Commercial projects : the Chamber of commerce wants a break

An informed observer had expressed in Le Courrier de l'Ouest a soft warning to Angers city representatives regarding the situation of the trade sector, from the retail trade to the commercial park. The usefullness of a "break", advised by Eric Groud, president of the Maine-et-Loire Industry and Commerce Chamber, is justified because of the change in local consumer behaviour. The first factor comes from internet. "People buy more and more by internet. So the superstores are less visited", notices Mr Groud who predicts that several drive stores are in project in Angers surroundings. The second change comes partly from that increasing use of internet what makes people are less tempted. 

For the president of the Chamber, "the arrival of Atoll makes necessary to do an inventory" while the commercial park has not, up to now, realized the predicted turnover and triggered commercial fields in Grand Maine and Espace Anjou. Regarding the future cultural complex planned at the south of Angers, Mr. Groud looks dumbfounded. In many aspects, what Eric Groud is saying is similar to what Angers real-estate professionnals are claiming : the pace has been a little fast during the last year and now the demand is slowing down. 

And the obsever suggests it should be wiser to modernize Angers down town in the housing and offices fields rather than to export people and activities outside the city limits. But Mr Groud doesn't say all must be stopped. The ideas of technological campus in the Les Hauts de Saint-Aubin district as well as the new local tv channel and the purchase of the industrial tools of Technicolor are good news and symbolize the will of the city to go ahead.