Great start to the morning. Reading the Cambridge student website and the lead story is about poor shopping experiences. It gloats on how Oxford is ranked the worst (the usual rivalry), but then goes on to talk about Cambridge being not much better. You can read the full story here.

A quick analysis:

• ” bland homogeneity and encroaching vacant premises, encouraging a clone town“. Yep, agree with that one. Although clone usually implies taking something that is good and making it the same/better.
• “57 shops, but 1, are all chain shops“. Yep, and chain shops you wouldn’t want to buy from.
• “just 9 types of shop in Cambridge, and over half sell clothing“. Yes, but not clothes that someone ‘normal’ would actually buy. Clearly they didn’t consider the stock of the shops- midget sized clothes or ones for obese people who like last years’ stock.

I love the comments from the yocals:

Council Head of Tourism: “Cambridge simply doesn’t have one main street, we have 21 individual shopping areas” – yeh a total mess of random shops so I have to trail round the whole bloody city searching for something only to be disappointed. I do now understand a bit more why there are so many disabled parking spaces in Cambridge, people obviously have to drive to these ‘unique’ areas, must be a total pain.

Local student (clearly not Cambridge): “I don’t know what all the fuss is about, Cambridge has H&M, Primark, and Topshop, You don’t need anything else“. No comment on this one, though clearly her views are aligned with the Cambridge planning authorities.

Now what would make me really happy is if someone would have the courage to do a survey on restaurants. I shudder to think what that would uncover.