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| If BHS can fold, then how safe are M&S and John Lewis? | If BHS can fold, then how safe are M&S and John Lewis? |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| It has been a fixture on so many high streets. It has traded for 88 years. But today, British Home Stores is going into administration, with the loss of 11,000 jobs. In retrospect, its fate was probably sealed a year ago, when the entrepreneur Philip Green sold the company for the token sum of £1. | |
| If he was so keen to offload it, if he could not make the sums add up, you had to question its prospects. Nor was it just the fact of the sale that boded ill: the buyer was one of those faceless, generically named consortiums – Retail Acquisitions, in this case – whose intervention tends, or so it seems, to delay rather than avert the end. | If he was so keen to offload it, if he could not make the sums add up, you had to question its prospects. Nor was it just the fact of the sale that boded ill: the buyer was one of those faceless, generically named consortiums – Retail Acquisitions, in this case – whose intervention tends, or so it seems, to delay rather than avert the end. |
| Comparisons are made with Woolworths – another out-of-date, out-of-time, high-street fixture that folded in 2008. And to be honest, if you even so much as crossed the threshold of a BHS in the last couple of years, you could sense that death was probably close. Efforts were made – there were shops within shops (which makes for brand confusion); coffee concessions were added. | Comparisons are made with Woolworths – another out-of-date, out-of-time, high-street fixture that folded in 2008. And to be honest, if you even so much as crossed the threshold of a BHS in the last couple of years, you could sense that death was probably close. Efforts were made – there were shops within shops (which makes for brand confusion); coffee concessions were added. |
| If you crossed the threshold of a BHS in the last couple of years, you could sense that death was probably close | If you crossed the threshold of a BHS in the last couple of years, you could sense that death was probably close |
| I will cheerfully admit that as I took the warm and dry shortcut through BHS from Oxford Circus to John Lewis in central London, I would occasionally buy something. I have some useful BHS sandals; it used to do a good line in tights (better colours and better quality, to my mind, than Marks & Spencer). It was ahead of the competition in lightweight jackets and stretchy pyjamas for men. My husband liked his BHS slippers more than any he had before or since. | I will cheerfully admit that as I took the warm and dry shortcut through BHS from Oxford Circus to John Lewis in central London, I would occasionally buy something. I have some useful BHS sandals; it used to do a good line in tights (better colours and better quality, to my mind, than Marks & Spencer). It was ahead of the competition in lightweight jackets and stretchy pyjamas for men. My husband liked his BHS slippers more than any he had before or since. |
| But you had to search, or strike lucky. It won accolades at one point for lighting, but their attempts at “homeware” were inconsistent and ultimately failed. Little could really be done to make the acreage of shop floor work harder. The upper-floor restaurants left a lot to be desired, even as the smell pervaded surrounding departments. The mismatch between space and sales, and between current finances and past and future pension liabilities, is what ultimately killed off BHS. | But you had to search, or strike lucky. It won accolades at one point for lighting, but their attempts at “homeware” were inconsistent and ultimately failed. Little could really be done to make the acreage of shop floor work harder. The upper-floor restaurants left a lot to be desired, even as the smell pervaded surrounding departments. The mismatch between space and sales, and between current finances and past and future pension liabilities, is what ultimately killed off BHS. |
| Related: How Britain fell out of love with BHS - timeline | Related: How Britain fell out of love with BHS - timeline |
| Nor will it necessarily be the last. Pension commitments, how they are honoured and who pays in the event of company insolvency, seem to be a flaw of many a British commercial model. They are one of the reasons, along with cheap Chinese competition, why Tata Steel found it so hard to find buyers for its UK companies. Should there not be another way? | Nor will it necessarily be the last. Pension commitments, how they are honoured and who pays in the event of company insolvency, seem to be a flaw of many a British commercial model. They are one of the reasons, along with cheap Chinese competition, why Tata Steel found it so hard to find buyers for its UK companies. Should there not be another way? |
| But retail also has specific problems. BHS failed to keep up with the internet revolution; it faced competition from cheap fashion chains, such as Primark and H&M; it lost the lucrative youth market, by and large, but still tried to appeal across the generations. | But retail also has specific problems. BHS failed to keep up with the internet revolution; it faced competition from cheap fashion chains, such as Primark and H&M; it lost the lucrative youth market, by and large, but still tried to appeal across the generations. |
| You can say, all worldly wise, that it was bound to fail. But will it be a one-off? I doubt it. That description of BHS – enormous spaces, prominent positions on the high street, the attempts to please everyone, the regular rebranding, the diversification – applies also to others. M&S would be one – might it one day become food-only? Debenhams? Even, dare I say it, the sainted John Lewis. It could be that the classic department store is in decline, not just because of technology, but because of changing habits and taste. How many of the shops regarded as institutions will still be around in, say, 20 years’ time? | You can say, all worldly wise, that it was bound to fail. But will it be a one-off? I doubt it. That description of BHS – enormous spaces, prominent positions on the high street, the attempts to please everyone, the regular rebranding, the diversification – applies also to others. M&S would be one – might it one day become food-only? Debenhams? Even, dare I say it, the sainted John Lewis. It could be that the classic department store is in decline, not just because of technology, but because of changing habits and taste. How many of the shops regarded as institutions will still be around in, say, 20 years’ time? |