When former casino manager Linda Hodes opened a children’s clothes shop in St John Street, she thought she had found the ideal spot.
“It seemed perfect,” she said. “I thought I would get passing trade from customers going into McEwens across the road.”
Her store, Kids in the City, opened on March 21. McEwens announced its closure four days later.
Mrs Hodes, 56, said: “Perth is obviously going through a tough time just now, but there is a lot of will to bring the city back to life.
“There needs to be a clear strategy put in place. There’s plenty good ideas out there, but we need to focus them.”
Along the street, Matt Netherington, 33, of skateboarding shop Destable, said: “Because we are a specialist store, we get shoppers who come into Perth just to see us.
“But in terms of passing trade, this end of the city centre has suffered a real decline. There seems to be little or nothing up here to help lure shoppers in.”
He said: “I’m just old enough to remember when St John Street was first pedestrianized. I can understand why people want their customers to be able to stop right outside, but at the end of the day is it really going to stop a shop from shutting if it’s already struggling?”
Mr Netherington said: “Its difficult to see what will become of the McEwens building now. It would have been great for some big name to take it over, but a shopping centre-style mall could actually be a good idea.”
Personal trainer Steven Bonthorne, 45, said: “I think Perth really lost a lot of its identity when it tried to compete with Dundee and Stirling.
“There are still a lot of very good shops here, but we need to do more to bring people in to see them. Sometimes you can walk through the city centre and find it completely dead.”
He said: “Everyone needs to work together on this one. There are a lot of very experienced business people in Perth and there’s a lot of good ideas going around. Maybe its time to bump some heads together.
“People need to listen to each other.”
Mr Bonthorne added: “I’m not sure what will happen to McEwens now. How do you replace something like that?”
Challenges and opportunities facing Perth were raised at a packed meeting of business owners on Monday evening. They backed calls to create a marketing drive to sell the city as a hotspot for independent shopping.
