Soult's Retail View

Peacocks logo

Peacocks has submitted a planning application for new signage at the former Zavvi site in Newcastle’s Northumberland Street, confirming recent rumours that the fashion retailer was being lined up to occupy the 17,000 sq ft store.

Published today, the application (2010/0159/01/ADV) is for the “display of internally illuminated fascia sign, internally illuminated projecting sign and non illuminated banner sign to Northumberland Street elevation and black vinyl … Continue Reading

Well worth it? Well, perhaps...

Back in September, you might recall me trumpeting the fact that I’d visited six old Woolworths in a day. Today, however, I must confess to visiting (and photographing) ten in one day – or eleven if you count the extra one that I passed on the bus but was too tired to stop at. Needless to say, you … Continue Reading

Borders at Retail World, Gateshead. Photograph courtesy of Land Securities

Mixed fortunes in the news today for two specialist retailers that both have a presence at Team Valley Retail World in Gateshead – HobbyCraft and Borders.

Privately-owned HobbyCraft, which describes itself as “the UK’s largest chain of dedicated arts and crafts superstores”, has reported a … Continue Reading

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 … Continue Reading

It certainly looks like it, according to the latest, publically available version of the Eldon Square South letting plan - linked to from here. What’s more, it also appears that there’s going to be a branch of the trendy fashion brand of the moment, Superdry.

Here’s a screenshot:

Screenshot of ES South lettings map, September 2009

At present, the only … Continue Reading

How about SIX?

Former Woolworths, Redcar (17 Sep 2009)

Stop one is High Street in Redcar, where the former Woolworths store has recently become a branch of the Yorkshire Trading Company. As always seems to be the case with old Woolies stores, it still looks and feels much like a Woolworths inside, and appears to sell a similar range of goods – homewares, gardening products, confectionery, and the like. However, when I … Continue Reading

Woolworths Worthit logo

Wandering around the variety store Poundstretcher in Hexham yesterday, I was understandably surprised to spot lots of Woolworths-branded products on the shelves, including – among many other things – Worthit DVD players and laundry baskets.

Presumably, Poundstretcher has snapped up surplus warehouse stock that would have been destined for Woolies, had it survived. It struck me as quite ironic, given that Poundstretcher put its weak performance over Christmas down to competition from Woolworths’ clearance sale – selling off … Continue Reading

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 … Continue Reading