Millets in Newcastle, photographed today

Yesterday I commented on the fact that the Millets store at MetroCentre was having a closing down sale; today, I noticed that the branch in Newcastle’s Grainger Street (above) is also evidently among the 89 Blacks Leisure Group stores that are being shut. However, Hexham’s store – which I visited (and photographed) on Saturday – looks to be safe.

In some ways the news that Newcastle’s Millets is to close is not surprising, given that Newcastle city centre is one of those locations – like MetroCentre – where Blacks and Millets currently compete with one another. On the other hand, though, it seems rather a waste of a store that only opened a year ago.

Prior to housing Millets, the unit at 81-83 Grainger Street was occupied by Blacks; when Blacks shifted to Eldon Square and the former O’Neill site late in 2008, Millets moved down the street from its former site at numbers 121-127. As I noted last week, the former Millets store remains empty, meaning that Grainger Street will have the unusual feature of two empty Millets stores within a few doors of each other.

Millets in Hexham (photographed on 3 October)

Given that last week’s official announcement about the store closure programme spoke of an “employee consultation process on 89 loss making stores”, the speed with which closing down sales have been launched is surprising – it suggests that the closure of the stores concerned is a fait accompli, rather than being open to review.

Equally, it seems like this is just the first step in getting Blacks Leisure Group back onto a firm financial footing; industry speculation suggests that Blacks may yet seek to enter a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) with its creditors, in order to secure its longer-term future.

Whatever happens next, it’s a sad and uncertain time for yet another longstanding high street name, and most of all for those hundreds of shopfloor staff who are likely to lose their jobs. One can only hope that the steps being taken now will be enough to protect the 300 or so stores that remain. After all, with holidays at home never more popular than now, Blacks – as probably the UK’s best-known outdoor retailer – has no excuse not to do well, if only it can position itself, Mothercare-style, as a real authority within its field.

MetroCentre logo on empty unit

I popped over to MetroCentre this afternoon, and spotted a few things that seemed worthy of blogging about.

Millets: Following on from my post last week about Blacks Leisure announcing plans to shut 89 loss-making branches, I noticed that the MetroCentre Millets store is already having a closing down sale. However, the nearby Blacks store looks like it’s safe.

I’m yet to come across a list of the stores being closed (there is nothing, as far as I can see, attached to the official announcement), but I imagine that a good few will be in those locations where Blacks and Millets are competing with each other. To be honest, I’ve always struggled to understand what the difference between the two is supposed to be.

Woolworths: MetroCentre’s vast size – there are 330 stores – means that it has suffered from having a larger than usual number of nationally defunct retailers. Rosebys, Zavvi, The Pier, the Original Shoe Company and, inevitably, Woolworths were among the prominent voids that I spotted today.

Former Woolworths at MetroCentre

Woolworths took over the old two-level C&A unit at MetroCentre in 2000, following that retailer’s decision to move out of the UK. However, there’s no sign as yet of anyone coming in to take Woolworths’ place. I struggle, in fact, to think of a retailer that might want to occupy it. Most of the potential tenants for a unit this size – Bhs, Primark, perhaps New Look – are already represented at MetroCentre, while other possibles, such as Wilkinson, don’t seem to make a habit of opening stores in large regional shopping centres. Any thoughts, anyone?

Waterstone’s: MetroCentre’s Waterstone’s illustrates the point that I made here about retailers not bothering to upgrade certain stores within their estate. Not only does the store’s frontage still feature the old, upper case logo, but its apostrophe appears to have fallen off (credit where it’s due, however, for Waterstone’s including the apostrophe in its name in the first place  – most retailers would have got rid of it long ago).

Inside it’s a similar story, with rather worn carpets and a sad looking store directory – the kind that has certain categories covered up with card, and other ones stuck on afterwards (I spotted a similar design crime in WHSmith). Surely it can’t be that hard to come up with a store directory format that is able to accommodate retailers moving stock around from floor to floor?

On the plus side, the store did have the book I wanted, and the person who served me at the till was friendly and helpful – always one of Waterstone’s strengths, in my view. Still, applying a bit of TLC to the store itself definitely wouldn’t go amiss.

HMV: Over in Waterstone’s sister store, HMV, the shop looked generally better but the customer service was less satisfactory. The first hurdle to buying something was getting around a display bin of blank CDs, pointlessly positioned directly in front of the counter. Second, I didn’t really appreciate the glaring downlighter, set above the counter, that was seemingly designed to blind (and cook) any customer that approached. Third – and most irritatingly – the person who served me spent the entire duration of the transaction continuing her conversation with a colleague, despite my best efforts to engage in friendly eye contact.

This habit of taking the customer’s money but otherwise ignoring them is one of my biggest pet hates when shopping, and HMV is by no means the only culprit. I did, at least, get a “see you later” – however, if that’s the level of customer service I can expect, seeing me later is probably unlikely.

Millets store

Today’s retail news has arguably been dominated by Marks and Spencer revealing better than expected results, and Blacks Leisure (owner of Millets, as well as its eponymous chain) announcing plans to shut 89 stores that “have not traded profitably for many years” (in which case, you may wonder why the company has persevered with those branches as long as it has – Woolworths’ demise surely demonstrates the potential for ropey stores to bring the profitable ones crashing down with them).

While established names link M&S and Blacks display mixed fortunes in their quest for future success, one of today’s other (less prominent but no less interesting) retail stories relates to a brand new presence on the high street – GIVe, the latest venture from fashion guru George Davies of Next, George at Asda and Per Una fame.

Following months of anticipation, GIVe’s Regent Street flagship has opened today, with 21 other shops – five standalone stores and 16 department store concessions – following tomorrow. Alongside London, the standalone GIVe stores are in all the top shopping centre locations that you would expect – Bluewater, Cribbs Causeway, Kingston-upon-Thames, Liverpool One, Meadowhall – with Glasgow and Harrogate following soon.

Unusually, the concessions are all located within independent department stores, including all 11 Beales sites – a refreshing change from the usual House of Frasers and Debenhams. This decision, reportedly, is linked to Davies’ wish to offer a free minor alterations service within all his GIVe shops, as well as his desire for a less corporate, more boutiquey feel – hence the sense in tying up with department stores that already provide this type of personal, customer-focused service.

Several observations can be made about the store portfolio. Most obvious, from a North East viewpoint, is the absence as yet of any GIVe stores in our region. Perhaps we shouldn’t worry – after all, there’s no GIVe store to date in Manchester, Leeds or Edinburgh either. However, compared to other major regional shopping centres, such as Bluewater and Cribbs Causeway, I do wonder sometimes about MetroCentre’s ability to attract and retain the top names – take for example the oft-cited departure of Gap and its replacement with Peacocks.

Don’t get me wrong - Peacocks is a great shop – but it’s ubiquity means that it’s not really a special shop. For me, a special shop can still be part of a retail chain, but it needs to be one that has few enough stores to make each one a real destination – shops like the John Lewis’s, Fenwicks, Selfridges, Apple Stores and Lego Stores of this world. Other than the Berghaus flagship, it’s difficult to think of stores in MetroCentre that would fit this definition. Is it a function of the existing retail mix? The fact that the 22-year-old MetroCentre, with the exception of the Red Mall extension, looks rather cheap and dated compared to its newer competitors? Or something else? 

Certainly, Apple Store’s important decision to open up in Newcastle’s Eldon Square extension (blogged about here), alongside a growing roster of big-name fashion retailers, may help give Eldon Square the edge as the most likely location for GIVe’s North East debut. Alternatively, Rutherfords in Morpeth (mentioned here) or Robbs in Hexham would be obvious candidates, were GIVe to go down the concessions route.

Another observation about GIVe’s store portfolio is quite what a coup – and potential boost – this is for Beales, whose recent performance has been patchy to say the least. Assuming that GIVe is a success, Beales is sure to reap some benefit in terms of both footfall and trade. If nothing else, it will help to make its sometimes tired-looking stores more of a retail destination again.

GIVe homepage

 Inevitably, a blog post like this would not be complete without me passing comment on GIVe’s online presence. I’m hardly qualified to comment on the women’s fashions themselves, but the good quality photographs are really effective, and I like how the clothes can be browsed by colour as well as garment type. The ‘style with’ tips – suggesting belts or bags to go with your top – also seem like a canny move. If nothing else, Davies’ ability to launch a high street retail chain and fully operational online store on the same day is pretty impressive. Recognising the synergies between bricks and clicks, the site – unlike others I could mention - also gets brownie points for featuring a list of GIVe store locations, complete with opening times, contact details, and the name of the store manager.

Any obvious website downsides? None especially, other than the predominant black and white look making the GIVe site resemble any number of other fashion retailers’ – House of Fraser or the aforementioned Tucci, to name just two. As always, if you’ve surfed the GIVe website – or indeed visited one of the high street stores – feel free to share your own reactions to the GIVe experience.

Reopened Tucci store in Newcastle

Whatever the rationale for the change of heart (and there’s some discussion/speculation about that here), it’s clearly a positive move in that it brings one of Grainger Street’s longest retail frontages back into use – while Tucci has been closed, it has really looked very blank indeed.

Even with Tucci’s return, however, the retail fortunes of the Grainger Street and Market Street area are looking a little fragile. On the other side of the road, three prominent units stand empty next door to each other – the former Karen Millen and Kookai stores (the latter empty since early 2006), and another unit that, apart from being occupied for a couple of months each year by The Xmas Box, has not had a tenant since being refurbished as part of the Grainger Town Project several years ago. Nearby, the former Millets and Coast units have been empty since earlier this year, while the former Thomas Cook site, next to Greggs, must have been vacant for the best part of a decade.

Vacant stores in Grainger Street

It’s hard to know how far this is a Newcastle city centre problem. After all, many of these voids reflect the wider fortunes of the retailers concerned – such as Kookai’s administration; Baugur’s woes in the wake of the Icelandic banking collapse; or Blacks Leisure Group’s exit from the boardwear market, and the consequent rationalisation of its portfolio. However, with the news that Oasis and All Saints are to open in Eldon Square South – raising question marks over their existing Market Street stores in the old Binns block – the area’s never entirely convincing aspiration to be the ‘Bond Street of the North’ is looking decidedly shaky.

Incidentally, Tucci’s reappearance in Grainger Street prompted me to take a look at the retailer’s website and online store. Its predominance of black is perhaps a little cliched, and some of the pages I looked at had missing image files; generally, however, the site’s not too bad, benefiting from a sensible layout and a useful zoom function that allows visitors to view detailed photographs of the available products.

One glaring omission, though – and something that could well be added to my post about expectations of retail websites – is the absence of a list of physical store locations and opening times. The ‘about us’ page only mentions job vacancies, while the ‘contact us’ page makes reference to ‘high street stores’ but fails to say where they are. A visit to the sitemap confirms that no list of stores appears to be provided.

The Newcastle Tucci store may therefore have reopened, but anyone browsing the Tucci website would be none the wiser – an oversight that should surely be addressed.