People of Woodley have spoken out about the quality of shopping in the town centre following a series of changes both recently and over the last year.
The latest change is that independent homeware store Good Home has successfully relocated to new premises previously occupied by the Mystic Lounge tattoo parlour.
But concerns linger about the loss of banking facilities, as Lloyds Bank is due to close on June 17 and the Morrisons Daily Post Office is also earmarked for closure.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service visited the town centre on Friday, June 5 to see how people feel about the retail climate in Woodley.
Speaking about Good Home relocating, Wendy Bright said: “Yes, I’m definitely glad that they’re staying. But it just feels like there’s not enough here, particularly banks.
“If that post office goes, people like me use it quite a lot. I don’t know where I’m going to go because I don’t drive, so people like me and elderly people are going to be stuck.
“I use it for banking services, posting stuff, you know, and paying my bills, because my banks aren’t here.
“I have an account with NatWest, so I’ve got to go right into Reading if I need my bank for anything.
“And that can be a bit of a nuisance.
On the retail offer of the precinct as a whole, she said: “I think we’re sorted for supermarkets because we’ve got Waitrose, Iceland and Lidl, but sometimes it can be a bit dead.”
Mrs Bright lives in the Whitegates area of Earley, with Woodley being the closest shopping destination to her.
However, she feels put off from going to the precinct in the evenings due to complaints of anti-social behaviour, particularly from e-bike and e-scooter riders.
Mrs Bright said: “Well I won’t come down here later because of the kids, they can be feral.”
A change over the last year has been that Adda Hut has been taken over by the Woodley Food Stasian, which was full at around 12.30pm.
Someone who knows what it takes to trade successfully in Woodley is Kyle Alleyne from Mayas Treats, which has been in the town centre for four years.
When asked about the success of Mayas Treats, he said: “We’re very seasonal, so we depend a lot on the weather, right?
“If it had been 30 degrees today, we would have a line out of the door.
“But on a normal day, the foot traffic’s all right, but we’d do better in the Reading town centre.
“The customer base is very localised around here, which is nice.”
While he admitted that there would be challenges in opening in Reading itself, he was confident about the opportunities opening a new store could provide.
Mr Alleyne said: “We’d have to find a building for starters and then have the funds to pay for the building and make sure that our overheads and margins match.
“But I would be quietly confident that if we did move to Reading town centre, we would have a lot more business, just because of more foot traffic.”
Recently, Mr Cod has undergone a refurbishment.
On the other hand, a shopper noted that Papa John’s has been closed for one to two months.
The pizza takeaway was visibly closed at 12.30pm, and is not accepting orders according to the Papa John’s website.
A woman who went into the Morrisons Daily and Post Office stated the precinct is filled with coffee shops and charity shops.
There are hopes that another business will take over the Morrisons Daily and Post Office if they close as expected.
