Tuesday, 13th May 2014

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Challenging Market Conditions

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This week we published a story in the newspaper about Bangor’s weekly market and, in particular about how the local Council may or may not be affecting what appears to be a steadily declining interest from customers and traders alike.

Now, keen readers of our Tweets will have noticed over the weekend that there was a wee bit of banter about the story between representatives of NDBC and ourselves and of course that’s how it should be; we say stuff – based on our journalistic research skills – and the people affected have the right to reply, and I suspect that this one will rumble on for a bit longer yet.

But there is a big fat elephant in the room and it is this – just because Bangor has always had a market, do we still need or want one and would anybody miss it if it wasn’t there? Have times changed such that people are different, behaviour is different, shopping is different etc or is this something that still provides a valuable service for both traders and customers and would be sadly missed?

Speccy suspects that if it were the former then, on current form, it’s just going to wither away until one day it just isn’t there, and by not pro-actively supporting it – e.g. without ‘boots on the ground’ as it were –  our local Council aren’t displaying any kind of  counter argument.
But if it’s the latter, and if you the Community are genuinely fond of and keen to continue to use a local market then you’d better get down there pretty quickly!

But as ever, it isn’t about what the Spectator says or what NDBC does or says in return – it’s about what you people want, so tell us…

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People in this conversation

  • Move the market to a Sunday, at Asda or (better still) at the seafront and then you'll have half a chance of people wanting and - more importantly - being able to go, then you've got half a chance...

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  • I haven't been to the market in years and personally I think its beyond the point of no return. It has nothing on the likes of St Georges Market in Belfast, a shopping experience which I love. It seems to be going from strength to strength and has a diverse appeal.

    The recession seems to have a polarizing effect, the strong get stronger whilst the weak get weaker. Unfortunately I don't think the Bangor market has had much of an appeal for a long time. It would be interesting to see the profile of visitor to the market. I suspect it's not particularly diverse and therefore will only appeal to a limited market... pardon the pun.

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