ASDA For Skegness??

My brother Mark, who I do not always see eye-to-eye with but why should we always agree, raised an interesting point about supermarkets in general and ASDA in particular.

To quote his Facebook statement " I went to boston this afternoon, did a bit of shopping at ASDA. I hope that they don't come to Skegness with a similar store because they sell everything that you will need under one roof and I mean everything. How can we encourage shops into the Town Centre when we allow supermarkets to be built or to expand to sell everything most people need day to day and then sell them so cheap no shop in town can compete?"

Now that is one view, which holds a lot of merit. What about the other views, which are equally meritorious?

What about those people who want to see an ASDA in Skegness because they want to see the shopping experience in the town improved? They want to see more competition between supermarkets and see prices being lowered with a wider range of good available.

Who is right and who is wrong? Is there a right or a wrong in this? Do we need another supermarket, or do we want to encourage more Town Centre shops? Is there room in the local economy as things stand for Town Centre shops to succeed, or have things already gone too far?

People have commented that there are too many Charity Shops, Pound Shops and "Tat Shops" and not enough shops of quality. Names such as Primark and Matalan coming into the Town Centre have also been mentioned. Would this be good for the town or would the arrival of one of these huge national chains mean the demise of some of the shops that we already have in the town?

Now. As far as I can find out the arrival of ASDA is most certainly not imminent, if they come here at all. I cannot find any planning permission that has been applied for and there is no indication from ASDA that they are considering locating a store here. But what if they were? What if any big store wanted to come here? Would you be for it or against it? Would it put too much pressure on the Town Centre shops or is that not an issue? Should we be stopping anymore large retailers from coming into the town and encouraging more independent retailers?

Whatever you believe and whichever camp you sit in on this, if it ever does happen it is going to generate a huge amount of debate and controversy. I find myself torn between the arguments at the moment and don't know which way I would jump. If you had to make the decision, what would it be?