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The Original Factory Shop in Morpeth – a shift towards more upmarket locations?

Graham Soult July 28, 2010 Market Towns, Property, Woolworths No Comments

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Original Factory Shop fascia. Photograph by Graham Soult

Original Factory Shop fascia

The rapidly expanding mini-department store retailer, The Original Factory Shop, opened its seventh North East store, in Morpeth, last week. It adds to the retailer’s existing stores within the region at Stanley, Prudhoe, Ashington, Crook, Spennymoor and Shildon.

As noted previously, The Original Factory Shop has been snapping up quite a few … Continue Reading

Grey Street in Newcastle named Britain’s third most picturesque street

Graham Soult March 08, 2010 Property, Retail History 1 Comment

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Grey Street, Newcastle (16 Feb 2010). Photograph by Graham Soult

Grey Street, Newcastle (16 Feb 2010)

Though Shambles in York has understandably garnered much of the attention for being named “Britain’s most picturesque street” in the Google Street View Awards, it’s a pleasure to see Newcastle’s Grey Street coming up in third place – if only for no other reason than giving me an excuse to use some nice … Continue Reading

Goodbye to Oil & Vinegar in Newcastle’s Eldon Square

Graham Soult January 06, 2010 Property, Shopping Centres, Specialist Retailers 2 Comments

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The empty Oil & Vinegar store this evening (6 Jan 2010). Photograph by Graham Soult

The empty Oil & Vinegar store this evening (6 Jan 2010)

After work, I trudged through the snow to the delightful Eldon Square Waitrose this evening, though not before giving the store a call to check that it was opening its normal hours. It was, though quite a few shops en route had signs in their windows … Continue Reading

HobbyCraft shines, Borders stumbles

Graham Soult November 26, 2009 Booksellers, Property, Retail Parks No Comments

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Borders at Retail World, Gateshead. Photograph courtesy of Land Securities

Borders at Retail World, Gateshead. Photograph courtesy of Land Securities

Mixed fortunes in the news today for two specialist retailers that both have a presence at Team Valley Retail World in Gateshead – HobbyCraft and Borders.

Privately-owned HobbyCraft, which describes itself as “the UK’s largest chain of dedicated arts and crafts superstores”, has reported a … Continue Reading

Some observations from visiting MetroCentre today

Graham Soult October 05, 2009 Customer Service, Property, Shopping Centres, Woolworths 3 Comments

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MetroCentre logo on empty unit

MetroCentre logo on empty unit

I popped over to MetroCentre this afternoon, and spotted a few things that seemed worthy of blogging about.

Millets: Following on from my post last week about Blacks Leisure announcing plans to shut 89 loss-making branches, I noticed that the MetroCentre Millets store is already having a closing down sale. However, the nearby Blacks store looks like … Continue Reading