"Ghost Town"
A review of Thomson Reuters (Formerly Primark) by Harleen Quinzel - Thursday 28th of August 2008
I went 'late night' shopping in Cambridge last night. Firstly the shops that bothered to stay open any later closed at 8 o'clock which to my mind isn't really 'late night'. These shops start closing their shutters at 7.30! Most shops don't bother staying open late. The rest are borded up! This town is dying on it's arse, particularly around the Grafton centre, probably because of very high rents. Only certain shops can afford to open here because of the high rents but the average Cambridge person isn't rich, we mostly earn below national average wage, so we can't afford to shop at the more exclusive boutiques. As a result the shops close and this is why so many shops in Cambridge are closed and borded up. I really think that the only hope for Cambridge is to give up trying to put accross an image of an exclusive, upmarket university town, accept that most of the people who live here are credit crunch victims (paupers like me) and open a Primark and a Peacocks and watch the area thrive again. You know I'm right. If not Cambridge will turn into a ghetto of Starbucks and mobile phone shops, fringed by betting shops on the outskirts.
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