This observer was on the Golden Mile yesterday and noticed just how many Nairn folk were doing their shopping or dining or moving going through in that part of Snecky. As we sometimes do it prompted a tweet on our twitter account. That tweet generated an interesting response which you can also read below.
You can't, you've just got to provide enough incentive for people to do both. People will travel for price and choice whereas the high street should be more about the experience with competitive pricing and as much choice as possible with amazing people. #highstreets— Michael (@mikeboy78) 13 July 2019
There has also been a bit of conversation on a Nairn social media page about the value of markets and the opportunities to trade etc and whether they are good for the town or not. We, of course think they are, and market towns elsewhere seem to benefit from the extra folk the stall holders pull in. Witness Murray MacRae's image from July six years ago shows.
It's good to see Nairn High Street full of people at times like the Christmas Lights ceremony and the Fun Runs - maybe the powers that be and the new Nairn BID could bring back a street market or two? Could such a scenario make Nairn truly "more about the experience".
1 comment:
The problem with street markets, or any other public event come to that, is the time and money it takes to organise them. Lots of folk say we should have this or that, why doesn't Nairn have this, etc, etc but the bottom line is that the majority expect someone else to organise everything so that they (the public) can have a good time or a good moan if they're not happy with it. It would be great to have street markets but who is prepared to organise it? Apart from the actual event look at all the bureaucracy that it entails, getting the streets shut, health and safety, insurance, advertising, and on and on.
Sadly this is where we're at nowadays, organising is made so difficult that things just don't happen. Remember a couple of years ago someone organised a sand castle competition on the beach and the powers to be certainly did not make things easy. Is it down to health and safety or, as many people suspect, more a case of jobsworths?
Maybe Nairn BID will have the capability and manpower to cover all the necessary paper work and requirements and who knows maybe we will see street markets taking place.
Not sure if the council still have stalls but again there is a charge for hiring and erecting them.
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