Glasgow Retailers Refuse To Go Extra Mile For Marketing Project
Hard-Pressed retailers in Glasgow have thrown out plans to promote the city centre because it would have involved a hike in their business rates.
The so-called Style Mile initiative, based on the Z-shape of streets formed by Argyle Street, Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall Street, would have followed the lead of Sydney, the only other city in the world with a similar marketing campaign.
The group is now talking to the public and private sector about developing an alternative plan to retain the city’s position as the number two shopping destination in the UK after London.
It was intended to give a boost to major retailers in the area, including House of Fraser, Debenhams, the Buchanan and St Enoch’s shopping centres and designer stores, such as Vivienne Westwood in Princes Square.
The east of Scotland already has Essential Edinburgh, a BID project, which covers the area between Princes Street and George Street.
In an effort to attract more shoppers into Glasgow and limit the effects of the credit crunch during the festive season the city council is introducing parking promotions and an embargo on non-emergency roadworks next month.
Cities in the UK are increasingly losing shoppers to the internet and are having to compete with London’s new Westfield complex, Europe’s largest urban retail centre. They are trying to cope with what is being tipped as the least lucrative Christmas since the recession of the early 1990s.
Tags: argyle street, buchanan street, business rates, cities in the uk, credit crunch, debenhams, extra mile, festive season, glasgow, house of fraser, marketing campaign, marketing project, princes square, princes street, recession, retail centre, shopping centres, st enoch, vivienne westwood, westfield