The Blackpool Gazette is looking at the number of empty shop units in Blackpool town centre.
One of these empty shop units used to Kelly's Baby Clothing Boutique. The business opened two years ago but has now had to close as a result of the cost of living crisis, lack of footfall and online competition.
One of these empty shop units used to Kelly's Baby Clothing Boutique. The business opened two years ago but has now had to close as a result of the cost of living crisis, lack of footfall and online competition.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, my name is Luke Patrick and I'm a reporter for the Blackpool Gazette.
00:04This week we are looking at the number of empty shop units in Blackpool Town Centre and asking Blackpool residents
00:09what they think the reasons are behind them. This is what they had to say.
00:13So how significant do you think the issue of businesses closing and having empty shop units in Blackpool Town Centre is at the moment?
00:22I think it's
00:25fairly bad.
00:28You seem to get a lot of pop-up shops that are there for a couple of weeks and then disappear.
00:33Yeah.
00:36What do you think the reason is behind that, that they're not staying very long or closing a lot?
00:42I think the business rates.
00:47The business rates are too high? Yeah.
00:51Is there any other
00:53kind of
00:54reasons you think that they're struggling with it, maybe because of the crisis or stuff like that?
01:00I don't think that the council
01:04gives enough help for people when they're first starting the business.
01:13Just to pay your business rates, it's going to cost you £2,000 a week or whatever they're going to charge.
01:19And
01:21when you're starting off, by the time you had all your overheads up, gas, electric, wages, things like that,
01:28you can't guarantee that you're going to be making that much money.
01:33Yeah.
01:34What kind of businesses would you like to see more of in Blackpool to fill these empty units?
01:42Or what do you think Blackpool needs in general?
01:46We need a bit more high-street shopping. I don't think we need as many carrot shops as we've got.
01:56I don't think we need quite as many
02:00cheapy shops.
02:02What would fall into that category of shops?
02:08Well, certainly in Blackpool,
02:10catering, kind of fast food or sandwich places, things like that.
02:40You