74906.pdf

The Chain Store Challenge

operation. This would represent the equivalent of a 5,600 square metre
department store; in other words, a range of products only represented in
the largest ten of the group’s outlets.
But I do not suggest that home shopping will wipe out the need for shops
and stores. On the contrary, this is one of the greatest challenges that we
currently face.

Retail Environments

My story returns yet again to the United States, where in the 1980s and
early 1990s, the department stores took quite a knock caused by the impact
of home shopping. It would be naïve to conclude, however, that home
shopping must inevitably wipe out the stores. The pleasures of going shopping,
experiencing the physical environment of the store itself, the element of social
interaction, being able to touch merchandise are an important aspect of urban
life that will not be eradicated by the convenience of shopping from home. I
believe that department stores have a future, and that those which survive
will be the ones that turn shopping into an entertaining, exciting or in some
way distinctive experience, in other words, those that have the confidence to
look different and separate themselves from the mainstream. In the United
States, this was pioneered by Barney’s, who, with Japanese finance, formulated
a new concept. Rather than follow the fail-safe blanket-buying policies of
other stores, Barney’s dared to buy selectively from designer collections, which
gave its merchandise a particular flavour enhanced by its own brand, or
‘private label’ collections. In the United Kingdom, first Harvey Nichols and
then Selfridges reinvented themselves along similar lines. Harvey Nichols
turned itself into a fashion lifestyle experience with a series of dedicated
designer ‘boutiques’, both clothing and homewear, top-of-the-range specialist
food retail in the stylishly designed food hall, ambitious private label clothing
and food products and restaurants. The refurbishment of Selfridges trans-
formed it from a ‘safe’ department store stocking the same kind or products
in the same kind of visually uninspired or indistinctive environment as any
other department store, into a fashion pantheon, where the most current
collections are enticingly displayed in a showcase environment. A Saturday
or Sunday afternoon visit to the store confirms that shopping is as much a
fashionable social activity today as it was when the store was established by
Gordon Selfridge.
Alongside the innovative department stores, the generation of new specialist
retailers is playing its part in the reassertion of shopping. My personal list of
visionaries in this field would include Joseph Ettelgui, whose stores in London,