In the supporting documentation for their Planning Application ASDA quote Fleetwood as an example of a community and local businesses benefitting from the ASDA store. Here are a couple of emails our local rector has received from Fleetwood:
/hi we have a music shop in fleetwood about 200yds from asda ,and i can say in all honesty it has had a bad effect on the small business in the town center,At xmas asda sells guitars which does not help us when they are selling them for a quarter of the price ,be that they are rubbish people still buy them , when shoppers go to asda for shopping they dont come into the town center to look round .In the past ten months at least 8 shops have closed there doors ie busy bee /frozen food/card shop/ sweet shop/computer shop/ and two pubs because of cheap beer from asda.i know on a personal leval that the only shop that has done well is the local fishmonger who,s shop can be seen from the car park of asda.best of luck with your new asda sue and mo melody box fleetwood/
Fleetwood 2007
Thank you for your e-mail dated 6 June 2008.
The views expressed by ASDA are too simplistic.
The Fleetwood Weekly News (our local paper) printed
articles on this subject and the findings are that trade for some businesses
increased at weekends. I have spoken to the Manager at Woolworths and he
is of the firm opinion that his trade has declined since ASDA opened.
Some businesses also found that their trade declined to such an extent that they ceased trading.
On balance the overall impression in the town centre is that there has been no significant
improvement and there are still many empty shops.
I hope this will help you.
Kind regards
Edward Greenwood