Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 27th January, 2024)

As soon as the sun shines all will change - gloom and misery will disappear , the warm will fill our bones , blues skies will inspire us , the air will smell sweet , and the soil we bathe our hands in will bare fruit!
The long days will fill us with dreams
the songs we once had will return
and are minds will drift on a pause
between a cool breeze or sleep under hat…

The Internet has killed off shopping, it's not what it used to be. In our day (use owd uns) We enjoyed Saturdays walking round browsing through the shop windows hoping to find bargains. But the younger generation mostly shop online.
Saturdays in the 1960s you couldn't move for shoppers around Town, a real thriving place that l'm afraid will never return as we knew it. Not only shops but Banks too.

Thanks Dennis, another bit of everyday Wigan, one day you will capture me on one of your pics trudging the streets!

Since Lockdown many people have changed the way they shop.
Many have stayed with the delivery service they introduced like unhealthy junk food deliveries. Many people have gone lazy since the introduction of supermarket deliveries and have contributed to traffic chaos.
Some mothers where I live, take their kids to school by car just up the road from where they live, still wearing pajamas and night gowns...not a prity sight. How people's behaviour has changed and not for the better.

How many time have we bought the wrong item's on the Internet, then waste time sending them back. Technology is a good, but looking and feeling the products is still the way forward for me. Call me old fashioned, but that how I feel.
I very much doubt if we'll ever get those busy shopping days back
Dennis, covid and lockdown has changed the way we live and run our lives, I can't see Wigan Town will ever return so busy again.

Many folk now shop by delivery service. Never used it myself but lots do.

Getting better but not there.
The great shopping days will never return. Wigan, Bolton all in the same boat.

Wigan is full of unhealthy junkfood shops, barbers and E-cigeretts stores, these are the only shops doing well, unfortunately.

All it is filled with is tack shops like bms and cheap pie shops and junkfoods whats left nothing no more.

I go to town two or three times a week, seems I can’t stay away for long even though there aren’t many places to buy from nowadays… and e..I love your optimism..it’ll all come right in the end.. we hope.

I’m finding I have no need to go to Wigan. Small towns just get bigger with more
shops and big towns just get smaller. The only establishment in Wigan is the Bank which we don’t have where I live. A damp and dismal outlook in more ways than one. Sadly..I admit I do go to the bus station to go to Chorley though occasionally.

'e' - you're wasting your time trying to be positive on this forum. Whinging and moaning about some long gone golden age is all some people have to say about Wigan.

Cue the "we just remember and prefer the old ways...' brigade

I agree that the "glory days" will probably never return and am glad I have memories of Wigan in the 1960s when you could hardly move on a Saturday for the sheer amount of people there, and we had Pendlebury's, Lowe's, Oxley's, Woolworths, Marks and Spencers and British Home Stores, all packed to the gills, as well as a fabulous market and independent shops. But I like to think that someday people will WANT to visit proper shops again, and it will be a novelty to actually handle goods and try clothes on instead of just choosing them off a computer screen. What goes around comes around. Fingers crossed. However, that's a nice photo Dennis, and perhaps when a bit of sunshine and warmth creeps back into the air and there are leaves on that tree, we might see even more people browsing round town.

In that case Gareth why do you bother? You do some moaning yourself. Moaning about the ‘moaners’ !

Actually Gareth what would you say was good about Wigan town these days? I would be really interested to know, just in case I’m missing something…I think Wigan people who pay their taxes and the would be shoppers do have a right to gripe about the situation on their doorstep.

Well, now you’ve had a good whinge Gareth, what’s the good news?

I don't deny or decry anyone for reminiscing about the past, the simple fact though is that the town centre has been declining as shopping centre for at least ten or fifteen years. Footfall to any retail business is essential once the numbers start to go down so the shops start to close, it's just been a vicious downward spiral,
We are where we are, I would like to know what is planned for the future apart from social housing. Are there detailed plans available and a model to view, where will people park and what is the access route, is the funding in place, what is the new estimated cost and what the current time scale is.
All quite simple really but I don't seem to be able to get an answer.
The dismal state of Market Street, Mesnes Street, Wallgate and King Street is a disgrace but I don't think there is a fairy godmother.

I think ‘e’ is trying to cheer us up with the poem. It’s mainly about the weather changing not the town because that’s already changed - drastically. Gareth is probably chewing his pencil and trying to think what is good about Wigan today. I’m sure he’ll think of something….

All I know is,if everything was going to be 'hunky -dory' about the plans for Wigan Town Centre the council would be shouting it from the rooftops,instead the silence is deafening.As far as positivity goes,if only there was anything we had heard to be positive about so far.

I really don't think that I can illustrate my basic point any better than has already been done. Please don't think that I moan about you moaners though - you have no idea how much hilarity you provide on a daily basis....

I like to think my reminiscences are happy memories rather than moans, but if they bring you hilarity on a daily basis, Gareth, I am pleased to hear it; it's good to make someone laugh. However, your comments sound very much like moaning to my ears, and I quote, "whingeing and moaning about some long-gone golden age"..... and that's only TODAY'S comment. Indeed your comments seem to do nothing but complain about people who simply remember when times were better and just enjoy exchanging memories with other people. I can't see what's wrong with that..... we are as entitled to look back as you are to look forward. I hope your visions of a "bright new modern town" come to fruition and all us "old-fashioned moaners" are proved wrong. Time will tell.

Well said Julie… Gareth that’s a cop out….

You make me laugh too Gareth. I haven’t laughed so much since Mick left.

Gareth, beyond doubt the people are the best thing about Wigan, and though the council are at the moment being seen as the demolishers; not even they can destroy the wholeheartedness of the people, Londoners may well have had their blitz spirit, but Wiganers have a camaraderie all of their own.

Thanks Veronica,and you're right it is a 'cop out' from the 'non-moaning' Gareth.

And with that quip Dtease tops the lot!
For all we “moan” as you say Gareth we can still have a good laugh.. By the way where is Wigan Mick? He drifts in and out on here like anaesthetic these days.

I know not quite Wigan Town centre but what is happening with Wigan pier?