New Wigan Arcade

Had to pop into town today to pick up a couple of bits and pieces so decided to have a wander round the new arcade that opened this week. The grand opening is later on in April with McFly and the Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra (that our Simon's playing in). It's nice inside, Wigan now have a H&M, a TJMax, a Waterstones (yay!!!!), a HMV, a Costa Coffee (which is good cos its fairtrade) all these shops that we've had to head to the city for in the past. I had a brief look, and they're not huge shops, the Waterstones for instance doesn't have an extensive RE section or choice of international language books. But it will do I suppose! The question is now whether or not it ruins the rest of the town. There's been talk of it creating a ghost town, and the galleries failing as the major shops have moved to the arcade, but I don't suspect it will make all that much difference. To say it's only been open for 3 days, I'm not denying it was packed inside today, but the rest of town was equally busy as well. We'll have to wait and see the long term effects though.