The old petit bateau is going to become… Post Reply

[tomatoesandtea]

A little bit of intel - the old petit bateau shop at 131 Northcote Road is going to become, you’ll never guess -

Another bloody opticians 😂

[heidepink]

No!!! Please say this is a joke. What on earth is going on with all these opticians on northcote road?!

[tomatoesandtea]

Wish it was! But alas….

There must be now what 5-6 opticians in the space of a few hundred metres????

[heidepink]

Are we all blind bats around here or is this a chic way of money laundering !

[Cinderalla]

There are 6! I counted last week  . x

[juliantenniscoach]

Are we all blind bats around here or is this a chic way of money laundering !

Like the American Sweet Shops on Oxford Street?

[NVHusband]

This makes absolutely no sense to me. So we are replacing a baby shop with another optician. Is NappeyValley changing from young family into OAP demographic?!

Or is it some tax scheme as Julian highlighted like the candy stores on Oxford Str.

I can only assume it’s the drive of Private Equity in that they are driving out the same formula (acquire and expand)…

Hopefully saturation point has been reached.

I also thought the council had a limit on the number of shops offering the same type of product, like estate agents….???

[Expatacular]

It's become completely absurd. None of the opticians ever have anyone in them anyways, with the exceptions of Bayfields and Ollie Quinn. Could we organise some sort of collective boycott of the extraneous opticians to try to encourage a diversification of what's on Northcote?

[Jonny Dyson Property Consultants]

Unbelievable, and for all the reasons mentioned above.  The only one I know is Karen Lockyer who we have used for years and it made perfect sense for her to move there as her downstairs testing rooms were tiny.

@NVHUSBAND - There used to be something called protected parades which as chair of the Northcote Business Network, I introduced some ten years ago, however this was to ensure that no more than two of the same type of businesses could open on the same parade of shops for exactly the reason you mention.  Sadly even if the current council were to stand by this I don't think that any of the opticians would be affected.

I read a fascinating article a few weeks ago about the high street (I'm interesting that way ), which was basically saying that anything that sells the same things you can buy online will eventually go under, whereas anything you physically have to go and visit (coffee shops, tattoists, vets, nail bars, opticians, beauticians etc) will thrive.  Northcote Road seems to be becoming a living breathing example of exactly this...

Jonny

[Expatacular]

I buy my glasses online. There are tons of online options. The optician overtake of Northcote Rd has to be stopped somehow. At this point I'd prefer a tattoo parlour to another optician!

[Jonny Dyson Property Consultants]

Just looked this up:

“74% of people in the UK either wear corrective eyewear or have had laser eye surgery to help them see better. More women than men wear corrective eyewear. Just over half of the population (52%) view sight tests as 'very important' with women more likely than men to view them that way (59% compared to 45%)”

Northcote ward has around 25,000 residents, and to my knowledge there are ten opticians around Clapham Junction and the end of Northcote Road.  Let’s also assume that people get their eyes tested on average every three years (I know that it’s supposed to be every two years).

So 74% of 25,000 people is 18,500 people getting tested every three years, so 6,166 every year across 10 opticians. That in turn works out at 616 eye tests a year for each business, which across 52 weeks is 12 a week so just over 2 a day.  I have no idea how many of those people need new glasses every time they get their eyes tested, or how many pairs they buy, but it does seem like total over-saturation given the target audience numbers.

I'm great fun at a dinner party...

Jonny

[Lola123]

It’s because the demographics of the area have changed over the last few years. People are not moving out of the area so the average age group is rising hence the need for more opticians and less baby shops. No more nappy valley, more apt ‘Granny Valley’. But seriously this is correct. People are not moving and those houses that do come up for sale ‘Between the Commons’ are generally too expensive for those with younger children

[ronangel]

Maybe this is just some sort of tax deductible thing? But from a more sinister or even script writers point of view could be entirely something else!
In the 1970s there was an opticians  shop in north London (gone 30 years plus) which was also used to pass information to a certain middle Easton country.( honest!) 
Elderly and young people used to go there to have glasses adjusted frequently. Could all these new shops be financed for something of this sort,as well as being tax deductible? I can just visualise a James bond type control room  entered by a secret door to the basement or rear of the shop. The 30 foot antenna on the roof with red lights on it might just give it away,but things have changed communications wise over the years.The mere fact that these things could not possibly happen makes it more lightly to be true.
Ways to check would be does the receptionist or optician have any sort of accent,or maybe accent free perfect English?( in Battersea !) Notice if everyone in the waiting room is reading a newspaper without glasses. If you say something harmless about the weather while making appointment are asked a question like do you think the weather in  Haifa is a bit cold at this time of the year? Might be (or not) time to make your excuses as they say and leave.    

I can highly recommend spec savers in st johns street.Excellent service and they passed all the tests!
 

[Bakewithmonty2022]

Are you being serious?? Do you know which company?

[muddyboots]

This cannot be true!

I even joked with my husband saying I bet it’s another optician !

There should be a rule when they give trade licences out or whatever they do that they can’t allow too many of the same type of business…
I bet this is rarely an issue, how odd!

I don’t get how they do their market research.

VOTE WITH YOUR FEET!
Don’t go to these new opticians, I won’t as a matter of principal. It’s ridiculous.

Are we now the optician district of London ??