Croydon seeks business boost with discount deals

Reeves Corner after the riots. Pic: Germaine Arnold

After the devastation caused by rioting last week, Croydon is attempting to boost its morale and attract people back into its town centre with a weekend of cheap deals for shoppers, travellers and drivers.

Tomorrow and Sunday, there will be free or discounted parking in town centre car parks and free travel on the local tram network. Shoppers will be offered a range of discount deals from a number of local shops, restaurants like Pizza Express and bars such as Tiger Tiger.

The initiative has been launched by Croydon Council and the borough’s Business Improvement District in an attempt to get the borough on its feet after the events of last week, which saw unprecedented rioting, looting and arson, particularly in the London Road area. A spokesperson for the council said: “We hope this will begin to raise community morale after the devastation of the riots.”

Among the retailers offering discounts is the House of Reeves, arguably one of the worse affected when its main shop , which had stood on the same site for more than 140 years was burned down. Graham Reeves said large discounts were being offered on all the floor stock to make way for new stock at its other store nearby.

Reeves said: “We had a bad week last week. We want to put that behind us and get our new stock in the remaining store nearby which thankfully was not damaged.”

Speaking about the importance of the discount weekend he added: “The restaurants will have suffered greatly after the riots. Who is going to be taking their other half out for a meal in Croydon? What we need to recover is a bit of community spirit.”

Details of all the discount offers can be found here. The council said that further offers were likely to be made available over coming weeks.

One Response

  1. Croydonetrader August 22, 2011

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