‘Not all doom and gloom’ with empty shops in Town
TWENTY new shops opening in Town in the last 10 years have helped the number of empty shops stay at its lowest since 2009, according to a recent survey carried out by former deputy Mary Lowe.
And the latest quarterly count from the Guernsey Retail Group has shown an improving picture for retailers.
Mrs Lowe counted 34 empty shops on 29 January.
She started recording an occasional count of empty shops in 2009 and since then has carried out five more.
The highest figure she counted was in October 2012, when there were 50 empty premises. Three years later this had fallen to 41 and the last time she counted, in 2021, she came back with the same total as her most recent count, 34.
But while the latest figure was the same, she said that this did not mean that the same sites were empty.
‘I was quite surprised,’ she said.
‘It’s quite nice bearing in mind that since 2012 there have been 20 new shops in Fountain Street, the Bordage, Mill Street/Mansell Street and Trinity Square.
‘Obviously there are some new ones in the High Street and Arcade too, so it’s not all doom and gloom. It’s good that we still have shops that are open and new ones opening.’
The Retail Group’s quarterly survey included the Bridge for the first time at the end of last year.
Data is broken down into streets and benchmarked against the most recent equivalent figures released by the British Retail Consortium in the UK.
The most recent BRC figures show that shop vacancies were at 13.8% at the end of the fourth quarter.
By comparison, Town had a vacancy rate of 8.3% in quarter four last year, while the Bridge’s was 11.6%.
‘[This represents] a 4.95% reduction from the first three months of last year, which stood at 13.25%,’ said GRG head of retail development Korinne Le Page.
‘This is tremendous news and we expect an improving picture for the retail sector in 2023.’
She said that while the improvement in occupancy is partly due to a higher number of openings and the expansion of existing outlets along with the success of the GRG’s ‘retail pathway’ initiative, which sees the charity work with landlords and businesses to provide short- to medium-term rental opportunities for new and established retailers.
Research by BRC showed that shopping habits had not changed much since people returned to towns after Covid.
Locally, the return of tourists last year, including cruise ship passengers and long-stay visitors, had provided a boost to the local economy across the island, not just in Town, said Ms Le Page.
‘The increase in day trips from the UK being offered by Condor has also helped to increase footfall. These trends are expected to continue in 2023 with cruise ship numbers returning to pre-pandemic levels.’
