Trinity Square, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

It may have taken over a year to get started following the Get Carter car park’s demolition, but building work at Gateshead’s Trinity Square is now proceeding apace.

Construction of the £150m development only began at the start of November, but the speed of progress has been impressive since I photographed the first section of steel frame less than two months ago (below), close to where the car park entrance ramp used to be.

Start of construction at Trinity Square, Gateshead (4 Nov 2011)

That part of the scheme now towers over the adjacent three-storey New Century House (formerly the Co-op department store; now Argos and other shops), giving a first sense of the development’s scale along West Street – what is currently, to all intents and purposes, Gateshead’s main shopping thoroughfare. As well as the steel frame, concrete floors and staircases are also starting to go in.

Trinity Square from West Street, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

Further down West Street, another section of Trinity Square is taking shape opposite the existing Iceland and Heron Foods stores.

Trinity Square from West Street, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

Overall, it’s possible to start making out the shape of the scheme on the ground in relation to the numerous artists’ impressions that the developer, Spenhill (a subsidiary of Tesco), has made available, even if the images do make West Street look unfeasibly wide. When complete, the development will include a 175,000 sq ft Tesco Extra store, an additional 170,000 sq ft of new retail and leisure space (comprising up to 42 shop units and kiosks), over 750 parking spaces, and a 993-room student village. I understand that several well-known retail names are already lined up for the scheme, though one or two are likely to be relocations from older or overrented space elsewhere in the town centre.

Artist's impression of Trinity Square from West Street. Image courtesy of Spenhill

Unsurprisingly, the Trinity Square development has both its fans and its detractors. When I blogged about the scheme back in July last year, one reader, Seamaster, lamented the demolition of Owen Luder’s iconic car park, while James lambasted my assessment that “the Tesco store is properly integrated, visually and physically, into a wider scheme that is bold and modern.”

Anyone who follows my blogs or tweets will know that I’m not always an enthusiast of Tesco. However, from the perspective of both a retail commentator and a Gateshead resident, I stand by my positive view of the development. For me, the scheme’s unashamedly modern design and scale is much more successful, for example, than the strange modern-classical hybrid adopted by Newcastle’s recent Eldon Square extension (below).

Clayton Street frontage, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010)

The potential of a monolithic Tesco development also seems to have been avoided, both in terms of physical connectivity and the mix of uses.

Jackson Street, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

With regard to the former, the plan and images show additional shops lining West Street and High Street, as well as a new store-lined street that will connect West Street to High Street via the new town square. Together with a further pedestrian link, to Jackson Street (emerging beyond Hutchinsons in the photograph above), these connections should ensure that Gateshead town centre’s existing businesses – including recent arrivals such as Poundland (in the former Woolworths) and Wetherspoon’s – benefit from the extra footfall that the development is bound to generate.

Overall, Spenhill predicts that the scheme will result in an increase in the town centre’s retail turnover potential from £74m to £160m, and that Gateshead’s RetailVision CentreRanking will “improve by over 500 places”.

New Poundland store, Gateshead (21 Sep 2010)

In terms of the mix of uses, the development also seems to get things right. In addition to the retail space, the introduction of leisure uses and a sizable student housing component should help to address two of Gateshead town centre’s other flaws – a very limited bar and restaurant offer, and next to nothing in the way of town centre housing, both of which currently create an eeriness and lack of activity at night.

Poster at Trinity Square, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

For now, however, Gateshead shoppers still have to wait a few years longer before the development is complete. The latest issue of Gateshead Council News reports that the current Tesco store will close in mid-2012, with the new store (on much of the same site) opening in spring 2013, and the student housing being completed in summer 2014. A temporary Tesco (probably in the Metro format, given the unit’s size) is expected to operate from the old Kwik Save site in the High Street in the interim.

Former Kwik Save, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

Apart from the buzz that the students on site will bring to the scheme, Trinity Square will mean that Gateshead’s other residents also finally have a town centre that is a viable place to shop and go out in, rather than always having to head to Newcastle or Metrocentre.

At a time when Mary Portas and others are encouraging us to support and regenerate our local high streets, bringing Gateshead town centre back to life – through a bold mix of retail, leisure and housing – must surely be a good thing.

Tindale & Stanton logo

A family-run bakery and supermarket supplier based in County Durham has been saved from closure.

Bakery Products Limited has acquired the assets and goodwill of Hobson Foods Limited (in administration), which traded as Tindale & Stanton. The new business will continue to trade as Tindale & Stanton Limited from its existing premises in Burnopfield, near Gateshead. Bakery Products already owns the Woodhead Bakery in Scarborough, which it rescued from administration earlier this year, and has gone on to become a major supplier to the UGO supermarket chain.

Woodhead store in the bakery's native Scarborough (24 Jun 2011)

A familiar brand to many in the North East, Tindale & Stanton is a long-established, traditional baker originally founded by Bill Tindale. Serving the region for over 25 years, there are two main parts to the business: supply of a full range of bakery products to local retailers, fish and chips shops and cafés via its modern refrigerated vehicle fleet; and a wholesale division supplying a number of national supermarket chains and retailers with branded pies and baked goods.

In August this year, the company unveiled a ‘beef and broon’ pie, made with locally sourced Mordue ale and Northumbrian beef, and sold in Asda stores across the North East – part of a range that the new owners intend to retain and grow.

In recent years, however, Tindale & Stanton has also faced some challenges. After the business collapsed into administration in 2008, former managing director Peter Frankland formed Hobson Foods to rescue the business’s production facilities in Burnopfield and Gateshead, and 160 of its 300 jobs. A year ago, the smaller Gateshead bakery was closed, with its 16 staff transferred to the headquarters on Burnopfield’s Hobson Industrial Estate.

Last year, the business reported a slightly increased pre-tax profit of £122,689 on sales of £7m for the year ending May 2010. I understand, however, that recent sales have suffered as a result of lost business following Asda’s takeover of Netto. Tindale & Stanton was previously a major supplier to Netto, accounting for annual sales of £2.5m – or more than a third of its total turnover.

Netto store in Gateshead

Commenting on the acquisition, a spokesperson for Bakery Products told Soult’s Retail View:

“When Hobson Foods became available, we saw a unique opportunity to save a successful business that shares our traditional family bakery ethics.

“Tindale & Stanton will complement and enhance the current range offered by the Woodhead Bakery. The two businesses have strong synergies in that each is well known and respected in its respective geographical area with a focus on quality, range and value for money

“The acquisition also facilitates economies of scale through shared management and resources and opens up a variety of new opportunities to grow the Bakery Products business.

“It is planned that the 122 Tindale & Stanton staff in place when the acquisition was agreed will retain their positions. However, we understand that, regrettably, a small number of redundancies have taken place over the last few weeks.

“This is the start of a brand new era for the business which we firmly believe has a very bright future.”

As I reported earlier this month, Woodhead-branded bread, cakes and pies have already been selling well in UGO, with customers seemingly appreciating the freshness, value and local provenance of the products.

Woodhead bread products at UGO Boothferry (11 Oct 2011)

As well as securing a successful wholesale business, the purchase of Tindale & Stanton – whose products are already sold in UGO shops – provides further interesting vertical integration opportunities for the 20-strong UGO supermarket chain as it seeks to lessen its reliance on Nisa-sourced products.

Best Buy, Rotherham (3 Nov 2011)

Carphone Warehouse has this morning confirmed that it will close its 11 big-box Best Buy stores across the UK, subject to employee representative consultation, putting 1,100 jobs at risk.

The first store, in Thurrock, only opened – to great fanfare – in April last year, followed by others in Bristol, Croydon, Derby, Enfield, Hayes, Liverpool, Nottingham, Rotherham, Southampton and Wolverhampton.

However, the electronics and electricals chain – a joint venture between Carphone and the successful US retailer Best Buy – has racked up eye-watering losses in the subsequent eighteen months. Having made an operating loss of £62m in the year to 31 March 2011, the pace of those losses has worsened during 2011, with a further deficit of £47m reported in the six months to 30 September. Ambitions to build a 200-strong chain soon seemed wide of the mark, and the collapse, at the end of last year, of talks to open a store here in Gateshead (on the current Mothercare World site at Team Valley Retail World) suggested that any plans for growing beyond 11 sites had stalled.

Mothercare World - and once-mooted Best Buy site - at Team Valley, Gateshead (31 Dec 2010)

Clearly, Carphone decided it was better to pull the plug now than to persevere further, despite the fact that closing the stores will not be cheap – the retailer’s announcement anticipates “further operating losses of approximately £25m-£30m through to closure”, as well as “cash costs of closure [of] a further £65-75m post-tax” and “non-cash asset write downs [of] approximately £40m-£45m.”

Best Buy, Rotherham (3 Nov 2011)

So, what went wrong? Arguably, things got off to a bad start with the dithering that followed the initial Best Buy UK announcement in May 2008. Though the first Best Buy stores were originally planned for 2009, the eventual two-year build-up to market entry, in April 2010, allowed the UK’s established electronics and electricals players – notably Currys and PC World, owned by Dixons Retail, and to a lesser extent Kesa-owned Comet – to steal a march on the newcomer with significant investment in their own stores and branding.

Currys and PC World, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (6 Aug 2010)

Though Comet has itself struggled of late, Dixons’ transformation of PC World and Currys has been generally more successful, revamping the tired look of its brands, opening dual-branded stores and larger-footprint Currys Megastores, and seeking to transform perceptions of the business through innovations such as the design-led Black store in Birmingham. The pre-emptive responses of Best Buy’s competitors-to-be, coupled with other challenges within the electricals trading environment (growth of online retail, depressed consumer spending), meant that the market that Best Buy entered in 2010 was rather different to the one it had envisaged in 2008.

Currys PC World Black, Birmingham (19 Aug 2011)

Coincidentally, I visited my first Best Buy store, on Rotherham’s Parkgate Retail Park, last week, where the retailer has only been open since 10 June this year. At the time, I tweeted that “Best Buy in Rotherham is vast, beautiful, yet strangely sterile. Some customers, but seems quiet overall.” There’s no disputing that it was a good-looking store, but it was hard to work out why a customer might head there instead of to the more familiar – and recently opened – 52,000 sq ft Currys PC World megastore nearby.

Best Buy bus, Malmesbury (21 Sep 2011). Photograph by Mark Leaver

Best Buy’s UK fate is neatly encapsulated by the photo that Mark Leaver captured for me in September, where he spotted a Best Buy bus parked on a deserted roundabout near Malmesbury in Wiltshire, 30 miles from the nearest store at Bristol’s Cribbs Causeway.

Ultimately, through its own missteps and the changing climate around it, Best Buy has struggled to define its place in the market, or to find where its customers were. Malmesbury’s double decker may have shouted about the store’s presence, but sadly there just weren’t enough people who wanted to go along for the ride.

Point-of-sale promotion of the Asda Price Guarantee

Judging from the number of hits – currently 900+, and rising – many of you enjoyed my recent illustrated post about Asda’s Old Fold Road store in Gateshead, following its impressive transformation from a Netto.

While the increase in product lines and instore services is one of Asda’s selling points at its converted Netto sites, another is its pledge that “all newly converted Netto stores will charge the same low price as every other Asda in the UK.” This means that smaller Asda Supermarket sites, just like their full-size counterparts, are covered by the much publicised Asda Price Guarantee: the company’s pledge to be “10% cheaper on your comparable grocery shopping” than Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons or Waitrose.

Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

At the same time as I was checking out the Gateshead store’s new look, Asda challenged me to carry out a £50 shop instore – to put the Price Guarantee to the test, as well as seeing whether it really was possible to do a full weekly shop in a compact Asda. So, how did I get on?

My shopping list

Coffee at Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

To make the test as real as possible, I prepared a shopping list comprising many of the items that I buy on a regular basis and needed to buy anyway, including fresh fruit and veg, storecupboard items (e.g. olive oil, coffee, baked beans), crisps and nuts, household items (e.g. handwash, toilet rolls), frozen foods, cat food and wine, as well as ingredients for that evening’s dinner (sausage and mash).

A couple of qualifiers

Asda billboard, Gateshead (26 Jun 2011)

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not usually an Asda shopper, but in the supermarkets I do visit – mainly Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Aldi – I tend to go for own-brands over branded products. The ‘comparable grocery shopping’ proviso of the Price Guarantee reflects the fact that while it’s easy to compare the price of branded products in different supermarkets, own-brand comparisons are more tricky due to variations in pack size, ingredients or other characteristics. To ensure that my shop included as many comparable items as possible, I was therefore prepared to buy a few more branded items than would usually be the case.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the shop took place on 6 August; inevitably, all the prices and offers that I mention can only ever be a snapshot of that particular day, and may well have changed – up or down – since. All the photos are from two days later, when I returned to the store – unladen with shopping – for a more detailed look around.

Finding what I wanted… and a few other things

Pesto at Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

By and large, I was able to find everything on my list, though I did have to make a few substitutions where my chosen brand wasn’t available. For example, I couldn’t find any Pears handwash, so bought a similar Baylis & Harding product (£2) instead. I couldn’t see any Sacla green pesto either, so decided to abandon the pesto rather than opt for the slightly cheap-looking Asda own-brand alternatives.

Handwash at Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

In some other categories – such as meat sausages, vegetarian sausages, redcurrant jelly and, more surprisingly, potatoes – the options instore were a little bit limited, and you might well choose to go to a larger store if you were after a wider range or particular brands. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine that the old Netto on the site would have sold vegetarian sausages or redcurrant jelly at all.

Belvoir Elderflower Pressé at Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Alongside the items I planned to buy, I was also tempted by a few of the offers that grabbed my attention instore. Mr Muscle Window & Glass Cleaner (500 ml) for £1 seemed like a great deal, as did Belvoir Elderflower Pressé (75 cl) at two for £3.50 (compared to £2.20 for one) and Taylors of Harrogate coffee at two for £5 (instead of £3.28 each). The branded wines (Blossom Hill at £5 and Echo Falls at £4) also seemed keenly priced.

Finally, my cat, Sebastian, did well out of the shop too, with the price for Iams (£3 for 1kg) looking very attractive compared to what I normally pay.

In total, my shop comprised 38 different products, and came to £68.77 once the ‘two-for’ discounts were deducted.

Wanting to enter the details of my shop online… but not until tomorrow

Asda Price Guarantee website welcome screen (6 Aug 2011)

Watching the rather cheesy TV ad for the Asda Price Guarantee, you can be forgiven for thinking that all you need to do is arrive home, gather the other mums around, and immediately start comparing each others’ receipts.

The reality is a little less exciting, especially as you have to wait until at least 6am the morning after you shopped before inputting your details at the Asda Price Guarantee website. At the moment, neither the receipt nor the Price Guarantee website homepage flags up that you can’t compare your prices straight away; it’s only mentioned once you reach the ‘Enter your receipt details’ page via the welcome screen’s ’Enter Receipt’ button.

This, I would have thought, has potential to cause disappointment and annoyance, yet would be easily remedied by changing the receipts to read “Check your receipt online from 6am tomorrow at…” instead of the current “Check your receipt online at…”

Putting the Price Guarantee to the test… and interrogating the data

My shop *is* 10% cheaper (7 Aug 2011)

Needless to say, I waited with baited breath until the following morning when – finally – I could enter and check the details of my shop, a process that is clearly explained and takes just thirty seconds or so to complete. So, was my comparable shop 10% cheaper than it would have been at Asda’s competitors? Yes, it was, as the results screen above happily declared.

How my shop compared (7 Aug 2011)

Given the prominence of the ’10% Cheaper’ promise within the Asda Price Guarantee, I found it a little strange that the main results screen showed the difference between my Asda shop and the equivalent elsewhere in terms of actual money saved, rather than percentage. Hence, I could see (above) that my comparable items would have cost £8.87 more at Tesco or £6.62 more at Morrisons, but beyond knowing that the saving must be at least 10%, the precise percentage difference was not made clear.

Another thing that immediately struck me was the fact that I’d apparently saved £7.61 compared to Waitrose, but £8.87 compared to Tesco. Did this mean that Waitrose was cheaper than Tesco for the items I’d bought? Actually, no, it didn’t at all.

Receipt comparison details: Asda vs Tesco (7 Aug 2011)

For each of the other supermarkets, clicking the ‘View details’ link brought up a more detailed, item-by-item price comparison. Pleasingly, only three of the 38 items I bought turned out not to be comparable with any of the other supermarkets, a much smaller number than I expected.

The store-by-store breakdown showed that while the Price Guarantee had been able to compare 31 of my 38 different items against Tesco, it had managed to compare 29 against Sainsbury’s, 28 against Morrisons, and only 23 against Waitrose. If you’re interested in the full detail, I’ve created a PDF (Table 1) that shows the price comparisons for all the items that I bought.

In other words, the headline saving of £8.87 against Tesco was based on comparable items costing £54.27 at Asda. In contrast, the headline saving of £7.61 against Waitrose was based on a much smaller comparable basket, costing £39.89 at Asda. Hence, while it’s fine to compare the headline figures for any one of the other supermarkets with Asda, it’s not fair to compare those competitors with each other, simply because the basket sizes being compared are all different.

Tesco store, Gateshead (18 Jun 2010)

Asda would probably point out, of course, that the whole point of the Price Guarantee is only to compare its own prices with those of competitors, and that it doesn’t claim to compare, say, Tesco against Waitrose or Tesco against Morrisons. That’s fine, but I wonder how many other shoppers would have drawn the same initial Tesco vs Waitrose conclusion as I did from those headline figures?

Certainly, it’s another reason why it would make more sense for the initial results page to show the percentage savings relative to Asda’s competitors, rather than actual cost savings that have potential to confuse. Currently, however, the actual percentage savings against the other supermarkets are not stated anywhere in the results – I had to work them out myself by copying and pasting the data into Excel.

Morrisons came closest to beating the Price Guarantee

This is surprising, as in my case, at least, the statement that “Your comparable grocery shopping is 10% cheaper than Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Waitrose” actually underplayed the true extent of the saving. In percentage terms, Morrisons came closest to beating the Asda Price Guarantee, where I saved ‘only’ 12.2% by shopping at Asda. Tesco was next best (14% cheaper at Asda) followed by Waitrose (16%) and finally – perhaps surprisingly – Sainsbury’s (16.1%). Again, my PDF shows the detailed data from which I calculated these percentages.

Taking the impulse buys out of my comparison

Iams at Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

As I noted above, there were quite a few items in Asda that I bought on impulse because they seemed like really great deals. It turned out, for example, that the £3 bag of Iams was £1.41 cheaper in Asda than its nearest competitor (Sainsbury’s), and a full £2.50 cheaper than Waitrose [see full breakdown]. While great for me, as the customer, including such items in the test inevitably gives Asda a head start in meeting its ’10% cheaper’ pledge.

So, what happens if I exclude those impulse purchases from the comparison and just test the Price Guarantee on the items on my shopping list? Well, Asda still came out top, but obviously by a bit less than before:

• 5.9% cheaper than Morrisons on my comparable shopping-list items
• 7.8% cheaper than Tesco
• 10.1% cheaper than Sainsbury’s
• 10.3% cheaper than Waitrose.

I’ve prepared a second PDF (Table 2), which makes clear the items that I excluded from each comparison. Again, bear in mind that the percentages above are only really meaningful in terms of comparing Asda to each of its competitors, not the competitors with each other.

Testing the data a third way 

Of the five supermarkets, Waitrose was cheapest on the fewest items

Having established that Asda was indeed cheapest across both my entire shop and the shopping-list items, I thought it would be interesting to look at which of the five supermarkets was cheapest on a product-by-product basis. You can see the results of my analysis in a third PDF (Table 3).

For each of the 35 comparable products that I bought, I ranked the five stores 1 to 5, where 1 was the cheapest supermarket and 5 was the most expensive. If two or more stores tied for the cheapest price, then both were ranked 1. If a product was only available at, say, three of the five stores, then I ranked these 1 to 3. So, which supermarket came out best by this measure?

Impressively, Asda ranked #1 for price on nearly two-thirds (23, or 66%) of the 35 comparable items that I bought, and was #2 on all but two others. Only the iceberg lettuce (cheaper at both Tesco and Morrisons) and the McCoy’s crisps (cheaper at Tesco and Sainsbury’s) let the side down.

Of Asda’s competitors, Tesco ranked #1 on 13 (i.e. 42%) of the 31 comparable items that I bought, while Morrisons was close behind with #1 ranks on 11 (39%) of 28 comparable items.

In contrast, Sainsbury’s (#1 on 7 (24%) of 29 comparable items) and Waitrose (#1 on just 4 (17%) of 23 products) performed least well by this criterion.

Conclusions

Self-service checkouts, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

My test has exposed a few ways in which the Asda Price Guarantee website could potentially be improved, most notably in signposting the overnight wait more clearly, and in limiting scope for misinterpretation by presenting the headline savings against Asda’s competitors in percentage rather than cash terms. Where Asda is significantly more than 10% cheaper, as it was in my case, it also seems odd for this to be underplayed.

These quibbles aside, the Asda Price Guarantee is clearly a worthwhile and quite fun tool that is relatively easy for customers to use, and that helps Asda makes its point about price.

Whichever way you look at it, it’s also hard to dispute that I got a good deal by carrying out my weekly shop at Asda. The Price Guarantee’s ’10% cheaper’ pledge worked as promised – even in a small-format Asda Supermarket – and the analysis of my particular shopping basket, using my three different methods, seems to demonstrate the keenness of Asda’s prices relative to its competitors. Value is, and always has been, a key componenent of the Asda offer, and the Price Guarantee helps to ensure that Asda’s price credentials are widely understood among shoppers.

Herein, however, lies the problem. If Asda is indeed the cheapest of the big grocers, and shoppers recognise this, why is it continuing to lose market share?

Aldi and Lidl continue to gain

Could it be that in bigging up its Price Guarantee, Asda is actually attacking the wrong target? Look at the latest Kantar Worldpanel data, and the big gainers continue to be Aldi (with annual sales growth of 24.4%), Lidl (up 13.8%) and Waitrose. As Tesco and Asda slip, Aldi, Lidl and Waitrose have each recorded record market shares of 3.6%, 2.6% and 4.3% respectively.

My analysis indicates that Waitrose struggles to compete with Asda on price – but no-one would really expect otherwise. Shoppers love Waitrose for the customer service, the pleasant store environment and the quality products that you simply can’t get anywhere else.

Meanwhile, Aldi and Lidl win no awards for their store interiors, but the shopping experience is quick and efficient, and the stores are thriving as shoppers discover own-brand products that are eyecatchingly cheap yet surprisingly high in quality. A Price Guarantee based on ‘comparable’ items is therefore slightly undermined when shoppers are increasingly buying exclusive and ‘incomparable’ products from Aldi, Lidl and Waitrose.

Price is important, of course – especially in economically challenging times – but so is the quality of the products and the overall shopping experience. Asda, I would argue, needs to focus increasing attention on these last two factors.

One of Tesco's discount brands

Tesco’s reaction to the rise of Aldi and Lidl was to launch its own Discounter range, which worked for a while but came across as desperate, and muddied the chain’s “good, better, best” own-label strategy. Asda, wisely, has avoided such a confused approach, opting instead to highlight the price credentials of its existing ranges through the Price Guarantee.

Crucially, Asda has also started to recognise that the quality of its own mid-tier brands – or, at least, customers’ perceptions of the quality – is one of the areas where it is weakest relative to its competitors, and where Aldi, Lidl and Waitrose all present a threat. Asda’s response has manifested itself in the ‘Chosen by You’ label, launched last year, though extending the brand to too many categories – such as refuse sacks – does risk undermining any potential benefits.

Large Asda at Gateshead's Metrocentre (31 Mar 2010)

However, even once it’s convinced potential customers of its keen prices or improved quality products, Asda needs to keep getting more of those customers through the doors – possibly a bigger hurdle than you might think.

Chatting to my friends and colleagues about retail, as I have a habit to do, their first reaction to Asda often relates to it being a busy, stressful and unpleasant shopping experience – a point that I’ve previously made myself in relation to the vast Metrocentre store at the opposite end of Gateshead. It’s hard to know how widely-held this view is, but it’s a factor that drives at least some shoppers elsewhere.

If that’s the case, the small-format Asda Supermarket model may have unintended benefits. As I remarked after my visit to the new Gateshead store, there is something rather nice about shopping in an Asda that is attractively laid out and isn’t overwhelmingly large and busy. Could this, as much as the range and convenience, account for the converted Netto stores’ apparent uplift in sales to date?

If it is, it may well be through the growth of the Asda Supermarket format – rather than the traditional sheds, packed with non-food – that Asda succeeds in turning around its shrinking market share.

Interior of Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

While some communities on Tyneside – among them North Shields and Wallsend – still have to wait a little longer for their Netto stores to be turned into Asdas, the process of converting 147 ex-Netto sites into Asda Supermarkets is continuing apace. Stores in Westerhope, Lemington and Gateshead are among those that have been transformed in the last couple of months.

Following on from my ‘undercover’ visits to ex-Netto UGO stores on Teesside and an ex-Netto Morrisons in Tamworth – all among the 47 stores that Asda had to divest for competition reasons – Asda invited me, and my camera, to check out one of the stores that it’s kept and converted over to its own fascia: the shop at Old Fold Road, a mile or so from the centre of Gateshead, which serves the recently built St James’ Village housing development as well as more established, working-class communities in the Felling and Sunderland Road areas of the town.

Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

The focus of this first blog post is the store’s transformation from Netto to Asda, looking mainly at the revamped shop’s layout, ranges, and look and feel.

As well as letting me look around, Asda also challenged me to carry out a full weekly shop in the store and to test the much publicised Asda Price Guarantee: the company’s pledge to be “10% cheaper on your comparable grocery shopping” compared to Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s or Waitrose. I’ll blog about my shopping trip – and reveal whether it was indeed cheaper – in a second post to follow soon.

Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

...and in its former guise as Netto (28 May 2010)

So, what is the store like? Externally, as you might expect, it’s little changed – just like the ex-Netto Morrisons and UGO stores that I visited before. In this case, the Netto signage has been replaced by the new ‘Asda Supermarket’ brand – signalling the store as a smaller-than-usual Asda – while the bright yellow window vinyls have been replaced by similar ones in pale yellowy-green.

The store also retains the slightly unwieldy separate entrance and exit lobbies that were so beloved of Netto stores, and that got me similarly confused in Eston.

Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

However, once you enter the store the extent of the interior transformation becomes clear. The entire shop was gutted and refitted in the impressively short two-and-a-half weeks betwen Netto closing and Asda opening, and it does now feel like an entirely new store.

Interior of Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Configuring the space to accommodate the sheer increase in SKUs – from Netto’s 1,800 product lines to around 10,000 now – would always have made the shop look different. However, Asda’s investment in new shelving, floors, ceilings and wall finishes replaces the slightly dowdy Netto shopfit with a feel that is bright, clean and modern.

Interior of Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Though the deep red walls bring to mind the latest Wilkinson storefit, they (and the matching signage) do work well in bringing some warmth and colour to what could otherwise have felt like a crisp but slightly sterile interior.

Red wall finish and signage, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Inside the store, the logical layout of the entrance area is evidently designed to assist shoppers who are just popping in for one or two items. Newspapers and bestselling magazines are on the left as you go in, followed by a ’Food to Go’ section featuring sandwiches, drinks and snacks.

Newspapers, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

'Food to Go' section, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

On the right are flowers, four self-service checkouts, three regular checkouts, and the kiosk beyond.

Checkouts, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Given the store’s compact size, the kiosk has to perform multiple functions, serving as the customer service desk as well as housing the usual cigarette display and National Lottery terminals. Crucially, it’s also the ‘Click and Collect’ point – a key part of Asda’s strategy to push its non-food offer and build multichannel traffic.

Less logically, spirits are also located at the kiosk – presumably for security as much as convenience purchasing – though their absence from the main wine and beer aisle does make it awkward to buy spirits as part of a full shop.

Kiosk, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Entering the main body of the shop, customers are faced with what seems to be a relatively compact fruit and veg section relative to the ex-Netto UGO and Morrisons stores that I visited.

Fruit and veg section, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

However, the multi-tiered shelving units allow a deceptively wide range of fruit and veg products to be fitted into the space, as well as helping to create a colourful and eyecatching display.

Fruit and veg section, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

In fruit and veg, as throughout the store, value messages are key – Asda, for obvious reasons, is clearly keen to reassure former Netto customers that the prices on everyday items haven’t suddenly gone up.

Fruit and veg section, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Perhaps trying to tap into the current success of single-price retailers like Poundland, banners and shelf-edge labels highlight items costing £1, while hanging arrow signs draw attention to specific offers or ‘SuperPrices’ more generally.

'SuperPrices' sign at Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Apart from fruit and veg, the store’s other major focus of both fresh products and visual theatre is the instore bakery, with an adjacent hot chicken counter.

Instore bakery, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Instore bakery, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Wisely, the bakery is placed in a traditional back-corner location rather than near the entrance as it is in Tamworth’s ex-Netto Morrisons, ensuring that there’s plenty of room both to circulate and to admire the attractive display.

Instore bakery, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

On the downside, the store does lack a meat and fish counter, like the one Morrisons has squeezed into the old Netto in Tamworth; for me personally, as a fresh fish fan, that would limit how often I’d use this particular store for my full weekly shop. To be fair, however, I’m not necessarily the core demographic that this particular shop is catering for, and I’m sure Asda has done its homework in tailoring the store’s offer towards the everyday needs of local shoppers.

Oils and bread aisle, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

The heart of the store is its aisles of ambient products, and it’s here – in categories such as oils and bread – that the increase in both branded and own-label SKUs is really noticable.

The upcoming blog post about my Asda shop will talk in more detail about how far I was able to get all the items on my shopping list. Generally speaking, though, it’s hard not to be impressed by how much Asda has squeezed into the space, including quite a few categories that never used to be represented in Netto.

Magazines and greetings cards, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

I spotted, for example, a pretty extensive display of magazines – complementing the newspapers and bestselling magazine titles by the door – as well as a decent range of reasonably priced greetings cards.

Babywear aisle, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

The overall extent of the non-food range is also surprisingly broad given the store’s limited space. It includes stationery, babywear and underwear, as well as books and entertainment, though the latter two did have quite a lot of gaps at the time of my Monday morning visit.

Books aisle, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

I was also interested to spot a display of non-food ‘SuperBuys’, featuring an eclectic range of luggage sets, scooters and toasters. The deals – and the deliberately ‘home-made’ look of the signage – are obviously a nod towards the store’s Netto heritage.

However, most of the featured items looked like the same Asda-branded products that you’d come across in a larger Asda store, meaning that the SuperBuys lacked some of the sheer randomness and element of fun that make the hard discounters’ non-food deals so popular.

Non-food 'SuperBuys', Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Nearing the end of my circuit, the store conforms to supermarket layout norms by locating the frozen foods and alcohol furthest from the entrance. Unsurprisingly, the frozen section eschews Netto-style chest freezers in favour of upright ones – similar to those seen in Eldon Square’s Waitrose and other compact supermarkets – to ensure that the maximum number of products can be fitted within the space.

Frozen aisle, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Frozen aisle, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Though lacking the aforementioned spirits, the alcohol section is also impressive in its range, and compares favourably with the old Netto offer – including, I was pleased to see, a cabinet of chilled beers and wines. Selling drinks that people can consume straight away seems like an an obvious move, and more often than not the major grocers’ convenience stores do it. However, I’m always surprised at how many larger supermarkets don’t have a chilled drinks cabinet, including M&S – surely the ultimate impulse purchase grocer, and the place where you stock up on your way to dinner parties.

Beers and wines, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

To put things in context, it’s worth flagging up that I’m not usually an Asda shopper, partly because the store nearest to me – at Metrocentre – is overwhelmingly huge, full of children, and a nightmare to drive to. When I do shop there, it’s more often than not to check out the George clothing or other non-food ranges rather than to do a full shop – for which I prefer to go to Waitrose or Morrisons. Asda might well be cheap – more of which in my next post, of course – but at the vast and busy Metrocentre store you do pay for it in increased stress levels.

Having said all that, it’s hard not to be impressed with the new Asda Supermarket at Old Fold Road. The transformation from Netto is remarkable, and Asda’s investment in the store – and, by extension, the local community – is admirable. The attractive store environment, improved ranges and lovely staff – including ex-Netto colleagues supplemented with new recruits – are all big pluses, as is not having to walk around a huge store to find everything that you want.

'Asda in your Community' display, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Living two-and-a-half miles away, it’s fair to say I probably wouldn’t go back to this particular store on a regular basis. However, if I lived in the area, I’d certainly have no qualms about using the store for either convenience purchases or the bulk of my weekly shop (though preferably on a weekday, when I took my photos, rather than the more hectic Saturday afternoon when I carried out my actual shop).

Interior of Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Last week, Retail Week reported that Asda had seen sales uplifts of 50% in its converted Netto stores, and that there were now plans to open 250 more smaller Asda Supermarkets instead of the 100 that had been originally envisaged. It’s not hard to see why sales are buoyant, given the improvement in the shopping environment and offer; indeed, staff at Old Fold Road told me that while former Netto shoppers were still happily coming in, they were also seeing plenty of new people who had never set foot in the store while it was Netto.

In recent history, big supermarket takeovers – be it Somerfield buying Kwik Save, Morrisons snapping up Safeway, or the Co-op buying Somerfield – have rarely gone to plan, typically resulting in disgruntled customers and haemorrhaging of combined market share. However, if Asda can maintain the early momentum across its converted estate – keeping existing Netto shoppers happy while simultaneously attracting new customers from its rivals – this might finally be a retail takeover that delivers on its promise.

Netto, Birtley (24 Jan 2011)

The Co-operative Group has announced today that it is to acquire the Netto store in Birtley, Gateshead – one of the six remaining sites that Asda is required to divest following its takeover of the Danish supermarket chain.

The OFT-approved deal is good news in that it secures the future of Birtley’s only supermarket, along with two more Netto sites in Whalley Range, Manchester and Stanton Hill, Nottinghamshire. It means that only three more Netto stores – in Wallasey, Keighley and Barrow-in-Furness – remain to be divested by Asda.

The Co-op has exchanged contracts on the newly acquired stores, which David Roberts, Director of Property for The Co-operative Food, has described as “a valuable addition to our portfolio and another important step in our expansion plans.” The sale is expected to be completed later this year, and the 42 staff employed across the three stores will then all transfer to The Co-operative Group. Until then, my assumption is that Asda will continue to trade the divestment stores under the Netto fascia, as required by the Office of Fair Trading.

Closed down Somerfield, Birtley (24 Jan 2011)

The deal also marks the Co-op’s return to Birtley after a two-year absence, when it traded – briefly – from the Somerfield site across the road. Occupied historically by Presto, Safeway and then Somerfield, the Co-op sold the store that it had acquired to Morrisons in April 2009, only for the Bradford-based chain to close it down. The site remains empty today, hence the especial interest in the fate of Birtley’s Netto, the town’s last supermarket standing.

Today’s news is a reminder of how the Co-op is continuing to grow its supermarket empire following its £1.565bn acquisition of Somerfield, back in March 2009. The Group currently has a 2,800-strong food store network, and intends to add another 300 outlets over the next three years, which will employ 7,000 people.

Recently opened Co-operative Food store in the Strand, London (6 Apr 2011)

50 store openings are planned for 2011 alone, with nine – including three in central London – opened to date. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton, Liverpool, Manchester and Swansea are apparently among the locations that will see new Co-op stores before the end of the year.

The latest UK grocery market share data from Kantar, released this week, continues to show the Co-op firmly in fifth place, its 6.9% share well ahead of Waitrose’s 4.3% but some way behind Morrisons (12.0%) in fourth. However, the Co-op’s present-day share is still somewhat lower than the 7.7% share that the separate Co-op (4.4%) and Somerfield (3.3.%) businesses held at the time of the takeover.

While disposals to other retailers – as required by the OFT – obviously account for some of the drop, a report in Retail Week last year suggested that sales had “collapsed” at former Somerfield stores following acquisition. Data cited by Retail Week showed a 13.3% drop at unconverted stores in the month to April 2010, and a 14.1% decline at stores converted to the Co-op fascia. In contrast, trade at established Co-operative Food stores was up a healthy 1.6%, month on month.

The Co-op argued that lowering prices at Somerfield to match its own accounted for some of the decline; equally, there was always going to be some cannibalisation in creating such an extensive combined store estate. In addition, some consumers who liked Somerfield will no doubt have switched to other supermarkets rather than stay at the Co-op, though other Co-op-loving shoppers may, of course, have moved in the other direction. It’s a complex picture, and with the Somerfield fascia now all but disappeared from the market share data, it will at least be easier to keep track of the Co-op chain’s true performance relative to its peers.

Netto, Old Fold Road, Gateshead (28 May 2010)

Less than six months after the carve-up of the Netto estate was confirmed, the Danish supermarket fascia is well on its way to disappearing from the UK retail landscape.

Haldanes – currently distracted by the collapse of its eponymous chain – was the first to complete conversion of its 20 acquired stores, with all now trading as UGO. Meanwhile, Iceland and Morrisons are in the midst of revamping the Netto sites that they acquired, with some stores – such as the new Morrisons in Tamworth, which I hope to visit later this week – already trading.

Former Netto, Tamworth, before conversion to Morrisons (4 Apr 2011)

Asda itself, of course, has the biggest job, with 147 ex-Netto stores set to be switched over to its new Asda Supermarkets fascia. The first conversions – including Stainforth, below – opened last month, and I’m told by Asda’s PR people that the rest will be finished by November – an impressive rate of more than five conversions a week.

Here on Tyneside, three stores – in Westerhope (Stamfordham Road), Lemington (Northumberland Road) and Gateshead (Old Fold Road) – closed their doors as Netto last Saturday (11 June), and are each set to reopen as Asda Supermarkets on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 June following a £500,000 refit. For stats buffs, that’s around five times the reported cost of converting a Netto to a UGO.

Early conversion of an ex-Netto in Stainforth, South Yorkshire

However, where Haldanes’ UGO stores are very much an adaptation of the existing Netto fitout, Asda’s revamps are more extensive, involving stripping the stores back to their shell.

In terms of what the converted stores will offer the customer, Asda’s PR – like UGO’s – flags up the key themes of low prices, improved ranging and greater convenience.

On price, Asda’s main headline is that “all newly converted Netto stores will charge the same low price as every other Asda in the UK” – a simple, effective and powerful message that is likely to resonate with shoppers. It should also avoid scaring off loyal Netto customers with prices that are too high, a potential problem that fellow blogger Steve Dresser and Soult’s Retail View readers have highlighted in relation to UGO.

UGO (former Netto) store, Hartlepool (4 May 2011)

On range, Asda again echoes UGO in pledging that customers will be able to “complete a full weekly shop”, with each of the new stores featuring the the full breadth of Asda’s own-label food ranges, including Smart Price, Chosen By You, Extra Special, Good For You, Free From and Organics. However, the increase in product lines (SKUs) from 1,800 to 10,000 rather puts UGO’s 3,000 (or even the now-defunct Haldanes’ 7,000) in the shade.

Finally, in terms of convenience, Asda Supermarkets’ longer opening hours, extra services (PayPoint, National Lottery, cash machines), and the provision of a collection service for online orders should all go some way to increasing footfall and basket size from Netto levels.

Former Somerfield, Adelaide Centre, Benwell (28 May 2010)

Before the new Tyneside Asda stores open in a couple of weeks’ time, I should probably try and check out the recently opened Asda Supermarket in Benwell’s Adelaide Centre. This store opened on 19 May, but is a former Somerfield site rather than an ex-Netto.

Given this acquisition, I was curious about the implications for the Netto at Mill Lane, less than a mile away, which is among the 147 stores that Asda is supposed to be keeping. Tucked down a side street and housed in a corrugated shed, this is hardly the most glamorous of Netto sites, yet it provides an important service to a community that otherwise lacks much in the way of affordable grocery store provision.

I’m assured, however, that the Mill Lane Netto will still be converted to an Asda Supermarket in the coming months, though as yet there’s no confirmed date for when that changeover will take place. I will, naturally, give an update as soon as I receive further news.

In the meantime, do feel free to share your experiences of visiting any newly opened Asda Supermarkets. Whether you’re an ex-Netto shopper or someone who’s been attracted from elsewhere, I – and your fellow Soult’s Retail View readers – will be keen to hear your reactions.

Former Woolworths, Felling (17 Jun 2010)

This is my 200th blog post since starting Soult’s Retail View back in July 2009, so it seems only appropriate for it to bring together two of my favourite topics – Woolworths and Tyneside!

Regular readers will recall that I’ve written about all 33 of the North East Woolworths stores that closed following the chain’s 2008 collapse, but I’ve also tracked down many of those sites that Woolies had already vacated in the years before.

Former Woolworths (now Heron Foods), New Washington (Concord) (17 Jun 2010)

Among these are the ex-Woolworths in Crook (#529, closed in about 1972) and Seaham (#649, closed in the mid-1980s), both in County Durham, as well as the Wearside branches at New Washington (#1014, closed in 1984) and Sunderland (#144, closed 2004).

Within the Newcastle city boundaries, I’ve also covered the original Byker Woolworths (#276, closed on 1 June 1985), which occupied two different sites in Shields Road during its lifetime, and the Benwell store in Adelaide Terrace (#905), converted from a former cinema.

Former Woolworths in Benwell (28 May 2010)

For today’s post, I want to look at two more long-gone Woolies stores on Tyneside – one in the Gateshead suburb of Felling, and the other in the Arndale Centre on Newcastle’s North Kenton estate. In both cases, the information I’ve got following my visits last year is quite sketchy, with no definitive opening or closing dates, and no Woolies store number – neither gets a mention in any of the copies of The New Bond that I’ve acquired to date. Not to worry, though – let’s take a look at what we do know so far.

Felling High Street (10 Nov 2010)

Just a couple of miles from the centre of Gateshead, and only a handful of Metro stops from Newcastle, Felling’s High Street has suffered a slow decline in recent years. At the end of 2008, an article in the local paper highlighted the extent of the problem, famously revealing that the High Street had just “three shops” left – technically true, but slightly overplaying the level of vacancy by seemingly not counting those premises occupied by takeaways, betting shops or other ‘non-retail’ uses.

Former Kwik Save, Felling (17 Jun 2010)

While some big names – including Woolworths, and a branch of the Gateshead department store institution, Shephards – disappeared from Felling years ago, there’s no doubt that the collapse of Kwik Save, in 2007, was a major recent blow. Located towards the bottom of the hill, its closure has meant that there’s no longer much reason to venture down the High Street – past other (former) shops – from the main shopping precinct at Felling Square.

Shops at Felling Square (10 Nov 2010)

It would be wrong, however, to frame Felling as a completely failed retail location. Just beyond the High Street itself, the Felling Square area has been reasonably busy both times that I’ve visited, no doubt assisted by its proximity to local bus routes. The presence of some decent chains – including The Co-operative Food, Boots, Heron Foods and Greggs – a post office, newsagents and complementary indie stores ensures that Felling’s retail centre continues to have a role in meeting the area’s everyday shopping needs.

Former Woolworths, Felling (10 Nov 2010)

So what of the old Woolies? It was located at 98-104 High Street, in a building whose current occupant – William Hill, the bookmakers – is perhaps illustrative of the way in which the street’s fortunes have declined. Someone suggested to me, via Twitter, that Woolworths had previously occupied the site of today’s Heron Foods in nearby Felling Square – presumably in an earlier building – but I’m yet to find any other evidence to confirm this.

Heron Foods, Felling (10 Nov 2011)

The bland, redbrick, flat-roofed property at 98-104 High Street is rather typical of the stores that Woolworths was constructing in the 1950s and 60s, and my suspicion is that Woolies’ presence in Felling probably dates from the 1950s rather than the 1930s or earlier.

By 1953, Woolworths’ store count was already up to more than 800, and the rapid expansion at that time – with store #1000 opened just five years later, in May 1958 – meant that the chain was, frankly, rather scratching around for viable locations in which it wasn’t already represented. It’s no coincidence that many of the stores opened at this time were among the first ones to be closed again once Woolies began downsizing in the ’70s and ’80s.

A busy shot from April 1966, below – taken from a 1990 publication called Gateshead in Focus – shows that Woolworths was certainly in place by then.

April 1966 view of Woolworths, Felling. From 'Gateshead in Focus' book

From what I can gather, Felling’s Woolworths was one of the casualties of the aforementioned ’70s and ’80s downsizing, with one source pointing to a late 1980s closure date. An interesting photograph on the iSee Gateshead site from 1986 shows the store’s ‘F W Woolworth & Co. Ltd’ lettering still in situ, which is an usually late survival – by this time, most stores had long ago adopted the 1970s red and white ‘Woolworth’ fascia, as recently seen at the back of the Burton-upon-Trent store. The shop itself looks empty, so I suspect that this particular view may have been taken not long after its permanent closure.

In a slightly earlier shot, from 1985, below, the store has its shutters down, so it’s difficult again to be certain whether the store was still trading at that time.

1985 view of Felling Woolworths

Though never a particularly attractive building, the Felling Woolies was certainly more appealing before its first-floor windows were blocked up. In my photo at the top of the page, the original position of two narrow windows either side of a central wider one is apparent from the colouring of the infill brickwork. For whatever reason, four new (and less symmetrical) windows were at some point inserted in place of the originals; these, in turn, were also boarded up, giving the property as it appears today a derelict-looking upper floor above an uncongruously shiny and modern shopfront.

Rear of former Woolworths, Felling (10 Nov 2010)

Viewed from the back, above, the property is similarly unattractive. Interestingly, however, it is much bigger than it looks from the High Street – a feature typical of many former Woolworths stores – and it’s hard to imagine that today’s William Hill branch makes use of all the available space.

North Kenton shops (10 Nov 2010)

On the opposite side of the Tyne, there are many parallels between the ex-Woolies at Felling and the one at North Kenton, but even less documentary evidence about its existence.

Situated at the corner of Halewood Avenue and Kirkwood Drive, the Arndale Shopping Centre was built along with the neighbouring North Kenton housing estate in the 1950s, suggesting that the area’s Woolworths store was fairly contemporary with the one in Felling. As Britain built its postwar housing estates, it was quite common for Woolworths to be the anchor store on those developments’ shopping precincts. In the North East alone, for example, new Woolies stores opened at the Pennywell estate in Sunderland in 1953, and at Longbenton, North Tyneside, in 1959 – both of which will be covered in future posts.

Former Woolworths (now Nisa), North Kenton (10 Nov 2010)

Often – as in New Washington – Woolworths seems to have occupied premises that stood out architecturally from the rest of the parade, and that was also case in North Kenton. Though I’ve seen no photographs of the building in use as Woolworths, I understand from someone who grew up in North Kenton that Woolies occupied the prominent, projecting unit that now houses Nisa and Boots. It was apparently still there in 1966, but departed at some point in the 1970s or 80s.

North Kenton shops (10 Nov 2010)

As in Felling, there’s no doubt that the North Kenton shopping centre continues to perform a valuable function for the community that it serves. Again as in Felling, however, the large number of empty units creates a depressing and slightly unsettling feel, and a sense of a shopping centre that is simply bigger than it needs to be.

This lack of fitness for modern purpose is the reason, indeed, why so many similar postwar suburban shopping precincts – including those in Pennywell and Longbenton – have subsequently been demolished and replaced by new, more compact retail centres that are better able to accommodate their communities’ current, everyday needs.

In hindsight, Woolworths’ departure from such locations, all those years ago, feels like an inevitable part of that suburban retail evolution.

The iconic Tyne Bridge

The retail hearts of Newcastle and Gateshead are set to be connected by a new £200m shopping mall, running the length of the iconic Tyne Bridge.

The scheme will involve building a new modern steel and glass structure underneath the existing road deck, providing a covered mall route between the Newcastle and Gateshead sides, and affording panoramic views over the existing developments at Newcastle Quayside and Gateshead Quays.

The project is also set to bring the historic Tyne Bridge towers into use for the first time since they were built, as intended five-storey warehouses, in the 1920s. Talks are underway to attract upmarket department store Harvey Nichols to the tower on the Newcastle side, while the Gateshead tower looks set to house a 30,000 sq ft branch of B&M Bargains, making it the expanding discount chain’s largest store to date.

One of the Tyne Bridge towers

The proposed development – to be known as The Bridges – seeks to address the age-old issue of how to link the twin centres of Newcastle-Gateshead.

By filling in the missing link between the centres, the scheme will create a 1.5-mile-long retail and leisure thoroughfare stretching from Newcastle’s Northumberland Street to Gateshead High Street, and connecting the planned retail-led regeneration of Aldersgate’s East Pilgrim Street site in Newcastle with Spenhill’s Trinity Square redevelopment in Gateshead.

Speaking exclusively to Soult’s Retail View, one local property consultant described the scheme as “visionary”, claiming that the new bus-lined boulevard will become “Newcastle-Gateshead’s answer to Barcelona’s Las Ramblas.”

The topography of the Tyne Gorge means that there will be level access to the new mall on both banks of the river, as well as lifts and escalators connecting it to the existing pedestrian routes over the Tyne Bridge. Inside the mall, the developers are promising to sign up designer fashion stores, upmarket restaurants, and at least two branches of Greggs.

Stottie anyone?

Sara Pilfloody from developers RIALP told Soult’s Retail View:

“A decade ago, the successful Grainger Town Project gave Newcastle the Bond Street of the North, anchored by TJ Hughes, Subway and Xmas Box.

“Now, The Bridges is set to be Newcastle-Gateshead’s answer to St Pancras International, transforming a neglected part of the city, opening new pedestrian routes, and bringing in high-end designer names. We are also planning the longest champagne bar in Europe, stretching the full 389m of the Tyne Bridge.”

However, Pilfloody rejected suggestions that the new mall’s name is too similar to the existing Bridges Shopping Centre in Sunderland:

“I don’t think it will cause any confusion at all. After all, our mall is actually going to be a bridge, which of course Sunderland’s shopping centre isn’t. Also, we commissioned market research which revealed that Newcastle residents are generally unlikely to shop in Sunderland, especially – surprisingly – on Saturday afternoons.”

Not this Bridges

The developers hope to submit planning applications to Newcastle and Gateshead Councils later this year, with work set to begin in late 2012. Given the challenges of the elevated site, construction work is expected to take up to eight years, ensuring that the scheme will be completed in advance of Gateshead’s new town centre Tesco.

The plans for the exciting scheme will go on show to the public today (1 April), with an open-air exhibition on the Newcastle Quayside. The exhibition will be located beneath the deck of the Tyne Bridge, next to the kittiwake nest site.

Visitors are advised to wear wide-brimmed and waterproof headgear, and to check their calendar.

Wilkinson, Gateshead (14 Feb 2011)

Given that a significant chunk of Gateshead town centre is currently flattened and awaiting redevelopment, it’s pleasing to see one of the town’s biggest retailers investing in its store.

Along with Tesco, the long-established Wilkinson store in the Interchange Centre is probably the town centre’s biggest draw. It’s not as big as the massive stores in Newcastle or South Shields, but it’s a decent size and always busy, stocking many product ranges that aren’t readily available elsewhere in the town.

West Street frontage, Wilkinson, Gateshead (15 Feb 2011)

Popping in last week, I was pleased to see that the interior of the store is getting a spruce up, and that the old, rather tired Wilkinson signs have been replaced by ones bearing the new, cleaner logo – previously blogged about in July 2009. As I argued then, I find the new, crisp logo a massive improvement on its rather old-fashioned and clunky predecessor.

Inside the store, the ongoing revamp seems very similar to the rebranded and modernised stores that I’ve already seen in Leeds and Sunderland, with improved signage, better views through the store, and a generally cleaner and less cluttered feel.

Outside – both in West Street, and within the transport interchange – the Wilkinson building is hardly a looker with its crinkly brown and red façade. However, the new signage makes a surprisingly big difference in giving it a fresher appearance, even if the West Street sign does seem a rather odd shape – presumably to cover up the holes left by the old one.

....and how it looked before (17 Sep 2009)

In contrast, the building on the opposite side of West Street has a new logo that I’m finding it much harder to warm to. This is the Argos store, occupying part of what used to be the North East Co-op department store in New Century House.

Argos, Gateshead, with new logo (14 Feb 2011)

...and how it looked before (16 Dec 2009)

In common with the rebranding taking place across the rest of the 700-plus-strong Argos estate, the store has recently gained new signage, featuring the chain’s revamped logo.

When the modernised logo was launched just over a year ago, Argos’s Head of Brand Marketing was quoted by Retail Week, making reference to the “strong customer recognition” of the Argos ‘smile’ and arguing that the new version “remains instantly recognisable” but “feels more modern and relevant.”

New Argos logo, Nuneaton (24 Aug 2010)

Old Argos logo, Sunderland (7 Sep 2009)

I’m not convinced – to me, the new logo just looks like a cheapened version of the old, while at the same time hanging together less successfully as a piece of design.

To be honest, I’d never realised that the swirl was supposed to be a smile, but it worked well as a device in linking together the ‘A’ and the ‘s’, and giving the logo a coherent look. In the new version, in contrast, the ‘smile’ floats oddly under the text, while the formerly distinctive font has been replaced by something much more bland and generic.

Even as signage, the modernised font seems to work less well. While the old version usually had the red text superimposed on a blue background, the new one commonly ends up with a red rectangle seemingly stuck slightly randomly on top of a blue backdrop. An improvement? Again, not in my book.

Perhaps the chain’s shoppers will agree that the new look is “more modern and relevant” – but it certainly doesn’t put an Argos smile on my face.

Netto, Birtley (24 Jan 2011)

When Asda’s sale of 39 surplus Netto stores was announced a couple of weeks ago, I noted that Birtley – a small town close to here, within the Borough of Gateshead – was home to one of the eight remaining Netto stores that Asda is still required to divest by the OFT.

As I explained then, the closure of the town’s nearby Somerfield store following its purchase by Morrisons in 2009 – and Morrisons’ failure to then reopen it – has left its 11,000 strong population unusually reliant on a single discount supermarket. What happens to Birtley’s Netto is therefore of considerable importance to the people who still use the Durham Road area for their local shopping.

Durham Road shops, Birtley (24 Jan 2011)

Given that independent grocer Haldanes has bought more than half of the divested Netto stores to date, I took the opportunity, while meeting the firm’s bosses, to quiz Chief Operating Officer Richard Collins on whether Haldanes had any interest in the Birtley store.

Netto, Birtley (24 Jan 2011)

He confirmed that Haldanes had visited the shop, and that he considered it to be a “great store” with good parking. Pressed further, he said that Haldanes had no specific plans to acquire additional stores from the OFT’s divestment list, but refused to rule out making a future bid for the Birtley store.

Birtley Netto’s problem is that many of the potential purchasers would seem to be ruled out due to the proximity of their existing shops. Clearly Asda isn’t in the picture, given that it has to divest the store in the first place, while Morrisons – which still owns (and is trying to dispose of) the vacant Somerfield site opposite – is unlikely to be interested.

Tesco, Chester-le-Street (24 Jan 2011)

Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s has a superstore three miles away at Team Valley, and Tesco and Iceland (and Morrisons) have shops at Chester-le-Street, the same distance away in the opposite direction. This only really leaves other discounters – Lidl, Aldi or Haldanes’ new UGO venture – in the frame. However, with a larger supermarket development still possible on the Somerfield site in the future, a hard discounter is, in any case, more likely to be able to compete with whatever new store might open on that site.

Closed down Somerfield, Birtley (24 Jan 2011)

Given the positive feedback from Haldanes, it seems that if the shoppers of Birtley fancy their Netto becoming a UGO, then it’s in their hands to do something about it.

Haldanes’ bosses are reading this blog, so feel free to share your thoughts below, or drop Haldanes a line directly. Who knows, perhaps Soult’s Retail View can harness local people power to help attract an expanding retailer to Gateshead?

New Poundland store, Gateshead (21 Sep 2010)

Returning home after a two-week holiday in Montenegro (more of which in due course), it seems like quite a lot has been happening within Tyneside’s retail scene while I’ve been away. 

As well as Asda’s plans for the old Byker Woolies getting the green light, and Northumberland Street seeing “exploratory digging” ahead of gaining 100 security bollards, there’s a slew of five new store openings taking place in Newcastle, Gateshead and MetroCentre yesterday, today and tomorrow – some of them known for a while, but others a little more unexpected. However, though varying in scale and relative importance, all these new arrivals are interesting in their own way, and represent positive news for their respective locations. 

TK Maxx site at MetroCentre, back in March

Yesterday (Thursday) saw the long-awaited opening of the combined TK Maxx and HomeSense at MetroCentre – previously blogged about here – which occupies a 45,000 sq ft unit on the site of the old Odeon cinema. I’m yet to pay a visit, but an investment of this scale should provide a shot in the arm for what has previously been a very tired-looking Blue Mall, despite all the pedestrian traffic that passes through on its way from the nearby Transport Interchange. 

Also yesterday, Gateshead town centre had the unusual attraction of a store opening of its own, with Poundland setting up shop in the former Woolworths. Though there were some rumours about Poundland’s imminent arrival in the last month or two, the speed with the new High Street store has been opened is pretty impressive, with no sign of anything happening on site in the week or two preceding my holiday. 

Again, it’s a great boost for a site that had previously seemed destined for long-term vacancy, and can only have been helped by the start of demolition work on the nearby Get Carter car park – a tangible sign, at last, that Gateshead town centre is moving forward. Poundland’s decision to get in now seems like a canny move, as the location is bound to benefit massively, in the longer term, from the Trinity Square redevelopment. Prior to that, the store is also, as I noted before, opposite the planned temporary Tesco that will trade once the existing supermarket is demolished. 

The new Clinton Cards site in Eldon Square, photographed last month (6 Aug 2010)

Today, Newcastle’s Eldon Square has also had a couple of notable openings, including the new combined Clinton Cards and Pure Party in Douglas Way’s old River Island unit – mentioned previously here – and yet another new Starbucks, this time in St Andrew’s Way. Visiting Eldon Square a few days ago, I noticed that the existing Clintons has indeed closed, leaving a decent-sized vacant unit in Blackettbridge. Meanwhile, the new Starbucks sits next to Debenhams, occupying the previously empty large space between the department store and the lifts. All of a sudden, the layout of that part of the mall begins to make a lot more sense.

Existing Kurt Geiger in Grainger Street, Newcastle

Given Eldon Square’s current form, the old Clinton’s is unlikely to be empty for very long. One store it won’t be housing, however, is Kurt Geiger, with work already underway on creating a flagship store for the shoe retailer within the recently closed Barratts unit in Hotspur Way. Assuming that Kurt Geiger moves from its existing location in Grainger Street, this will begin the process of freeing up the ground floor space needed for the reported three-storey Urban Outfitters store within the current Green Market building.

Existing Apple Store, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010). Photograph by Peter (aka 'Newcastle Historian')

Of all this weekend’s openings though, the most notable has to be that of the new Apple Store at MetroCentre. Though the store’s impending arrival is no surprise, having been known since May, its opening date has been kept something of a surprise. Indeed, the Chronicle only revealed the news three days ago, ahead of the store’s opening at 10am tomorrow (Saturday). Unsurprisingly, the store is located in the Debenham’s-anchored Red Mall – the most modern and attractive part of MetroCentre – occupying the unit that housed USC prior to that retailer’s recent relocation.

As the Chronicle rightly observes, it’s a real coup for MetroCentre  – and for Capital Shopping Centres – to have signed up Apple for a second Tyneside shop when there are still fewer than 30 Apple Stores in the UK, including some notable locations, such as Edinburgh and Leeds, where the retailer is not yet represented at all.

Other than here, only Bristol, Manchester and London feature Apple Stores simultaneously in both city centre and out-of-town locations – a sign, one must imagine, that the Eldon Square shop is already surpassing Apple’s expectations, and a great signal to other retailers that Tyneside retail is in pretty fine fettle right now.

Former Woolworths, Bishop Auckland (6 Feb 2010)

When I blogged about the remaining vacant Woolies stores in the North East a few days ago, I’d failed to spot that yet another is about to be reoccupied, with Boyes – the iconic northern variety retailer – announced as the new tenant of Bishop Auckland’s former Woolworths. The store is set to open by Christmas, and will create 30 jobs.

As I noted in October, Boyes had expressed an interest in former Woolies sites in the North East as early as March last year. However, this is the first opening to come to fruition in the region, after Boyes had apparently worked “with the receivers for Woolworths… for more than a year.”

Boyes in Newton Aycliffe (12 Mar 2010)

The Bishop Auckland store will add to Boyes’ 11 existing outlets across County Durham and Teesside, including nearby sites in Newton Aycliffe and Darlington.

Boyes' existing Darlington store (12 Mar 2010)

I imagine that Boyes’ established shops in the south of the region – also including Billingham, Redcar, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Barnard Castle, Chester-le-Street and Consett – have already up mopped up some of the demand for homewares, stationery, haberdashery and other household items that would previously have been shared with those towns’ now-closed Woolies stores.

Boyes in Barnard Castle (6 Mar 2010)

Boyes, Redcar (17 Sep 2009)

There are also Boyes branches in Yarm and Guisborough, where Woolworths has never (as far as I’m aware) had a presence, and where Boyes is very much an anchor retailer within the town.

Boyes’ existing strength in the North East, coupled with the dearth of available ex-Woolies sites, suggests that Bishop Auckland may be the first and last such acquisition – exactly 100 years after Boyes first began to expand beyond its original store in Scarborough.

In Peterlee and Wallsend, the old Woolies premises are probably too small for Boyes, while Hartlepool’s two-storey unit is more than likely too big. Though the flagship Boyes in Scarborough, opened in 1881, is spread over four large floors and is essentially a department store – complete with food hall and restaurant – other shops in the chain are rarely as extensive.

Boyes' flagship store in Scarborough (16 Aug 2010)

That really leaves the north of the region – Northumberland and Tyne & Wear – where Boyes is yet to establish a presence. It came close, in 2008, to opening up in the former Kwik Save in Prudhoe’s Front Street, but ultimately lost out on that site to The Original Factory Shop.

The former Kwik Save in Prudhoe - originally targeted by Boyes (10 Apr 2010)

All the old Woolies sites in Northumberland are already taken (though Berwick’s former Kwik Save could be worth a look), but Tyneside has a couple of possibilities.

Newcastle’s Clayton Street Woolworths would be perfect as a Boyes, and would give a real boost to that end of town. Boyes’ existing presence in Middlesbrough, in the Dundas shopping centre, has shown that its model works in large urban centres as well as in small towns.

Boyes, Dundas Arcade, Middlesbrough (17 Sep 2009)

However, my vote would be for Boyes to snap up the old Woolworths store in Gateshead High Street. While work on the redevelopment of Gateshead town centre appeared to have stalled, I was understandably pessimistic about the prospects of any retailer wanting to take over the former Woolies site.

However, with the Get Carter car park finally biting the dust, and firm plans having been submitted for what will replace it, the situation looks more promising. Even in the shorter term, Tesco’s plans to open a temporary store in the old Kwik Save – directly opposite the former Woolies – while its current store is demolished could be a useful generator of footfall to the High Street.

Though it has Wilkinson and Home Bargains, Gateshead has missed having a department-type store since the Co-op closed in 2006. Boyes might be just what is needed to plug that gap.

Screenshot of Fossil UK website (27 Aug 2010)

I was interested to read in Retail Week last week about the accessories and fashion chain Fossil planning to expand its UK store portfolio, but slightly perplexed to note that it “already operates shops in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle [emphasis added], Bristol, Glasgow.”

For someone who likes to keep his finger on the pulse of Newcastle city centre retail, I was disturbed to think that I’d somehow missed there being a Fossil store! Further investigation to get to the bottom of this was duly required.

It didn’t take long to find the answer. Visiting the UK Fossil website soon revealed that the shop it refers to as ‘Fossil Store Newcastle’ is actually at the MetroCentre – in Gateshead – somewhere that I visit less frequently. A quick look at the MetroCentre store guide told me that the shop is on the lower level of the trendy Central Mall, opposite Republic and next to Superdry.

Though I was able to solve the mystery, it still begs the question of why the shop – whose logo, ironically, includes the slogan ‘Authentic Fossil’ – is referred to as ‘Fossil Store Newcastle’. These geographical liberties may go over the heads of executives in London or the United States, but it’s guaranteed to irritate a significant proportion of Gateshead’s 190,000 inhabitants.

It must also be confusing for shoppers – if a store is actually at MetroCentre, most people would expect it to be badged as such. After all, as the (reputedly) largest shopping centre in Europe, MetroCentre is hardly an insignificant retail location.

Of course, it isn’t just Fossil that has adopted the bad habit of being liberal with its store naming. Debenhams originally referred to its MetroCentre store as ‘Newcastle’, only renaming it ‘Gateshead’ once it opened its actual store in Newcastle earlier this year. Equally, much as I like Clas Ohlson, I can imagine there being some gnashing of teeth about its upcoming Merry Hill store – in Dudley – being badged as ‘Birmingham’.

It may only be a label, but I do think it’s unfortunate – particularly for the place being snubbed – if a retailer in one location purports, through ignorance or design, to be situated somewhere else.

What do you think? Are you similarly irritated by geographically erroneous store labels? Or is it a minor detail that only bothers retail geeks? As always, please feel free to add your thoughts – or any other good examples of the location-stretching genre.

Clas Ohlson fascia

I’m not sure whether Clas Ohlson’s people are reading this blog, or whether – more likely – the obvious locations for new UK stores are fairly easy to identify.

Either way, I was interested to spot that the Swedish retailer has this week signed contracts for new stores in shopping centres in Cardiff and Norwich – following on from my post, in June, where I suggested that “Nottingham, Cardiff, Norwich, Bristol and Southampton [are] among the top retail centres that could well be on Clas Ohlson’s hit list.”

Both shops are scheduled to open in December, shortly after the previously announced new store at Merry Hill, and will be similar in size to the existing Clas Ohlson shop at Liverpool’s Clayton Square. Their opening will increase the number of Clas Ohlson stores in the UK to ten.

The Norwich store is to be located in unit 13 of the Chapelfield shopping centre, occupying retail space of 1,570 sqm (16,899 sq ft) in what I understand used to be the lower level of the city’s Borders store^{[broken link removed]} – a prime spot opposite H&M.

At 1,640 sqm (17,653 sq ft), Cardiff’s store, in the St David’s centre, is a similar size to the one in Norwich. St David’s was extended and refurbished at the end of last year, with an impressive new John Lewis as its centrepiece, and I’m assuming that Clas Ohlson will occupy one of those new units that has not so far attracted a tenant.

Interestingly, both Chapelfield and St David’s are owned (wholly and partly respectively) by Capital Shopping Centres. With CSC also owning Watford’s Harlequin and Manchester’s Arndale (as I noted here), it will mean that four of Clas Ohlson’s ten UK stores are in CSC locations.

On this basis, how long can it be before CSC’s Eldon Square in Newcastle or MetroCentre in Gateshead also gets in on the Clas Ohlson act?

UPDATE, 30 August 2010: It’s been announced today that Clas Ohlson has also signed for a 1,760 sqm (18,944 sq ft) store in Doncaster’s Frenchgate Shopping Centre. There seems to be no word on the exact location yet, though I’m wondering if it will be the still-empty former Woolies site.

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

In my blog post about Gateshead’s Get Carter car park this morning, I suggested that “…it seems hard to believe that the car park is finally going to disappear from the skyline after so many false starts.”

However, it really *is* going. Demolition began this morning, with quite a few bits nibbled out by the time I went along to take a look this evening.

Here, for posterity, are some shots of this quite historic day for Gateshead – the beginning of the end for an architectural icon, but the beginning, one must hope, of a retail renaissance for the town centre.

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park from Windmill Hills Town Park (26 Jul 2010)

Though it’s going to be around a while longer yet, I also got a couple of shots of the current Tesco store. Looking back, from a retail history point of view, I’ve always enjoyed how the placement of the original ‘T E S C O’ lettering is still very visible on the store’s façade.

Tesco Gateshead (26 Jul 2010)

And looking forward – but seemingly appreciating the agonising slowness with which the development has progressed – I’ve always gained a chuckle from the banner proclaiming that Tesco is ‘still open’ (presumably in case anyone assumes that it’s actually been demolished already).

Tesco Gateshead (26 Jul 2010)

Only time will tell how much longer that remains the case. Once the car park is gone, and plans for the redevelopment are approved, then the Tesco store will itself have to come down, clearing the way for the new, bigger Tesco Extra that will replace it.

Hoardings promoting the new surround the old (18 Jun 2010)

Since it opened in 1969, Gateshead town centre’s Trinity Square car park has been many things to different people, but always impossible to ignore.

To some, it has been an icon of the architectural Brutalism movement; to others, an eyesore that has blighted the Tyneside skyline. It is perhaps most famous, however, as a backdrop to the 1971 film Get Carter, most notably the scene where Michael Caine’s character, Jack Carter, throws corrupt local businessman Cliff Brumby (Bryan Mosley) off the roof.

However, today – Monday 26 July – the bulldozers are finally set to move in and start razing the Get Carter car park to the ground.

Surrounding buildings have already been demolished (18 Jun 2010)

As the cranes that have sat dormant on the site for months – having already bulldozed the Trinity Square shopping centre and Indoor Market hall surrounding the car park – spring back into life, it’s appropriate both to reflect upon the history of the Get Carter car park, and to look forward to what is expected to replace it.

Doomed from the start?

Owen Luder's Dunston Rocket tower block, also in Gateshead (11 April 2010)

Trinity Square was designed in 1962 by Owen Luder – the architect responsible for Portsmouth’s now-demolished Tricorn Centre, as well as the Derwent Tower (better known as the Dunston Rocket), also in Gateshead, and itself slated for demolition. However, the development was not completed until seven years later, in 1969, when its uncompromising architectural style was already starting to fall out of favour.

Gateshead's Get Carter car park (28 May 2010)

As an architectural statement, there’s no doubt that the car park is bold, dramatic and – against a blue sky, like in the photograph above - almost beautiful. However, the biggest problem with both the car park and the surrounding shopping centre has been, in my view, their inability to fulfil the functions for which they were designed.

The structure dominates the skyline (2 Mar 2010)

For example, several floors of parking have long been closed off due to structural problems, while the space intended for a rooftop restaurant has never been occupied. When I did some research on the building a few years ago I was struck to see that there had been several proposals, in the 1960s and 70s, to use the rooftop space, but none that had come to fruition. One scheme, bizarrely, was thrown out due to a “lack of parking”.

The unused rooftop restaurant space (17 Sep 2009)

Meanwhile, in the shadow of the car park, the shopping centre itself has been a fairly miserable place in recent years – all concrete decks and grim spaces that face in on themselves, and that turn their back on the rest of the town centre. In short, it had become an unpleasant and poorly configured environment for both shoppers and retailers.

With the prospect of demolition and redevelopment being raised in the 1990s, some – including Get Carter enthusiasts and the Twentieth Century Society – countered with the view that the car park should be designated a listed building. However, it’s difficult to see what other viable purpose the structure could have been used for. It might have lent itself to redevelopment as a gallery, Tate Modern style, but in converting the Baltic Flour Mill into a Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead already had one cultural centerpiece.

Countdown to demolition

Gateshead's Get Carter car park (16 Dec 2009)

Given a structure that was unfit for its current use, difficult to convert to anything else, and – perhaps most critically – seen as a blight on a town centre that was successfully reinventing itself through new developments (such as the Baltic, the Sage Gateshead music centre, and the Gateshead Millenniun Bridge), demolition was always the most likely outcome. However, even once its fate was sealed, the demise of the structure has been a long time coming.

In August 2002, fans of Get Carter were “given the chance to visit one of Tyneside’s most famous movie locations before it is knocked down.” Five years later, in 2007, the structure was still there, but with demolition scheduled to “begin in the autumn” and redevelopment plans – by the landowner Tesco – the subject of a public roadshow around Gateshead. In September 2007, demolition was delayed, before then being set for March 2008.

Gateshead's Get Carter car park (18 Jun 2010)

In April that year – with the structure clearly still in situ – it was “opened to the public for one last time”. In September 2008, however, it was confirmed that demolition was “on hold” – but still intended to go ahead ASAP – while the planning application for the site’s redevelopment was finalised.

The car park was finally closed to the public in January 2009; pledged to “be demolished in the next few months” in August last year; but put on hold again in December pending the development of “satisfactory” plans for the redevelopment of the town centre.

The existing Tesco store will also be demolished in due course (18 Jun 2010)

Finally, last month, demolition plans for the car park were confirmed following the signing of a development agreement between Gateshead Council and Tesco, with a firm date of Monday 26 July later announced. Now, with demolition due to begin in just a few hours, it seems hard to believe that the car park is finally going to disappear from the skyline after so many false starts.

The future

Once the car park is gone, attention will turn fully to what will replace it. Spenhill, Tesco’s regeneration subsidiary, finally submitted its planning application for the site earlier this month.

The existing Tesco store, which will be demolished (18 Jun 2010)

Covering the demolished Trinity Square as well as the site of the existing Tesco store (still currently trading), the proposed development – still to be known as Trinity Square – will include a Tesco Extra as well as 45 other retail units of up to 30,000 sq ft, offices, 900 student beds, a new town square, parking, and (potentially) a hotel.

Trinity Square hoarding (18 Jun 2010)

In eastern Europe, it’s not unusual to find a large Tesco department store sitting in a prime location within a town or city centre. From a UK perspective, however, it would be easy to fear that a development led and anchored by Tesco would take the form of a retail box surrounded by a sea of car parking.

Computer-generated image of what the new Trinity Square will look like

Happily, the artist’s impressions and intended mix of uses seem very promising. On the retail side, for example, there will now be more – and larger – units than were suggested during the earlier consultation, while office uses are a logical extension of the successful commercial property developments that have taken place on Gateshead Quays. Perhaps most importantly, the student accommodation and hotel – hopefully with accompanying bars and restaurants – should bring some life after office hours to a town centre that is currently very quiet once the shops close.

The modern image of Gateshead

I’ve always held the view that this once-in-a-lifetime investment in Gateshead town centre needs to mirror the quality of the neighbouring quayside developments, rather than settling for something ordinary. If, as seems to be the case, the Tesco store is properly integrated, visually and physically, into a wider scheme that is bold and modern, then the whole development should be a real boost for Gateshead.

More than anything, the demolition of the Get Carter car park has been compelled by the promise that something better will replace it. It’s now up to Gateshead Council and Tesco to make sure they deliver on that promise, so that Gateshead residents can add Trinity Square to the growing list of local landmarks of which they are rightly proud.

Former Woolworths, Peterlee (12 March 2010)

Only counting the (33) North East Woolworths stores that closed down following the company’s 2008 administration, my quest to photograph the full set is nearing completion – with five more new ones featured in this post, only Berwick, Billingham and Stockton’s Portrack Lane are left to get.

However, the ever-expanding list of stores that had already closed down in previous years – currently standing at 17, of which 7 have been photographed – means that I’ll be kept busy touring the North East’s towns and suburbs for a little while yet.

First up, however, are a couple of revisits, with the old Gateshead Woolies store (#154) still determinedly empty.

Former Woolworths, Gateshead (12 March 2010)

Better news in Chester-le-Street though, where the old Woolies (store #267) had been taken over by B&M Bargains since my previous visit a couple of months earlier.

Former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains), Chester-le-Street (12 March 2010)

The first new stop is Stanley in County Durham, where Store Twenty One has done a good job of turning the old Woolies shop in Front Street (store #873) into a bright and appealing fashion and homewares store.

Former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One), Stanley (12 April 2010)

Less impressive is the company’s website - firstly for not having the Stanley shop listed in its store locator, and secondly for having the phrase “cheap clothes” within its title tags. To me, the words “cheap clothes” conjure up an unpleasant – and probably unfair – image of the retailer’s range being 100% driven by price at the expense of fashion. Indeed, using such language surely undermines the more effective “fashionably affordable” tagline that is used elsewhere on the site. Hopefully these issues will be addressed when the promised new site launches later this month.

Staying in County Durham, the 5,000 sq ft former Woolworths in Peterlee’s Yoden Way (store #987) was still empty when I visited in March, and as far as I know remains that way.

Former Woolworths, Peterlee (12 March 2010)

Though hardly the most beautiful building, that row of shops holds some historic significance as the first part of Peterlee new town to be built. The Francis Frith website features a rather quirky shot of the Yoden Way shops  surrounded by empty space – certainly a contrast to today’s busy and built up shopping centre. The Woolworths shop is easily recognisable in the old photograph by its distinctive, pale façade.

Former Woolworths, Newton Aycliffe (12 March 2010)

Down the road in Newton Aycliffe, we have another new town, another empty Woolies (store #1007), and another property that wouldn’t win any prizes for its looks.

On to Darlington next, where the formerWoolworths at 12-18 Northgate (store #28) was in the midst of building work to turn it into a new branch of Next. I understand that the Next store is not open yet, but is due to be finished later in the summer.

Former Woolworths, Darlington (12 March 2010)

Cornmill entrance to former Woolworths, Darlington (12 March 2010)

Finally to Spennymoor, and the old Woolies there (store #278) is one of many nationwide that has been taken over by The Original Factory Shop, the self-styled “low-price local department store”.

Former Woolworths (now The Original Factory Shop), Spennymoor (12 March 2010)

The chain has a policy of opening in smaller towns with limited non-food competition, and this is reflected in its choice of North East locations to date – among them Ashington, Crook, Prudhoe, Shildon and Stanley.

Interestingly, The Original Factory Shop’s own website indicates that a new store will be ‘opening soon’ in Morpeth, in Northumberland – I can’t find any further details yet, but presume that it will be in the former M&S Simply Food unit, vacated last year following the opening of a full M&S store in the new Sanderson Arcade.

TK Maxx site at MetroCentre's Blue Mall

The trouble of spending too much of my time visiting town centres and shopping malls is that I end up with more potential blog topics than I ever have time to actually write about, accompanied by folders full of unused digital photographs.

One story that I’ve been sitting on for a while is the upcoming opening of TK Maxx at Gateshead’s MetroCentre, adding to a portfolio of Tyneside stores that already includes a Newcastle city centre shop at Monument Mall, and retail park sites at Byker, Kingston Park and Team Valley.

When news of the MetroCentre opening emerged back in October, it was reported that TK Maxx would be taking over the two-storey former Woolworths unit – an assumption that seemed to make good sense. It turns out, however, that this is not the case: TK Maxx will, in fact, be moving into the space in the Blue Mall that was occupied by the Odeon cinema until December last year. If you’ve been following such things, you’ll know that this space was freed up following the opening of a new Odeon in the Yellow Mall, occupying the site that used to be the New MetroLand funfair.

TK Maxx and HomeSense coming soon

As reported by Retail Week, and now confirmed by the ‘coming soon’ signage on site (above), the upcoming 45,000 sq ft store is noteworthy in that it will be the first in the UK to open under a dual TK Maxx and HomeSense fascia.

HomeSense is TK Maxx owner TJX’s homewares chain, and is an established format for the company in the US and Canada. In the UK, the first HomeSense stores, in Cardiff and Poole, only opened in 2008; the chain has now expanded to 16 sites, with a further four scheduled to open in June and July, though none so far have opened in the North East or Yorkshire. As it is, the HomeSense website suggests that we will still have to wait until ‘late September’ for the opening of the MetroCentre store.

Former Woolworths at MetroCentre

All this means, of course, that the future of the large former Woolworths site at MetroCentre remains unclear. A recent planning application – submitted in February – for a 1,617 sqm (17,405 sq ft) extension to the unit suggests that something is in the offing, though I understand that there has been no decision on that application as yet. I have heard rumours that an existing MetroCentre tenant may be poised to upgrade to the former Woolworths unit, so perhaps more news will be forthcoming if and when the pending planning application is approved.

Peacocks logo

Peacocks has submitted a planning application for new signage at the former Zavvi site in Newcastle’s Northumberland Street, confirming recent rumours that the fashion retailer was being lined up to occupy the 17,000 sq ft store.

Published today, the application (2010/0159/01/ADV) is for the “display of internally illuminated fascia sign, internally illuminated projecting sign and non illuminated banner sign to Northumberland Street elevation and black vinyl graphic to windows on Northumberland Street and Brunswick Place elevation”. An accompanying application – 2010/0160/01/DET – has been submitted for the “installation of new shopfront and replacement of air conditioning units to roof”.

Former Zavvi, Newcastle (27 Sep 2009)

Very few changes to the unit itself are envisaged – the application states that Peacocks will occupy the existing three trading levels (basement, ground and first floor), and will retain all the existing links between the store and Monument Mall. In a previous blog post, back in August, I wrote that “one of Zavvi’s strengths was having entrances/exits on all three shopping levels of Monument Mall, as well as to Northumberland Street, helping shoppers permeate throughout”. The retention of all these routes in and out of the new Peacocks store will undoubtedly provide a footfall boost to Monument Mall’s other retailers, across all of the shopping centre’s three main levels.

Looking beyond Monument Mall, and the obvious fact that a large empty unit will be brought back into use, Peacocks’ arrival can only be good news for Newcastle city centre. Though it may have had a less fashionable image in the past, today’s Peacocks is a highly popular and successful retailer – it now has over 500 UK stores, with plans to open 40 more in 2010-11, and reported like-for-like sales growth of 8% in the eight weeks up to 2 January, a significantly better figure than Next (3.2%) or M&S (1.2%). It’s newer stores – such as North East branches opened in Chester-le-Street, Seaham and Gateshead in the last year or two – are smart and attractive, with bright and interesting frontages that enliven the street scene. Peacocks’ arrival at Monument Mall can undoubtedly be seen as a vote of confidence in Newcastle city centre from a thriving retailer that has not previously had a presence here.

Existing Peacocks store in Gateshead

Above all, we can celebrate the fact that we’re getting a Peacocks instead of another branch of Barclays Bank – an idea that seems even more crazy now that the former Zavvi site’s continued viability as a large, three-storey retail unit has been so clearly demonstrated.

Thanks to TownPlanningNE at SkyscraperCity’s Newcastle City Centre Retail forum for the tip-off regarding the planning application!