And Now The Shopping Forecast

The forecast? Well, it seems to be steady as she goes, hold course and no sudden movements.

In a very tardy response to Rob, who commented on this story from September 2008, the BHS rebuild and the Canal Walk, Parade revamp seems to be the most we can hope for as the economy oh-so-slowly grows again.

But there is an indicator of how the recession has effected rebuilding work. The Debenhams store is to receive a modernisation, the retailer doing what it can in it's current premises as the Regent Place plan (which included a new Debenhams store) fell through.

House of Fraser is Swindon's split personality department store retailer. Selling racks of outlet discount ranges, while trying to do so under the 'House of Fraser' brand with the word 'outlet' bolted on smacks of not knowing their market, with there only being two other 'outlet stores' in the UK. Swindon seems to be one of a trio of locations where expectations for an up market department store weren't borne out by the shopper demographic that actually existed. Watering down a brand is not something that is easily reversed.

No new whispers to indicate whether House of Fraser will be moving out any time soon.

Swindon Centric Says ; Ask anyone who works in retail in Swindon how they would describe the profile of the town's shopper and they will only reply with one word, "cheap".

Swindon Shopping Rumours 3 ; John Lewis Drops Anchor In Swindon

Swindon Centric can reveal today, from a reliable source, that John Lewis will be part of the town centre redevelopment.

The department store will build premises on the former Fleming Way Post Office site, across the road from the current Debenhams location. That store will move to the Regents Place development, off Commercial Road.

This will give two major stores at either end of the main retail area, 'anchor stores' as they are called.

Swindon Centric Says ; We are now wondering what will become of House Of Fraser's building (they will move out in the next few years), with it being a hybrid of the old Brunel market and partly new building. Will any other retailers find it suitable, or will it be sub-divided for smaller outlets?

Swindon Shopping Rumours 2 ; Just The Facts Shoppers, Just The Facts

As we sort of revealed in May, Debenhams is to move from Fleming Way to the Regent Place development as the 'anchor store' for that end of town.

Ok, so we didn't say it was Debenhams, and we didn't say it was moving, but we feel in need of an exclusive news boost. But we did say where the new store site would be located.

Let's try again and see if we can redo the second part of our May story. Here goes...

In the town centre redevelopment, House Of Fraser will move out of the town. We don't mean, 'move out of town' as in go to an out-of-town location, but leave Swindon all together. They aren't taking anywhere near as much money as they expected. People in Swindon like a bargain it seems when it comes to department store shopping, or indeed shopping all together.

So there's another exclusive, but with more facts and names and stuff.

Swindon Centric Says ; If the new stores built by that chain in other places are anything to go by, Swindon might be fortunate and get a landmark building. Get your store cards ready.