General Discussion

Having walked through Dawlish at about 3pm today and doubled checked my watch for the time, I couldn't believe the amount of shops that were closed.
From the top of Queen Street to Woolworth's there were at least 5 shops closed.
I wonder if the same shops would have been closed if it had been during the summer season.
Maybe Dawlish does need a supermarket to keep the town alive before it dies completely!!!

If there was no holiday trade, there would be no point in ANY shops at all. Would be like today in the middle of August.
At 315 it was pouring with rain coz I got caught in it. Who would be out in that.

Closed = not open? or Closed = empty?

And how would having a supermarket (or not) change that?

As I was saying! The shops I referred to were closed, I didn't count the empty ones.
Having a supermarket would mean local people could buy what they want, when they want it.

These shops that were closed. What is it that they sell when they're open?

And how would having a supermarket stop Dawlish from becoming a ghost town? Much more likely to add to the problem I would have thought.

I can think of:
1. Restaurant by the church (no point in being open)
2. The shop that has just been sold (not set up yet) near Boots.

so. who are the other three?

The 2 shops in Queen that were close were Snooky and the next shop down from there.
The strand, The shop that used to be the pound shop and the Delicatessen.
That was yesterday!

Thank you.
Proves that we need the holiday trade.
If there was business to be had they would surely be open. Actaally I dont blame them for having the odd day off in January, everyone expects you to work 7 days a week when you have a shop from Easter to October at least.

Reminds me of someone who moved from London to open a BnB in Cornwall, after a month or so they said 'only time we get to go on the beach is in the winter!'

Quite agree about the holiday trade taking THEIR holidays in January.

Still haven't worked out how, according to Ziggy, having a new supermarket will revive the town. Ziggy can you explain?

Just a daft thought but i could attract people to Dawlish. Given the option of shopping in Newton Abbot or in Dawlish by the sea i know were i go. People might think lets go to Dawlish for a few hours and on the way home we will do the shopping. I could see the advertising campaign now! COME TO DAWLISH SEA,SAND SUNSHINE & SHOPPING AT TESCO'S. CREAM TEAS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST.So what do you think!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have taken the words right out of my mouth Fatmac.

And where will the cream teas be available? At Tesco's?

i had an appointment with the mid wife - and i put a sign on the door to apologise - is that ok with you? i close at 4/4.30 normally because we're always dead after half 3 anyway!! if more people came in to the shop and there was a demand for me to stay open i would !

I hope Ziggy has the decency to respond to that rather than pick holes.
I've been there.. had the teeshirt so I dont blame you at all for closing early.
You cant win, if you did stay open people would say something about the food sat wouldnt they.
Hope all goes well.

I think you would buy your cream tea from Gays Creamery when you stop off there for your ice cream.
While you were enjoying your ice cream you would automatically take a stroll around the town and then if need be call into the supermarket on the way home!

You might be right there Ziggy. I wonder if Sainsbury's will offer a park and ride to/from Dawlish Town Centre/Shutterton. I also wonder how the non tourist shops will manage - like the butchers, bakers, greengrocers etc. We've also got two mobile phone shops. If the supermarket starts selling them 'n all I wonder how those two shops will cope. Even the delicatssen could go down the pan.

Do you care?

NO

Is "NO" your comment 007 or what you think is Ziggy's attitude?

If a shop closes because it prices are higher than another shop that's fine by me.

Deli owner, surely if you had an appointment with your mid-wife you could have got some cover for the shop? Do you not employ anyone else?

I was open yesterday and all this week so far until 4pm I closed the doors with the open sign on the door as it was freezing and i had to get 59 bags of recycling out of the store room ready for collection in the morning! hopefully i am always open from 9am - 4pm health permitting ha ha take care everyone xx caz xx

Hi hmm, I've also been there and got the tee-shirt which I'm proud of! (Hope you are proud of yours)
I was lucky I had someone to cover for me in a situation similar to Deli owner.
Still would'nt want to go down that road again though!

The Deli and Snooky Trust both give top service to locals (and I'm sure also to tourists); so good in fact that I think they are well above this sort of petty criticism. These are both worthy of support and praise as major local success stories.

Find something better to moan about for God's sake.

Well said Bardwell.

I love the olives from the deli, well recommended!

i think we should have a local supermarket at shutterton and get the local shopperbuss 186 to service it from the town centre because it already does the route how about that !!!!the reasons being the shops we do have are crap and over priced ie for those of you locals who dont know ,in no peticular order 1,costcutter 2,co-op,3 onestop they ar all useless andto small for the town thats why all you locals who have cars go to newton or teignmouth andthey are against this because a new supermarket would make there precious rds more conjested oh no what hell that would be for them why not just go in our town centre on foot or use one of the carparks which never get used because if you are in town using your car you will be trying to illeagally pk on queens st or pk rd or the strand which you are actually causing conjestion by doing this so why not have supermarket at shutterton and pk there legallyin there car pk or as i said before walk into our town centre and maybe catch that bus that i mentioned ,

so here it is my proposal
let them build a decent super market at shutterton and then stop pollution slightly by not going else where and use the shop if you dont need much walk in to the town centre and use town centre
ammeinetties thus cutting on conjestion further or catch the bus in town still cutting town centre conjestion by not using your cars or walk all the way there as for the shops in the town centre ifyou walk into town look around the shops and they get quite enough money during the summer from tourists and maybe if we do get a super market they might donate some mony to regenerate the town alittle and maybe help out by having a campaign to use the town traders as well i dont know maybe if you need less than ten items stay in town or summat as well and then they can create jobs locally as well and inject more money into town economy well thats what i think any way

Blimey Anon - did you stop for breath in all of that? Two huge paragraphs and not a full stop to be seen!

It will be interesting to see what Sainsbury's come out with at their public presentation in a couple of weeks time.

There's a lot of sense in Anon's comments. A strong competitor for some of the existing monopolies in Dawlish (butcher, green-grocer) might encourage them to work harder at getting customers. Both of these businesses have much more impressive premises in Teignmouth or Sidwell Street, Exeter, which shows that they are capable of offering better facilities here too.
A proper supermarket on the edge of Dawlish would attract outlying villages to see Dawlish once more as a shopping destination, and this could support the intelligent owners to look for new markets, as the owner of Cafe No 1 at the bottom of Queen Street has done. When she opened a few people said "no-one's going to pay that for a cup of coffee", but now the place is pretty well full every day. The price is right for good quality coffee, etc., a welcoming smile and a clean and smart interior.

Yeah .. I was playing spot the comma!
I popped into Asda for juat a few bits late tonight. On way round got a jacket potato, on the receipt it was 44p and to think I KNEW at Stokes they are 29p ..er, Asda that be 50% more than our veg shop then. 'I should have known better' .. was a good song that!
PS ..Deli on my way for the Ginger Jam..

Agree that lots of the cafes and restaurants in town need a good wash and brush up. No 1 really stands out.

Trouble is - that if Dawlish, on the whole, attracts bottom end of holiday trade then more expensive, trendy cafes might frighten away some of the holiday makers.

Perhaps if Dawlish is to have new, revamped town centre it needs to have new marketing ploy? Attract different type of holidaymaker? Different times of year? Shorter holiday breaks? Etc etc. Just a thought.

Total rebranding & marketing of Dawlish needed I think.

I dont know how you managed to get a smile out of No1 staff, i have been in there twice and refuse to go in there again after the miserable girl behind the counter, didnt even acknowledge i was stood at the counter the 1st time then on the second time not a word was exchanged from her during the whole transaction! even though i was pleasant when i plaeced my order. I went in at 9.45 and ordered some food, by 10.15 still no sign of it, so i went to cancell the order, then was told it was on its way, as the chef didnt start till 10.00. All the customers are very pleasant and friendly, i feel some of the staff need to take a few lessons from them.

Deb, is there anything about Dawlish that you DO like?

I knew soemone who worked in a Restaurant. A waitress had a complaint after a 20 minutes wait. Politely she said 'I am sorry but most customers here like freshly cooked, had I known you wanted a two minute microwave meal it would have been delivered instantly like in 'Burger King' lol.

Strange thing is, you go into big stores and you are usually totally ignored at the checkouts and yet people do not seem to mind that. I was in a Woolworths once (not here) and two checkout girls were in full conversation about their holiday, the customers were being such a nuisance wanting to pay for things.
So Deb surely that has happened to you at some time but big stores get away it yet people go back again and again.

Everyone seems so desperate for large stores, Tesco and be rid of all small shops and cafes.
but then 'Every little helps'.

Anon i would agree with some of your comments and we do need a supermarket in Dawlish. I wouldn't say all the shops are crap (only some).Take yesterday for instance i went to get some beansprouts for my tea and Co-op told me that they stopped selling them now (only in Dawlish)so i went to Teignmouth and supported their shops.I would love to support my local shops but if i can't get what i want at the right price i go out of town.
If i wanted to cook Sunday lunch and bought all my produce from Dawlish it would be just as cheap to go to the Smugglers for Sunday lunch ( No dishes to wash)what a result.
I know that Dawlish relys on holiday trade but when they all leave there are still approx 13,000 residents in Dawlish who the traders then rely on. So if they want our support they should listen to our requests.

And what requests would those be then Fatmac?

What is it about some people on this site. Why can we not try and have an opinion or comment about anything without the name Tescos being brought into it at some point, no matter how trivial it is and brought into comments and postings that have nothing to do with Tescos! I wish these people would just use or create another Tescos site if they want to comment.As far as i am aware Tesco has nothing at all in common to do with an opinion of my treatment in the No1 Cafe.

I think 30 mins for a Panini was a long time to wait dont you?.. Also, surely, if the chef wasnt in should,nt i been told there would be no food available until such time?

all seaside towns become "ghost towns" in the winter its a bit like the seasons Dawlish is ever changing thts the interesting thing about it