Shopping In BristolCategory: Business
Article posted by: Jon Richards
I love Bristol. A great city: ancient, gorgeous, wealthy; like Bath, only with Liberal Democrats. If I were to leave Wales, I can think of nowhere I would rather live than Bristol. But its shops might as well be Aldershot, or Bridgend, or [insert your preferred town of nondescript unremarkability here].
At home in Cardiff, the capital of everything Welsh (or at least, non-English), the city centre teems with shops and stalls hawking flags, plastic sheep, cuddly dragons, coal daffodils, coal miners (loves miners in Wales, we do), coal rugby stadiums â€" the big advantage being that you can throw them on the fire when you get home and realise your souvenirs are actually embarrassing tat.
But how does a Bristolian exploit the dumb-ass tourist who left his sense of taste at home? There’s plenty of potential: a miniature Avon Gorge, complete with suspension bridge? Or a cave-shaped cheddar cheese? Given the city’s history, they could offer little cuddly slave traders, or a Charles I action figure complete with detachable head. Since Bristol is on the Avon, why not purvey a load of Shakespeare stuff â€" and if that seems a bit of a stretch, it’s surely no worse than Doncaster in Yorkshire, miles from Nottingham, naming its airport after Robin Hood.
But in its Broadmead shopping centre, you’ll see nothing but wall-to-wall M&S. BHS. Debenhams. Oasis. Boots â€" oh, be still my beating heart! Go to the Arnolfini Centre and you’ll find much the same as is sold in the Millennium Centre, or London’s Barbican Centre. Is this really Bristol? Why couldn’t it be Swansea? Or Lincoln? Or Belfast? Why would you actually travel to Bristol for any of this lot? If much of the tourist stuff at home is cheap tat, at least it says “Wales” on it.
Posted By: Jon Richards
Web: http://www.bristoljobs.co.uk
Contact: e-mail
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