Good luck to the new Bridport SPAR: but what the hell is it all about?
FOR THOSE living in the East Street area of Bridport and finding themselves in urgent need of a packet of Sour Cream and Chive crisps at gone nine at night, those requiring a bracing tot of rum just after seven in the morning and those wanting to buy a second hand, or ‘previously viewed’, DVD from a rather limited selection the opening of the new Spar shop will prove an absolute God-send. The rest of us can carry on scratching, breaking wind and trying to touch the tips of our noses with our tongues.
- Spar, East Street, Bridport
Another convenience, AKA rather pricey, shop has opened.
When the editor of this site asked me to take a look at the establishment my first reaction was that he had taken leave of his senses and gone as far round the bend as I am. I really don’t go in for a lot of grocery shopping. Reviewing pubs yes, restaurants, if I have to, or even knocking shops at a push, but the weekly grub and cleaning materials grab and I are normally as total strangers.
Anyway I did take a swan along there and have a look. My first reaction was – why? What is it all about? Why has a company spent a considerable amount of money to provide a service that will prove of great value to those needing a bar of ordinary chocolate during the hike from Waterstone’s to Bridport Sports and very few others?
It beats me, but I know as much about high finance as I do about doing the weekly shop.
Although it is clean, well lit and pleasant-looking, it offers nothing that either the locally-owned Threshers franchise next door or the first-rate newsagents on the corner of Barrack Street don’t. Plus, they offer a wider choice of what they do sell, and at less cost, than the new painted lady in their midst.
So is it unneeded and unwanted or have I got it totally wrong?
Time and the wallets and purses of the populace of Bridport will tell.
I can see no need for it.
Having said all that, I really do wish them well. They have turned a desolate ruin in the middle of town into an attractive, cheery and inviting shop. They have employed local people, which is a positive bonus in these straitened times and they are paying their business rates, which will benefit us all.
So good luck SPAR – but why the hell did you do it?
One Response to “Good luck to the new Bridport SPAR: but what the hell is it all about?”
It seems to me that the reason Spar have come to Bridport is probably the same reason Costa did – a small, busy town, with plenty of local businesses. We have an already proven market so they move in, and by the power of familiarity, draw all and sundry to them rather than the smaller businesses. It won’t be the people who genuinely treasure Bridport’s foodie culture, or diverse local shops that will patronise this new kid on the block, but the much larger majority of ‘ordinary’ folk, and of course the tourists.
On a positive note I agree that a full shop is better than an empty one; it’s just a shame that it has to be a huge chain replacing a huge chain; but at the price they were asking for the building, and the work that needed doing, with banks no longer taking risks on the small guys, it was always going to be thus.
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