grace bros closes its doors
Today is the last trading day for the final twenty-two BHS stores. And it’s not grabber Green’s fault, who cunningly saw the opportunity of asset-stripping and using its debt to his personal advantage. It’s not even Chappell-the-incompetent’s fault who was ignorantly hoodwinked by Sir Philip’s fancy footwork. It’s your fault. It’s my fault. And it’s their fault.
Department stores the world over are in big trouble. Whilst Harrods & Selfridges continue to be a stand-alone tourist attractions in their own right and John Lewis remains the darling of the hoi-polloi, House of Fraser are floundering, M&S meandering and Debenhams in long-term decline. It’s no better a story on the other side of the pond, where main street stalwart, Macy’s, is closing over a hundred stores. And it’s all because we don’t want to ‘go-up-town’ any longer and splash the cash in the department stores’ direction.
All retailers face online pressure, and have done so for many years, but department stores are unable to differentiate themselves to us in any meaningful way. Once upon a time, they were popular exactly because they offered everything under the one-roof, whereas now we want unique, specialised, artisan, craft & personalised. Or, we know what we want and we want it from Amazon. Ironically, big is beautiful online but offline, small sells. For the chain-stores of yesteryear the writing’s on the wall and the age of young Mr Grace’s ‘are you being served’ is drawing to a close.
