John Lewis clothes will be disaster for town (From Bucks Free Press)
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John Lewis clothes will be disaster for town
12:50pm Wednesday 13th June 2012 in Your Letters
DESPITE being a user of John Lewis at Cressex, I was most concerned to read in the Bucks Free Press (May 25), that Wycombe District Council has granted them the go-ahead to create a clothing department in their store.
I think it will be a disaster for Wycombe town centre because of the loss of trade, but sincerely hope not.
I cannot agree that there will be any spin off for the town centre, quite the opposite. What will John Lewis customers come to buy in Wycombe as the Cressex store will now have everything under the one roof?
With a bit of luck it may not be the success forecast, as the parking on weekends at John Lewis is somewhat fraught even now to say the least and with the extra trade from clothing maybe it will be full to overflowing every day.
Your article states that the new department will create 200 jobs, but for whom I wonder.
Lidl was said to create some 20+ jobs but very few have gone to British-born locals. The majority of the people working there, that I have so far encountered, are of foreign extraction, mainly East European.
That said they are polite and efficient, so well done to them.
I wonder if any British people, I include our ethnic minorities here (just in case people get the wrong idea), applied for the jobs on offer at Lidl, and if they will apply for the John Lewis jobs.
We do so desperately need the jobs for our unemployed in the area, especially our youth, it would be good to create a balance here.
Richard JC English, Earl Close, High Wycombe
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Comments (1)
8:07pm Wed 13 Jun 12
gpn01 says...
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Case in point is baby clothes...good quality, variety, etc. but there's nothing similar in High Wycombe. Currently have to drive over to Reading. In future will be able to go to John Lewis in High Wycombe. So, that's less driving (=money saving on fuel and decreased impact on environment). True that may not then mean that I then travel into town and buy more but it does mean that I'll be supporting a business locally, which in turn employs local people.