“Shopportunities” – The Role of Retail in Rejuvenating Town Centres
Tim Radley will be speaking at Dublin’s “The Future of Towns”
Dun Laoghaire: Thursday April 16th.
A big question often requires us to go back to basics. So before we attempt to reverse the tides of change and inject new life into the retail of high streets its worth asking why retail is important to any town centre mix.
The simple answer is that at every level retail is about people and people are the essential ingredient to the survival of our town centres. People are the lifeblood of our streets, they fill it with noise, and movement and help to pave the hallowed streets with commercial gold.
As retail staff, workers, shoppers, visitors, browsers and customers – people transform buildings into locations, housing estates into communities and cold spaces into emotional experiences. Despite the evolution of e-commerce retail continues to be an essential part of this community building process.
However as residential has been removed from town centres the difficult task of attracting people back into them has demanded that every self-respecting town must engage in events and markets, street entertainment and seasonal evenings to lure the elusive footfall into their particular patch.
And ultimately no amount of attractive sideshows will tempt return traffic when the retail offer itself fails to satisfy. Retail destination status can only be built with the building blocks of retail itself.
But how does a town begin to do this?
Come and listen to me speak about why retail is important to the future of towns, what it must do to attract people into towns and how high street rejuvenation must be built “one shop at a time”
I am Tim Radley, founder of VM-Unleashed! and I will be speaking at the “Future of Towns” event at Dun Laoghaire, Ireland on Thursday 16th April.
I look forwards to meeting you there and answering your retail questions. Many thanks.