How to give city a new buzz

I’m happy to offer a few of my own thoughts on what should be considered for the city of Chichester, to give it a buzz and be revitalised and bring in further trade.

It’s worthwhile to consider the tourist implication of our famous city, together with its location, close to the sea and South Downs and how far it is from larger towns such as Brighton and Southampton or Guildford.

I think there is a need for a large good quality clothing store in Chichester to replace the House of Fraser store.

I would love to see a proper full-size John Lewis store.

The like of which you could find in London.

Clothing for all ages, male and female, a wonderful diverse shoe department, toy department including larger items not found in smaller independent stores, hair accessories, jewellery, gifts, perfumes and more. In fact, the Home John Lewis could close down on the outskirts of Chichester and move into the same building if there is space enough.

There is nothing like this for miles around.

It would bring in people from all over, including local residents and be a big draw for visitors too.

Some of my thoughts for what a store with a more 21st century vision should look like, would be to think of fresh and new ideas, to draw in customers, retain them and have returning customers.

A new store should look to provide a new sort of customer experience, give them something new and different and provide them with a positive experience, such as:

Within a new shopping centre environment, thought should go out to parents with children and there should be a supervised, secure, drop off play area, or/and Disney film area with beanbags for children to be left to play or watch a film, when out with parents who are shopping for themselves in a store.

Perhaps a quiet area with comfy seating too could be useful for shoppers, or simply some additional seats placed around the department store, for tired shoppers to sit down and re energise.

It would be great if a new store had a healthy food and drink space where you can stop for something a little different to the general fast food outlets around the town.

Something close to my heart would be to bring in some independent quality chocolate names (local, national and international brands) in the form of manned stalls within a new store, to give the city some quality of choice.

I feel strongly that Primark is definitely not what is needed in Chichester.

Primark is part of the throw away culture of the fast moving fashion in the clothing industry, cheap and cheerful, all of which is clogging up landfill sites and general wastage.

Primark also contributes to the very poorly paid clothes making culture around the world.

Chichester should not be part of promoting this disposable and care-less culture.

I had thought that Chichester has more worthy ideals, especially as I read there are some suggestions that the building should to help the homeless in some way. NICKY MEYER Lidsey Road Lidsey