‘Retail tourists’ help town defy north-south divide

High Streets are dying, internet shopping rules – and the closure of Chesterfield Co-op last week proves it.  Don’t you believe it, say some other  retailers as the town is winning a growing army of ‘shopping tourists’. Anna Melton and Barrie Farnsworth report.

The facts are plain: The most comprehensive analysis of retail occupancy in the country earlier this year put Chesterfield in the top ten of Britain’s ‘medium retail centres’ in terms of the fewest empty shops; while a different survey showed that one in every 10 shoppers in the town had never visited Chestefield before – and had come as a direct result of ‘active marketing’ of the town and its attractions…