The Daily Mail Monday Comment 26th Nov 12

In a career that spans 45 years culminating in leading some of the UK’s well known chains: Wickes, Iceland, Focus DIY, I have witnessed decades where literally thousands of independent stores have disappeared. Retail vacancy rates, that’s empty shops, are running at an average of 15% which means an awful lot of unsightly gaps in our High Streets. With some High Streets doing well that means that in some parts of the country such as Derby, Liverpool and Leeds have 20% of their shops vacant. The indisputable fact is that the very fabric of our towns and cities is dying off. Independent stores that were once part of a vital hub are disappearing at a rate of 50 shops a week. Many of our once thriving High Streets are criss-crossed with unsightly brooding scars of boarded-up shops.  At the same time some of the UK’s best known stores have vanished. In fact there is a veritable A to Z of “the disappeared” starting with Athena, Bejam, C&A, Dillons right through to Unwins, Victoria Wine, Woolworths and Zales. This year that list has grown with the additions of Comet and Clintons Cards.

Many were, in their time, innovative and exciting, yet all died in the end. As we enter the season of goodwill who will be next on boot hill? Retailing is in the middle of the perfect storm. Consumer confidence is at its lowest point, the economy is struggling to emerge from recession, retailers have too much space and customers are migrating in ever increasing numbers to on line and mobile shopping.

We are now in a position where pundits, campaigners, academics and the media are agonising what is happening to our shops. In a search for a “baddie” to blame the spotlight falls most frequently onto supermarket giants such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and the like. Not content with dominating the market for groceries with a powerful combination of out-of-town centres and convenience stores the chains are increasingly starting to dominate, books, clothes, homewares, electrical goods and toys. The supermarkets are even honing in on specialist services and opening up opticians, dental surgeries and medical centres.

Whatever your view on this  what is clear is that things are only going one way. More and more shops will close and there are just so many pound shops that can open. So what do we do with this redundant space? This is not a retailing problem that can be solved by a Government backed report such as the Portas review. The £5.5million Government package of support to help revive nearly 400 ailing High Streets, which was announced in July, in response to that review will not even scratch the surface of the problem.  After all the money has been spent, the headlines written and the cameras have moved on  we will still have the same problem; not enough people want the high street experience anymore. To be blunt it is all a waste of money and resources.

Today we are voting with our feet preferring to visit huge centres like Westfields, Trafford Centre, Liverpool One and now the new development in Leeds for retailing, eating and entertainment.The future is exciting for those retailers leading the way into on line and mobile shopping. There is definitely an Amazon in the room! Those that have been too slow to recognise this or are carrying too much in fixed property costs will find the future difficult. Next possible candidates that will struggle are names like; HMV, Argos and even Homebase all have missed the innovation time window. But in the meantime competition and the Comet stock sale should mean great offers will be available this Christmas. However, the challenges that face our town centres will go on well into the future and these towns need to find other community based solutions to make use of these assets and regenerate the area. They cannot be saved as a destination for retailing alone. Much needed affordable housing, turning our High Streets into domestic living centres would be a good place to start.

Bill Grimsey Author: “Sold Out” www.vanishinghighstreet.com and ex CEO Wickes, Iceland, Focus DIY and Park n Shop Hong Kong