Soult's Retail View

Photos from the 90s – Sheffield’s Castle House Co-op department store

Graham Soult November 18, 2009 Department Stores, Property, Retail History 2 Comments

Tags: Castle House, Co-op, Co-operative Group, department store, listed building, Newcastle, Pevsner, Sheffield, Sheffield Co-op, United Co-op, Vergo Retail

Sheffield Co-op in 1997

I’ve been sorting through some of my old photos recently – for old, read ’1990s’. Very few of them have much interest from a retail point of view, but then it was generally more usual in those days for me to take pictures of historic buildings and attractive landscapes, rather than of shops.

However, I did come across a couple of shots of Castle House, the now-closed Sheffield Co-op department store in Angel Street (click on the images to view … Continue Reading

Retailers needs a web presence that informs and inspires

Graham Soult August 27, 2009 Department Stores, Online, Technology 3 Comments

Tags: Amazon.co.uk, Beales, Bentalls, Bracknell, Colchester, department store, ecommerce, Fenwick, Ikea, John Lewis, Kingston-upon-Thames, Lewis's, Liverpool, Morpeth, Newcastle, online marketing, Play.com, Rutherford & Co, web usability, Williams & Griffin

Image by Zoran

I was quite chuffed, this morning, to have a short article on web usability published in The Journal. Much of what I wrote is, or at least should be, common sense: essentially, the need to understand what information your customers are looking for, and to give it to them in a way that is clear and engaging. Though the examples I used in the article related to tourism websites, the same principles apply … Continue Reading

Vergo rebranding riddle continues

Graham Soult August 13, 2009 Brands, Department Stores, Property 1 Comment

Tags: Clacton, Co-op, department store, Derrys, East of England Co-op, Ipswich, Lewis's, market research, Plymouth & South West Co-operative Society, rebrand, Vergo Retail

Looking towards the Co-op / Vergo / unnamed store in Carr Street, Ipswich. Photograph by Tim Marchant

Regular readers may recall my post from last month, where I queried how the former East of England Co-op department stores might be rebranded following their takeover by the … Continue Reading

Esslemont & Macintosh – the one that got away

Graham Soult July 26, 2009 Department Stores, Independent Stores, Property, Retail History 1 Comment

Tags: Aberdeen, department store, Esslemont & Macintosh, Joplings, Lewis's, Owen Owen, Robbs, Vergo Retail

Union Street frontage of former Esslemont & Macintosh store, Aberdeen

When I wrote about Vergo Retail’s recent acquisitions a few days ago, it brought to mind the photographs that I took back in February this year of the former Esslemont & Macintosh (E&M) department store in Aberdeen’s Union Street.

When Owen Owen fell … Continue Reading

John Lewis Bristol and the city’s changing retail landscape

Graham Soult July 24, 2009 Department Stores, Property, Retail History, Shopping Centres 3 Comments

Tags: Bentalls, Bristol, Broadmead, Cabot Circus, Cambridge, Cribbs Causeway, department store, Edinburgh, Fenwick, High Wycombe, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Lewis's, Primark

John Lewis Bristol. Photograph by Mattbuck4950

Perhaps it’s a reflection of my status as a retail nerd that one of the first things I usually do on Friday mornings is check out the John Lewis Partnership’s ‘Weekly Figures’.

These weekly stats are strangely compelling in that – probably uniquely for a major UK retailer – John Lewis publishes a store-by-store breakdown for its eponymous department store chain. Hence, … Continue Reading

Vergo Retail – the saviour of unloved Co-op department stores?

Graham Soult July 23, 2009 Brands, Department Stores, Independent Stores, Retail History 8 Comments

Tags: Berwick-upon-Tweed, Bishop Auckland, Blyth, Chester-le-Street, Clacton, Co-op, Co-operative Group, Colchester, department store, Derrys, Dovercourt, Felixstowe, Gateshead, Great Yarmouth, Hexham, House of Fraser, Ipswich, Joplings, Lewis's, Murton's, Newcastle, Norwich, Owen Owen, Plymouth, Robbs, Sheffield, Stanway, Stowmarket, Sunderland, Tamworth, Vergo Retail, Westgate Department Stores, Witham

Co-op Department Store, Great Yarmouth, prior to Vergo Retail's takeover. Photograph by Stephen McKay

In the last couple of weeks, one interesting news story that has been easy to miss is the takeover of the East of England Co-op’s department store business by Vergo Retail.

Vergo Retail, as you may be aware, is the Liverpool-based operation headed … Continue Reading

Does anyone else photograph Tescos?

Graham Soult July 22, 2009 Department Stores, Overseas, Supermarkets 1 Comment

Tags: department store, Eger, Hungary, Košice, Slovakia, Tesco

Until I do write my first proper blog post, let’s at least cheer things up on the home page with some gratuitous Tesco shots. As you might expect, foreign Tescos tend to be much more visually interesting than those in the UK.

Tesco in Eger, Hungary

How about starting off with this very large (and seemingly very successful) Tesco on the outskirts of Eger in Hungary? The planners … Continue Reading

Photos from the 90s – Sheffield’s Castle House Co-op department store

Retailers needs a web presence that informs and inspires

Vergo rebranding riddle continues

Esslemont & Macintosh – the one that got away

John Lewis Bristol and the city’s changing retail landscape

Vergo Retail – the saviour of unloved Co-op department stores?

Does anyone else photograph Tescos?

Welcome

Categories

Archive

Email alerts

Connect With Me

Shopping Directories

Blogroll

Favourite Sites

Tag Cloud

Most Commented

In the News

Favourite Books

Resources

Meta