Economy
The mineral water extraction and bottling plant on Shrewsbury Road (known locally as the 'Pop Works'), has been operating since 1883 and since 2004 has provided Princes with mineral water. It is a notable local employer as is the polymer laboratories off Essex Road, currently owned by Agilent Technologies (until 2009 by Varian). There is a designated light industrial area situated between the A49 and the railway line, known as Crossways, with a number of local businesses operating, many of which are of the motoring trade, including a BP petrol station.
The town benefits from tourism, which is a growth industry in the area, as well as attracting local trade. A recent survey showed that the town has some fifty retail outlets, 44 of which are independently owned, with a high diversity of shop types. The offer in the town centre includes two butchers, several outdoor activities shops, a baker, a delicatessen, several clothes and shoe shops, three banks, and two supermarkets (Co-op and Spar). There is a large antiques market, situated in a former malthouse on the corner of Sandford Avenue and Easthope Road. There are four pubs,a as well as a number of cafes and small restaurants. In June 2011 the town was officially declared to be a "Fairtrade Town" with 34 businesses selling fair trade products. A small art gallery exists in the former hotel on the corner of Shrewsbury Road and Sandford Avenue. The town also has a number of professional services, such as solicitors, accountants and estate agents, confirming its status as a local centre of business.
The town continues to benefit from its reputation as a spa town, giving it a desirable status as a place to live, especially for retirement. House prices are above the county average and have seen similar increases in recent times as other spa towns in the UK.
The 2001 census recorded the parish's employment rate at 54.2% whilst unemployment was at 1.9% (both are percentages of residents aged 16–74), and 18.7% of all residents were retired. The largest sector of employment was "wholesale and retail trade, and repair of motor vehicles" with 16.7% of all employment in that sector.
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Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get “a good job,” but to perform well a certain work; and, even in a pecuniary sense, it would be economy for a town to pay its laborers so well that they would not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“War. Fighting. Men ... every man in the whole realm is in the army.... Every man in uniform ... An economy entirely geared to war ... but there is not much war ... hardly any fighting ... yet every man a soldier from birth till death ... Men ... all men for fighting ... but no war, no wars to fight ... what is it, what does it mean?””
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
“Quidquid luce fuit tenebris agit: but also the other way around. What we experience in dreams, so long as we experience it frequently, is in the end just as much a part of the total economy of our soul as anything we “really” experience: because of it we are richer or poorer, are sensitive to one need more or less, and are eventually guided a little by our dream-habits in broad daylight and even in the most cheerful moments occupying our waking spirit.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)