Thistles Florist - Closed
It was sad to see that Thistles Florist had suddenly closed for good. As a visitor has reported on here a 'To Let' sign has appeared in the window. It was only the other day that the shop was open as normal.
It was good to have a retailer on the eastern end of Dorking high street which is mainly occupied by estate agents, restaurants and service type establishments.
I would imagine this unit will remain empty for some time.
posted by The Cockerel @ 8:05 PM
8 Comments:
Heard a while back that Thistles were struggling financally. A great shame as it was a wonderful flower shop and the staff always went out of their way to make a superb bouquet of flowers for a very reasonable price. Thistles will be greatly missed by the people of Dorking.
Annoyed Anthony
I heard that the business was unfortunately placed into adminstration. As we all know, it is very hard to compete in these very difficult times, banks will not lend any money and the rents continue to go only in one direction in Dorking - upwards!! Business rates are due to go up another 5% come April 2009 and the new increases in parking charges will drive more of the shops in the town to the wall. Have heard that quite a few of the shops in Dorking are looking to relocate come April. So, do not be surprised if your favourite shop suddenly closes and up sticks to a more customer friendly town. Take note Mole Valley and town centre management!
Newsworthy Neill
Not sure you can blame the rent on this one. Martin Brown have it listed as 10k, rising to 13k in year 2. Seems reasonable compared to others in Dorking. I think it's more likely to have been scuppered by loction. Dorking is too small to support such a long High Street. Anything past Pizza Express is going to struggle for footfall.
Furthermore, I always felt that naming a flower shop after a weed was questionable. Then you have the slightly drab exterior and the competition from the more enticing and better positioned Dorking Flowers. Throw into the mix a recession and it is not hard to see why they had to close.
Shame though. I hope the owner did not lose too much money like the owners of Saffron did by all accounts.
Dougie
Some valid points above but I always felt that Thistles was a cut above the other flower shops in Dorking. They always made wonderful, classy arrangements and the staff were very friendly and flexible and knowledgeable about what they were selling. They did the flowers for our wedding and did a really great job. A great shame to see them go and yet another empty shop on our declining high street...
Thistles Florist was streets ahead of the other Dorking florists when it came to quality. Paul and his staff always went out of their way to make sure of excellent service and they will be sadly missed. There isn't another florist worth visiting in Dorking which will now force even more people to shop outside of the town.
A florist at that end of town will be missed, thats very interesting! I have been looking into reopening thistles as a florist again, and i'm interested to find out what the local feeling would be!
I think the general feeling is that end of town town would be crying out for a florist. It is ideally situated near a council car park and I always felt that the staff at Thistles went out of their way to make the customer feel very welcome in the shop. I will miss Thistles a great deal and if the comment above is genuine, I would love to see another florist open up in that unit.
Not-so Annoyed Anthony
It's very interesting reading all the comments about Thistles
and how brilliant they were.
I had my wedding flowers booked with them and had paid a deposit. I was not informed that they were closing and it wasn't until a few weeks before my wedding day that I went to the shop to finalise my order, only to find it empty. I could not get through to anyone by phone so I was left in a state of panic as my big day loomed, now with no flowers and a lost deposit and no explanation.
I went to Flowers by Elaine in the high street and told them what had
happened. Despite the last minute notice and them having other wedding bookings for the same day, they were able to help and provided the most beautiful flowers for my wedding day. I understand that Flowers by
Elaine have been in Dorking for over 30 years and with thefriendly and helpful team of staff, I will certainly continue to use them from now on. They are definitely the florist to go to in Dorking. I'm sure there must have been many other brides left in the same situation as me who feel extremely angry and upset. We
Were not even given the courtesy of a phone call from Thistles to let us know what was happening.
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