It’s here, Easter Bank Holiday weekend is upon us! And there is just so much to look forward to in the coming days.

The Easter weekend of course begins tomorrow with Good Friday, and continues to Easter Monday, so many of us have a lovely four day weekend to enjoy!

Following that, the much-anticipated Royal Wedding takes place next Friday, meaning yet another bank holiday on top of the traditional May Day bank holiday the following Monday.

So how best to make use of these bank holidays? We expect many of you will be planning on doing a bit of shopping in Dorchester at some point, but you might be unsure how many shops will actually be open on these days.

We thought we’d help by polling the local retailers to find out what their opening schedule would be over the coming bank holidays. We asked 65 shops and here are the findings:

• 64% of retailers will be opening as normal on Good Friday (April 22nd)
• 90% will open on Saturday (April 23rd)
• 42% will open on Easter Monday (April 25th)
• 49% will open on the Wedding Friday (April 29th)
• 47% will open on May Day (May 1st)

In addition, you will be able to park for free in Dorchester car parks on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Wedding Friday, Sunday 31st April, and May Day.

The sun has been shining here all week and it’s expected to continue through Easter weekend and beyond, so it’ll be the perfect weather for a leisurely stroll around Dorchester and the many great shops around the town centre. Keep an eye out for bargains, as many retailers will be rolling out their best deals to entice customers over the bank holiday period!

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The improvements being lined up include a new covered area next to Duke’s auctioneers, an extension of the existing covered area, and a refurbishment of the North Linneys building.

Market day in Dorchester

Dorchester market is immensely popular with locals, and also brings thousands of tourists to the town every year.  It has been situated in its current location since the 19^th century, and is a thriving hub of activity every Wednesday.

Ensor’s ambition is to build on the success of the market and create an even better experience for both shoppers and traders.

The concern for the company’s managing partner Brendon George is that without investment, the market will start to go a bit stale, and it is important that money is spent to ensure that Dorchester market retains its status as the premier market in Dorset.

In particular need of investment is the roof of the North Linneys building, which is in a very poor state of repair. The plan is to restore the roof, and extend it with a link to the covered market, creating space for around 50 new stalls.

The new £250,000 plan is the second application for the market lodged by Brendon George. The previous attempt was submitted last summer, but was opposed by town councillors. George took on board the criticisms, and has reworked his proposals to be more sympathetic to the site and agreeable to the town council.

The proposal is yet to be accepted, but the signs look promising. The market is of course a key focal point of the town, so anything that can improve the site is surely to be welcomed.

You can see the details of the planning application for yourself at Dorset For You and leave your own comments on the proposals.

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Last month we talked about the new free parking in Dorchester scheme.    From the 1st of November the new scheme will be in place.  We thought it might be useful to give you some additional details.

Keep an eye out for the ‘P’ sign

Free parking in Dorchester Sign

Participating shops and businesses in town will display a blue parking sign to show shoppers they are supporting the scheme.

The blue ‘P’ sign indicates that the car park voucher on the second part of the car park ticket can be used in their shop against a minimum purchase of goods (min. purchase £10.00).

This means that to get “up to 2 hours FREE parking” shoppers need to be on the lookout for the sign on the left.

This is left entirely up to the individual shop or business to decide what they want to offer but the minimum is a £1 discount.

£1 off shopping in Dorchester

Phil Gordon, project director of the Dorchester BID and the man behind the campaign said:

“I am really excited about this idea”

“This is a way where any time of the day you are guaranteed to get £1 off, which is up to two hours parking free, just by buying items in participating stores.

“I’m sure this will give business in Dorchester a well-needed boost in the current climate and this initiative was fully supported by the Chamber of Commerce.”

He added: “I’m optimistic having had preliminary discussions with Dorset County Council that they are keen to join in the same scheme and I just really hope that they can follow suit sooner rather than later.”

This is a 2 month trial. We are really interested in your feedback.  Let you know what you think or how it is going.

The free parking in Dorchester is a great way to make a start on your Christmas Shopping in Dorchester.

Check out the full list of participating Dorchester shops in order to redeem your vouchers.

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Staff enjoying the Wellworths Party

The staff at Wellworths celebrated their 1st anniversary of opening their Dorchester store last night with a party at the Wessex Hotel.

Friends and local businesses helped them celebrate meeting the milestone with a buffet and a great local band, called Infrasky.

Claire Robertson who worked for the chain for 18 years, reopened the Dorchester store exactly a year ago.

Although she has admitted a weekly sales target of £38,000 has been revised, the store is doing well in view of the recession and was looking to expand.

Woolworths went into administration in 2008. More than 800 stores closed after the chain had debts of £385m.

Claire said:

“It’s been a fantastic year, I would not have changed a minute of it. I can’t thank the staff enough, they have been fantastic.

We had a really good summer with great support from the town and tourists coming down to look at the store. Christmas was brilliant, especially as the one before was really depressing when Woolworths was shutting down.”

Clare Robertson and Chris Evans at last year's Wellworths opening

The range in the new store has also expanded with DVDs, CDs and computer games now on sale alongside old Woolworths favourites like pic ‘n’ mix.

And there could be mire good news in store soon. Clare is now considering opening another store, but she would not be drawn on any possible locations.

“A new store is definitely in our plans for this year. The idea is still in its infancy so watch this space.”

We wish Clare and all the staff at Wellworths the best of luck for their 2nd year and hope that the Dorchester Wellworths store might be one of many to come.

Read the full Wellworths Story

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Virtual Dorchester

If you are new to Dorset and just want to see what Dorchester has to offer or you want to share the atmosphere of the town with friends and relatives you can now log on to www.dorchesterdorset.com and visit Dorchester without leaving the comfort of your own home!!

Dorchester is one of the first market towns in the UK to be part of a ‘Virtual town centre’ project that allows an amazing ‘virtual’ 360 degree tour of the town centre together with its main attractions and shopping areas.

Virtual Dorchester uses the latest in virtual reality software to give on-line visitors a taste of what is on offer in our Historic town. You can even go into the museums or shops to see what how they look on the inside before you visit.

The virtual tour went live this week and the feedback we have had so far is tremendous. Dorchester has a fantastic variety of independent businesses and chain stores, museums and leisure facilities that it seemed obvious it was time to put the town on the “virtual map”.

Using the Virtual Dorchester couldn’t be easier. You don’t need any additional plugins on your PC apart from Flash player. Navigate the streets by following the red arrows or move your mouse. Simply click on the white buttons to move to that location, or on one of the images at the bottom of the screen.

Wander around the local shops and attractions that have the virutal interiors.

Virtual Thomas Hardy Room within The Dorset County Museum

South Street within Virtual Dorchester

Dorchester in Virtual Reality

The Dorchester BID has spearheaded this exciting new development and paid for the ‘virtual’ town. If you have a business in the Dorchester Town Centre area and would like us to add a “virtual tour” of it to those already featured please contact Phil Gordon for details – call Phil on 07799 494886.

The cost for a business to be hosted within Virtual Dorchester is normally £200 per year plus £29 per 360 view however to kick off the launch, the first 30 places are available for just £79 including one 360° internal view (additional 360° views are £29).

There are now just 15 subsidised places left after which the cost to link will be £200 + £29 per 360° view for a year.

Please call or email Phil to secure one of the remaining launch slots if you have not already done so.

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Mr and Mrs Rogers with Phil Gordon

Dorchester BID’s very own Phil Gordon came to the rescue of one couple who had a nightmare experience on a recent trip to Dorchester.

Phil treated Pam and David Rogers to a VIP tour of the town after they wrote and email of complaint about their recent bad experience of the county town.

It was the first time that the couple had ventured to Dorchester after living in Shipham in North Somerset for 25 years.

But they turned around and visited Sherborne instead because they couldn’t find anywhere to park on market day.

Mrs Rogers said:

“We came in on the A37 and saw signs for the park and ride but they soon disappeared and we couldn’t find it.

“We tried two short stay car parks where people were queuing and were told by a car parking attendant that all the long stay spaces had gone too.

“So we pulled the plug on the day.”

Once back at home, Mr Rogers fired off an email to the Tourist Information Centre about his disastrous day in Dorchester.

Stepping in to make sure the Rogers’ weren’t put off entirely from visiting Dorchester, Phil arranged a day designed to change the couple’s mind.

“It was awful to hear that someone had come to this place and hadn’t got as far as parking. I wanted to give them an enjoyable taster day of all Dorchester has to offer.” said Phil.

“Anyone who comes here is the best sales force the town has.”

The couple said they never expected to get such a friendly service from the town.

“It was like winning a competition,” Mr Rogers said.

Mrs Rogers said:

“All we expected from the email was an apology. To take the time and trouble to invite us here for the day to do all this was very pleasing.”

We hope Mr & Mrs Rogers will now have Dorchester firmly on their list of great places to visit and hope they will come back and see us again soon.

Full story – Dorset Echo

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Taking a period of just over a year it is very sad to see the list of businesses that have gone from the high street in Dorchester possibly for ever. The list totalled twenty and included a number of well-known high street brands including Woolworths, Adams, Dorothy Perkins and Whittard’s. A number of these businesses have therefore gone from high streets across the whole of the UK, but something rather exciting has since happened in Dorchester.

Wellworths

With Wellworths leading the way in the media spotlight and who could have predicted the amazing amount of coverage that Claire and her team would get for Dorchester, it should not go un-noticed that we have had a large number of other new businesses opening in town over the same period. In fact, the excellent news is that with the opening of Poppy’s children’s clothes shop and Victoria’s Closet down Durngate street, we have hit the magic twenty new businesses. I know of at least two more opening or about to open so this means that against the national trend our county town is doing pretty well.

I am not by any means trying to suggest that the recession is over and it would be naive to think that there may not still be more casualties over the next few months, but this is a very encouraging achievement. Prime location retail units in the town centre are now starting to fill once again as the word is out that Dorchester means business and looks like good place to have a shop or open a new business.

Historically, Dorchester has always been known for its eclectic range of specialist independent shops and refreshingly, a lot of these new businesses are bringing more variety and colour back to town. The new Brewery Square development is revitalising an area to the south of town which will no doubt bring many more new visitors to Dorchester and hopefully this too will have a positive effect for the whole of town.

I visited some of the new businesses to get their views on trading conditions and ask what sort of welcome they have received. In the interest of getting the bigger picture I also interviewed some businesses that have been here much longer!

I started my tour in the new curiosity shop and asked the owner, Martin who can barely contain his delight in having chosen Dorchester as the location to open his business, how were things going?

The New Curiosity Shop

The New Curiosity Shop opened its doors for the first time in November 2008.  We were the first retail outlet to open on the Brewery Square development and have since been joined by the likes of Simon’s Deli, Panini’s, the Health Centre and the Market Pharmacy.  We look upon last year and this year as laying the foundations of our business.  We are developing our successful product lines such as our stunning jewellery, wall art and contemporary articles for the home.

With our shop in Brewery Square we have our eyes firmly on the future.  For the here and now, we are finding that as the year progresses, trade is increasing and we look forward to continued progress. We have some quite inspirational items coming along for our Autumn/Christmas ranges, I cant wait.  The Dorchester Business Improvement District company (DBID) have played an important role in supporting a young business through difficult economic times, specifically part subsidising selected advertising.  In particular, the DBID project Director, Phil Gordon, has been an excellent source for honest and sound advice and a facilitator for networking.  The DBID has given The New Curiosity Shop value for money through its projects and that can only help towards the growth of our business.”

Market Pharmacy

Across a couple of streets and heading for the town centre, the delightfully named ‘Knobs and knockers’ store greets me with a stunning rage of door furniture and other accessories that would grace houses spanning several centuries of period design.  I have my eyes on the clear blue crystal door knobs.

The owner Conde tells me “I was looking for a good location in the Dorset area to set up my showroom and Dorchester seemed ideal, particularly as there are very few shops like mine anywhere near! I have found the local business community very helpful and supportive, but more importantly my customers have been equally as welcoming and pleased with the quality of my products.”

Nipping into White Stuff on South Street, I was keen to find out how one of the town’s newest multis was doing. I met their energetic and very positive manager Els, I asked her how things were going and are they pleased with their choice of coming to Dorchester?

“We’re extremely pleased with our choice of Dorchester as a location for White Stuff. We already had a solid presence in the South West, with successful shops in Taunton, Exeter and Salisbury so Dorchester was a natural choice and we opened our doors in March 2008. It’s a beautiful, picturesque town on the Jurassic Coast of Dorset steeped in history and Dorchester locals have really warmed to our shop, they love our quirky events and amusing window displays, as well as our lovely products!”

But what of Dorchester more established shops, how are they finding things at present?

GS Handbags and Footwear

Another fine example of quality, choice and individuality is Mirari down Antelope walk. Owner Shirley, who has been in business in town for many years reflected “Dorchester is a truly individual town with many small and diverse businesses to attract shoppers both local and visitors to the area.  Many of our customers travel long distances to visit us because of the special fitting service and the quality of the lingerie we offer.

Christmas last year did see somewhat lower sales than the year before – as much I suspect due to some of the media as to the recession.  Many of us were worried about over spending.  Since Christmas however the mood has definitely lightened and here at Mirari we continue to get new customers through referrals and through the advertising which was aided by the DBID scheme. Most heartening is the loyalty of our previous customers.

I do believe that the future of retail is not only in the good service that we offer but also the quality of the goods on sale.  Our ‘Made in England ‘ nightwear is a really good selling point, people do care far more today about the origin of their purchases. We are looking forward to August as we are being re-decorated and having a mini refit to keep the shop looking good too.”

Tracy, who owns and runs Wedding time in High East street has seen both bad and good times before as she has been in town since 1983. “My general feeling about the difference in business this year to last year is that people are still getting married and brides do want a lovely dress.  Brides may not be spending quite as much on their wedding as they were originally planning.

Paninis

Although we have also has some postponements of weddings until next year or even 2011, we have had a lot of short notice weddings this year as there seem to be some good deals on venues. I normally start some advertising at this time of year and with the Dorchester BID’s help and support I have managed to do this.  Their support has given businesses like mine a bit of a boost and helped to raise the confidence in the market place.”

One of the longest established family businesses in town is of course Goulds. I asked Managing Director Teresa what her feelings were. “We are cautiously optimistic that after some very difficult trading conditions there are small signs that the situation is improving a little. Dorchester has not suffered from major job losses, which has helped to cushion us from the worst of the recession.

Looking forward it is still too early to talk of a recovery but we do believe that Dorchester seems to have weathered the storm better than other towns and is well placed to take advantage of the upturn when it comes.”

Poppys Childrenwear

And so finally, to one of Dorchester’s newest businesses ‘Poppy’s’ selling children’s clothing. I caught up with Lorraine who has just opened her new shop in Durngate. I asked her what had made her decide on opening a shop here in such a tough trading climate? “We felt there was a strong need for better choice in children’s clothing in town. With Adams closing Poppy’s children’s wear hopes to help fill the gap left and offer residents and visitors a great range of clothes and shoes specifically catering for boys and girls from 0-12 years all at very competitive prices. We are also looking to do school wear. We love Dorchester and are very excited about having a shop in the centre of town”.

So there you have it, Dorchester is fighting back against the recession and against general trends in the high street. With the buzz that I felt walking around our county town I feel sure that Dorchester is very well positioned to come through these challenging times and flourish long into the future.

As a foot note, I can report three more new arrivals. Trinity Photographic in Trinity street, GS Handbags and Footwear in South street and hot new arrival Eureka now open in the Tudor arcade.

So don’t forget there is great Shopping in Dorchester. Hope to see you there soon.

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