Former Woolworths, Bishop Auckland (6 Feb 2010)

When I blogged about the remaining vacant Woolies stores in the North East a few days ago, I’d failed to spot that yet another is about to be reoccupied, with Boyes – the iconic northern variety retailer – announced as the new tenant of Bishop Auckland’s former Woolworths. The store is set to open by Christmas, and will create 30 jobs.

As I noted in October, Boyes had expressed an interest in former Woolies sites in the North East as early as March last year. However, this is the first opening to come to fruition in the region, after Boyes had apparently worked “with the receivers for Woolworths… for more than a year.”

Boyes in Newton Aycliffe (12 Mar 2010)

The Bishop Auckland store will add to Boyes’ 11 existing outlets across County Durham and Teesside, including nearby sites in Newton Aycliffe and Darlington.

Boyes' existing Darlington store (12 Mar 2010)

I imagine that Boyes’ established shops in the south of the region – also including Billingham, Redcar, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Barnard Castle, Chester-le-Street and Consett – have already up mopped up some of the demand for homewares, stationery, haberdashery and other household items that would previously have been shared with those towns’ now-closed Woolies stores.

Boyes in Barnard Castle (6 Mar 2010)

Boyes, Redcar (17 Sep 2009)

There are also Boyes branches in Yarm and Guisborough, where Woolworths has never (as far as I’m aware) had a presence, and where Boyes is very much an anchor retailer within the town.

Boyes’ existing strength in the North East, coupled with the dearth of available ex-Woolies sites, suggests that Bishop Auckland may be the first and last such acquisition – exactly 100 years after Boyes first began to expand beyond its original store in Scarborough.

In Peterlee and Wallsend, the old Woolies premises are probably too small for Boyes, while Hartlepool’s two-storey unit is more than likely too big. Though the flagship Boyes in Scarborough, opened in 1881, is spread over four large floors and is essentially a department store – complete with food hall and restaurant – other shops in the chain are rarely as extensive.

Boyes' flagship store in Scarborough (16 Aug 2010)

That really leaves the north of the region – Northumberland and Tyne & Wear – where Boyes is yet to establish a presence. It came close, in 2008, to opening up in the former Kwik Save in Prudhoe’s Front Street, but ultimately lost out on that site to The Original Factory Shop.

The former Kwik Save in Prudhoe - originally targeted by Boyes (10 Apr 2010)

All the old Woolies sites in Northumberland are already taken (though Berwick’s former Kwik Save could be worth a look), but Tyneside has a couple of possibilities.

Newcastle’s Clayton Street Woolworths would be perfect as a Boyes, and would give a real boost to that end of town. Boyes’ existing presence in Middlesbrough, in the Dundas shopping centre, has shown that its model works in large urban centres as well as in small towns.

Boyes, Dundas Arcade, Middlesbrough (17 Sep 2009)

However, my vote would be for Boyes to snap up the old Woolworths store in Gateshead High Street. While work on the redevelopment of Gateshead town centre appeared to have stalled, I was understandably pessimistic about the prospects of any retailer wanting to take over the former Woolies site.

However, with the Get Carter car park finally biting the dust, and firm plans having been submitted for what will replace it, the situation looks more promising. Even in the shorter term, Tesco’s plans to open a temporary store in the old Kwik Save – directly opposite the former Woolies – while its current store is demolished could be a useful generator of footfall to the High Street.

Though it has Wilkinson and Home Bargains, Gateshead has missed having a department-type store since the Co-op closed in 2006. Boyes might be just what is needed to plug that gap.

Screenshot of Fossil UK website (27 Aug 2010)

I was interested to read in Retail Week last week about the accessories and fashion chain Fossil planning to expand its UK store portfolio, but slightly perplexed to note that it “already operates shops in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle [emphasis added], Bristol, Glasgow.”

For someone who likes to keep his finger on the pulse of Newcastle city centre retail, I was disturbed to think that I’d somehow missed there being a Fossil store! Further investigation to get to the bottom of this was duly required.

It didn’t take long to find the answer. Visiting the UK Fossil website soon revealed that the shop it refers to as ‘Fossil Store Newcastle’ is actually at the MetroCentre – in Gateshead – somewhere that I visit less frequently. A quick look at the MetroCentre store guide told me that the shop is on the lower level of the trendy Central Mall, opposite Republic and next to Superdry.

Though I was able to solve the mystery, it still begs the question of why the shop – whose logo, ironically, includes the slogan ‘Authentic Fossil’ – is referred to as ‘Fossil Store Newcastle’. These geographical liberties may go over the heads of executives in London or the United States, but it’s guaranteed to irritate a significant proportion of Gateshead’s 190,000 inhabitants.

It must also be confusing for shoppers – if a store is actually at MetroCentre, most people would expect it to be badged as such. After all, as the (reputedly) largest shopping centre in Europe, MetroCentre is hardly an insignificant retail location.

Of course, it isn’t just Fossil that has adopted the bad habit of being liberal with its store naming. Debenhams originally referred to its MetroCentre store as ‘Newcastle’, only renaming it ‘Gateshead’ once it opened its actual store in Newcastle earlier this year. Equally, much as I like Clas Ohlson, I can imagine there being some gnashing of teeth about its upcoming Merry Hill store – in Dudley – being badged as ‘Birmingham’.

It may only be a label, but I do think it’s unfortunate – particularly for the place being snubbed – if a retailer in one location purports, through ignorance or design, to be situated somewhere else.

What do you think? Are you similarly irritated by geographically erroneous store labels? Or is it a minor detail that only bothers retail geeks? As always, please feel free to add your thoughts – or any other good examples of the location-stretching genre.

Clas Ohlson fascia

I’m not sure whether Clas Ohlson’s people are reading this blog, or whether – more likely – the obvious locations for new UK stores are fairly easy to identify.

Either way, I was interested to spot that the Swedish retailer has this week signed contracts for new stores in shopping centres in Cardiff and Norwich – following on from my post, in June, where I suggested that “Nottingham, Cardiff, Norwich, Bristol and Southampton [are] among the top retail centres that could well be on Clas Ohlson’s hit list.”

Both shops are scheduled to open in December, shortly after the previously announced new store at Merry Hill, and will be similar in size to the existing Clas Ohlson shop at Liverpool’s Clayton Square. Their opening will increase the number of Clas Ohlson stores in the UK to ten.

The Norwich store is to be located in unit 13 of the Chapelfield shopping centre, occupying retail space of 1,570 sqm (16,899 sq ft) in what I understand used to be the lower level of the city’s Borders store – a prime spot opposite H&M.

At 1,640 sqm (17,653 sq ft), Cardiff’s store, in the St David’s centre, is a similar size to the one in Norwich. St David’s was extended and refurbished at the end of last year, with an impressive new John Lewis as its centrepiece, and I’m assuming that Clas Ohlson will occupy one of those new units that has not so far attracted a tenant.

Interestingly, both Chapelfield and St David’s are owned (wholly and partly respectively) by Capital Shopping Centres. With CSC also owning Watford’s Harlequin and Manchester’s Arndale (as I noted here), it will mean that four of Clas Ohlson’s ten UK stores are in CSC locations.

On this basis, how long can it be before CSC’s Eldon Square in Newcastle or MetroCentre in Gateshead also gets in on the Clas Ohlson act?

UPDATE, 30 August 2010: It’s been announced today that Clas Ohlson has also signed for a 1,760 sqm (18,944 sq ft) store in Doncaster’s Frenchgate Shopping Centre. There seems to be no word on the exact location yet, though I’m wondering if it will be the still-empty former Woolies site.

Improvements to the store frontage underway (19 Aug 2010)

Less than three months after acquiring Robbs of Hexham, indie department store operator Beales has wasted no time at all in sprucing up the store and its ranges ahead of next month’s official relaunch.

I’ve visited the store on three occasions since the takeover – most recently a week ago – and it has been a hive of makeover activity each time. New wooden flooring and white ceramic tiles have replaced the mangy old carpets, while the entire shop seems to be getting a fresh coat of paint – crisp white in the stair areas and black for the displays, but with various bold colours used to delineate different departments. With the store’s windows cleared of the clutter that was blocking views in or out, the overall effect of the changes is to create a shop that feels airy, bright and modern.

A sign of change (19 Aug 2010)

The layout and merchandising is also getting a welcome overhaul. The new cosmetics hall, for example, is taking shape at the front of the store, and the menswear department has enjoyed a welcome refresh of its ranges. Beales’ new own-brand quality formalwear, Broadbents & Boothroyds, is in place, while the addition of some younger and trendier menswear names is another positive change.

Job opportunities (19 Aug 2010)

In addition to Wallis, more quality concessions also look to be on the way, with Robbs’ window advertising jobs at Jacques Vert, Jane Shilton, Joules and Estee Lauder, as well as for a new hair salon.

New signage awaited (19 Aug 2010)

Black paint in, blue paint out (19 Aug 2010)

As I hoped, there are also signs that the outside of the store is getting some attention, with black paintwork already replacing the faded blue. One can only assume that new white-on-black signage will follow shortly, though I haven’t noticed any planning application for advertising consent as yet.

All in all, it’s quite a transformation already for a store that seemed destined for closure barely three months ago.

Former Woolworths, Sutton Coldfield (23 Aug 2010)

On Monday – the day that The Local Data Company published new figures on the number of vacant Woolies sites remaining across the UK – I paid a visit to Sutton Coldfield, in the West Midlands, and one of those still-empty shops.

I remember visiting the Sutton Coldfield Woolworths as a child, and it was always a very large store, spread over two floors. Unusually, there were also entrances on two sides: one on The Parade, and another opening onto what used to be known as the Gracechurch Shopping Centre – today’s The Mall Sutton Coldfield, and before that The Mall Gracechurch.

I don’t know which retailer is being lined up to occupy the site, but there were some people inside when I walked by, and possible signs of preparatory works. The Mall Sutton Coldfield’s own floor plan also shows the unit as ‘under offer’.

The size of the store is perhaps the reason why it’s remained empty until now, given that there are few retailers not already represented in Sutton Coldfield who could use such a large space – Primark or TJ Hughes being obvious contenders.

Though The Local Data Company’s research suggests that 300 of the 807 old Woolies sites are still vacant, such calculations are never an exact science. For one thing, the situation is still changing on a day-to-day basis, as the impending occupation of the Sutton Coldfield Woolies unit demonstrates.

The research also highlights some regional breakdowns, suggesting that in the North East, 55% of former Woolies units have been taken over – in other words, 18 of the 33 stores. By my reckoning, however, the real figure is 22 – a healthier percentage of 66%.

The results do vary though, depending on the assessment criteria that are used. If you include those old Woolies stores that have had an occupant but are now empty again – in Billingham (Ethel Austin), Middlesbrough (Waremart) and Wallsend (Well Worth It) – the figure increases to 25 out of 33, or 75%.

However, take away the five former Woolies sites where only a proportion of the floorspace has been reoccupied – at Ashington, Consett, Jarrow, Portrack Lane and South Shields – and you end up with the finding that only 17 of the 33 North East locations have been fully reoccupied.

By whichever measure, I’m inclined to think that The Local Data Company’s figures underestimate the true take-up of old Woolies sites in the North East. Equally, I’m not entirely convinced by the research’s conclusion that 150 Woolworths stores nationwide – or nearly 20% of the entire estate – may never be used for retail again.

It’s true that some of the empty North East sites – like Gateshead, Newcastle, Newton Aycliffe and Peterlee – are poorly maintained buildings in iffy locations that were never likely to be at the top of retailers’ wishlists.

Other locations in the region, however, have found new occupants more readily than might have been expected, while some of the most modern and well-located sites – among them MetroCentre, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool – must surely attract new tenants before long.

Recent lettings to The Range at Portrack Lane and Store Twenty One in Jarrow, as well as Asda’s ongoing plans for the old Byker store, show that retailers’ interest in former Woolies sites hasn’t dried up yet. Perhaps we should therefore wait a little longer before declaring that some old Woolies premises are an entirely lost cause.

Frontage of original Woolworths store, Stockton-on-Tees (28 June 2010)

Having missed Stockton-on-Tees’ original Woolworths when I first visited the town nearly a year ago, I’ve been keen to go back and capture a photograph of it for the ever-growing collection.

I was finally able to pay a visit a few weeks ago – the same day that I went to Billingham – and felt fairly embarrassed to have missed it the first time, given that it conforms to all the usual architectural conventions of a purpose-built 1920s Woolies.

The invaluable 100thBirthday.co.uk reveals that the store, in Stockton’s High Street, opened on 1 September 1928, before being extended in 1933 and modernised in 1966. Less than six years later, however (on 14 April 1972), the store moved to the new Castlegate shopping centre, where it remained until the closure of the entire Woolworths business in 2008/09. Though still vacant when I stopped by in September, the premises were taken over by B&M Bargains just a few weeks later.

Former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains) in Stockton's Castlegate shopping centre (28 June 2010)

Because it was a straight relocation, the Castlegate store retained the same store number (#336) as the old High Street shop. A review of the Woolworths stores opened either side of Stockton’s – #335 in Elgin, established on 4 August 1928, and #337 in Tipperary, opened in September 1928 – provides a snapshot of the pace and extent of Woolies’ expansion at that time, taking in the Republic of Ireland as well as the UK.

Original Woolworths, Stockton-on-Tees (28 Jun 2010)

An image on the 100thBirthday.co.uk website shows the original Stockton Woolworths in its 1950s heyday, and there’s a closer up photograph, from 1958, at PictureStockton. Interestingly, both old photos show the slightly strange way in which the Woolies shop frontage nibbles a foot or two into the building on the left. I wonder if this was part of the 1933 expansion, perhaps taking over a space that had previously been an alleyway between the two buildings?

Gareth Hill’s earlier comments help to fill in the building’s history since Woolworths vacated it, reporting that “…when Woolworths moved, the then North Eastern Co-operative Society acquired the store to connect to their Wellington Street department store which gave them some high street frontage.”

“The store closed in the early 90s and sadly the impressive Wellington Street building was demolished to make way for the bland Wellington Square shopping development.” The Co-op building that Gareth refers to is, I believe, the impressive edifice shown in these photographs, again at PictureStockton, dating from the late 1990s.

Former Ethel Austin, Stockton-on-Tees (28 Jun 2010)

The fact that the old Woolies property today houses a YMCA furniture shop is perhaps indicative of Stockton High Street’s changing fortunes. When I walked along the length of the street, I noted a higher proportion of vacant units than I’d seen in most other town or city centres, though many of these are the product of chains that have disappeared completely – not just from Stockton.

Hence, as well as the empty Leveys (chain collapsed) next to the original Woolies, examples that I spotted included the ubiquitous empty Ethel Austin (chain collapsed), and three prominent shops in a row that used to house Savers (#35-37; store relocated), Rosebys (#38; chain collapsed) and Radio Rentals (#39; chain closed. Site later occupied by YMCA shop).

Empty shops in Stockton High Street (28 Jun 2010)

Even among those properties that are occupied, some could do with a spruce up. Though its modern Wellington Square entrance is fine, I’m always particularly disappointed by the High Street frontage of Stockton’s Debenhams. With its tatty upper floors and blacked out windows, it’s a world away from the glamour and sheen of the new Debenhams in Newcastle. Instead, it looks more like a store that is waiting to be closed down.

Debenhams, Stockton (17 Sep 2009)

Debenhams is undoubtedly not helped by the poor condition of the striking and iconic Globe Theatre building (photographed on my previous visit), just two doors away. Currently, the empty and derelict property presents a very negative first impression to anyone entering the High Street from its northern end.

Globe Theatre, Stockton High Street (17 Sep 2009)

Hopefully, however, recently approved redevelopment plans will see this lovely building brought back to life, so that it can once again become an asset to the town centre.

Stockton Town Hall (17 Sep 2009)

Despite these concerns, my overall impression of Stockton High Street remains a positive one. Though the centerpiece is undoubtedly the attractive Town Hall, built in the 1700s, the street also retains an unusually large number of impressive and imposing commercial buildings, even if many of them – the original Woolies and Savers premises included – are disfigured by unsympathetic shopfronts and signage.

On the other hand, the town’s Marks & Spencer store has an appealing shopfront and, crucially, signage featuring the chain’s current logo. This suggests that M&S’s presence in Stockton is secure, unlike those three unmodernised M&S stores in Lincolnshire, plus another in Nuneaton, that are currently under threat of closure.

Marks & Spencer, Stockton High Street (28 Jun 2010)

My favourite building, however, has to be the astonishing little property that currently houses part of Nobles Amusements (and was previously Shoefayre), with a pictorial terracotta façade that was apparently originally built for Altham’s grocers in 1908.

Former Altham's grocers with its teracotta façade (28 Jun 2010)

In my view, Stockton town centre’s greatest asset is the combination of these attractive and imposing properties with a street that is undoubtedly one of the most impressive public spaces in any British town. Stockton Council claims that it’s the widest high street in the UK, and the sheer scale of the space certainly creates a wow factor when you step off the bus.

Stockton Town Hall and High Street (28 June 2010)

While undoubedly important in providing modern retail space, a flaw of both the Castlegate and Wellington Square shopping centre developments is that they have, to some extent, turned their backs on Stockton High Street and sucked activity away from it.

Stockton High Street (17 Sep 2010)

In this context, the Council appears to be doing the right things in celebrating its High Street’s unique character, investing in the Shambles Market Hall, and promoting the street as a backdrop for major events.

However, securing investment in the properties themselves – whether through new shopfronts or simply better maintenance of their frontages – will be a key factor in bringing empty units back into use, and in enhancing the High Street’s appeal, to both shoppers and potential tenants, as a unique and attractive retail destination.

Entrance to Green Market, Newcastle

Since I broke the story, in January, official confirmation of the closure of Newcastle’s Green Market at High Friars has been rather slow in coming. Even back then, I argued that “the lack of any coverage – or perhaps even awareness – of what appears to be the current Green Market’s impending closure is surprising.” 

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, however, notices on Newcastle City Council letterheads, posted around the market, are now confirming that it will close on 31 January 2011, and the story has been picked up today by both BBC News and the Evening Chronicle. 

Though the market has only operated from its current site for the last three years, there has been, as the Chronicle notes, a Greenmarket in Newcastle for the past four centuries. While the current incarnation at High Friars may be a rather sad, mostly empty version compared to its predecessors, its demise will signal the end of one of Newcastle’s most long-established retail ‘brands’. 

Interestingly, the BBC article remarks that “the departure of the market will make way for a fashion retailer”, though it’s unclear from where this information has been sourced. However, it echoes my earlier observation of a new tenant being “secured” for the three-storey retail unit that will replace the Green Market, and does nothing to dispel the still-persistent rumours of Urban Outfitters being the retailer in question.

Expected entrance for new fashion store from Grainger Street

Spare a thought, however, for the few tenants that are still trading in the Green Market, and who now face the further upheaval – if they have the energy and inclination – of moving into the Grainger Market. 

When the current, 15-unit site was launched in 2007, following a £1m refurbishment, it was heralded as being “fresh”, “new” and “modern”, with “a prime location… right next to MK One and New Look”, but with every intention that a new, permanent Greenmarket would be built as part of the St Andrew’s Way extension. 

With those plans subsequently abandoned, and the ‘temporary’ Green Market too small and isolated to really take off – especially since New Look’s departure for the Eldon Square extension – the Green Market at High Friars was always likely to struggle as a longer-term enterprise.

Interestingly, the fact that the new ‘fashion retailer’ will be accessed from Grainger Street (with access from Eldon Square itself due to be blocked up) is only likely to compound the problems facing the shopping centre’s High Friars section. A mall leading only to the toilets, a branch of Internaçionale (in the former MK One unit) and the escalator down to Nelson Street is hardly going to draw the crowds.

Nelson Street, with the Green Market access on the left (17 Jun 2010)

Securing a really strong anchor to reoccupy the large, two-storey former New Look unit will therefore be crucial. To encourage flow around that end of the shopping centre, it will be much better to have one retailer occupying both levels, preferably also with a reopened direct entrance on to Nelson Street, as was the case when the site housed WHSmith.

It may even be worth trying to carve out a larger unit from the old New Look, the current Internaçionale, and the mall in between, to create a sizable, modern unit that may appeal to a retailer such as Clas Ohlson – already represented in Capital Shopping Centres’ malls at Watford and Manchester – or Zara.

High Friars entrance to Eldon Square (22 Jan 2010)

Ultimately, however, full redevelopment of the Sidgate and High Friars end of Eldon Square – preferably including reinstatement of the historic link between Clayton Street and Old Eldon Square, and a livelier frontage to Blackett Street – may be the radical solution that’s needed.

Mall plan showing Peacocks (screenshot from 4 Aug 2010)

I was interested to find out a few days ago that the fashion retailer Peacocks will soon be opening a store in my old home town of Tamworth, taking a prime spot within the town centre’s Ankerside mall.

Given that jobs in the store have been being advertised since June, and with the store listed as ‘coming soon’ on Ankerside’s own website, it’s hardly entirely new news. However, it was the first my mother – who still lives in Tamworth – had heard about it when I quizzed her earlier this week.

Ankerside Shopping Centre, Tamworth (22 Dec 2008)

Peacocks opening up in Tamworth may not sound like a revelation, but new investment from a major retailer is really positive news for a town centre that has struggled to compete with the out-of-town Ventura Park complex down the road.

M&S at Ventura Park, Tamworth (24 Dec 2009)

Some retailers – including Currys, Comet, JJB Sports, Mothercare and WHSmith – long ago closed their town centre sites in favour of Ventura Park, while others, like M&S, Next, Blacks and TK Maxx, have chosen to open up on the retail park instead of in the town centre. Even those major names who are represented in the centre of Tamworth often have a Ventura Park store as well, such as Argos, Boots and (soon) New Look.

Home Bargains in Tamworth's former Woolworths (19 Mar 2010)

Part of the problem has been Tamworth town centre’s chronic shortage of large, modern retail units. I’ve always thought, for example, that Peacocks, Primark and Bhs would all do well in Tamworth if only they could find the space. However, the only large unit to have become available in recent years is the old Woolworths in George Street, eventually snapped up by Home Bargains.

Wilkinson store, Tamworth (24 Dec 2009)

Prior to that, the most significant new arrival was Wilkinson, in 1994. Moving back to the town after some years away, Wilko’s also had to be creative in finding space, carving out a new unit for itself in Market Street from a former Berni Inn (The Peel Arms) and the adjoining car park.

Even in the relatively modern Ankerside – opened in 1980 and extended in 1992 – only two of the 60 or so stores are really large units: Boots, which has occupied the same site since the centre opened; and the privately-owned Irish fashion retailer, Dunnes, which took over the site that originally housed Sainsbury’s. Most of the other units are very small by modern standards, keeping Tamworth well provided for with mobile phones and greetings cards, but little else.

To get over this problem, there have been several instances in the past where Ankerside has knocked units together to create larger, more attractive spaces. If I recall correctly, both New Look and Clinton Cards started off in single units, before expanding into the ones next door; similarly, the current Poundland site – previously MK One – was knocked together from two units in the 1990s to accommodate Mothercare.

The deserted Gungate Precinct awaits demolition (19 Mar 2010)

In due course, Henry Boot’s Tamworth Junction scheme, a planned £75m redevelopment of the town centre’s old Gungate Precinct site, should provide Tamworth with room for some large stores; indeed, the same developer’s success in signing up Next, Desire by Debenhams, Bhs and River Island for South Shields’ Waterloo Square scheme surely bodes well. However, it is still likely to be several years before Tamworth Junction reaches fruition.

Henry Boot's Waterloo Square retail scheme in South Shields (24 Jul 2010)

In the meantime, all Ankerside can really do is continue making the most of the space that it’s got, with the three units closest to Ankerside’s top George Street entrance (numbers 4 -7) being combined to form a more viable space for Peacocks.

All three of those shops have had a fairly heavy turnover of tenants over the years, especially recently:

• Unit 4-5 has had a few temporary uses since The Works closed down following the company’s administration in 2008; before that, I can remember it housing Rumbelows, Millets and, when the centre opened, a ladies’ fashion store. [UPDATE, 23 Aug 2010: I believe the fashion store was called Walter Hibbert.]
• Most recently, Unit 6 was briefly Baybeez, but before that had been Priceless Shoes, Gilesports, and a local bakers whose name escapes me – Graham something, perhaps? [UPDATE, 23 Aug 2010: At some point, the bakers was called Don Miller's Hot Bread Kitchen.]
• Unit 7 has recently housed a couple of short-lived fashion retailers (Gimme 5 and Bells Clothing), after previously being a branch of Select.

The resulting store will, I believe, have a ground-floor sales area of just under 5,000 sq ft, or around half that of the nearby Boots shop – a decent size, but still quite compact by Peacocks’ standards.

Prompted by my news, my mother duly went into town for a recce a couple of days ago, and reported that while there was some banging going on behind the scenes, there was no visible sign yet of the three units being combined, with no hoardings, and no signs proclaiming Peacocks’ impending arrival. This all suggests that it may be October or November before the store opens, assuming that the retailer is keen to be trading in the run-up to Christmas.

Given the revolving door of underwhelming tenants at that end of Ankerside, it’s clearly a very positive step to be welcoming a relatively big-name retailer that is likely to stick around for a while – unless, of course, Peacocks does so well it decides to upgrade to a larger site at Tamworth Junction.

Until then, the increase in footfall from Peacocks will hopefully boost Julian Graves in Unit 3 opposite – one of Tamworth’s most appealing shops (and a great use of what has always been an awkward-shaped unit), but whose premises of less than 1,000 sq ft are quietly being marketed as “to let”, “by way of an assignment of the existing lease.”

Absurdly, the advertisement contains the wording “Confidential Disposal – Staff Unaware”, despite the fact that it’s easy to find on Google (simply by searching for “3 ankerside”) and – just in case you were in any doubt – includes a prominent photo of the current occupant.

Screenshot of letting information for Julian Graves unit (6 Aug 2010)

It seems like a case of people who should know better really needing to understand how the Internet works…

New Currys and PC World, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (6 Aug 2010)

Heading into Newcastle today for a much-needed haircut, I had my usual wander around to see what was happening,  retail property-wise.

In Northumberland Street, the new combined Currys and PC World now boasts its signage ahead of its opening on Thursday (12 August).

How it looked six weeks ago (25 Jun 2010)

Upstairs, the new branch of Cotswold Outdoor – accessed from the street via the entrance with the red shutters – looks to be less advanced (with no signage yet), and merely declares that it will be ‘coming soon’. There’s no further opening information, that I can see, on the retailer’s website, though I fairly quickly got fed up of trying to browse the site due to its heavy use of Flash and constant ‘Loading’ messages.

New Currys and PC World, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (6 Aug 2010)

Overall, the revamped property is certainly more pleasing to the eye than it was as Currys.digital, though I never understand whose idea it is to populate the city’s premier shopping street with tatty market stalls. If I’d just invested a lot of money in modernising my store’s frontage, the last thing I’d want is to be partly obscured by a stall selling £3 pillows.

Is this really the place for a market stall? (6 Aug 2010)

One place where market stalls are less out of place – if any actually wanted to locate there – is the Green Market at High Friars, in Eldon Square. The news of the market’s closure – broken here in January – has now been confirmed, with on-site notices on Newcastle City Council letterheads giving a closure date of 31 January 2011.

It will therefore be a little while yet before any work can start on the replacement three-storey retail unit that is still rumoured to be earmarked for Urban Outfitters.

The notice indicates, incidentally, that tenants will be offered alternative space in the Grainger Market; one suspects, however, that those stallholders who wanted to go there would have already done so when the previous Greenmarket, facing Clayton Street, was closed in January 2007.

Upcoming Clinton Cards, Douglas Way, Eldon Square (6 Aug 2010)

Finally, at the other end of Eldon Square, the St Andrew’s Way-initiated retail merry-go-round continues. Clinton Cards is set to move into the Douglas Way unit vacated by River Island, with a shop that will include one of its Pure Party concessions. One imagines, in turn, that Clinton’s existing Eldon Square store at 14-16 Blackettbridge will be closed.

Selling partywear, costumes and balloons, and first launched as a trial in late 2009, Pure Party seems like Clinton’s attempt to mop up some of the business that would previously have gone to Woolworths. The fact that Clinton’s is continuing to roll out the concept – with 43 standalone or concession stores so far – suggests that this strategy is proving a success.

My shot of the Clinton’s hoardings may, incidentally, be the first and last photo I take inside Eldon Square. I was promptly spoken to (pleasantly but firmly) by a security guard who warned me that “no pictures of any kind” were allowed within the mall.

I never quite understand why shopping centres are so tetchy about photographs, and Eldon Square – unlike others I’ve visited – does not seem to have any signs at its entrances expressly banning the practice. Still, I’d better not do it again.

Former Woolworths and new Alworths site, Newhaven (17 Mar 2010). Photograph by Paul Gillett

The BT Phone Book is now listing an Alworths store at 14 High Street in Newhaven, East Sussex – the town’s former Woolworths unit. 

There is no further confirmation as yet, but the store looks set to be the retailer’s 14th, following the upcoming openings of new shops in Llandudno (13 August), Tiverton (27 August) and Hertford (date TBC). 

Meanwhile, Alworths’ original store – opened less than a year ago in Didcot – is set to downsize from its current site in the town’s Orchard Centre to a smaller shop nearby, understood to be the former Bathstore unit. Currys will take over the existing Alworths site. 

At about 10,000 sq ft, Didcot has always been Alworths’ largest store, and the move will bring it more into line with the smaller, 5,000 sq ft units that the retailer has been acquiring of late – and continues to seek. 

Thank you to Paul Gillett for the shot of Woolworths in Newhaven, which is © Copyright Paul Gillett, and licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Licence.

Wedding shopwindow display at Newcastle's County Hotel (2 Aug 2010)

One of the consequences of the economic downturn and the resulting increase in vacant shops has been the need for innovative mitigating measures – whether that’s creating the illusion of an occupied shop, or coming up with appealing window displays that help to enliven the street scene. 

Here in Newcastle, the former Mortgage Advice Centre at 53 Westgate Road is a shop/office unit that has been empty for at least a year, and that I pass on my way to work every day.

Wedding shopwindow display at Newcastle's County Hotel (2 Aug 2010)

Part of the County Thistle Hotel, I was pleased to see in recent days that the space is being temporarily used to good effect, showcasing the hotel’s Wedding Open Days. The window is nicely dressed, featuring a wedding gown and suit, a table bedecked with cards and invitations, and a good looking roller banner.

The problem, however, is that no-one thought to clean the filthy windows before setting up the display. Consequently, what is supposed to come across as aspirational and luxurious rather loses its impact and appeal.

There's a wedding invitation behind there somewhere (2 Aug 2010)

Though this particular example isn’t a live shop, it demonstrates the kind of elementary housekeeping and attention to detail that’s so important for retailers to also get right. When I recently reviewed Bob Phibbs’ the The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business, I cited his sensible assertion that “no amount of promotions, events or buzz can change a store’s unwelcoming exterior, shoddy facility or bored employees.”

If Bob’s ever on Tyneside, I think I’d better suggest that he avoids Westgate Road.

Main entrance of The Range, Stockton-on-Tees (31 Jul 2010)

Yesterday I finally paid a visit – by car – to the former Big W on Portrack Lane in Stockton-on-Tees, having twice failed to find a way of getting there by bus from Stockton High Street. Since April this year, the premises have housed a branch of the home, leisure and garden retailer The Range.  

Of the 33 North East Woolworths stores that closed following the company’s collapse, this is the 32nd one that I’ve visited and photographed. Something tells me a trip to Berwick-upon-Tweed will be engineered before the summer’s out.  

The Range, Stockton (31 Jul 2010)

The site of Portrack’s Lane old Woolies has had quite an elaborate history. For many years, since the 1960s, the premises housed the iconic North East home and garden retailer Dickens. Badging itself as “the home improvement hypermarket”, Dickens was a pioneer of the out-of-town DIY superstore, with its advertising in the 1970s claiming that there was “nothing else like it in the country.” 

In the 1980s and 90s, Dickens expanded beyond its Portrack Lane site to become a familiar site across the North East, opening stores at Shiremoor, Washington, Scotswood and Darlington. However, Dickens’ store estate proved highly attractive to its expanding competitors, and the retailer was bought out by B&Q in April 1999. The newer sites were all intended to be converted to the B&Q fascia (though Shiremoor was, I believe, later sold on to Boundary Mill Stores instead) but the presence of an existing B&Q Warehouse nearby meant that the Stockton site was surplus to requirements. 

In those days, however, B&Q was owned by Kingfisher – the retail conglomerate that also included Woolworths, Comet and Superdrug – making the Stockton site an ideal location for one of the first wave of Big W superstores. The 100,000 sq ft Big W store opened in October 2000; by 2004, however – as I blogged about previously – the Big W concept had already been scrapped. Just as the Tamworth Big W store was split in two, others in the 21-strong chain were also earmarked for downsizing. 

Between 2004 and its eventual closure on 30 December 2008, I’m not entirely clear whether part of the Stockton Big W was simply closed off, or whether the full floorspace continued to be used. Certainly, by the time it closed, the store was trading as Woolworths, and featured various concessions such as Peacocks. I’m sure there will be a Soult’s Retail View reader who can fill in the gaps for us. 

Whatever the score was with Woolies, The Range apparently occupies 60,000 sq ft, meaning that there must be 40,000 sq ft going spare somewhere. Certainly, it’s clear from the outside of the property that not all of it is in use. The Range has reclad the section that it occupies, replacing Woolies’ white and red appearance with its own blue and orange scheme. However, the apparently unoccupied section remains untouched, as can be seen in the shot below. 

The join of old and new (31 Jul 2010)

Get a little closer, and you can see that an old roof-mounted Woolworths (or Big W?) sign remains in place, highlighting the store’s ranges – clothes, toys, home, baby, cards, party, entertainment, confectionery and gifts. 

Old Woolworths or Big W signage remains in place (31 Jul 2010)

Underneath, there’s also still a sign for the long-gone ‘Big Cafe’. 

Big Cafe sign at Stockton's former Big W (31 Jul 2010)

However, my visit was not intended to be just a Woolies nostalgia trip – I was also curious to visit The Range for the first time, given that the Stockton store is the chain’s first in the North East. 

On this blog, you may recall that my only previous mention of The Range was two months ago, when the chain’s owner, Chris Dawson, was reportedly interested in buying up some of the stores and stock of the collapsed Vergo Retail empire. For whatever reason, nothing came of that in the end, and all the Vergo stores apart from Robbs in Hexham, which was bought by Beales, were subsequently closed. Even without that transaction, however, The Range has been expanding aggressively in the last eighteen months, with 45 stores now compared to the 33 that it had in February last year. 

The Range, Stockton (31 Jul 2010)

My first impression on entering the Stockton store was quite how massive it was. It may be only a portion of the old Big W, but it’s still plenty of space to accommodate quite extensive ranges across many categories, with crafts, gardening, stationery, homewares, furniture, DIY, pet supplies, toys and camping among the various departments featured. 

I was also quite impressed by the quality of the store environment and merchandising, with everything much smarter and better organised than I’d perhaps expected. Recalling a visit to the Tamworth Big W not long after it opened, you might say that The Range is, in many ways, Big W’s obvious successor – stocking similar categories but arguably making a better job of filling the vast space and making it work. 

Visiting an hour before closing time on Saturday, The Range seemed to be doing decent business, with plenty of cars in the car park and people laden with purchases in the store itself. Assuming that the Stockton branch is a success, it’s hard to imagine that more North East branches of The Range won’t follow, though there must be relatively few existing units that are of sufficient size. 

Who knows, perhaps The Range could consider taking over all or part of the 120,000 sq ft former ILVA and Marks & Spencer Lifestore site in Gateshead, which has sat empty for the last two years? After housing two ill-fated furniture and homewares stores – that were both beautiful, but ultimately too expensive – The Range could be the more populist retailer that is needed to finally make that unit work.

BathEmpire.com homepage

This guest post was written by Rob Watson. Graham has allowed me to hijack his blog to throw in my perspective of retail on the Internet. I work for a company called Supplyant which offers marketing and e-commerce services.

I wanted to share a few recent insights from dealing with a client that runs a very successful eBay store.

Our client sells bathrooms products. Showers, shower enclosures, taps, towel radiators, etc. It’s all excellent quality stuff and I’d love to offer you all a discount, but I’m afraid that’s not my call.

Anyway, before I completely digress, the client approached us because he wanted to build a little space of his own on the Internet. To have his own brand, increase his reach and ultimately sell lots more showers!

Now, before this article starts to turn into a horrible-to-read testament to how fantastic we are (feel free to come to our own website to read that!), I’m going to get to the point. Despite their similarities, there are some huge differences between eBay and e-commerce. But I’ll get to that in a bit; first the similarities.

(Let me just point out that when I refer to e-commerce, I really mean selling products through your own website.)

Early spring 2009 we launched the BathEmpire website. To get things going, all advertising was done through Google’s AdWords program. And here I come to my first similarity:

Cost

eBay do an excellent job of marketing. They bring 100,000s of potential customers to their site everyday, so it’s only fair that you should be paying a fee for being there. Once you’ve been selling a while you can even reduce those costs as listing fees drop. The biggest cost though tends to be your pricing. eBay is rife for people trying to undercut you. You will find your margins being ripped to shreds to get a look in.

Compare that to going alone though. Is that any cheaper? Hell no! Advertising costs through Pay Per Click (PPC) programs, like AdWords, can really ramp up. Plus there is a ton of other marketing channels to explore. SEO, shopping comparison sites, social media, email marketing. They all require money and resource.

Competition

On the Internet your competition are never far away. But on eBay they are listed right next to you. With very little for the customer to go on, it’s not surprising the cheapest seller gets the business.

46,402 shower listings

With your own website it’s not much better. Sure, once people are on your site you have their undivided attention, but for how long? Your offer needs to be good, otherwise they will be back on Google quicker than you can say “how much did I pay for that click?”

Reputation

Get a bad customer rating on eBay and your business can be ruined. The perks to having a high level of customer satisfaction are so huge that should you lose that, you can be sure you will feel it.

This pain isn’t quite as immediate with your own e-commerce store, but you can be sure it will affect your ability to grow. Online shoppers are increasingly turning to sites like Review Centre before buying from a new site. When comparing two retailers, all it can take is a bad review for you to lose a customer.

OK, now to the first major difference.

Scale

eBay’s reach is huge. But it is finite. Unless you continue to sell more and more products how many more listings can you hope to gain? Our client is already highly visible in the bathroom category on eBay. He’s not afraid to increase his range to cover other bathroom furniture, but that involves greater costs.

With good marketing, PR, social media, etc., the growth of bathempire.com could be huge. Our client is already planning on opening a showroom in Coventry early next year. Would that really be possible with just an eBay presence?

Control

We just recruited a new employee who worked for a company which sold packaging through eBay. They enjoyed the perks of a high customer satisfaction ranking, but then they suffered with an issue with their supply. Some customers were let down by the service, their ranking dropped below the level needed for Trusted Store status and the business folded shortly afterwards.

The point is that when you are selling through eBay, it’s eBay that calls the shots.

With your own website you are in control. Sure, unhappy customers will definitely cause you pain, but it certainly won’t put you out of business.

Brand

So you are an eBay seller that offers great products, great prices and great service. You go out of your way to keep every customer happy. When that customer tells their friends about the great buying experience they just enjoyed, who do you think they credit? Who do they say they just brought from? eBay of course. All your hard work has been a massive boost to eBay’s brand.

How much better would that feel if they were to tell their friends about your store? Where your business gets the kudos. That would feel good, right?

Now, I’m not trying to knock eBay. It’s without doubt an incredible selling tool. But it has its limits and a great eBay business could easily become an amazing e-commerce business in it’s own right. It’s just time to start thinking bigger.

Original Factory Shop fascia

The rapidly expanding mini-department store retailer, The Original Factory Shop, opened its seventh North East store, in Morpeth, last week. It adds to the retailer’s existing stores within the region at Stanley, Prudhoe, Ashington, Crook, Spennymoor and Shildon.

As noted previously, The Original Factory Shop has been snapping up quite a few former Woolworths branches across the UK – such as the one I visited in Porthmadog, and, closer to home, in Spennymoor.

Established Original Factory Shop store in Stanley (12 Apr 2010)

The Original Factory Shop, Spennymoor (12 March 2010)

However, while Woolies sites are one option, the retailer has a record of being creative in its choice of new store locations. As I blogged last week, Colwyn Bay is set to get an Original Factory Shop in a former pub (with an opening date of 31 August now announced), while the established store in Prudhoe – predating Woolies’ collapse – occupies a former Kwik Save site.

Existing store in Prudhoe (10 Apr 2010)

Meanwhile, the Morpeth location is, as I guessed it would be, the former M&S Simply Food site in the town’s Market Place. I should flag up that Morpeth was not one of the 25 Simply Food stores that was closed down last year due to “underperformance”, such as the shop in Whitley Bay.

Site of the new Morpeth store (10 Jul 2010)

Instead, the Morpeth site became vacant in November 2009 when M&S moved into a full-size store – with both food and fashions – within the new Sanderson Arcade shopping centre. Marks & Spencer had only occupied the Market Place site since 2006, having acquired it (and 27 other locations) from the supermarket Iceland at the point where Simply Food was expanding aggressively, and Iceland was emerging, under new ownership, from a torrid and lossmaking 2004-05.

New M&S in Morpeth's Sanderson Arcade (4 Dec 2009)

In the cyclical way of retail, Iceland returned to Morpeth in 2009 (in the former Woolies store opposite its original location), made a £110m pre-tax profit in the most recent financial year, and has regrown store numbers to 782 – their highest figure to date. Thus, there’s an element of going back to the future in Morpeth once again having a general retailer and Iceland facing each other across Bridge Street.

Summing up from a retail analysis point of view, the opening of The Original Factory Shop in Morpeth is notable on two fronts. First, for Morpeth, it’s great news in bringing a prime site back into use after a fairly short period of vacancy. With Sanderson Arcade having attracted some very strong names to Morpeth for the first time (including Fat Face, Laura Ashley, Paperchase, Crew Clothing and Waterstone’s), and with few voids elsewhere in the town centre, Morpeth seems to be riding the downturn well.

Second, for The Original Factory Shop, it’s interesting that Morpeth represents a location that is both more upmarket and more competitive than the “forgotten high streets” that it has traditionally targeted. It will be interesting to see whether this apparent shift in ambitions signals a push by The Original Factory Shop into other North East market towns, such as Hexham and Alnwick.

Alternatively, if the retailer’s expansion is focused on its more traditional type of location, there are still plenty of opportunities. After all, just in this region there are as yet no branches of The Original Factory Shop anywhere in Teesside, Wearside or Tyneside, meaning that places like Redcar, Seaham or Whitley Bay could yet be on the retailer’s radar.

High Street, Inverness with former Woolworths store (1 May 2010)

One of the hazards of visiting so many places – and taking so many photos of shops – is that I end up with far more potential blog topics than I ever have time to write about.

Some shots that I’ve had gathering dust since the beginning of May are from when I holidayed in the Scottish Highlands. Old Woolworths – or, in fact, any shops at all – are hard to come by in the wilds of Sutherland, but I did manage to bring in a couple of Woolies visits on the way back home.

Former Woolworths, Inverness - prior to Poundland moving in (1 May 2010)

First stop was Inverness, where the large former Woolies store at 13-15 High Street (store #233) was still empty when I visited. As Woolworths, the store had traded from the site for more than 80 years, opening on 11 September 1926 and undergoing a ‘reskinning’ in 1964 to give it its current, ‘modern’ appearance.

However, the news that Poundland would be moving into the ground floor of the five-storey property – opening a second Inverness store alongside its existing Eastgate shop – had been reported just the day before my visit. The new Poundland store is now trading, having opened last month.

North Berwick's characterful town centre (2 May 2010)

Almost at the other end of Scotland, the old Woolworths in the delightful seaside town of North Berwick, East Lothian (store #804) – which has been taken over by Poundstretcher – is a much more modest property.

Former Woolworths (now Poundstretcher), North Berwick (2 May 2010)

Despite Poundstretcher’s travails – blogged about back in August last year, and reflected in total pre-tax losses for its parent company, Instore, of more than £33m across the last four years – the retailer has picked up quite a few old Woolies stores, including, among others, sites in Penzance, Whitchurch, Hyde, Edinburgh, and several in Northern Ireland. These, along with the rest of the retailer’s estate, are adopting a revamped Poundstretcher fascia, following the abandonment of earlier plans to brand the entire chain as Instore.

These recent acquisitions have helped Poundstretcher to increase its store estate to about 320, still short of the peak of almost 340 that was reached in 2002, but an improvement on the 300 figure from early 2006. However, with Home Bargains and B&M Bargains expanding aggressively on one front (the latter now up to 197 stores, from just 10 in 2000), and single-price retailers Poundland and 99p Stores hammering away at another, it’s hard to know quite where Poundstretcher sits.

As the Retail Week Knowledge Bank sagely concludes, “the serious strategic dilemma facing [Instore's] management is that neither the Instore nor the Poundstretcher format is yet showing any obvious signs of making the required impact on enough consumers for the business to achieve sustainable long-term profitability despite all efforts.”

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

In my blog post about Gateshead’s Get Carter car park this morning, I suggested that “…it seems hard to believe that the car park is finally going to disappear from the skyline after so many false starts.”

However, it really *is* going. Demolition began this morning, with quite a few bits nibbled out by the time I went along to take a look this evening.

Here, for posterity, are some shots of this quite historic day for Gateshead – the beginning of the end for an architectural icon, but the beginning, one must hope, of a retail renaissance for the town centre.

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

Gateshead car park from Windmill Hills Town Park (26 Jul 2010)

Though it’s going to be around a while longer yet, I also got a couple of shots of the current Tesco store. Looking back, from a retail history point of view, I’ve always enjoyed how the placement of the original ‘T E S C O’ lettering is still very visible on the store’s façade.

Tesco Gateshead (26 Jul 2010)

And looking forward – but seemingly appreciating the agonising slowness with which the development has progressed – I’ve always gained a chuckle from the banner proclaiming that Tesco is ‘still open’ (presumably in case anyone assumes that it’s actually been demolished already).

Tesco Gateshead (26 Jul 2010)

Only time will tell how much longer that remains the case. Once the car park is gone, and plans for the redevelopment are approved, then the Tesco store will itself have to come down, clearing the way for the new, bigger Tesco Extra that will replace it.

Hoardings promoting the new surround the old (18 Jun 2010)

Since it opened in 1969, Gateshead town centre’s Trinity Square car park has been many things to different people, but always impossible to ignore.

To some, it has been an icon of the architectural Brutalism movement; to others, an eyesore that has blighted the Tyneside skyline. It is perhaps most famous, however, as a backdrop to the 1971 film Get Carter, most notably the scene where Michael Caine’s character, Jack Carter, throws corrupt local businessman Cliff Brumby (Bryan Mosley) off the roof.

However, today – Monday 26 July – the bulldozers are finally set to move in and start razing the Get Carter car park to the ground.

Surrounding buildings have already been demolished (18 Jun 2010)

As the cranes that have sat dormant on the site for months – having already bulldozed the Trinity Square shopping centre and Indoor Market hall surrounding the car park – spring back into life, it’s appropriate both to reflect upon the history of the Get Carter car park, and to look forward to what is expected to replace it.

Doomed from the start?

Owen Luder's Dunston Rocket tower block, also in Gateshead (11 April 2010)

Trinity Square was designed in 1962 by Owen Luder – the architect responsible for Portsmouth’s now-demolished Tricorn Centre, as well as the Derwent Tower (better known as the Dunston Rocket), also in Gateshead, and itself slated for demolition. However, the development was not completed until seven years later, in 1969, when its uncompromising architectural style was already starting to fall out of favour.

Gateshead's Get Carter car park (28 May 2010)

As an architectural statement, there’s no doubt that the car park is bold, dramatic and – against a blue sky, like in the photograph above - almost beautiful. However, the biggest problem with both the car park and the surrounding shopping centre has been, in my view, their inability to fulfil the functions for which they were designed.

The structure dominates the skyline (2 Mar 2010)

For example, several floors of parking have long been closed off due to structural problems, while the space intended for a rooftop restaurant has never been occupied. When I did some research on the building a few years ago I was struck to see that there had been several proposals, in the 1960s and 70s, to use the rooftop space, but none that had come to fruition. One scheme, bizarrely, was thrown out due to a “lack of parking”.

The unused rooftop restaurant space (17 Sep 2009)

Meanwhile, in the shadow of the car park, the shopping centre itself has been a fairly miserable place in recent years – all concrete decks and grim spaces that face in on themselves, and that turn their back on the rest of the town centre. In short, it had become an unpleasant and poorly configured environment for both shoppers and retailers.

With the prospect of demolition and redevelopment being raised in the 1990s, some – including Get Carter enthusiasts and the Twentieth Century Society – countered with the view that the car park should be designated a listed building. However, it’s difficult to see what other viable purpose the structure could have been used for. It might have lent itself to redevelopment as a gallery, Tate Modern style, but in converting the Baltic Flour Mill into a Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead already had one cultural centerpiece.

Countdown to demolition

Gateshead's Get Carter car park (16 Dec 2009)

Given a structure that was unfit for its current use, difficult to convert to anything else, and – perhaps most critically – seen as a blight on a town centre that was successfully reinventing itself through new developments (such as the Baltic, the Sage Gateshead music centre, and the Gateshead Millenniun Bridge), demolition was always the most likely outcome. However, even once its fate was sealed, the demise of the structure has been a long time coming.

In August 2002, fans of Get Carter were “given the chance to visit one of Tyneside’s most famous movie locations before it is knocked down.” Five years later, in 2007, the structure was still there, but with demolition scheduled to “begin in the autumn” and redevelopment plans – by the landowner Tesco – the subject of a public roadshow around Gateshead. In September 2007, demolition was delayed, before then being set for March 2008.

Gateshead's Get Carter car park (18 Jun 2010)

In April that year – with the structure clearly still in situ – it was “opened to the public for one last time”. In September 2008, however, it was confirmed that demolition was “on hold” – but still intended to go ahead ASAP – while the planning application for the site’s redevelopment was finalised.

The car park was finally closed to the public in January 2009; pledged to “be demolished in the next few months” in August last year; but put on hold again in December pending the development of “satisfactory” plans for the redevelopment of the town centre.

The existing Tesco store will also be demolished in due course (18 Jun 2010)

Finally, last month, demolition plans for the car park were confirmed following the signing of a development agreement between Gateshead Council and Tesco, with a firm date of Monday 26 July later announced. Now, with demolition due to begin in just a few hours, it seems hard to believe that the car park is finally going to disappear from the skyline after so many false starts.

The future

Once the car park is gone, attention will turn fully to what will replace it. Spenhill, Tesco’s regeneration subsidiary, finally submitted its planning application for the site earlier this month.

The existing Tesco store, which will be demolished (18 Jun 2010)

Covering the demolished Trinity Square as well as the site of the existing Tesco store (still currently trading), the proposed development – still to be known as Trinity Square – will include a Tesco Extra as well as 45 other retail units of up to 30,000 sq ft, offices, 900 student beds, a new town square, parking, and (potentially) a hotel.

Trinity Square hoarding (18 Jun 2010)

In eastern Europe, it’s not unusual to find a large Tesco department store sitting in a prime location within a town or city centre. From a UK perspective, however, it would be easy to fear that a development led and anchored by Tesco would take the form of a retail box surrounded by a sea of car parking.

Computer-generated image of what the new Trinity Square will look like

Happily, the artist’s impressions and intended mix of uses seem very promising. On the retail side, for example, there will now be more – and larger – units than were suggested during the earlier consultation, while office uses are a logical extension of the successful commercial property developments that have taken place on Gateshead Quays. Perhaps most importantly, the student accommodation and hotel – hopefully with accompanying bars and restaurants – should bring some life after office hours to a town centre that is currently very quiet once the shops close.

The modern image of Gateshead

I’ve always held the view that this once-in-a-lifetime investment in Gateshead town centre needs to mirror the quality of the neighbouring quayside developments, rather than settling for something ordinary. If, as seems to be the case, the Tesco store is properly integrated, visually and physically, into a wider scheme that is bold and modern, then the whole development should be a real boost for Gateshead.

More than anything, the demolition of the Get Carter car park has been compelled by the promise that something better will replace it. It’s now up to Gateshead Council and Tesco to make sure they deliver on that promise, so that Gateshead residents can add Trinity Square to the growing list of local landmarks of which they are rightly proud.

Wooly Minded, Clayton Street, Newcastle (24 Jul 2010)

Passing through Newcastle city centre yesterday afternoon, I was able to see what was happening with several incoming stores that I’ve blogged about previously.

In Clayton Street, Wooly Minded has now been trading for a week or two, and indeed features the palette of flying sheep, lime green and black that I was earlier promised.

I have to confess that I really dislike the sign’s use of Comic Sans, a font that is widely derided and overused – often in situations where something with a little more gravitas would work better. (Erin Valois, for example, recently described Comic Sans as “generally reserved for older ladies sending out chain emails about kittens or preteens flirting on MSN Messenger circa 2002″.)

Window display, Wooly Minded, Newcastle (24 Jul 2010)

Still, the overall effect is undeniably eyecatching, and where Wooly Minded’s existing shops in North and South Shields are hampered by quite long, thin shopwindows, the Newcastle store’s full height glazing has allowed for a bolder, fresher treatment. Crucially, while both the Shields shops feature densely packed window displays (including posters and signs stuck to the inside of the glass), the relative simplicity of the Clayton Street window treatment ensures that passing shoppers get a clear view into the shop.

Card Factory, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (24 Jul 2010)

Another new store with bold signage is the recently opened Card Factory on Northumberland Street, whose blue and yellow fascia can never be termed discreet. The end result looks OK, however, with much of the shopfront and fascia kept as white, and is certainly an improvement on the tired Foot Locker frontage that it has replaced. The shop is apparently Card Factory’s 500th store, and certainly seemed busy when I passed by.

How it looked before (17 Jun 2010)

Despite its stone frontage, the property itself is arguably one of the ugliest in Northumberland Street – strangely ageless and devoid of character with its assymetrical facade and drab blank windows to the upper floors. If Card Factory’s bright shopfront stops people looking any higher up, it’s perhaps not such a bad thing in this particular instance.

Upcoming Bank store, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (24 Jul 2010)

The final stop on this occasion is just a couple of doors further down Northumberland Street, where the JD-owned young fashion chain Bank – previously mentioned here – is now clearly announcing its arrival in the former Priceless Shoes unit. Offering what it describes as “the latest fashion for women and men from your favourite designer brands such as Paul’s Boutique, Lipsy, Superdry and Henleys”, I’m not quite clear how many of Bank’s brands simply duplicate names that are in the city centre already – Superdry, for example, has a prominent store of its own in St Andrew’s Way, while Lipsy and Paul’s Boutique are both available in Fenwick’s.

Typical Bank store. Image courtesy of Bank

Still, with the nearest Bank stores currently in Middlesbrough and Stockton, it’s positive to see a new name coming to a prime site in Newcastle city centre. Perhaps more importantly, images on the retailer’s own website suggest that Bank stores have a modern, open feel that wouldn’t be out of place in the Eldon Square extension. If the new Northumberland Street store looks anything like this, it should bring a little glamour to a location that, as Priceless Shoes, has had all the retail pizzazz of a jumble sale.

Former Woolworths - and former Ethel Austin - in Billingham (28 Jun 2010)

Until a few weeks ago, Billingham on Teesside had been one of only three former North East Woolworths – out of the 33 that closed following its 2008 administration – that I hadn’t yet visited. Finding myself down that way recently, I therefore took the opportunity – if that’s the right word – to check the store out.

Perhaps it was the drizzle, or the fact that it was quarter-past six in the evening, but Billingham town centre was truly one of the few places I’ve visited where I’ve immediately wanted to leave again.

Billingham town centre (28 Jun 2010)

From the bus stop on The Causeway, a passage at the side of Asda led me through to the main thoroughfares of Town Square and Queensway. Immediately I was faced with a large group of youths hanging around outside the Iceland store; round the corner, others were lurking on the high-level decks that surround Queensway.

Groups of youths are not necessarily a problem in their own right, but the almost complete absence of anybody else in the town centre gave the place an eerie and unpleasant feel. This was compounded by the lack of any visual stimulation at street level – with most of the shopfronts hidden behind metal shutters, there was nothing to engage the senses. Indeed, one of the worst things about metal shutters – apart from outlawing window shopping – is that they make it difficult to distinguish shops that are closed for the night from those that are closed for good.

Billingham town centre (28 Jun 2010)

One store in the latter category is Billingham’s (former) Ethel Austin. The town had the sheer bad luck to have Ethel Austin move into its former Woolworths store, only to then see Ethel’s collapse into administration as well. Having got the photo I was after, I turned on my heel and retreated back to the bus stop – after all, there was little other reason for me, or anyone else, to want to stay around.

Followers of this blog will know that I try and look for the best in any of the town centres that I visit – no mean feat, given some of the places I’ve been to. Billingham, however, was a challenge indeed. I’ve already resolved that I must return in the daytime when the sun is shining, in the hope that I might yet see the town’s retail centre in a more positive light.

Former Woolworths in Llandudno (25 Sep 2009)

Well, that’s a coincidence. Having blogged about the former Woolworths in Llandudno just a couple of days ago, Alworths has announced today that it will be taking over the site for its 11th store – and its first in Wales.

Having been occupied by a discount book store (Publishers Book Clearance) from April last year until just a few days ago, the Mostyn Street premises will reopen as Alworths on 13 August – earlier, it would seem, than the unofficially revealed new Alworths stores in Hertford and Tiverton.

Former Woolworths and Publishers Book Clearance, Llandudno (25 Sep 2009)

I’ve made a bit of a habit lately of rumbling Alworths’ store plans ahead of the official announcements – probably to the despair of the lovely PR people – so all credit to MD Andy Latham and his team for getting one over me with this latest news!

The only whiff I got ahead of time was somebody finding Soult’s Retail View yesterday via a search for ‘Alworths Llandudno’ (which naturally piqued my curiosity), coupled with an awareness that the Llandudno site was now vacant again.

Pound-Mart's Cupar store (now Alworths), prior to closure. Photograph courtesy of Pound-Mart

Interestingly, just like the new Llandudno shop, several of the latest Alworths stores occupy former Woolies units that have temporarily housed other retailers – including those in Forfar and Cupar (previously Pound-Mart), and Hertford (formerly Well Worth It). As well as monitoring the BT Phone Book, it seems I need to keep an eye out for ‘end of lease’ sales as a possible sign of an impending Alworths.

Heading to Llandudno (20 Sep 2009)

Talking about the Llandudno outlet, Andy Latham rightly flags up that it will be Alworths’ “first coastal store”, and that Alworths will therefore “tailor the ranges accordingly”. In addition to the usual Alworths ranges, “holiday essentials and a range of beach toys” are promised during peak summer months.

Llandudno from the Great Orme (20 Sep 2009)

This sounds like a canny move – after all, Llandudno is a vibrant and highly attractive seaside resort, that still attracts a great many holidaymakers to enjoy the Great Orme Tramway, the Haulfre Gardens, and the town’s impressive pier. The top end of Mostyn Street has reportedly suffered from the loss of Woolworths, so a store that caters equally for both locals and visitors may be just what’s needed to perk things up again.

Empty unit in Llandudno's Mostyn Street (25 Sep 2009)

Just as Alworths’ press release for the Alloa store was interesting in flagging up its plans to open a further seven stores in Scotland “over time”, the Llandudno announcement reveals ambitious plans for Wales too. Latham reveals that the fledgling chain is “looking at a variety of other sites in both North and South Wales and we are looking to open a minimum of five more Alworths stores in Wales over the next year.”

This inevitably raises the question of where in Wales Alworths might open up next. As we know, many of the old Woolies sites have been snapped up already, including several – among them Barmouth, Cardigan, Chepstow, Porthmadog and Pwllheli – by The Original Factory Shop, a retailer with a product mix not too dissimilar to that of Alworths.

Of the three vacant Woolies sites in Wales that I blogged about a couple of days ago – in Caernarfon, Holyhead and Colwyn Bay – the former would seem the most likely potential location for an Alworths. Colwyn Bay, in contrast, has quite a bit of competition already, including Home Bargains, Instore and Argos in the buzzing Bayview Shopping Centre, and the planned branch of The Original Factory Shop that I mentioned in my earlier post.

When I first blogged about Holyhead back in November, I remarked that it was “just the kind of place where the closure of Woolies has left a really big hole.” I continued: “Though there is a Wilkinson on one of the out-of-town retail parks, I couldn’t spot any department store or good quality variety store in the town centre – just the type of gap that a store like Alworths could hopefully fill in the future.”

With Alworths now making its presence felt in North Wales, we’ll have to wait and see whether Holyhead is indeed part of its future plans.

Former Woolworths, Caernarfon (July 2010). Photograph by Sally Daffarn

I’m not quite sure if it should be a cause for celebration or urgent self-reflection when my friends start emailing over photographs of old Woolworths that they have spotted on their travels… Whichever, many thanks to Sally Daffarn for capturing this shot of the former Woolies in Caernarfon, which she “saw on holiday and thought of you!”

Caernarfon is one of the North East Woolworths sites that I didn’t get to when I was over there in September last year, and it’s interesting to see that it’s still empty and looking a little worse for wear by now. I can only assume that plans to convert the building into two shops, office accommodation and flats – announced in April last year – have fallen through.

For the moment at least, it means that Caernarfon’s Woolworths is one of a dwindling number that are still vacant, more than 18 months on from the retailer’s high profile collapse.

Former Woolworths and Publishers Book Clearance, Llandudno (25 Sep 2009)

Indeed, of the six North Wales Woolies that I saw in September, four were already reoccupied back then, by Publishers Book Clearance (Llandudno), Home Bargains (Prestatyn), The Original Factory Shop (Porthmadog) and B&M Bargains (Rhyl) – a pretty good snapshot of the types of retailers that have taken over Woolies sites across the UK as a whole.

I understand, however, that Publishers Book Clearance in Llandudno has closed down within the last few days due to the end of its temporary lease. I’m not clear whether any other retailer is lined up to move in. [UPDATE, 21 July 2010: There's a story about the closure of the store in today's North Wales Pioneer, which seems to confirm that no new tenant is in place yet.]

Planned site for The Original Factory Shop in Colwyn Bay (25 Sep 2009)

As for the two old Woolies stores that were empty when I visited – Colwyn Bay and Holyhead – I can’t find any evidence of either being occupied since.

Interestingly, The Original Factory Shop has recently announced plans to open in Colwyn Bay, but on the site of The Litten Tree pub in Station Road (still open when I visited) – despite the firm’s marketing director noting that “we have taken over a lot of the old Woolworths sites across the UK.”

Ethel Austin in Holyhead's Stanley Street, prior to closure (23 Sep 2009)

Meanwhile, it sounds like Holyhead’s high level of voids – which already included Woolies, Kwik Save and many others – has been further compounded by the loss of its Ethel Austin. However, it’s positive to read that the town is receiving funding from both the EU and the Welsh Assembly Government “in a bid to create jobs, win back shoppers and build on tourism projects”, and that “Anglesey County Council is inviting expressions of interest from those wishing to improve, develop, or occupy vacant premises in Holyhead Town Centre.”

Former Kwik Save, Holyhead (23 Sep 2009)

For all the vacant units, I felt that Holyhead had a great deal of charm and character when I visited last year, and was let down by some really unappealing and neglected buildings. Hopefully initiatives like the one that’s underway can tackle these barriers to investment, helping the town turn the corner, and encouraging it to become the vibrant place that would befit its status as a major ferry gateway into the UK.

Christmas decoration

Today’s BBC News story about Selfridges’ imminent opening of its Christmas shop made me wonder whether I should just dust off and recycle my blog post from a year ago.

Back then, I expressed incredulity about why anyone would wish to purchase baubles “adorned with Union flags” or ‘We Love England’ slogans a whole 137 days before Christmas. Clearly I knew nothing, however, with the BBC article revealing that Selfridges’ “festive shop sold more than 1,000 baubles during the first week of trading after opening on 8 August.”

The consequence of that success is that this year’s festive store at Selfridges is opening a whole six days earlier than a year ago. So, on August 6th, when most of us are still thinking about summer holidays and barbecues, those who are so inclined can head over to Selfridges to snap up Christmas tree decorations.

Geraldine James, Selfridges Christmas Shop’s buying manager, seems to have sussed what the logical progession will be of Christmas decoration shopping getting earlier and earlier, claiming in the article that she “can see a time when we offer a capsule Christmas collection throughout the year.”

My initial reaction to this prospect was one of horror, but then it brought to mind those all-year Christmas shops that I’ve encountered on my travels, such as The Christmas Emporium in Pitlochry. Presumably there must be a market for Christmas decorations throughout the year, or such shops wouldn’t exist.

It seems pretty clear, however, that this move towards year-round Christmas retailing isn’t really targeted at the British public, but is more about capturing the attention – and credit cards – of overseas tourists who may wish, for whatever reason, to take a Christmas-themed souvenir back home with them.

In this context, you might conclude that Selfridges’ potential all-year ‘capsule collection’ doesn’t seem such a crazy idea. On the other hand, in selling Christmas decorations to overseas tourists in August, I think Selfridges needs to be slightly careful not to evoke too much ridicule among its UK customers.

What do you think? Is this merely a harmless and throwaway story during the media’s summer silly season? Or is there something slightly unsettling – or even cynical – about a retailer launching its Christmas shop in August?

Looking forward, as always, to your thoughts.

Alworths fascia

Following on from my blog post about Alworths opening in the Clackmannanshire town of Alloa, it has now been confirmed that the new store will open this week, on Wednesday 21 July. The site, at 49 Shillinghill, was occupied by Ethel Austin, prior to that retailer’s collapse earlier this year. 

Quoting the MD Andy Latham, Alworths’ press release about the store opening highlights the point made in my earlier blog about it being the first store in the chain not to be located in an ex-Woolworths site: 

“Opening our tenth store will be a significant milestone for us. We’ve always maintained that we were not limiting our store search to just ex-Woolies sites… Our priority, as always, is to find good sites in traditional market towns and to be a local department store on the high street.” 

Like the nine other Alworths stores to date, the Alloa shop will stock “a mix of branded toys, sweets, homeware, stationery, entertainment products, seasonal goods and garden items”, as well as offering “a large selection of pic ‘n’ mix along with party accessories, cards and wrap.”

Alworths in Amersham (14 May 2010)

Given a blank canvas rather than the shell of a former Woolies, it will be interesting to see how the interior of the Alloa Alworths turn out.

This picks up on the point I made in my earlier review of the Amersham store, following my visit back in May, when I remarked that “as the Alworths chain expands further – and particularly if it starts taking over shops that were not formerly Woolworths – it will be interesting to see how it develops its own, more confident store interior style.”

The Alloa store now gives Alworths that opportunity to do something different and distinctive with its shopfit, defining it as a modern retailer with its own identity and vision, rather than one that some might perceive as harking back to the past.  

The news release also confirms Alworths’ plans to open a further seven stores in Scotland “over time”, and its intention to have 22 sites across the UK by the end of 2010. With the chain set to have ten stores by the end of July, it suggests that new shops will be opening at the rate of two or three a month for the rest of the year – a  similar rate of expansion, in fact, to when Woolworths was at the height of its growth in the 1920s.

We already know where the 11th store will be, and have a strong hint as to the location of the 12th. The arrival of a new Alworths in Hertford was reported a few days ago in the local press, with the customary job ad on the Peopletime website giving an opening date of August. The store will occupy the former Woolworths in Maidenhead Street – pictured here in happier times – which until this month housed a Well Worth It store. The latter is apparently moving to the nearby town of Hoddesdon instead, but is not, as far as I can tell, any relation to the Wallsend shop of the same name.

Former Woolworths, Tiverton (22 June 2009). Photograph by Lewis Clarke

Though there is no official confirmation yet, the 12th Alworths will, reportedly, be in Tiverton in Devon. Many thanks to the eagle-eyed John, who let me know that “according to the BT Phone Book, [Alworths] have had the telephone put on at the old Woolworths premises in Fore St, Tiverton, Devon.”

Alworths Tiverton - revealed via the Phone Book

Sure enough, a quick search of BT’s online Phone Book brings up details of the yet-to-be-announced Tiverton store. Presumably, however, no-one will be there to answer the phone for a few weeks yet…

Thank you to Lewis Clarke for the shot of Woolworths in Tiverton, which is © Copyright Lewis Clarke, and licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Licence.

Cover of 'The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business'

This post is something of a first for Soult’s Retail View – a proper book review! Before I talk about the book - which is the The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business, by Bob Phibbs – it’s worth just mentioning how I got to hear about this new title in the first place. 

After years of LinkedIn feeling like a rather static and worthy business networking environment, the recent growth of its Groups feature has really brought the community to life. I’ve had my LinkedIn account for a while, and now belong to several worthwhile retail-related groups. The largest and busiest of these is the Retail Industry Professionals Group, a community with almost 55,000 members worldwide and many active discussion threads.

Currently, the most popular of these threads – with 100 comments, and rising – is one entitled “Who has a blog re: to retail out there?”, where, as you would expect, I flagged up Soult’s Retail View a few months ago. It was as a result of this post that I got a message from Bob Phibbs himself, suggesting that I review his new book.

Checking out The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business on Amazon, I was able to find out a little more about what I’d be letting myself in for. The book, essentially, is aimed at “the thousands of retailers frustrated by market challenges and looking for ways to take control of your business” – whether they are “a mom-and-pop, chain, franchise, or service business.” In particular, it sets out to help those retailers who are “looking for the advice of an expert consultant, but unable to spend the money” by providing “a step-by-step approach to evaluate your current business practices.”

With a copy of the 246-page book duly having arrived from the United States, I’ve been delving into it over the last couple of weeks. So, what did I make of it?

Well, even before I agreed to review the book, I did query whether it was being actively marketed in the UK – assured that it was, I felt qualified to critique it from a British perspective. Even so, the first thing to say is that the book is *very* American. The anecdotes are American, the style is American, and the language is American – and some of these may jar with UK readers.

The terms ‘clerking’ and ‘merch’, for example, were new to me, alongside the inevitable references to ‘lines’ rather than good old British ‘queues’. More generally, some might find The Retail Doctor’s tone a little preachy – he knows what he’s talking about, and the book makes sure that the reader doesn’t forget it, to the extent of making slightly comical use of a trademark symbol everytime ‘The Retail Doctor®’ is referred to. Coming across rather curiously to British eyes, this risks portraying the author as a corporate entity or brand, rather than as a real person.

So, there are a few negatives to get out of the way to start with – most of them entirely relating to The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business’s American feel and focus. However, as long as you can look beyond these niggles, it’s hard to dispute the book’s value as required reading for small retailers, whichever side of the Atlantic they may be on.

The book as a whole is pretty easy reading. I read it through from start to finish, which is probably the best way of doing it, though the clear division of topic areas between chapters – such as financials, hiring, selling and training – make it straightforward to also dip in and out.

One of the threads running throughout the book is the importance of understanding how personality types affect a business, with Phibbs introducing the four groups of Drivers, Analyticals, Expressives and Amiables.

Drivers and Analyticals are collectively known as ‘Thinkers’, with both displaying qualities of independence and decisiveness. However, while Drivers are confident and extrovert, Analyticals are more likely to be aloof and introvert.

Similarly, Expressives and Amiables, as ‘Feelers’, share the quality of being dependent. However, just as Expressives are talkers, extroverts and ideas driven, Amiables are introverted, indecisive peacemakers. A successful retail business, Bob argues, needs a combination of all four personalities, with the manager needing to make sure that their employees bring in whatever character attributes they themselves lack.

The Retail Doctor's website

Handily, the book gives the URL of The Retail Doctor’s Personality Quiz – part of a more extensive Retail Doctor website – and urges readers to take the test before proceeding any further. Happily, my test results suggest that I have a pretty balanced retail personality – 17% Driver, 29% Analytical, 21% Expressive and 33% Amiable. The website notes that no matter what type you are, you need to fully understand the other three, so that you can “become a chameleon when dealing with them as employees and customers.”

Progressing through the book, much of what The Retail Doctor says is common sense, yet it’s surprising how much of it needs to be restated – often quite forecefully. The book’s cover promises “no-nonsense” advice, and Bob certainly doesn’t mince his words.  

It’s hard to argue, however, with the principle that “you have to take responsibility for the things that you can control” – whether that’s improving store performance, finding new customers or clearing unsold stock – or that “the only thing standing in the way of you succeeding is you.”

Similarly, as early as p.3, Bob is making clear that “you have to be profitable”, with profits meaning that “customers are rewarding you for your efforts in excess of what it costs you to run the business.” In contrast, he suggests, “if you are not making a profit, the market is punishing you for poor management, meagre product selection, inadequate location, or rotten employees.” Harsh, perhaps, but surely the essence of why businesses fail.

Much of what Phibbs advocates is about getting the retail basics right, and ensuring attention to detail. In his chapter on “the anatomy of a successful retail store”, he makes a good point about the best stores being like our homes – “neat, clean and well organised.”

In this context, I liked Bob’s statement that “no amount of promotions, events or buzz can change a store’s unwelcoming exterior, shoddy facility or bored employees.” Indeed, his anecdote of a coffee house with dirty counters, broken lighting, and staff who are more interested in talking to themselves than the serving the customer surely strikes a chord with anyone who has had a similarly underwhelming customer experience.

A point in the book about avoiding unwelcoming signs also resonates, with Bob claiming that signs such as ’No food or drink’ or ‘Children must be accompanied by an adult’ are rarely effective, but convey negative messages that “tell people to stay out” of the shop. He argues that retailers should “put out the red carpet” to grow their sales, not “the red flag.”

For similar reasons, Phibbs highlights ‘Do not touch’ signs as one of his top ‘Merchandising Don’ts’, suggesting that “you might as well put up a sign that says DO NOT BUY.” It brought to my mind all those beds that you see in department stores, too often accompanied with the warning ‘do not sit on the bed.’ 

An important chapter of the book is that which covers online marketing, giving effective advice on developing a website – something, Bob notes, that about 30% of attendees at his keynote speeches still don’t have. I particularly liked the illustration on p.182 of what Bob calls a “rotten title bar”, where instead of the name of the website and appropriate keywords it simply says ‘Home’. How many times have we all seen that, often on sites belonging to businesses that really should know better? 

The book’s newness also means that it’s bang up to date in offering tips on how to use social media effectively – including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, though not, ironically, LinkedIn.

The book ends with another line that really struck a chord, bringing to mind those retailers that grumble in the press every time they face the ‘threat’ of new competition. Bob’s closing gambit to those retailers is “whatever you do, don’t do a story in the local paper about how you can’t compete – because you can.”

Notwithstanding the book’s American focus and tone, this is clearly a lesson that can be applied in the UK as much as the US. Armed with Bob’s book, small retailers should be well equipped to harness the power that they do have over their own businesses – building on their strengths, tackling ther weaknesses, and working to create a customer experience that is distinctive, engaging, and that – above all – sells.

Existing Kingston store

The much-blogged-about Swedish hardware retailer Clas Ohlson published its sales figures for June yesterday.

What’s interesting is that sales for the UK are now being stripped out from those of Finland, giving us a much clearer idea of how the UK business is doing. Total sales were SEK 442m, of which the seven UK stores accounted for SEK 15m. A year ago, the UK business delivered sales of just SEK 5m, with the June 2010 figures representing a seemingly impressive 176% increase – or 203% in local currency. Sales in Clas Ohlson’s home market of Sweden, in contrast, were unchanged year on year.

The trouble, of course, of eyecatching percentage figures like these is that they are not based on like-for-likes – in other words, the year-on-year comparison takes no account of any stores that may have opened or closed in the intervening period.

To give another example, this is why, at a time when the business is expanding rapidly, the John Lewis Partnership’s trading figures – which again show only the raw increase in sales, not like-for-likes – need to be interpreted carefully. There’s no doubt that both the eponymous department store chain and Waitrose are trading well right now, with the latter’s latest weekly figures, published today, showing a 13% sales increase compared to a year ago. It’s just that once you take out the effect of new stores opened in the last 12 months, the actual sales increase in the established stores is inevitably lower than the headline figure.

Clas Ohlson fascia

Apply this to Clas Ohlson, and you realise that while the June 2010 figures are for seven stores (two of which had, admittedly, only been open for a month), the June 2009 stats are for just two (Croydon and Manchester). On this basis, the threefold increase in UK sales is just about what you would expect, especially since two of the five new stores are the smallest in the estate.

By way of an alternative measure, what happens if we look at each country’s sales figures for June 2010 in relation to the number of stores?

• For the UK, sales work out an average of SEK 2.1m for each of the seven stores.
• Finland has 16 stores and a turnover of SEK 35m – so that’s SEK 2.2m per store, a little higher than the UK.
• There are 42 stores in Norway – with total sales of SEK 182m, that’s an average of SEK 4.3m for each shop.
• The rest of the stores – 56 – are in Sweden. If total sales are SEK 210m, that works out at SEK 3.8m per store.

What does this tell us? Well, it basically confirms the trends that Clas Ohlson highlighted in its own year-end report for May 2009 to April 2010. Here, the retailer notes that “the response from customers to the newly opened stores in the UK has been positive and the number of visitors to date has been higher than the Group average”, but that “the conversion rate and average purchase in the UK have been lower than the Group average, which is generally the case in conjunction with the penetration of new markets.”

Looking forward, the report explains how “Clas Ohlson anticipates that establishing its brand name and position in a completely new market will take time, and that the conversion rate, average purchase and sales will gradually increase in coming years.”

In other words, while the sales densities for the UK stores are indeed currently lower than those of the more established Scandinavian branches, Clas Ohlson’s message is that this is just a normal part of entering a completely new market, and that they’re in it for the long haul.

As more UK stores open, and the Clas Ohlson brand becomes more widely known among British consumers, it will be interesting to see how quickly the UK sales densities can catch up with those in the retailer’s more mature markets.

Job ad for Wallis in Hexham

Delivering on its promise to bring quality concessions to its recently acquired Robbs of Hexham store, it seems that Beales has already signed up the Arcadia-owned womenswear brand Wallis.

A job ad has gone live today, advertising the “fantastic opportunity for Sales Advisers and Senior Sales Advisers to join our brand new store in Hexham Beales.” There are no details of when the new Wallis will open, but my expectation is that it will be ready in time for the relaunch of Robbs’ women’s fashion department, scheduled for September 1st.

Wallis logo

Hopefully the first of many such signings, Wallis coming to Robbs is clearly a positive step. Traditionally focused on classicwear for 25–45 year olds within the ABC1C2 bracket, Wallis is among the more upmarket of Arcadia’s brands, and sits well with Beales’ intention to broaden Robbs’ appeal.

Owned by Arcadia since 1999, Wallis has about 300 UK stores, as well as 60 in the Republic of Ireland and another 65 overseas. Of the UK shops, roughly half are concessions, including a growing number in Arcadia’s own Bhs stores, as well as a significant number within high-end department stores.

Wallis store within Bhs in Middlesbrough

Tyneside is already well served by Wallis – there are branches in Debenhams at Eldon Square and MetroCentre, in Fenwick in Newcastle, in Bhs at South Shields, and a standalone shop in Monument Mall – and there are also several stores on Teesside. This will, however, be the retailer’s first store in Northumberland.

Standalone Wallis store at Monument Mall in Newcastle

Having attracted Wallis, it will be interesting to see whether Beales can bring any other Arcadia names to Hexham. Dorothy Perkins has a store in Fore Street already, but Miss Selfridge – already mentioned as a possibility – would help to address Robb’s traditional weakness in young women’s fashion.

Similarly, bringing in a Burton concession would do something to remedy the chronic lack of menswear choices in Hexham town centre. With options presently limited to Robbs itself, Tesco Extra, and a disappointingly small range in Marks & Spencer, the demand is surely there.

Rothbury's High Street (13 February 2010)

It can hardly have escaped anyone’s notice that Rothbury, in Northumberland, has been the news centre of the UK this week, for reasons entirely outside the control of the town’s residents or businesses.

Though locals and visitors are assured that the area remains “open for business”, the enforced disruption is bound to be unsettling, and to be having some impact on trade in the immediate term.

Once the present situation is over, however, I wonder if the town – and, indeed, Northumberland as a whole – will ultimately benefit from its greatly raised profile?

The National Trust's Cragside (3 May 2009)

Rothbury’s charms are well known to those of us here in the North East, who will more than likely have paid previous visits to the town itself, to the fascinating National Trust property of Cragside, or to the stunning countryside of Coquetdale.

The Coquet valley near Alwinton (25 April 2009)

For many people across the UK, however, seeing the town’s attractive High Street as the backdrop to a news report is likely to be the first they have seen – or perhaps heard – of Rothbury. I’ve been involved in work before that has demonstrated how little people in the south of England sometimes know about Northumberland, or even where it is. There are surely no excuses for not knowing that now.

Though I’d been to Cragside on many previous occasions, and driven through Rothbury on others, February this year was the first time that I’d had a proper wander around the town. For somewhere so small – there are just 1,740 people living there – Rothbury does have an impressive and interesting collection of shops along High Street, Townfoot, Bridge Street and Front Street, selling a wide range of convenience and discretionary goods.

Boots in Rothbury (13 February 2010)

Though the majority are a fantastic and eclectic mix of independent retailers, these are complemented by a couple of well-known names – a branch of The Co-operative Food, and a small Boots (formerly one of the Alliance Pharmacy shops that Boots acquired in 2006).

Stuart Wiggins electricals shop, Rothbury (13 February 2010)

Among the indies, I loved the Aladdin’s cave that is Stuart Wiggins, an electricals shop, with its window display featuring a “dual speed stereo cassette recorder” alongside rather more recent innovations such as cordless phones and Freeview boxes. You probably wouldn’t get an iPod here, but it’s the kind of shop that will more than likely have all those obscure electrical items in stock – saving what would otherwise be a long journey out to Morpeth or Hexham.

T.W. Alderson & Sons hardware store, Rothbury (13 February 2010)

Many of the shops also have attractive, traditional shopfronts with lovely, handpainted shop signs – and no ugly metal shutters in sight – that provide a great showcase for their wares. Among those that stood out for me were T W Alderson & Sons’ hardware store, J R Soulsby & Sons’ toy shop, and the shoe retailer Thomas Rogerson.

J.R. Soulsby & Sons toy shop, Rothbury (13 February 2010)

Thomas Rogerson shoe shop, Rothbury (13 February 2010)

Towards the edge of the town, the Old Motor House in Townfoot- a very early motor garage, dating from 1913 – is one of Rothbury’s most striking shop buildings, housing a classic car restoration business as well as Keen Wood, a furniture and carpets shop.

The Old Motor House, Rothbury (13 February 2010)

In contrast, the Otterburn Mill shop – an offshoot of the flagship store at nearby Otterburn itself – occupies what is arguably the ugliest building in the town. The store is a decent size though, and was busy when I visited with people browsing its ranges of outdoor clothing.

Otterburn Mill, Rothbury (13 February 2010)

As the town returns to normality, it will surely be a fitting compensation for all the disruption if those who already love Rothbury are supplemented by a whole load of new visitors, discovering its charms – and those of the surrounding area – for the first time.

Image from 'Scotland's Shops' book, courtesy of Historic Scotland

One of the nice things about running my own architecture subject gateway, Sapling.info, is that I get the opportunity to read about plenty of interesting buildings and places. 

Earlier this week I paid a visit to the attractive and information-packed website of Historic Scotland, ahead of updating Sapling.info’s review of that site. While there, I was excited to see that the organisation has just published ‘Scotland’s Shops’, a 199-page book that examines the architectural history of shops in Scotland. My enthusiasm will hardly surprise you – regular readers of Soult’s Retail View will know by now that retail history is one of the areas that most interests me, even if my knowledge and coverage of Scotland, E&M aside, has been rather thin to date.

Image from 'Scotland's Shops' book, courtesy of Historic Scotland

‘Scotland’s Shops’ certainly sounds like the kind of book that will be appearing on my bookcase before too long, though I was a little surprised to see that it’s not yet listed on Amazon.co.uk. It seems like I may have to have a go at ordering from Historic Scotland’s own web store instead.

The book itself has quite an interesting story behind it, being written by Dr Lindsay Lennie – an expert on the conservation of historic shops – as part of a three-year Research Fellowship funded by Historic Scotland.

Image from 'Scotland's Shops' book, courtesy of Historic Scotland

The resulting publication apparently “explains the chronological history of the design of shops in Scotland, gives a technical background to the elements and materials used in their construction, as well as advice on their conservation, and also includes a gazetteer of retail buildings around Scotland.” In doing so, it “celebrates the history of Scotland’s retail architecture in a timeline from medieval markets to the post-war period”, featuring shops “from all around Scotland from Lerwick to Stranraer.”

Image from 'Scotland's Shops' book, courtesy of Historic Scotland

Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish Minister for Culture, formally launched the book last week and rightly flagged up the importance of historic shops on various levels – whether for the stories underlying them, for the celebration of craftsmanship, or simply for their architectural delight:

“Traditional shops and shop fronts form the heart of many high streets across Scotland and play an important part in our history.  Many long established family businesses and new owners who have inherited a shop with original tiling, shelving or a cast iron frontage are proud of the significance of these shops and want to ensure their survival for future generations to appreciate.

“Traditional Scottish building materials are also vital to the conservation and maintenance of our built heritage.  Many towns and cities have their own distinctive and recognisable shop front styles. The fact that so many of them have survived across the country is testament to the quality and durability of the materials used to construct them and the skill with which they were used.  

“Our shops  form the economic and social building blocks of our town centres – they are woven into the social fabric of our towns and communities. Their architecture and conservation are of great importance in order to retain town centres that are individual, appealing and meaningful.”

Given the book’s celebration of Scottishness and individuality, there’s both logic and incongruity in it being launched at Jenners department store in Edinburgh’s Princes Street.

Jenners' Grand Hall. Photograph by Steve F

Operating from that site since 1838, it’s true that Jenners remains one of Scotland’s most iconic and well-known shops, with its baronial exterior and celebrated Grand Hall making it a must-see for any visitor to Edinburgh. On the other hand, House of Fraser’s purchase of Jenners in 2005 has meant that the store is no longer particularly individual, nor especially Scottish – House of Fraser may have been founded in Glasgow, but its corporate HQ has long been based in London.

I haven’t visited Jenners in Princes Street since the HoF takeover, though the much smaller branch at Loch Lomond Shores in Balloch, which I visited in 2008, did strike me as a rather odd combination of twee Scottish souvenirs against a backdrop of HoF own-brand and designer labels.

Jenners, Edinburgh. Photograph by Richard Webb

This battle to define what Jenners is and stands for – trying to reconcile its quirky, independent heritage with the shinier (but arguably less interesting) personality of its corporate parent – seems to continually vex retail commentators. Retail Week’s John Ryan, for example, earlier this year described Jenners in Princes Street as “failing to measure up” – “it may have the brands, the point of sale and the aspiration to match its sister store in Glasgow, but… it’s a rabbit warren [and] difficult to find your way around.” Even Mary Portas, the BBC’s Queen of Shops, has previously lamented what she sees as the store’s loss of individuality under HoF’s ownership:

“Jenners’ internal design is absolutely stunning, but it feels like House of Fraser got a hold of it and it’s just ended up with a slightly hybrid shop instead of one that is still ‘Jenners’. Now it doesn’t know what it is – Arthur or Martha.”

Perhaps more critical, however, is if the feelings of the retail gurus are shared by actual shoppers. Judging from the numerous comments on the Mary Portas article – “just another House of Fraser”, according to one reader, or “just Frasers with a higher price tag” by another – you get the impression that they could well be.

Scotland’s shops might indeed, as Fiona Hyslop contends, be “woven into the social fabric of our towns and communities.” However, lose what makes a store cherished in the first place and there’s always a danger that the stitching will start to come undone.

Thank you to Richard Webb and Steve F for the shots of Jenners. The photographs are © Copyright Richard Webb and © Copyright Steve F respectively, and both licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Licence.

Shoe shopping. Image by Allie Hylton

It’s always good to hear of a retailer that is rising from the ashes, Wellworths-style, so I was pleased to read in The Appointment magazine about the enterprising staff of the former Faith shoe store, in Chelmsford, Essex.

Faith, you may recall, collapsed into administration in April, putting the jobs of 362 full-time staff and 1,382 part-time staff at risk. Since then, all 78 standalone stores – including one in Newcastle’s Eldon Square – have been closed, though I understand that the 100+ concessions in Debenhams are continuing to trade for the moment.

The Faith ‘closing down’ signs in Debenhams’ windows have caused me to do a double take every time I’ve seen them (Sunderland, Newcastle and Stockton-on-Tees to date), given that you have to look twice to realise that it’s Faith that’s closing down, and not Debenhams itself.

For that reason alone, one assumes that Debenhams will be pleased once Faith’s fate is resolved one way or another; possibly, if Drapers is to be believed, by Debenhams buying the brand itself and undertaking a Principles-style relaunch of the name as an own label. If Faith does survive, it seems certain that the business will focus on the more profitable concessions model rather than making a return to standalone shops any time soon.

Over in Chelmsford, however, the former staff of the closed-down Faith store are taking matters into their own hands. Impressively, the former branch support manager, Justina Pay, her supervisor, Roxanne Ransom, and the rest of their old team have decided to go it alone, reopening the store as an independent company – Hope Footwear Ltd – this coming Saturday, 3rd July. The Appointment article has Justina explaining the thinking behind their new enterprise: 

“We’re doing this all ourselves. We’ve contacted the old suppliers, ordered stock, fixtures, fittings, signage and paint. We wanted to reopen the store because we knew how popular and well loved it was, just because Faith went into administration didn’t mean it all had to end.

“We were inspired by Claire Robertson and her success in turning her old Dorchester Woolworths store into Wellworths; a great example of someone who has had a massive success from a very sad redundancy.

“Customers were genuine in their sadness that our stores were closing and were concerned as to where they could buy quality shoes from, we knew we had to ‘do a Wellworths’ and try and bring it back. We’re having a grand opening on Saturday at 10am, a ribbon will be cut, we’d love to see you there.”

It’s a brave move – after all, Dorchester’s Wellies was able to tap into the affection, over almost a century, with which Woolworths was remembered; Faith, though it has been around since 1964, barely provokes the same emotions. Still, just as Dorchester’s Woolworths was always profitable, so there are successful branches that get brought down when the ropier bits of a retailer, such as Faith, drag the entire business into administration.

With Justina and her team seemingly having the bottle, passion and retail knowhow to turn Faith into Hope, you can only commend their entrepreneurship, and wish their new business all the very best. Crucially, already having a great relationship with their customers – and knowing what those customers want and expect – will surely give Hope a really strong and exciting foundation on which to build its success.

Many thanks to Allie Hyton for the use of her image.

Alworths fascia

Just a week after its first two Scottish stores opened in Forfar and Cupar, the variety store chain Alworths is now “recruiting for enthusiastic, customer focussed individuals to work at its newest store opening in Alloa in July 2010.” 

Alloa, in Clackmannanshire, is exactly the type of location that we are getting used to Alworths opening stores in – a small town of less than 20,000 people, with a pleasing, compact centre. However, given that Alloa’s former Woolworths was snapped up by Poundland over a year ago, it appears that Alloa’s new Alworths – the retailer’s tenth shop in all – will be the first to open in premises that were not previously a Woolworths store. [UPDATE, 28 June 2010: I now understand that Alworths will be taking over Alloa's former Ethel Austin site.]

This move is both significant and inevitable. The dwindling pool of vacant Woolies stores in half-decent and suitable locations has always meant that Alworths would, before long, need to cast its property net wider if it is to grow. More importantly, perhaps, doing so is also likely to benefit the brand, by helping Alworths to build a distinctive and modern identity that isn’t just based on bringing former Woolworths sites back to life. 

The lack of appropriate former Woolworths sites may well be one reason for Alworths not yet making it to the North East, and I understand that there are no imminent plans for the retailer to open stores in this region. However, I’m told that the chain is continuing to scout for suitable locations across the country, and that there would be no bar to opening North East shops if the right premises in the right locations could be found. 

Meanwhile, another recently launched retail chain – the supermarket Haldanes – appears to be having some difficulties in finding, and sustaining, the right store locations. 

Launched at almost exactly the same time as Alworths, Haldanes’ first store opened in Prestonpans, in East Lothian, back in November. Since then, the business has been busy snapping up stores that the Competition Commission had required the Co-operative Group to divest following its acquisition of Somerfield, with its estate peaking at 25 shops. However, sites in Dunbar and Hemsworth have closed this month after less than three months of trading, while the company’s Chairman, Arthur Harris, has “confirmed there is a consultation process ongoing with staff and unions about redundancies across the chain”. 

Somerfield logo

The reasons for Haldanes’ “drop in returns” are unclear, and could be a combination of factors, such as location, range, price, or an unfamiliar brand. It’s interesting, however, that even the Co-op has reportedly seen a “plunge” in sales in the Somerfield stores that it has retained and converted to its own fascia, while independent retailers who bought stores are apparently projecting sales declines of up to a quarter. 

Whatever the reasons are, blaming the presence of an existing out-of-town Tesco store for the challenging trading at Wick’s Haldanes doesn’t really wash. It’s true that Tesco’s unceasing expansion provokes strong reactions from many – most recently the ‘Queen of Shops’ Mary Portas – and that its arrival can impact negatively on existing centres.

However, if a supermarket, like Haldanes, chooses to open a store in a location where Tesco is already established – in Wick’s case since November 2006 – the onus must surely be on that incoming retailer to do its homework beforehand, and to develop a way of trading better and cleverer than its competitors.

Sometimes, I feel, it’s just too easy for retailers to blame Tesco for their difficulties instead of reflecting on what they can do to improve and differentiate their own performance.