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Friday January 30, 2009

Shops in Peril


In London recently I was not so surprised by the huge number of January sales nibbling treacherously at the edges of February, but more by the sheer volume of retail outlets closing down. The shops disappearing off the high street are not the sell-em-cheap, pile-em-high brigade but the rattle the jewellery fraternity. Half of Burlington Arcade is now full of tat and the last of the seriously pucker, reliable jewellers are packing their swag bags and moving out. Up on Oxford Street, Primark is doing a roaring trade as shoppers of all ages squeeze into this multi floored building in search of dirt cheap, fashion bargains. Across the street Marks & Spencer’s limps on and a few doors down, Next, Laura Ashley and other middle of the road retailers are fighting for breath.

With one eye cocked to environmental issues, most shops in the UK have cottoned on to charging for plastic carrier bags. The more worthy claim that every penny is going to a solid environmental cause but others declare nothing. I asked at one high street store where my five pence for a carrier bag was actually going. The cashier shrugged. Into the company’s coffers, she laughed cynically. I don’t like that. I can accept that some stores want to project a squeaky clean image by charging for carrier bags and ploughing the money back into good environmental causes but I don’t like to be hoodwinked by the opportunistic profiteers. There should be some sort of retail watchdog keeping an eye on the matter.

So what will become of British high streets? Well, another few gigantic superstores are planned for London which should kill off even more quirky individual retail outlets, and of course the street markets. What we will see in the future is a grim, homogenized mass of hideous, down market stores full of poor quality tat. In the current economic gloom this might seem like serendipity but in the long-term it spells retail suicide.

Do I look fat in this?
Having survived jibes about his Superman, save the world would-be status, Gordon Brown has once again faced ridicule over his desire to see cartoons of himself, slimmed down-literally. Our esteemed prime minister is very miffed that cartoonists across the nationals and current affairs media depict him as having a huge stomach and a heavy jowl. In complaining to various top cartoonists he has exposed his ludicrous ego once more. I actually pity Mr Brown. The Tories have a strong lead in the polls partly due to the return of jazz playing, old trooper, Ken Clarke. Brown’s long promised fiscal package has had no visible effect on the economy, and the labour party seems to be running out of any new ideas. People in the UK are losing jobs hand over fist, the housing market has caved in, car sales are in tatters, retail’s in a slump and there’s no end in sight. In the last month I can count at least ten colleagues or friends who have lost their jobs and every day it’s mounting. Unlike the last real recession when I actually decided to launch my company-working on the assumption that if you can be successful in a recession you’re practically bomb proof for the future-it’s the seemingly secure ‘middles’ who are losing out. It’s the lawyers, estate agents, bankers, marketing and PR directors and middle tier of management who cost a lot whose jobs are evaporating. I was discussing this with some investment bankers at a wedding in London last week and they say the meltdown will soon affect the white collar workers and manual labourers. They felt that no one ultimately would be safe. The people who do seem to be coping are those who’ve never had big financial expectations, who keep their head down doing their own thing and keep their noses clean. Perhaps therefore in the end, the recession will be the making of all of us!



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