Reading Roars!

There are growing concerns about our economy.  Retailers and consumers are feeling the squeeze.  There is much doom and gloom reported in the press (”Consumer crunch” was the solemn Times headline last Friday).  When will it end?  How bad can it get?  I don’t think anyone really knows. 

With this in mind, the timing of Reading’s new high-end property and retail development seems awkward, to say the least.  Brashly and cumbersomely described on its website as a “distinctive new high quality niche retail development”, the ambitious Market Arcade will consist of a 3 storey health club (”A new dimension in leisure and fitness”), 13 “cutting edge” (whatever that means) shops and 14 apartments.

The Market Arcade developers are hoping to attract Reading’s band of “discerning, affluent shoppers”, the kind who wine and dine at places like Malmaison, stating somewhat optimistically on their website that:

Broad Street footfall has recently been compared favourably to London’s Oxford Street at 7,900 -10,000 per hour - a sure sign of the potential waiting to be tapped at Market Arcade.

I’m seeing fewer shoppers in town these days.  I suspect that many of the discerning types targeted by the Market Arcade team are now seeing their credit limits slashed by card providers.  The situation doesn’t look rosy for homebuyers either, with the number of loans expected to halve this year.

I’m not an economist.  I could be very naive in my assessment.  There will be many, not just the hedge fund bosses and other top financiers who made eye-wateringly big gains last year, unaffected by the “crisis”.  We shall see what happens, right?  If things do get tricky, well, gyms (as health clubs used to be called) are a waste of money anyhow.  A cheap pair of trainers should do the trick and the weather is getting warmer…