A vision for Rugby’s Town Centre

Guest speaker, Simon Ainley, provided a vision for the future of shopping and Rugby's place within it, at Rugby Liberal Democrats' AGM last week. "Rugby must pick up the ball and run with it" he said. (Rugby entrepreneur Simon Ainley is one of the driving forces behind Garden Gate, the new flower shop in Regent Street - see www.gardengaterugby.co.uk .)

First Simon set out how he saw the current spectrum of shopping experiences.

"At one end of the spectrum we have 'techno-shopping'. This is conducted at a distance via the key board. You browse for pictures of the goods they want, pay by credit card and a week later you come home from work to find a card saying that someone tried to deliver the goods you ordered and they can now be collected from a distribution depot. You've never felt the goods or smelt them and sometimes you can't remember why you bought them. There is no human contact involved with that at all".

"In the middle of the spectrum we have 'retail-park shopping'. Wherever they are in the country these retail sheds have the same range of shops selling the same range of goods. Whatever you buy in Glasgow or Gloucester you can return to Bristol or Belfast. You push your trolley around the store and increasingly check yourself out. While you can now feel and smell the goods there is very little pleasurable interaction with the seller; "I don't know, I just work Saturdays".

"At the other end of the spectrum is 'personality shopping'. Smaller individual shops managed by people who have invested often their lives into the enterprise. Full of knowledge about the product or service they are keen to help the buyer to the perfect purchase. Here the shopper feels like an individual where they can talk to someone who cares, where they can discuss their preferences, get advice and perhaps have things made up especially for them".

Simon referred to the fact that Rugby now has a population of over 100,000 growing faster than any other in the Region, and the staggering £80 million pounds a year that Rugby First believe is being spent by that population shopping outside Rugby.

Then Simon set out what he saw as Rugby Town Centre's opportunity. "The future for Rugby Town Centre must be built substantially around the personality shopping experience, where people come for tip-top personal service offering an attractive range of quality shops and services, mostly independent but including some good 'multiples', within a beautiful, accessible, safe and well-maintained environment ".

"To achieve this we need a wider range of these shops than we currently have, but we cannot expect them to come to us, " he said "Rugby must pro-actively identify the sorts of shops and services we need to achieve a better mix and then offer real and targeted incentives to get them to set up their business here in Rugby Town".

"William Webb Ellis wasn't bound by the rules and we can't afford to be either" he added.

"Rugby can within two to three years become a high quality shopping/leisure experience based on the unique depth of Rugby Town's environment and it's character with it's fascinating people, extraordinary achievements and our 'pick up the ball and run with it' attitude" he concluded.

Simon Ainley was a guest speaker at Rugby Liberal Democrats AGM. The views expressed are his own. You can read more about his experiences and views on the development of Rugby at www.rugby15.net . This is the fifth in a series of articles about the future of our town centre Rugby Liberal Democrats are running this week.