Move To Man ?

[islandwoman]

Hi there. I'm Islandwoman and I've lived on islands in various parts of the world for most of my life, for the past 12 years on one of the Scottish Islands, where I own 2 businesses. I would like to open a branch of one of them on Man- I've done a fair bit of research and believe there is a gap in the market for what I do. Can anyone tell me what it's like to move to your island , live and work there ? There seem to be a fair range of shops, entertainment and a strong population. Is there a Quaker (Society of Friends ) meeting ? Do resident islanders have an airfare discount scheme as we do here ? How hard would it be to find a retail space, preferably with an apartment above to lease in the first instance ? And where would you say is the place with the heaviest footfall of shoppers ? Douglas ? Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

[Stavros]

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Mrs Dorcas Costain - Blann

+44 (0)1624 843369

 

Meeting for Worship every Sunday at 10.30, at Masham Court (Centre for the Disabled), Victoria Ave, Douglas IM2 4AW.

 

Email: quakerfriends@manx.net

 

Easy to move to the island.

 

No resident airfare discount.

 

Easy to find suitable retail space.

 

Douglas has heaviest footfall.

 

What type of business do you want to open?

[Craine]

believe there is a gap in the market for what I do.

What business sector are you in?

 

There seem to be a fair range of shops, entertainment and a strong population.

centred mainly around Douglas

 

Is there a Quaker (Society of Friends ) meeting ?

See "Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)" on the following page http://www.gov.im/isleofman/religion.xml - closest I know of.

 

 

Do resident islanders have an airfare discount scheme as we do here ?

no. (not that I know of?)

 

How hard would it be to find a retail space, preferably with an apartment above to lease in the first instance ? And where would you say is the place with the heaviest footfall of shoppers ? Douglas ? Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

Strand street is pretty empty at the moment - the most visited shopping zone on the island.

 

 

edit:beaten to it! hope thats helpful anyway.

[Jimcalagon]

Can anyone tell me what it's like to move to your island , live and work there ?

 

I moved here from Liverpool in 2001. I like the place - it's got nice countryside, very rural, good standard of living, nice for bringing up childrenand the education is good. However there are a number of big caveats which I'll come to...

 

There seem to be a fair range of shops, entertainment and a strong population.

 

That depends on what you're comparing it to. The range of shops compared to any medium-sized town in the UK is poor and the prices (except for the big UK shops like Tesco and M&S) are a rip-off. The range of entertainment is nothing great either - two cinemas, one a tatty shed and the other which is small and well-appointed but doesn't show the more popular films. If you like drinking to excess on a saturday night, fighting in the street and expensive restaurants with run-of-the-mill food, you'll enjoy it here.

 

Is there a Quaker (Society of Friends ) meeting ?

 

Not something that would interest me but I would be surprised if there wasn't.

 

Do resident islanders have an airfare discount scheme as we do here ?

 

Good one! The air routes are few and expensive and the one ferry operator is a joke with rip-off fares, infrequent services, poor customer service and two out of the three ferries can't sail if there is much more than a stiff breeze.

 

How hard would it be to find a retail space, preferably with an apartment above to lease in the first instance ?

 

Piece of cake - there are plenty of empty shops all over.

 

And where would you say is the place with the heaviest footfall of shoppers ? Douglas ?

 

Yes, Douglas is the main area for shopping - then Ramsey.

[Pontius]

A couple of suggestions:

 

1. Contact the Dept of Trade and Industry for advice and assistance. Despite being a Govt Dept, I've found them to be positive, pragmatic and very helpful when it comes to helping small businesses and 'new starts'. The best entry point is via :

 

http://www.gov.im/dti/business.xml

 

2. Whilst Douglas has the heaviest footfall ( 50%+ of the island's population live within 5 or 6 miles of Douglas), don't forget Castletown - the former capital in the South of the Island. There is a major new multi-unit retail centre opening up there - the Callows Yard development, focusing on individual small businesses, not major chains. The first phase is opening in the next week or so with more to follow pretty soon afterwards. It might be worth at least a look before diving in to Strand Street, Douglas with its higher rents. The developer is Roy Tilleard.

 

THe very best of luck to you.

[Stavros]

And if you don't like here, there's a boat in the morning (I know, Bindun before!)

[Sebrof]

Ferry services in the Highlands and Islands are subsidised. There is no subsidy here. The airport runway is short, and can't take bigger planes which might help to reduce airfares. So basically, getting on and off the island is expensive.

 

I disagree about the service on the ferry, though. It's friendly and helpful in my not inconsiderable experience, spanning nearly 40 years.

 

S

[Craine]

I disagree about the service on the ferry, though. It's friendly and helpful in my not inconsiderable experience, spanning nearly 40 years.

 

S

 

I disagree with your disagreement. IOMSPC is terrible, whethers its charging surprise fuel surcharges, ignoring a lack of seats on over-subscribed bookings, cancelling sailings with no announcement, or just simply crashing into other ships.

 

Travelling from Heysham is being discontinued also so you may find yourelf driving down to Liverpool

[Tempus Fugit]

nice empty Woolies shop in the centre of town, rent only £6000 per week !

(most of the others are only £1000pw !)

[Sebrof]

I disagree about the service on the ferry, though. It's friendly and helpful in my not inconsiderable experience, spanning nearly 40 years.

 

S

 

I disagree with your disagreement. IOMSPC is terrible, whethers its charging surprise fuel surcharges, ignoring a lack of seats on over-subscribed bookings, cancelling sailings with no announcement, or just simply crashing into other ships.

 

Travelling from Heysham is being discontinued also so you may find yourelf driving down to Liverpool

 

I think we mean different things by "service". I agree that the seacats are unreliable because of weather, but I don't think you can expect much notice of that.

 

It's because of this seacat problem that I prefer to use the Ben, which in my experience is very reliable. Since I am driving South, a dependable Liverpool service would be fine by me.

 

S

[sarahc]

There seem to be a fair range of shops, entertainment and a strong population.

 

That depends on what you're comparing it to. The range of shops compared to any medium-sized town in the UK is poor and the prices (except for the big UK shops like Tesco and M&S) are a rip-off. The range of entertainment is nothing great either - two cinemas, one a tatty shed and the other which is small and well-appointed but doesn't show the more popular films. If you like drinking to excess on a saturday night, fighting in the street and expensive restaurants with run-of-the-mill food, you'll enjoy it here.

 

Apologies for chopping. I disagree with these statements in bold. Of course it depends on what you like to buy which is why it is a rubbish generalisation to say that 1) shops are poor compared to medium sized towns. The whole of the Island is far from the size of a 'medium' UK town.

and 2) prices are a rip off. All the things I want to buy here are priced fine.

[Twitch]

And as you can see, there's a real positive outlook amongst some of the residents.

 

I think it's a great palce to live and work and if you do spend getting on and off the place I tend to think about the thousands of pounds I've saved in income tax payments, lowest insurance premiums for car and house contents (Island is in lowest grouping), cheaper rates than what i would pay for in council tax in most areas of the UK. Crime rate is lowest in the British Isles - fact. All my mates live here too which is good.

 

However, no 10 screeen multiplex cinema with city centre style leisure activities 10 mins walk from my door, so yeah I suppose it is pretty naff here come to think about it.

[Jimcalagon]

Apologies for chopping. I disagree with these statements in bold. Of course it depends on what you like to buy which is why it is a rubbish generalisation to say that 1) shops are poor compared to medium sized towns. The whole of the Island is far from the size of a 'medium' UK town.

and 2) prices are a rip off. All the things I want to buy here are priced fine.

 

 

I'm thinking about places such as Wigan( pop 80,000) , Chorley (pop 41,000) , Bolton (pop 73,000), Birkenhead (pop 84,000) and especially Southport (pop 90,000) which I would think should be fairly comparable to Douglas/IOM. They all have a much greater range of shops/restaurants and the prices of items in those shops (especially large consumer goods - electrical goods and furniture) are significantly cheaper.

 

Also they all have supermarkets such as Asda, Morrisons, etc which have a much larger range of goods than is stocked in any supermarket on the island and generally sell clothes as well, at prices far lower than anything you will see over here.

 

Not only that - if you live in any of these towns, you can jump in a car and, within half an hour you can be in a big city where the range of shops is even bigger. If you want to do that in the island you need to take the ferry, which is not convenient time- or cost-wise.

[Jimcalagon]

And as you can see, there's a real positive outlook amongst some of the residents.

 

 

I did say above that I like it here but I was being honest about the drawbacks as well. Or are you going to deny that there are any?

[Gladys]

Apologies for chopping. I disagree with these statements in bold. Of course it depends on what you like to buy which is why it is a rubbish generalisation to say that 1) shops are poor compared to medium sized towns. The whole of the Island is far from the size of a 'medium' UK town.

and 2) prices are a rip off. All the things I want to buy here are priced fine.

 

 

I'm thinking about places such as Wigan( pop 80,000) , Chorley (pop 41,000) , Bolton (pop 73,000), Birkenhead (pop 84,000) and especially Southport (pop 90,000) which I would think should be fairly comparable to Douglas/IOM. They all have a much greater range of shops/restaurants and the prices of items in those shops (especially large consumer goods - electrical goods and furniture) are significantly cheaper.

 

Also they all have supermarkets such as Asda, Morrisons, etc which have a much larger range of goods than is stocked in any supermarket on the island and generally sell clothes as well, at prices far lower than anything you will see over here.

 

Not only that - if you live in any of these towns, you can jump in a car and, within half an hour you can be in a big city where the range of shops is even bigger. If you want to do that in the island you need to take the ferry, which is not convenient time- or cost-wise.

 

But you really cannot compare the IOM to a town with a similar population as the town does not have a finite catchment area; people move from town to town to enjoy facilities, whereas here we are bound by water which makes that difficult.