Choices, High Street - Closing
It is indeed bad news for Dorking. Choices Video is closing, and as posted on here, due to high rent.
This retail outlet is in a prime position in the town. In fact when Choices took it over I thought it was a waste. Not only was it not the most attractive shopfront but space inside was badly used. On top of all this I thought the shop lacked a focused purpose having only a limited DVD rental section with the rest of the space taken up with DVD's for sale, mobile phones etc.
Having said all of this I did use the shop and thought it was in an accessible position with a wide . The real bad news for Dorking is that the premises could be empty with uncertainty on what would type of shop would take up residence. Being such a prime spot in the town it needs to be a real anchor store - please no estate agents!
Of course this will all be good news for the DVD rental shop up South Street and the the small shop which sells CD's and DVD's, Music4U.
posted by The Cockerel @ 6:59 PM
3 Comments:
Doubt it would be another estate agent as it would have to apply for change of use from A1 (retail) to A2 (financial, estate agents). Not even Mole Valley District Council would be even that stupid! Have also heard the rumour that WHSmith have been eyeing this site for ages. Sadly, this will not pull in the punters into Dorking town centre.
It needs to be something out of the ordinary...an upmarket clothing shop for men and women (not Etams!) or an upmarket home furnishing shop like Laura Ashley Home, which is similar to the one they have in Farnham. Or, how about an anchor store like Knights in Reigate? Obviously, it would be much more up to date and they could also buy out the empty ex-Nightingales shop in St. Martins Walk. With parking charges going up from July 1, I sincerely hope that Dorking town centre management, have a good client in mind, to takeover this prominent empty unit!
Also, there are rumours that the soon to be former Harley Davidson showroom, is going to be developed into flats. Apparently, it was sold some time ago to developers and the fact that this was the Harley Davidson's most profitable shop in the southeast says a lot about the amount of money that was offered to them.....
from what i understand the charity shops of dorking are flourishing so much that choices have been approached by an amalgamation of a dozen charities to open a super size god almighty mother of a charity shop, just to suit all the old codgers of dorking, so they can wallow in second hand smelly goods.............this is tounge in cheek by the way!!
Heard that WHSmith have got their hands on the former Choices unit. Apparently, they have been forced out by the landlord, who are in the process of developing the upper half of the building into flats. Hence the former Cancer Research shop which was sandwiched in between Smith's and Halfords has been empty for almost a year and a half. When the development has finished, there will be new flats on the upper level and the three units will become TWO!
With regards to the state of WHSmith's at the moment....the shop is terribly dated ie. brown carpet, stained, the layout is poor, lighting is non-existent. Hopefully, the move to it's new premises will move WHSmith into the 21st century in Dorking! The move is to take a month or two.
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