The decline of city centre department stores

[rob666]

I really don't understand online clothes shopping. There is no way of telling from a photo what something feels like, how it's cut, how it fits. It just seems bizarre to me, and much more trouble than it's worth. The people I know who regularly clothes shop online seem to spend more time fannying around returning stuff than they ever would have if they just popped to the shops in the first place.

But I thought people purchased clothes online so they could wear them once, then send them back for free.
That is the whole point of shopping for clothes online...free party rentals.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

I can remember when I started work in 1997 and cause I worked within a 20 min walk to Birmingham city centre I would walk into town and meet up with a few friends who were at college. Anyway in Argos back then you looked in the book and if you wanted to know if it was in stock you had to join a queue at a selected till just to see if that item was in stock . Was very ignoring having to do this every time to they added number consoles to every table to check stock but you still had to go to a store to check stock to they had a website to check stock and reserve system. Now I can look up a item, pay for it and if I’m willing to pay premium delivery get it the same day without leaving my house.
With the clean air payment, parking charges and just last month having to wear a mask in shops and on public transportation it’s no wonder why so many have there food and goods delivered.
I do still use the local butchers and my hardware shop as I like to support my local independence shops.

 

[WillPS]

Just read this excellent article on the decline of city centre department stores. It uses the Sheffield John Lewis as a tragic example:

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...effield?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

I do think that eventually most department stores will be gone from the majority of city centres. The current biggest ones in Sheffield are Primark, Next and M&S. As well as John Lewis, we also lost Debenhams as a result of the pandemic.

Do you feel the same?

When I first visited Sheffield, the city had not one but 2 Co-op department stores - and they were both managed by separate societies. (Nottingham had 2 until the 90s, but they were both GNRG society branches.)

There was the mighty Sheffield Co-op down the Castle end and the Sunwin (United Co-op) on Moorhead. Both were pretty special in their own way but not really places that had anything to offer to a 21st century customer.

I don't really see Next or Primark as department stores - they're clothes shops with a range of homeware.

M&S just about gets away with it because of the Food Hall, and historically they had a range of electronics, but they're pretty borderline tbh.

John Lewis is most definitely a department store, and much as I was sad to see the Sheffield one close that shop had been in managed decline since it lost the Cole Brothers name over the door. As you'll know, the location isn't great even by Sheffield city centre standards footfall wise, and they've not done enough to rectify that at times when better sites were available.

To be completely honest, I don't really get the hype about John Lewis as a retailer. Their much celebrated customer service hasn't met my expectations in the past - they once tried to refuse a return on a faulty pair of earphones because "they had no way of testing them" - yeah, that's your problem mate, not mine. I've always had better luck at Argos and places like that with those things.

I happened to nip in to the Nottingham branch today with my goddaughter to choose a Lego set. The toy department used to be great but has recently been moved and the new one is such a crap effort, with lazy merchandising like having the Lego sets arranged such that the youngest age ranges were out of eye-line for a child. Pretty pathetic to be honest; it's the kind of stuff I was trained to think about when I worked as a Saturday boy in The Entertainer.

The one thing John Lewis do *really well* is Christmas, in my opinion. Their Christmas department is absolutely fabulous and I find it very easy to spend hundreds in that thing.

Probably best to leave my opinion on House of Fraser out of it but needless to say it's not good.

 

[jon81uk]

Probably best to leave my opinion on House of Fraser out of it but needless to say it's not good.

House of Fraser is now just upmarket USC, which is just upmarket Sports Direct.

I've not been into a HoF store much for years, but my impression from the website is its the same customer service as Sports Direct with more expensive brands for sale.

 

[Stuie]

I blame Bezos.