Selling Salford and the North (the M&S Outlet store won’t do it for everyone!)

Published on 10 March 2009 in , , , , ,

Yeah, don’t worry. I’m still alive.

I’m just going through one of my periodic blogging droughts, not helped by the last week and a half at work just being constant, never-ending hassle and mental effort caused by relentless firefighting. If something could go wrong, it probably did. Oh and to make things worse, half the team are either ill, on leave or exploring the delights of Manchester, on the “familiarisation trips” the BBC is running to try and persuade London based staff that Salford really is the place to be.

Or at least, will be in 2011.

And if you’ve been to Salford Quays you just know it can’t be beat. I mean, there’s a M&S Outlet store there and everything! I’m sure this will go down well with my colleagues who are considering the move, and will be a prime factor in their decision making.

As someone who was born and bread in Manchester, I must confess a sort of intrigue as to who people will react to both the attempted sales patter, and to what they see up there. How will it be presented, what perceived benefits of uprooting your life will there be.

I’ve seen how they’ve presented it to us in London – usually lots of muttering about hills and bigger houses funnily enough. And whilst there are benefits to those, they’re not the be all and end all of life.

All this interest hasn’t been enough to persuade me to go on one of these trips of course. As we’re not planning on moving, it would be a pointless exercise and a waste of time and money.

But I will be probing my colleagues who do go. See what they make of it.

And to make sure they checked out the pubs I told them to go and try!