Department Stores
Should some retailers just be left to die?
A couple of years ago I walked into the newly reopened HMV on Oxford Street. And I had a spring in my step.
Here were physical records in the age of digital music. Here was a space for music lovers to congregate in the flesh.
But also, most noticeably, here were a lot of middle aged, BBC 6 music-loving Patagonia dads (no offence, I am one to some degree) stepping back into their youth.
They loved it. But I tried to zoom out for a moment and engage in a little self-awareness. Without that nostalgia, was this actually good, necessary or exciting?
No it wasn’t. Beyond the warm embrace of a few nostalgic hits, the store just didn’t do enough.
New indie record shops all over the UK are all markedly better. A vinyl and CD renaissance was happening, but it was already happening elsewhere. HMV’s return added nothing to the resurgence.
The return of a fallen giant is something that happens frequently across different retail sectors, and I have a feeling that, in many cases, ego and nostalgia gets in the way of reality.
Some retailers should be left to rest in peace.
Image credit – Jack Stratten/Insider Trends
The nostalgic delusion
The excitement around the return of Topshop is an excellent example of what drives these sometimes flawed comebacks.
For all the PR and marketing, much of it quite compelling, a neutral view would conclude that there was no space in the market for Topshop. Topshop had to some extent invented fast fashion, and that particular model had mutated and become what it is today – a veritable monster.
A world with Zara, Primark and H&M on one side, along with all kinds of ecommerce fashion giants like Zalando and Shein, had created saturation everywhere. Even if Topshop was able to convince customers it was above this part of the market, coming back as a more premium offer, it would find vast competition there too – and from much better brands.
But most problematically, comebacks like this are always encumbered by a nostalgic delusion.
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