Casting an eye over a magazine column recently that urged retailers to keep on keeping on with store revamps as this was the way out of the mire, it was hard not to feel that it was a case of raging into the void. The plain truth is that the great bulk of retailers have locked away the keys to the store design sweetie chest and its contents are unlikely to see the light of day for a year or two.
Which probably means lay-offs at a number of retail design's more familiar agencies and in-house teams becoming smaller. But does this mean that the best is behind us and that we might as well get used to the way things are on our high streets because they are not about to change any time soon?
Well, surprisingly, probably not. It is reasonably certain that retailers will not be spending large amounts on new formats as these tend to involve architectural changes, which have a habit of costing tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of pounds. For which reason, the chances of an Apple supermarket or Primark branching out into the DIY are extremely slim, for the time being anyway.
But there is much that can be done with existing estates without huge expense. A couple of retailers last week said that their focus would now be on visual merchandising and that in practice this would mean simple, better thought-through window displays and in-store schemes.
The point about this as a strategy is that most retailers will already have the staff in place to make this a reality. Topshop at Oxford Circus stands as a case in point. This is a retailer that has consistently produced compelling window schemes that don't involve splashing out, by dint of using simple materials, such as string, or metal coat hangers. And if that sounds a mite Blue Peterish, it isn't. As with so many things in life, it matters little what you've got, it's what you do with it.
There is little reason, therefore, to expect a pall of sameness to descend on our shops. By diverting what money may still be available into visual merchandising, retailers will still have the chance to give shoppers reasons for heading into their shops. That said, a trip to Paris last week showed that some of the French capital's grander retailers are still not averse to forking out. You can see the results of their efforts in the next issue of Retail Week.
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