#RetailCupid 💘, #highstreet champion, @PlaceManagement Fellow. Učim se slovenščino! Sadly only slightly active here these days. Find me on 🦋👇
Gateshead
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@LNER Hello LNER! The "Winter Dish" menu is certainly getting its money's worth celebrating the "New Year" 😏
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New public realm in Sheffield (first pic) and Eastbourne (others) shown here for comparison! All my pics from the last month or so.
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That's probably the one I have seen and photographed more than any other - Chester-le-Street, of course! Here's me in a 2019 selfie.
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Looking forward to being in #Hastings tomorrow evening delivering my free High Street Boost workshop for local businesses.
Simple, practical ideas for attracting more customers to your shop, café or salon.
📍 Jackson Hall, Portland Place
🕠 Wed 11 March, 5.30-7pm
eventbrite.co.uk/e/attract-m…
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I'm in #Bexhill tomorrow evening delivering my free High Street Boost workshop for local businesses.
It's great to see a good mix of traders already signed up. If you run a shop, café, salon or other customer-facing business locally, you are very welcome to join us.
Details:
eventbrite.co.uk/cc/high-str….
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That is positive news, but I hope that this year whoever is tasked with promoting the event can be encouraged NOT to stick illegal flyposters up all over the region.
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East Sussex high-street businesses 👇
Free workshops + one-to-one support are on the way. Dates soon. Register interest:
cannyinsights.com/high-stree…
#HighStreetBoost #HighStreets #EastSussex #Eastbourne #Hastings #Lewes #Bexhill
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"You may have seen me on Netflix!"
Here's a 15-second teaser of my "Boosting Festive Footfall" film with @TeesValleyCA and @TeesValley_Biz - watch the whole thing at teesvalley-ca.gov.uk/news/bo….
#retail #highstreets #highstreet #shoplocalteesvalley
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Some thoughts from me in this podcast with @WeAreUMiNetwork! piped.video/watch?v=dGwO8zEZ…
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As you may have seen, I'm looking forward to delivering eight "Boosting Festive Footfall" workshops - in person across the #TeesValley, and online - over the next few weeks. The sign-up link for local businesses is at eventbrite.com/cc/retail-wor….
Drawing from the many places I have worked and visited, the sessions will provide practical tips on how to maximise festive visibility and trade, including how best to tap into occasions such as #BlackFriday, Small Business Saturday, and local #Christmas events.
I've lots of case study material already, but am keen to use these sessions as an opportunity to celebrate and showcase examples of creative retailers and places that I might not be aware of yet - perhaps where something authentic and local is being held as an antidote to Black Friday, for instance, or where a BID or council is working in lockstep with local traders to host events, promote the festive offer and draw people into their destination.
Feel free to comment, tag and share links below! 👇
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It was nice to pop up on BBC Politics North just now, and be described as "a leading retail expert"!
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I'm always a bit wary of AI, but I won't object to ChatGPT's comment about my writing.
It just referred to my "reflective, conversational tone and grounded, evidence-based style", which is not a bad summary of what I always try to do!
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It's taken me a while to realise, but I've just twigged that the vaguely familiar building on the front of the novel I'm currently reading is, indeed, #Gateshead Town Hall! Here it is masquerading as a spooky old school where a body is found in the boiler house.
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"I'm not gonna go on about it!", booms the man on his phone on the train, as he very much keeps going on about it 🙈
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"Mansfield District Council said it was working with engineers to "ensure that the building retains its integrity"."
I think that ship may have sailed 🙈
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce32…
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"When did you say the next train from Manchester to Newcastle was?" 🇸🇮 #GRIMUN
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Several of my survey answers were "very poor", Waitrose, but if you want to equate that with "a great experience" so be it 🤷♂️
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When I photographed the building in 2018 (before Wilsons and then Maxisaver occupied it) you could make out the old "Co-op Foodstore" ghost sign. It must have had at least five further fascias since that lettering was removed! #Eastwood
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The tiny tomato plant that I bought from @AldiUK for one pound something has grown particularly big this year - it's over a metre tall - and is now bearing its first ripe fruit! 🍅
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It's always good to experience #Durham on a Saturday, when the city is even more buzzing with people than during the week! You wouldn't know that Saddler Street (first pic) isn't actually pedestrianised (even though, if the geography were different, it really should be).
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#Newcastle has the quirk of a brand new River Island opening tomorrow, even as the business plots to secure its survival. Hopefully this shiny new store will be open more than a matter of weeks 🤞
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I'm not convinced someone who works at an advertising agency called "AMV BBDO" is best placed to talk about the power of effective brand names 🧐😄 bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3wn…
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I know flowers alone aren't the answer to creating vibrant #highstreets - but blimey, when they're as gorgeous as these ones in #Durham city centre today, it certainly can't do any harm in helping make a place feel attractive and cared for.
Whether you're a business looking to open premises, or a member of the public considering where to pay a return visit, I know which option I would choose, given a choice between here and somewhere without any floral cheer at all 🌺
#highstreet #placemaking
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I hope you're impressed at my powers! And that seems like a good alternative to the previous church conversion plans.
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Cowes on the Isle of Wight! I remember really struggling to find somewhere decent to eat there...
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I'd be surprised if Woolworths isn't in there! Sadly I cancelled my subscription to @RetailWeek, so I'll never know 🤷♂️
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Meanwhile, the store next door is the first rebranded @tgjonesuk that I've seen on my travels so far!
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I was back at @_Metrocentre this afternoon, and it was good to see hoardings now up for Søstrene Grene's upcoming store - the Danish retailer's second in the North East!
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This new side entrance to #Newcastle Central Station from Central Parkway appears to have been finished for months, but shows no sign of actually being opened. Any idea what's happening, @LNER or @networkrail?
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That's already impressive that TGJones has even *noticed* the store's back door, where WHSmith had let the old sign linger for three decades after the cube logo's supposed retirement! #Redcar
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Next has opened its new #Newcastle city centre flagship in Eldon Square's ex-Debenhams this morning. So what can shoppers expect?
Read my commentary at cannyinsights.com/2025/07/15….
#retail #highstreet #highstreets #shoppingcentres
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It was good to get a sneak peek of the smart new Next store in Eldon Square this evening, which is 10,000 sq ft larger than the old shop. Interior pics are embargoed until after it opens tomorrow, so I'll post images and thoughts after 11am! 🕚 #Newcastle
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My mum has been sorting through some old stuff, but I was more excited by the bag containing it! 😀
This one unfortunately has a hole in it, but my mum was amazed when I told her that you can normally get a tenner for something like this on eBay! 😂
#Woolworths
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TGJones - the reincarnated WHSmith on the high street - has gone live with its logo and cover pic on Facebook!
It's interesting that the logotype and "Price Drop" messaging is more distinctive from the WHSmith style than might have been expected 🧐
#highstreet #highstreets #retail
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Yet if you go on to the National Rail or Northern websites, it appears (correctly) as "Metrocentre"! So the signs seem like an anomaly.
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@DurhamCouncil I just ripped down the illegal fly poster - for the Hardwick Festival - that this chap had taped up in #ChesterleStreet seconds earlier. These people are disfiguring properties across the county - please can it be addressed? @HardwickHHotel
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Today's train was a fast one missing out Wylam, so I didn't get to hear whether "Willem" has been expunged already 🤷
@northernassist Why is your train saying we have arrived in "Willem", as in Defoe?
#Wylam is "why-lam" isn't it? 🧐
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I do always find it comedic how, in 2025, there are still B&Bs promoting the presence of "colour TVs" as a selling point 😆📺
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Last time I was in #Blackpool it was so wet my shoes disintegrated and I had to buy an emergency pair. It's rather nicer today! 😎
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Based on the on-site messaging, I have no idea if Ideal Home & Food Hall is something that has been and gone or is coming soon. Jobs were being advertised on Facebook last month, so maybe the latter? Top tip: don't give your business a generic, hard-to-Google name!🤷 #Bolton
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Time for some early-morning Woolworths spotting in #Bolton! The original 1912 store is now Virgin Money; it relocated in 1926, where it had a 50s rebuild and traded until the end. That store was taken over by Wilko, and then a short-lived Poundland.
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Meanwhile, there is still a lot of uncovered Woolworths history to enjoy nearby as the building's transformation into premises for the University of Cumbria moves forward. #Carlisle
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"I'm sure it will be nice when it's finished!"
That seemed to be the prevailing sentiment from listening to passersby as I briefly visited #Carlisle today for the first time since last year.
Much of the city centre is being dug up as part of public realm improvements, with the arrival of plants suggesting that completion is close. Indeed, peeks through the railings promise an attractive outcome.
It's fair to say that getting around the city centre on foot is quite challenging right now - especially if you miss the right route though all the works. I guess the jury is out on whether a disruptive but one-fell-swoop approach, as adopted here, is better or not than the incremental, never-ending digging preferred at Newcastle's Northumberland Street!
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@northernassist Why is your train saying we have arrived in "Willem", as in Defoe?
#Wylam is "why-lam" isn't it? 🧐
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