Metropol

Andrew wrote: Tue 31 Jul, 2018 23.12 I think you are being a tad unfair to the Victoria Centre

It looks much nicer from the front https://goo.gl/maps/ph1r9LXzJUt

or the side https://goo.gl/maps/CHyn322oxt62

rather than the back

I think my 'partially clad' summation was fair.

Even in that front picture you can see massive chunks of bare old concrete, it's not the sort of building which shouts 'premier' in any sense.

That specific side view does look good - unfortunately when you move even a little away from that view it looks shit again. As you can see from that picture that 'dining quarter' development has utterly failed, both those supposedly prime units at the front there (Handmade Burger Company and Coast2Coast) have been vacant for over a year. Further inside there are at least 2 food units which haven't been occupied at all since the refurb, and a Street Food place which is excellent but only opens 3 or 4 days a week.

Turns out people don't want to eat in a crusty old shopping mall when they've loads of other choices.

I'm old enough to remember the original Victoria Centre food court, which was opposite Tesco before they decided to put the House of Fraser (amongst other shops) in there instead. I remember us going to eat there circa 1997 to find it was all boarded up while they were turning it into the new shops.

It appeared on TV on the first ever National Lottery show, if the clips are still on YouTube.

james2001 wrote: Wed 01 Aug, 2018 10.00 I'm old enough to remember the original Victoria Centre food court, which was opposite Tesco before they decided to put the House of Fraser (amongst other shops) in there instead. I remember us going to eat there circa 1997 to find it was all boarded up while they were turning it into the new shops.

It appeared on TV on the first ever National Lottery show, if the clips are still on YouTube.

Gosh, I'd completely forgotten about that but you're right, it was:



About 10 seconds in.

I remember the clock and that the place always stank of chip fat.

https://picturethepast.org.uk/image-lib ... 05226.html

Went at the same time they extended the centre in to the former bus station warehouse.

The blurb on that photo says that House of Fraser and Tesco replaced the food court. House of Fraser did, but Tesco was already there, and had been probably since the centre opened. I don't think it's even ever expanded in size.

james2001 wrote: Thu 02 Aug, 2018 10.08 The blurb on that photo says that House of Fraser and Tesco replaced the food court. House of Fraser did, but Tesco was already there, and had been probably since the centre opened. I don't think it's even ever expanded in size.

Nah Tesco opened in the 80s. The footprint of their store did grow somewhat following the closure the food court - I can't quite picture in which way, possibly they extended out towards the bus station. For a few months the shop was closed and a free bus was provided to Tesco Carlton.

Really think this woman should've picked up a basket.

If that were real life, she would have started losing circulation to her hand, making it harder and harder to use her phone to scan. She would then eventually drop her phone as she was trying to scan a bag of curly kale, causing her to suddenly jerk the bag. The bag would then break, sending her two litres of milk careering across the shop floor, with a split in it, making an awful mess.

Not the best idea to get the customer to use a 5p plastic bag, considering that we need to cut plastic usage. A barcode on a basket would suffice.

I suppose many would also bring their own bag. Do they have to take a 5p bag to start?

There’s going to be a few smashed phone screens as customers try to juggle basket, product and phone.

Will be interesting to see how they police this. Will security or someone in store be notified when they’ve scanned the code at the end? You could just pretend to end the shop and march out.

I personally dislike them, but maybe those little pullalong basket trolleys finally have a point. Pop your bag in, scan and place your goods in -without breaking your forearm, or taking up too much floorspace?

Wonder what happens when you try to buy booze or other restricted products.