Where Did They Come From?

So, Aberdeen's new temple to retail therapy opened last Thursday. Union Square boasts over 60 shops and restaurants, a multiscreen cinema and a hotel and at least spruces up the previously horrific bus station and grubby train station.

Reading through the names of the shops that are there, a vast majority of them were in Aberdeen anyway, so the guess is that they are moving from the other centres or from Union Street.

I would think this will kill Union Street off altogether. It's already become a dingy place, full of boarded up buildings with To Let signs on every 2nd window. The granite, beautiful when cleaned (as you'll see in the buildings up on Queen's Road, Rubislaw and Albyn) look terrible when dirty as most of Union Street is. The jewel in the crown has been abandoned on the altar of vast shopping centres, left to it's own devices with only a few pubs keeping it alive. With the Scottish County Council, erm I mean Government determined to stop people having a drink, how long before the pubs start to close too?

The other shopping centres, The Bon Accord, St Nicholas and Trinity will undoubtedly suffer too. How long before they are half empty?

Is it really a wise time to be opening such a place? We are in the pits of a recession/depression (we were best placed to fight the recession of any country were we Gordon? What a prat).

I guess many people like me do all their shopping on the internet nowadays. However almost 60,000 people flowed through the place on it's first day. So I guess there must still be a pressing requirement in Aberdeen for another Starbucks.

But the biggest question I have about all this is - how did around 25% of the population of Aberdeen manage to be in a shopping centre on a bog standard Thursday afternoon when it was not in the school holidays or a public holiday of any sort.

As someone who was working and who has no interest in going to a bloody shopping centre, I guess I'm in a minority on both fronts.

I hope tonight's music is to your taste. An avid reader of the blog has insisted I have the musical taste of Peter Powell from early 80's Radio 1. So from that era an absolute classic, Atomic by Blondie. As fresh today as it was when Peter, Mike, the Hairy Cornflake and Noel were spinning the decks - let's rock!!!