Debenhams

Debenhams is the cornerstone of Bangor’s city centre redevelopment. It’s certainly an improvement on the run down shopping precinct it replaced and will undoubtedly attract shoppers from the surrounding area. It is a much bigger shop than you’d imagine from the entrance and has a good variety of stock including ladies, mens and kids fashions, accessories and cosmetics. There’s also a nice little café for a quick cuppa. Personally I’m not a big fan of Debenhams, I think it’s generally overpriced, but it’s a nice shop none the less.

I find this store to be terribly disorienting. The layout is a bit of a mishmash, and it’s not easy to find what you’re after. Why they’ve laid the place out the way they have is a mystery to me, what’s wrong with the standard asda/​tesco/​matalan layout, it makes sense and works in hundreds of stores world wide. Messing with it is just silly.
Then again, disorienting your customers is a tried and tested marketing technique. Same as baking fresh bread so the smell spreads through a supermarket, or hiding the basics in the furthest corner so you have to first walk past on the shiny useless tat first in the hopes that you’ll buy something extra. Get them lost they might buy something extra. Not me, I just run for the exit quick as I can.
I much preferred the old Debenhams in upper Bangor. The way things are going a lot of the units in the new developments will be empty for a few years. I expect a few of them to shut down sooner rather than later too. The place tries too hard, and I just don’t like being there.
If I want to go to Debenhams, I’ll head to Llandudno, it’s a far more pleasant experience there. Plus there’s free parking.

The brand new, and architecturally enchanting, Debenhams has revolutionised shopping in Bangor city centre. Sorry, I was reading the official blurb there and writing it out on my PC as if fixed in a state of hypnosis. In actual fact, the new Debenhams does look pretty swish but swish in the same kind of way that all of these new, glass fronted retail units look all across the country. It isn’t going to revolutionise Bangor unfortunately, but it is an improvement on what was there before and I hope that it attracts more business to the area. The shop itself is great, typical Debenhams value and choice. Worth a visit, most definitely.