Ware Online Community Forum

I gather the local shops are being hit hard by the surge in shoppers trying the new ASDA.
The shops up Kingshill by the green (well it's not a green any more as the green is now houses!) have seen a drop off in trade since ASDA opened and I suspect that will be seen elsewhere.

Maybe everyone's happy to just use ASDA and let the rest all fold in which case we'll see a bundle more pizza shops perhaps.

Or maybe we can make an effort and still by our veg and fresh meat at the local shops and do our bit to keep them.

Use them or lose them.

Yep - for a one-stop quick trip for some real decent meat, fruit and veg, a Mercury, a mug of freshly ground coffee and maybe a box of fags (if you're inclined to do so), with it's finally revamped car-park (!).... you can't beat the Kingshill stores!

I've used the Kingshill shops for years and they are much better than the supermarkets in my view. The butcher is helpful and sells much better meat than any from the supermarkets and the veg shop is a lot cheaper than Tesco. I've been to Asda once since it opened and not again, the parking is awful, the ramps to get to the upper level are way too narrow and the corners are too tight.

I agree the parking is awful. Strangely for a large store the stock is poor. At 17:00 one day last week they did not have any mushrooms except for very large punnets - way too large for my needs. The only wholemeal bread was the expensive branded bread, costing about £1 instead of 55 pence. I will not be returning.

I had a word with the butcher on Sat nd he hasn't noticed a significant drop in shoppers, that's great news. Not sure about the other shops though.

We started using the butchers again (and occasionally the Foxholes farm shop) after the horsemeat debacle.

Having discovered the the meat is better quality, traceable, and comparable in price (well maybe not the farm shop stuff, but their burgers are very nice for a treat sometimes), I can't see us ever going back to the supermarkets for our meat until we are too old to leave the house and need it delivered.

FB

Asda was in the construction faze when I moved away from Ware and at the time there were fears that they would draw all the trade from the town centre and the traffic would be terrible with the shop opposite would be closing down well all of that was in 2010 so how has the town with Asda faired were any of the worries founded?

I can't say I have noticed any difference apart from Tesco not being so busy in the early days when Asda opened but it seems to have caught up again now. Perhaps that's more to do with population increase rather than a drift back? The shop opposite Asda is still there. I've only been to Asda three or four times anyway but the traffic fears haven't materialised, the traffic enters and exits without much problem.

Of course none of the foretold disasters happened. Traffic doesn't seem significantly different. The High Street still struggles on, more successfully than many, but against all the challenges of modern day trade - of which Asda is only a part.

The predicted doom doesn't seem to have happened, I have only been to ASDA 3 or 4 times and it never seemed that busy.
The owner of the shop opposite has retired and it is now a take away.
A far greater threat to the High St shops is the spiralling rents which is driving them out to be replaced by more wine bars/pubs.
We wait to see what happens down Amwell End - will those there now be priced out of the new building?