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St. Davids Shopping Centre

if it's about Cardiff.. Sport, Entertainment, Transportation, Business, Development Projects, Leisure, Eating, Drinking, Nightlife, Shopping, Train Spotting! etc.. then we want it here!
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Rhodri

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostSat Nov 24, 2018 1:53 pm

Good night last night then Mr Blue Sky?
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Mr Blue Sky

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostSat Nov 24, 2018 7:20 pm

Rhodri wrote:Good night last night then Mr Blue Sky?


There’s a good reason why curry restaurants are the most numerous and popular purveyors of ethnic cuisine in Cardiff and the U.K. Their food is delicious and healthy. Yes there is room for high-end places like Moksh and Purple Poppadom, and for trendy hipster street food places like Chai Street. But I am confident that the traditional Bangladeshi curry will emerge from these challenges renewed and reinvigorated. I eat in many curry houses all over the UK and their fare is such an important part of British culture that the love is always in evidence. It is a ritual for many people.

I can understand food snobbery when it’s Byron Vs McDonalds. The difference in quality is very apparent. But knowing quite a lot about the processes involved in creating, say, a lamb Madras means that I respect the chefs and their craft. Try making one at home and see how far you get. At the end of the day the Indian street food fad is probably here to stay in a limited form once the initial craze dies down; but to suggest that this type of food is superior to traditional curry is merely snobbery wrapped up in ignorance,
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jonnywill25

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostMon Nov 26, 2018 6:19 pm

“Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley has vowed to shut all 15 of his stores in Intu shopping centres after a row over new rent terms for four House of Fraser sites” - www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2018/11/mi ... t-row-intu

Could St David’s potentially lose Sports Direct & USC? Although I’m not a fan of Sports Direct, I think the 2 stores would be safe at the centre based on the fact LandSec own 50% of the development and I’m not aware of any other units elsewhere in the city that are large enough to house Sports Direct.
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RandomComment

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostMon Nov 26, 2018 6:34 pm

jonnywill25 wrote:“Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley has vowed to shut all 15 of his stores in Intu shopping centres after a row over new rent terms for four House of Fraser sites” - http://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/201 ... t-row-intu

Could St David’s potentially lose Sports Direct & USC? Although I’m not a fan of Sports Direct, I think the 2 stores would be safe at the centre based on the fact LandSec own 50% of the development and I’m not aware of any other units elsewhere in the city that are large enough to house Sports Direct.


He's quite the bully, and he's been asking for landlords (and ultimately other tenants) to effectively subsidise HoF, who as an anchor often already gets better deals than retailers taking smaller stores. Some of the cuts in rent were ridiculous - basically 100%, with HoF just paying charges and rates.

I think competition regulators are sometimes overly focused on monopoly and consumers, and not enough on monopsony - impacts on suppliers - whether suppliers of property (landlords), goods/services or labour (employees). We may think we don't care about landlords, but actually part of our pensions will be invested in them.

If Ashley tries again to take over all of Debenhams, I think it should be subject to an inquiry to examine whether dominance of local retail property and employment markets could give his firms too much ability to extract rents from suppliers.
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Simon_SW17

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostMon Nov 26, 2018 6:45 pm

He's basically an asset stripper. He bought Evans Cycles and is closing half the stores every though they're all profitable. He's probably inherited stock worth more than he paid for the company. I'd imagine this may also be true of HoF.

Hundreds of jobs could have been saved by not selling to him.

He's another unacceptable face of neo liberal Britain.
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EvanRoberts

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostWed Nov 28, 2018 7:27 pm

Mr Blue Sky wrote:
EvanRoberts wrote:
Mr Blue Sky wrote: Having eaten in Chai Street I wouldn't call it curry...more a hipster idea of an artisan interpretation of Indian street food bollocks.


Yes what we want is good traditional Curry, you know like from Birmingham. Not these Hipsters from Kerala or Karnataka, which I think are districts in London, bordering Islington. Don't they know that if it is not drowning in liquid it is not curry, if only they could just stick to authentic dishes like Chicken Tikka Masala.

There is also Bwyta Bwyd Bombai in one of the arcades, I had a decent masala dosa there once.


I’ve never eaten Chicken Tikka Massala. Many people like boring traditional Bangladeshi British curries and there aren’t enough good examples of this type of restaurant in central Cardiff. Thera are plenty in the inner city, on the periphery of the city centre but a dearth in the centre itself. Maybe that is because Cardiff city centre is plagued with post-ironic bearded no-marks who flaunt their insecurities by making tedious put downs disguised as banter.


I actually quite like traditional British-Bangladeshi style curry as well, but there is nothing wrong with the curry inspired by other regions, I just don't get the need to label it 'artisan' 'hipster' food when arguably it is more authentic to actual Indian food and is often cheaper as well. Nor is there anything intrinsically wrong with 'street food', which is often nothing more than a meaningless label anyway.

While my previous reply was certainly guilty of sarcasm, the point wasn't snobbery (which I hate) but to suggest that maybe your outlook of what is 'curry' maybe a little too narrow and a little unfair.
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Mr Blue Sky

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostThu Nov 29, 2018 1:24 am

EvanRoberts wrote:
Mr Blue Sky wrote:
EvanRoberts wrote:
Yes what we want is good traditional Curry, you know like from Birmingham. Not these Hipsters from Kerala or Karnataka, which I think are districts in London, bordering Islington. Don't they know that if it is not drowning in liquid it is not curry, if only they could just stick to authentic dishes like Chicken Tikka Masala.

There is also Bwyta Bwyd Bombai in one of the arcades, I had a decent masala dosa there once.


I’ve never eaten Chicken Tikka Massala. Many people like boring traditional Bangladeshi British curries and there aren’t enough good examples of this type of restaurant in central Cardiff. Thera are plenty in the inner city, on the periphery of the city centre but a dearth in the centre itself. Maybe that is because Cardiff city centre is plagued with post-ironic bearded no-marks who flaunt their insecurities by making tedious put downs disguised as banter.


I actually quite like traditional British-Bangladeshi style curry as well, but there is nothing wrong with the curry inspired by other regions, I just don't get the need to label it 'artisan' 'hipster' food when arguably it is more authentic to actual Indian food and is often cheaper as well. Nor is there anything intrinsically wrong with 'street food', which is often nothing more than a meaningless label anyway.

While my previous reply was certainly guilty of sarcasm, the point wasn't snobbery (which I hate) but to suggest that maybe your outlook of what is 'curry' maybe a little too narrow and a little unfair.


If you’d cared to read the thread you would see that I brought the subject up initially by bemoaning the lack of curry houses in the city centre. There are only three, I think. Mango House, the Juboraj and Spice Quarter. The latter two aren’t very good.

Chai street http://chaistreet.com/menu/ doesn’t appear to mention the word “curry” on either its menu or its website so maybe you should take your own suggestion, flip it 180 degrees, and narrow your outlook of what is “curry”.

Anyway, my point is that there aren’t enough traditional Bangladeshi curry houses in Cardiff city centre. There are plenty in Canton, Roath, City/Crwys/Whitchurch Road, Whitchurch itself and Penarth. Often when I’m in Cardiff city centre, day or night, I think to myself and say to my friends/family “fancy a curry?” Which then necessitates a trip to Canton or City road. I’ve never thought “I really fancy some authentic Indian streetfood”. Never. I had a Punjabi partner for many years, plus I lived in the West Midlands and Bradford for nearly two decades, so I’ve eaten plenty of Punjabi, Kashmiri and Gujarati curry in England.

Interestingly the Mowglis Steeet Food restaurant chain coming to Cardiff began in Liverpool. Its second branch in that city, on Water street, is in a building that used to be General Accident’s (now part of Legal and General) Merseyside office. I worked in that building for a year in the 1980s. I visited Liverpool last year and might have eaten in there and reminisced, but I’d already gorged myself at Bem Brasil. I’m sure that you will be first in the queue when it opens in Cardiff though. Enjoy your Himalayan Cheese Toast - only £4:95!
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Mr Blue Sky

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostTue Dec 04, 2018 3:26 pm

Bershka should be opening soon. One of my family has just got a job as a manager there so I will ask them later when it all begins.
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jonnywill25

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostTue Dec 04, 2018 8:14 pm

Mr Blue Sky wrote:Bershka should be opening soon. One of my family has just got a job as a manager there so I will ask them later when it all begins.


They're scheduled to open on Thursday according to the store manager at Zara Queen Street.

In addition to this, the manager also divulged that Inditex have entered an agreement with the Intu/LandSec to open further Inditex brands in St. David's with reduced rental agreements, should the launch of Bershka be successful! Apparently Pull & Bear is the next to be lined up.

I asked if a refurbishment of Zara was in the pipeline, to which the manager responded 'No'. She explained that Inditex are waiting for the lease to expire next year and then Zara will relocate to St. David's. Apparently they have 2 units in mind, with the potential of operating a Zara Men's store from one and Zara Women's & Children from the other.

I found this to be quite interesting!
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RandomComment

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostTue Dec 04, 2018 8:36 pm

jonnywill25 wrote:
Mr Blue Sky wrote: She explained that Inditex are waiting for the lease to expire next year and then Zara will relocate to St. David's.


The Zara store doesn't do itself many favours with its window displays being very opaque, which can put people off entering - people can feel awkward if a store is too quiet, thinking they'll be bothered by staff.

But if they do leave (its not a given - perhaps they'll negotiate a lower rent), that's quite a big void on Queen Street and would be hard to fill. One of the big questions for Queen St is whether River Island will stick with two stores or consolidate into SD2. I must say, I think their store on Queen St is the better store from a design perspective - I would go there much more often than the one in SD2 which seems a bit long and narrow.

Top Shop/Man, I imagine would have to stay on Queen St as there is no units of the right size/layout in St Davids for them?
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