It will be a lot easier to find things that the competitors don’t have than to find things The Trafford Centre does have. This is mainly due to the young age of The Trafford Centre (4 yrs old). All the equipment that wasn’t available to the Bolton Town Centre The Trafford Centre will have.
A major advantage to Bolton Town Centre as with the Trafford Centre which is all indoors, if they decided that another set of escalators was necessary a lot of shops would be closed and a lot of business would be lost. But in Bolton Town Centre there wouldn’t be such damage as most of the customers are spread all across town, not just in one major area.
“Bolton has a positive reputation as a busy centre for nightlife, attracting visitors from all over the north west to its cosmopolitan bars, restaurants and nightclubs. Between 7 and 8 million visitors come into Bolton’s Town centre every year, and can choose from the modern town centre retail outlets, the Victorian market Hall and the famous indoor and outdoor markets.”
The positive nightlife Bolton has is an advantage over The Trafford Centre as the atmosphere is probably a lot better. Only a few restaurants and the cinema are open late at night at The Trafford Centre. Which is an advantage as the Trafford centre does not have any nightclubs and the main areas are only open till 10pm on weekdays.
The architects have designed the centre very well and it is totally unique, never seen before in “U.K retailing”
“The leisure area is focused on an ocean liner and from the decks one can step into different worlds including, Morocco, China, Italy, Egypt and America”
Visiting the Trafford Centre is a truly unique experience difficult to compete with. The Bolton town centre is getting left behind slightly and it is need of regular upgrades. It does not offer the vast range of entertainment the Trafford Centre has to offer.
The huge range of facilities the Trafford Centre has to offer are excellent. There are separate toilets made for
“Male, female, the disabled, boys, girls, parent and child toilets. Baby change, breast feeding and first aid areas are also available within the toilets.”
No place in the whole region has such a varied selection of shops, entertainment and leisure activities under one roof. There are wheelchairs and child buggies available to rent. The designers of the Trafford Centre have tried extremely hard to exceed themselves in everything they do. They have made it the best shopping centre to go to which is probably why it attracts “24 million visitors annually”.
The Trafford is unique no other place in the U.K is even similar. It has the U.K’s busiest cinema attracting on average “28,500 customers a week”. It has in excess of “280 businesses” retailing almost everything form ice creams to holidays.
The Trafford Centre has a huge range of stores some of the different types are listed below:
Specialist shops The Bear factory, The Pen shop,
Travel agents Lunn Poly, Thomas Cook,
Footwear Schuh, Ravel,
Hairdressers Supercuts, Reggis
Banks Halifax, RBS.
The above-mentioned are just a few of the different types of stores the centre has to offer. It also comprises of, Europe’s largest food court with “seating for 1600”, and an “18 lane bowling alley” are just a few of the entertainments it has to offer.
“The Trafford Centre site covers 150 acres and contains 100.067sq m of retail and 29,954sq m of catering and leisure space”
A huge area to locate was chosen which gave the designers the ability to make the centre without worrying about the area. 36 restaurants add total of 280 stores retailing in the centre. 7,ooo people including 380 Trafford Centre staff are employed at the centre. The huge number of jobs the centre was going to create was probably a very influential matter for the government who were going to decide weather to go ahead with the project; an excellent job creating opportunity for the government to reduce drastically the number of unemployed people in the North West.
The fact The Trafford Centre has located in such a rural area makes it difficult for any other developers to build a centre right next to it or even within a mile of it. The closest ‘rivals’ are located miles away. Because The Trafford Centre is located in such a place that due to the immense size of the building, miles of road lead up to and around the centre. Nearby town centres must have felt the damage of The Trafford Centre by now.
From an oral survey I conducted within my locality, 100% of people preferred The Trafford Centre to Bolton Town Centre. The major attracting force in The Trafford Centre according to the interviewees was “the interior design” and the “range of shops”. There were only two main negative comments about The Trafford Centre, which were “finding a parking space on Saturdays and other national holidays” and “the limited amount of seating space there is around the shops”. This is coherent evidence that during busy periods and weekends The Trafford Centre has over 10,000 cars visiting at any given time. From research I gathered I could safely predict that there are in total 3,200 car parking spaces. From the map showing all the major car parks I found that the Bolton Town Centre has 19 main public car parks not including private car parks and street parking.
The Trafford Centre attracts tourists from all over the U.K but mainly in the North West region. It has become a prime tourist destination. One of the ways Bolton Town Centre is promoting business is by attracting tourists to the centre. The town Centre could look to The Trafford Centre for some advice on how to make such a tourist-attracting centre.
“The Trafford Centre is a tourist destination, attracting visitors from all over the U.K and beyond. Over 4,200 coaches visit annually bringing more than 150,000 people to the centre.”
Also the fact it is located close to Manchester airport is a further advantage, but I think the number of visitors coming from abroad just to visit the The Trafford Centre is very rare. If it was high number, I am pretty sure The Trafford Centre would be proud of it and they would at least publish it in their information booklet.
“The proximity of Manchester Airport provides a further opportunity – to make The Trafford Centre a European shopping destination”.
There are a number of things people prefer about The Trafford Centre such as the “architectural finish”.
The developer’s claim,
“The standard of architectural design at the design at the centre will be superior to anything seen in U.K retailing. There will be 45,000 square meters of marble and granite which will cost £5.8 million”.
From the language used in this particular part of the Information pack, it seems to be written in ‘future tense’, which is strange as the date stated on the front is September 2002.
“Work has started on the first development at the nearby regional sports complex- a tennis to fitness development by the Hampshire based racquets and health group, which will include nine indoor tennis courts and seven outdoor courts as well as a 25m training pool and six badminton courts.”
This information was gathered from the Internet. The archive was dated back to July 2000, so this sports development is built now and can be seen just before exiting the motorway on junction 9.
Bolton Town Centre has tried hard to compete with out of town shopping centres such as The Trafford Centre and Middlebrook. I read an article regarding what the Bolton Town Centre is doing to promote the business and attract more customers.
“ A new study has revealed that business for many Bolton retailers is on the up”.
This statement has to be carefully interpreted as it uses the word ‘many’ they could be referring to well-established franchises. I think if they had compared retail businesses found both at The Trafford Centre and Bolton Town Centre they may have noticed a declension in business since The Trafford Centre opened. For example The Burtons menswear store in Bolton Town Centre is now only found on the bottom floor, prior to the opening of The Trafford Centre it was on two floors and had a much larger variety of clothing. The burtons store in The Trafford Centre is a lot bigger and offers a lot more choice than the Burtons store in Bolton, which probably brings in more profit. People would rather go to the Burtons store in The Trafford Centre even if it means traveling for 20minutes.
“The survey by property experts Lambart Smith Hampton released today shows that more than a quarter of Bolton shopkeepers reported an increase in turnover since May 1998”.
This statement seems to be biased. A quarter or more of shopkeepers reported an increase whilst the other three quarters reported a decrease in turnover; the words have been manipulated in such a way it gives a positive impression to the reader.
According to the writer of that particular article Bolton is not in much trouble and sales seem to be better than ever, but I know that is not the case. There have been a few new shops that have opened (i.e. Scotts) this may have attracted a few more customers especially over the Christmas period. The Bolton Town Centre is trying hard to compete; the council committees have set themselves a few priorities and targets, which are as follows:
PRIORITIES
Work with Bolton Council to improve the image of the town centre,
Work with other agencies to ensure Bolton Town Centre is well served by public transport and that car parking provision is maintained and managed to attract and retain town centre users, including people with disibillities.
Provision of a town centre crèche.
TARGETS
Spend £20,000 on improving Town centre,
5% better measure of cleanliness,
Improve visitor profile,
Reduce the number of empty shop units.
“Victoria Square has been refurbished with the aid of major European Regional Development fund grant”
The whole of Victoria Square has been repaved and new fountains have been placed to make the centre look more attractive and competitive.
“The Town centre company intends to build upon the improving trading conditions and generate increased levels of visitors to the town centre by actively promoting Bolton as a destination”.
Bolton needs to do a lot of marketing before tourists will actually visit the Town Centre.
SHARJEEL IQBAL
The development is located on an ex-wasteland site. The centre has excellent transport links by various means such as bus/road/rail.
“The Trafford Centre catchment area is larger and more populous than any other regional centre in the U.K and comprises 5.3 million people within a 45 minute drive-time band”
Before deciding where to locate ‘Peel holdings’ were probably influenced by some of the location factors. ‘Economies of concentration’ sometimes being near your competitors is a good idea, there will be lots of skilled labour, your customers will know where to come and your suppliers will want to locate themselves nearby i.e. if another retailing centre was to be built right along side The Trafford Centre than it will be most definitely be a success. The Trafford Centre did not use this location factor as it located itself totally on its own and did not rely on any other businesses except those locating in The Trafford Centre itself.
The Trafford Centre is quite unique in locating itself. It is close to a sewage site and when built there were not any businesses nearby the centre. It was a huge risk to take, but I think because they spent so much money on it, it was guaranteed to be a success regardless of where it located. There is the ‘Tulip Inn’ an official Manchester United hotel a sports centre and an Asda store located adjacent to the centre.
The Trafford Centre uses a range of marketing techniques, ranging from promotions, competitions and joint ventures with retailers and the media. Advertisements are usually when The Trafford Centre are launching a new schemes. Just before Christmas they were advertising their new closing times ‘now open till 10pm weekdays’. Billboards all across the North West area were advertising this new scheme. When The Trafford Centre first opened it was advertised on T.V during prime time viewing. The centre has also been advertised in the local papers. Now that the centre is becoming more established and its reputation building it doesn’t need to advertise it self as much now.
The Trafford Centre offers many training packages for its employees from “ two day induction courses to three-year modern apprenticeships and management development programmes”. The centres commitment to training ensures the highest levels of customer service are met with the “ultimate aim of yielding return visits from customers.”
The centre takes great care in training their employees so they can become better in all categories,
]
“All employees undertake customer service training under the English Trusts Board welcome host programme”.
Those who complete the course receive the “prestigious welcome-host qualification”. The Trafford Centre has certainly created a positive image in providing good customer service as it received ‘The prestigious investor in people (iip) accredition within just six months of opening’. When it comes to monitoring staff, they regularly train them new skills to ensure that they maintain the management commitment to customer care.
Bolton Town Centre is lacking in all the above, customer care is not to a very high standard throughout, they just do enough to get by. From my personal experience Bolton Town Centres customer service is almost non-existence.
Political factors can alter the amounts of business a centre does. New laws are being introduced all the time, The Trafford Centre has to consider these regulary to make sure they are complying with all laws.
Economy factors are important for the smooth running of a business, Credit Cards are becoming easier to get hold of, and are being used more than ever before. A major reason is probably because of the ease of use and the low interest rates offered by the national banks.
Social attitudes towards shopping are changing people are shopping later than usual which is why The Trafford Centre decided to increase the hours open to ‘10pm on weekdays’.
As the technology becomes more advanced more high-tech ideas will be launched. Almost everything is available to buy of the Internet these days from your grocery to your clothing needs all is available on the net. The Trafford Centre has overcome this by designing a unique centre where you can shop, which is not available on the net.
The Trafford Centre Bolton Town Centre
10,000 free car parking spaces 600 short stay (including
street Spaces)
2,500 medium/long stay spaces
24 million visitors yearly 7-8 million visits last year
465,000 people visit week
28,500 customers a week Cinema closed many years ago
Cinema visits, busiest in U.K
”The area is focussed on a Not very attractive at all, very
Ocean liner and from the decks classic and old fashioned, in
one can step into different need of refurbishment.
Worlds including Egypt, China,
Morocco and America.”
Rarely see one vacant or ‘To Lots of vacant premises,
Let’ sign,
A major tourist attraction, A minor tourist attraction,
Visits from the U.K and beyond, popular with asylum seekers
4,200 coaches bring in 150,000 refugees. ‘Improving’
Five nationally renowned Has four of the five major
Anchor tenants- Selfridges, BHS, stores, BHS, M&S
Boots, Debenhams and M&S. Debenhams, and Boots.
All under one roof which All areas spread out makes it
makes It more controllable. difficult to control and analyse.
POSITIVE FACTORS REGARDING :The Trafford Centre
- 7,000 jobs created,
- A wider range of shops for the customer,
- 24 million visitors annually,
- Good size, “150 acres, 100,067 sq m”,
- Free parking, 10,000 spaces
- Benefits area by increasing local businesses turnover,
- Provides a wider range of stores for visitors.
NEGATIVE
-Expenses, cost of the building,”880 million”
-Traffic- pollution,
-Effects on local town centres, crime/pollution will increase,
-Damages to local town centres,
-loss of other local businesses,
- Damage to environment, plants/trres had to be demolished,
Overall The Trafford Centre has more positive factors than negative, it is a clear success and is improving all the time.
Although the Bolton Town Centre has a larger area, many of the similar businesses do not do as much business in the Bolton Town Centre than they do in The Trafford Centre. The problem with Bolton Town Centre is that it is too old fashioned and it is becoming less popular whilst The Trafford Centre is increasing in popularity.
The free parking has many benefits to the centre. The car parks have been designed very cleverly,
“The basic layout provides a powerful shopping machine, with an even distribution of car parking around the centre, created in such a way that half of all visitors enter at ground level and half enter at first floor level. Such an arrangement is vital to ensure an even distribution of pedestrians into the scheme”
Bolton Town Centre needs to look up to The Trafford Centre and research how it markets itself and follow them.
SHARJEEL IQBAL
