Shropshire Star comment: History is unfolding before us
Disaster on the High Street. When even the giants fall, the minnows watch in shock and awe.
The House of Fraser is a retail giant. But the modern retail environment has gone a long way to bringing the House down, as the announcement that it plans to close more than half its 59 stores represents a massive and far-reaching downsizing.
The news has sent shockwaves through towns and cities across Britain and is a heavy blow in Shropshire, which faces losing its House of Fraser stores in Shrewsbury and Telford.
Both are on the closure hit list. From the standpoint of the staff, this is well over 230 local jobs on the line. It is a miserable and worrying time for them.
There is something else which sets this announcement apart from some others as the list of High Street casualties becomes ever longer. House of Fraser is a highly-regarded brand bringing with it reputation and image which adds gloss to town centres.
Bringing Beatties, as it was then, to Telford town centre involved a long courtship with lots of wooing from the town. When Beatties arrived it was a real coup for the town centre owners USS, who saw it as opening the door to a flood of other top name arrivals.
A Beatties buzz, if you like. It was apart from anything else a major investment, having cost £30 million. The excitement at the time of its opening in 2003, graced by a guest appearance by Coronation Street’s Suranne Jones, was palpable.
The store is a name and the very design of its building in the town centre reeks of prestige, presence, and a statement. Telford’s House of Fraser is though a mere baby compared to the illustrious heritage of the store in Shrewsbury, familiar to generations of shoppers as Rackham’s, and before that Della Porta’s with its roots in Victorian times.
And yet these are splendid flagships which are being sunk. Many Shropshire shoppers will also be familiar with Beatties in Wolverhampton. It used to be the place to go when visiting Wolves. Soon it will not be a place to go as it is also earmarked for closure.
Today having a ‘name’ and being a watchword for quality and choice are obviously no longer a guarantee of success. What is going wrong?
Say it quietly, but we may be witnessing the end of an era. Big stores with the associated high overheads, including staff costs, are feeling the heat. Competition from online shopping has become more and more cut-throat.
House of Fraser does of course have its own website. So you have to examine what the big physical stores have to offer which will enthuse shoppers enough to make the journey into town and make their purchases there. The internet has created a world in which consumers can choose and buy from their own homes at prices which are often lower than those offered by stores.
Online shoppers cannot try on the clothes in fitting rooms before they buy, but this does not seem to matter to them and in any event online sellers generally making returning unsuitable purchases straightforward. So out there on the High Street there is a perfect storm.
We are watching something historic unfolding. It is like the death of the dinosaurs. Just as the dinosaurs were unable to survive, large, physical stores are finding things tough.
Big was beautiful but smaller now seems more in tune with the times, being more flexible and with lower costs. And maybe there’s hope in that. Remember, when the dinosaurs disappeared, small mammals flourished.
Nevertheless, when even the star players on the retail scene can no longer draw the crowds our town centres and shopping centres are going to have to find imaginative ways to evolve and adapt if they are to continue to be attractive destinations.
