Letter: Unfair slur on province's shops

From Mr Donald C McFetridge

Sir: In your article about food retailing in Northern Ireland, to conclude that "Many of the province's stores ... look like relics from the Sixties" is misleading ("Business as usual - despite Sainsbury's", 16 February).

One has only to take a look at the excellent Bloomfields in Bangor, Co Down, or to visit the recently opened state-of-the-art Wellworths superstore at Spencer Road in Londonderry - to cite only two examples - to observe that such representation of the province's shopping emporia is anything but accurate.

It is widely acknowledged that both Sainsbury's and Tesco - proposed new entrants to the Northern Ireland food retailing scene - have hundreds of excellent stores throughout the country but they, like some of the indigenous retailers of Northern Ireland, also have some stores in their portfolios much in need of refurbishment and updating.

Yours faithfully,

Donald C McFetridge

Course Director

BA (Hons) Retail Distribution Management

University of Ulster at Coleraine

Coleraine,

Co Londonderry

16 February