The top floor of the Overgate is a fairly deserted realm first thing on a chilly Thursday morning. I say first thing, when I really mean; just after half past 10 when most reasonable people are up and about in their busy day, and not blinking, bleary eyed into the town in search of some much needed hot chocolate. Apparently however, their busy day doesn’t lead them to the Overgate; it probably leads them to their no doubt very respectable and well paying jobs. Quite unlike a certain threesome of miscreant art students who are unused to seeing this early hour, unless the period of sleep that takes place in the dark hours has been missed out altogether.
Quite a specific group of people littered the top floor of the town’s busiest shopping centre; mainly being single elderly males, and a few mixed couples of either; boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife, mother and daughter (who is sometimes a child, sometimes not). These people obviously have much higher tolerance levels than I, as no mentally well balanced amour of mine has ever had the urge to disturb me in the dawn hours. For that matter, no member of my family (spare my father, but he’s always been a tad slow) or friend has bothered me either. I tend to hurl various objects in the direction of the no doubt well meaning individual who has deigned to bring me cup of coffee and curse in a heavy Dundonian accent, littered with glottal stops. It’s only about 2pm that I start to have functioning thoughts (just) so perhaps that would explain the scarcity of people other than aged singular males. It tends to be, in my experience, that the elderly do rise earlier than the young, indeed my own slightly batty grandmother has a tendency to hoover at around 4am when she can’t sleep.
The sole purpose for the top floor seemed to be purely as a thoroughfare for people to belt along, obviously with someplace better to be going. Few went into the surrounding shops; Thompson’s the travel agents and Optical Express, and I sat and studied a bored looking sales assistant polish the same pair of glasses for a good twenty minutes. Debenhams up to 25% off sale seemed to be doing a roaring trade and it wasn’t long before I was taking a tally chart of all the luminous lime green carrier bags that passed my way. The power of advertising on carrier bags is unbelievable as it drove me to Debenhams, a venue I rarely venture, and had be thoroughly abusing the discount. It’s someplace I’d be unlikely to bother noticing the advertising but seeing all the lime green bags made me want a piece of whatever action these people were getting. Goodbye £25.60 and hello Art Deco dress and crippling student debt. Primark, M&S and Next seemed to be doing not too shabbily either, and working in retail myself, I took noticed of another shopper’s gaudily lit red bag baring the message of a massive sale at Next. Maybe I’ll just take a wee gander…
Other than a woman wearing one UGG boot and a trainer, and Karen and I being interviewed for the Evening Tele’; “If you won the lottery, would you spend it or save it?” Save some, spend the rest. “And what would you buy?” A pony. (I’m such a girl); the Overgate had little to offer, so we moseyed on down to the Wellgate, also a shopping centre, but quite with quite a different vibe.
Little drives me up that end of town; albeit TopShop and my own work, Clarks, and the Wellgate has little to offer a younger crowd like myself. Save from New Look (which the Overgate boasts a larger store), the Wellgate is filled by BHS, bargain store TJ Hughes and a scattering of random little shops that sell all manner of crap. It’s no secret Dundee’s shops er, suck and with TopShop moving to a bigger space in the Overgate, how much longer can that end of town survive? It’s a relic from a bygone era; the lady’s toilets in BHS haven’t changed their sickly gleaming white and blue interior since I were a wean, and that were many moons ago. Even the music belongs to a time gone by; Maroon 5’s “This Love” was one I heard played and right enough, every time I’ve passed through the Wellgate, I’ve never heard a snatch of Gaga or whatever else is topping the charts blaring out over the tannoy. It seems the Wellgate is trapped in the past, the clientele being (without sounding heinously like an middle class snob) specific to the less well off and well, chavvier people of Dundee,
Beco, a smallish vintage boutique, has opened on the first floor of the Wellgate and despite it having a not too bad collection of shirts, scarves and handbags (shoes too, but they don’t count for me seeing as I have to buy my shoes down at the boatyard), it’s location isn’t prime, and I wonder how long it will manage to survive. I bought a skirt whilst out on safari and whilst the price right enough, the girl who served me seemed fairly out of it; eyes glazed over, either at the prospect of another dull day trapped in the Wellgate, or the previous night out on the town; who knows? Perhaps I’m being harsh, but realistically, the future doesn’t look good, as every time I’ve been there, the place is deserted, and in a town thronging with art students and quirky fashion sense, surely Beco’s rails should be bare, save for the odd hanger? The power of advertisement is key, and I think Beco ought to be looking into some of those lime green bags …
Dundee’s other vintage shop, of which I am a frequenter, is RARA and The Pretty Vacant Showrooms. Located on Exchange Street, it’s location is also not ideal, but it’s a cosy wee shop littered with a variety of jewellery, handbags and clothes. Its interior is completely different; Beco favours minimalist chic whilst RARA is chockablock with memorabilia and it’s something I much prefer. The girl who works there is pleasant and chatty and lacks the snobbish airs of the girl who served me in Beco. I’m a fierce supporter of one off thrift shops and vintage boutiques popping up in Dundee, and I will continue going to both, but I know which I prefer.
The differences in the different ends of town were what I noticed most; the people, the shops and the feel of the two centres struck quite opposite chords, and I look forward to Dundee welcoming more shops, and await with a certain melancholy the no doubt certain demise of the Wellgate centre.
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