Are Consumers Favouring David Over Goliath?
As eager shoppers prepare to return to a very different high street landscape to the pre-lockdown one, the Carpet Foundation’s
Rupert Anton asks whether a shift in consumer attitudes is now leaving the independents to triumph over the giants.
The current retail landscape is littered with doom and gloom. One particularly beleaguered sector is department stores. There are exceptions, of course, with the likes of Dunelm posting extraordinary results. They are, however, very much the exception to the rule. John Lewis alone axed a fifth of its stores last year and the turn of 2021 has seen the demise of Debenhams, so often an ‘anchor’ tenant in shopping centres. The result is that now, for the first time in decades, the number of department stores in Britain is below 1,000. Last year alone, 82 department stores closed their doors according to the Local Data Company, making it the worst year since 2016.
It could be argued that both John Lewis and Debenhams limped into the pandemic in poor shape, but I wonder if the reason for their problems could be down to two fundamental issues – a departure from the traditional ethos of department stores and a shift in consumer attitudes.
When department stores emerged in the early 19th century, they were a totally new concept where consumers could suddenly get everything under one roof. They were a unique attraction. Crucially, I would argue, they were independent, often family-owned, and catered for their local communities. They were local institutions, inexorably tied to their locality. Today, with the large groups, that is no longer the case. But, as we see at the Carpet Foundation, those local department stores that still adhere to the original ethos and, crucially, are family-owned, are not only surviving, but prospering.
Secondly, in the current climate, large organisations are losing their popularity and consumers are rooting for the little guy. Witness the explosion of artisan gins and beer brewers taking the fight to global distillers and the popularity of local butchers and bakers. David is being favoured over Goliath.
The same is true in the flooring industry with the larger chains struggling at the hands of independent retailers. I am old enough to remember a famous quote from the managing director of a former household name in the flooring industry who stated he wanted to “wipe out independents.” He got that slightly wrong!
The mood music now is very much with ‘local’ heroes, the small wonders. Walk down any high street and you will see signs exhorting you to ‘shop local’. Research by Deloitte after the first lockdown found that, while consumers may have begun shopping locally out of necessity, they discovered their local
08 | Tomorrow’s Retail Floors
shops as places for human, and relevant, contact and places where they got ‘personal’ service when they needed it most.
As Mary Portas said: “People will always respond to brilliant service, genuine expertise and a quality product.” That is at the heart of small, local, independent, family-owned business. It is in their DNA. What they sell is the ‘personal touch’ offering good old-fashioned, knowledgeable and personal service. They are passionate about what they do, well- informed about what they sell and genuinely engage with their customers. Furthermore, like the department stores of old, they do ‘community’ things and have a strong understanding of, and affinity with, their community. Truly ‘local’ businesses, they support, sponsor and donate to local causes because they ‘get’ it and are firmly entrenched in the local fabric.
“As we see at the Carpet
Foundation, local department stores that still adhere to the original ethos and, crucially,
are family-owned, are not only surviving, but prospering.”
Another core principle of good shopkeeping is attractive displays. Here again, small shops have an advantage, as they are not hamstrung by corporate red tape. In the flooring industry today, manufacturers provide excellent, attractive point of sale and merchandise. Being independent, shops can pick and choose who they deal with and it is no coincidence that the most successful independent retailers have rationalised their supplier base without compromising their offer.
The high street is undoubtedly a tough place right now but department stores and large outlets still have a place and a role to play. There may be fewer of them, but perhaps they need to go back to basics and their original core principles or, like Harrods and Selfridges, offer a bit of spectacle and excitement.
A lot of us still want to go shopping- remember the queues outside Primark when the first lockdown ended! Retail isn’t dying, but it is changing and being small and independent is beautiful at the moment.
www.carpetfoundation.com
www.tomorrowsretailfloors.com
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