how the Mail would have run with  just the news of the  proposed opening of a new M&S shop?
Perhps they would have exercised  some caution and  realised the knock-on effect on the Middleton Grange shop?
I refuse to believe they would have ran a banner headline trumpeting the news as if it was a great step forward for the Dear Leader's 'Vision'.
No one could be that stupid..........could they?


Ah the perils of a daily newspaper that is put to bed  hundreds of miles away and on the  previous day...


.. .

.
.
.

.
.
Keep scrolling
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
Keep scrolling
.....
. . . .
.
.
.
.

.


I bet they had taken a photo of CAB standing  outside the 'new' shop and were just going to run with it when the bad news hit them at 12:15.
Daily newspaper my ar*se!

[DRiddle]

The Mail are claiming to have broken the story of the closure too... although I can't see them stating that it was going to close in the article above.

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/business/reaction-to-marks-spencer-decision-to-close-middleton-grange-store-1-6758773

In fact, I could have sworn that was me who did that on this forum...

Let's hope The Mail pick up on 'other' stories broken by The Hartlepool Post.

[fred c]

I can see the sense in M&S opening a food outlet there. They have done so all over the Country including service stations and airports

Let us hope it is an extra because losing the Middleton Grange store really is showing the town that it is in the doldrums. Not only governments and industry not interested in the town but neither is the commercial industry. How low can the town sink under this present lot of so called leaders.

I believe the term is "Visionaries"............

The TorLab Mob will run Hartlepool into the ground with its idiotic Master Plans & Visions, sooner rather than later the wheels will fall off their wagon & it will all turn T**ts Up.

[not4me]

"I bet they had taken a photo of CAB standing  outside the 'new' shop and were just going to run with it when the bad news hit them at 12:15."

Maybe CAB was too busy reading something on the web 

[for fawkes sake]

Well it's not as if they haven't been warned. The public have been telling them about the parking charges and the high rents for years but what do we know eh? It's the public who really have 'The Vision' - the trouble is that no one is listening.

I can't wait to hear Mark Ryecraft's spin on this one.

Shopping centre manager Mark Rycraft said he was sorry to see M&S go, but he was looking forward to "positive developments" in the centre soon.

He added: "The centre will be sorry to see Marks and Spencer go and of course we are disappointed in their decision.

"We are however looking forward to some positive developments for Middleton Grange in the near future.

"We already have a fantastic mix of high street favourites and a diverse range of independent stores at the centre and we are close to being able to announce some new names that will be joining us.

"As always our commitment is to our shoppers and our retailers and we will endeavour to continue to offer a great shopping environment."

It's not really my style to swear but really.....this man is an a*r**o**.

[craig finton]

This ought to be one of Mr Rycraft's worst days of his life. His absurdly complacent reaction goes a long way to explaining why Middleton Grange is in the state that it is.

[dowager]

BHS will be closing soon too, they only signed a three year lease when they were 'persuaded' to invest in the centre

[The Great Dictator]

M&S will become a drug rehab unit and BHS a prison.