Dorchester Dorset.com Blog

Christmas Shopping in Dorchester

Perfect Timing

There has never been a better time to visit Dorchester in the run up to Christmas. This has been an exciting year for the town with a record number of new businesses opening in 2009. Wellworths were one of the early newcomers and since then we have had many more. The Dorchester BID is proud to be supporting this years Christmas Cracker and will again be contributing a massive £5000 towards the Christmas lights – Last year there would not have been any Christmas lights without the DBID’s contribution on behalf of all the businesses in town.

Choice and more choice

Dorchester has always had the reputation for having a wonderful selection of specialist retailers, family run businesses and an impressive selection of well known high street names, but this year there are more than ever with as many as 30 new stores opening by Christmas! Add these to the long-established department stores and other independent retailers and you have hundreds of good reasons to do you Christmas shopping in Dorchester! Relax and take time out from shopping for a meal, snack or just a quick coffee at one of the many bars, cafes restaurants or pubs in town.

Parking made easy

In association with DCC and WDDC, Dorchester BID has secured FREE parking on Christmas cracker night and the DBID is funding a FREE park and Ride facility too.  The park and ride is the cheapest parking in the area  – £1 for parking  and return trip to town. Going from the Football club car park next to Tesco you can ride to the market or county hall. But the most exciting breakthrough to hit Dorchester is the arrival of PAY BY PHONE parking which is being launched at the end of November in time for the main Christmas shopping period. No more rushing back to the pay and display as you will be able to simply pay using your mobile and then get a text inviting you to remotely ‘top up’ your parking without having to return to your car! Brilliant!

This is the result of a highly successful partnership between the Dorchester BID and the parking division of West Dorset District council. The pilot starts at the end of November and covers all the WDDC car parks in Dorchester. If successful, the scheme will be extended to include the whole of West Dorset.

FREE personal shopper

How often have you wasted ages walking around town trying to find something in particular?

If you visit www.dorchesterdorset.com you can search for anything you need, and normally get a list of shops/businesses in town that can supply, but with a unique new feature added, if your search is not successful you will be invited to tell us more about your needs and we will try and find the item or service for you. If no one offers the item or service, then we will even try to encourage someone to stock it for you! How is that for a free personal service? – Some businesses will even offer a postal delivery service.

Dorchester is going places, Dorchester has an exciting buzz these days, come and see for yourself and do a bit of Christmas shopping in Dorchester, you won’t be disappointed.

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