One of the more rewarding aspects of covering retail design is that you get to see things before customers do. This means, for example, that the evening before the near-riot that took place when Primark opened its Oxford Street flagship this summer, the press were invited in to sip champagne-style cordial and consider the new store.

The net impact of this approach upon the fourth estate is generally positive, because they are not obliged to mix it with the great unwashed or to take a look at how a finely honed store layout works when customers storm the doors. In part, this is an own-goal, because the whole point about retail design is that it is for shoppers, not journalists. And, if you really want to know whether a concept is any good, pay a visit a couple of days after the grand opening, when the brouhaha has died down.

It’s at this point that a clearer view can be gained of a store’s “recovery” potential; how quickly it can be made to look shipshape following a day’s trading. This is not necessarily the best way of gauging performance, but it creates a fairly large question mark if it can’t be done.

In Primark Oxford Street’s case, it is unlikely that it will ever again look the way it did on that first evening – the volumes are too great and staff numbers probably too modest for this to be a reality – just like every other branch in the chain. It’s worth noting, however, that Primark is that rare exception where people shop irrespective of visual merchandising standards, drawn by the siren call of low prices and high(ish) fashion.

For other retailers, however, things are not so sweet. On opening day the Whole Foods Market in Kensington looked like a textbook exercise in making merchandise appealing. Despite of the best efforts of staff to prevent it, scribblers, analysts and pundits invaded the massive shop armed with digicams; intent upon capturing a beautiful new shop. Clearly, they never came back.

If they had, they would have witnessed the fact that the mountains of bananas, piles of peppers and delicately arranged assortment of fresh eggs were not quite as bountiful as on day one. In fact, large gaps were evident.

And the lesson? If it’s retail design you’re looking at, pay pre- and post-opening visits, budgets and time permitting. That way you’ll understand how a new shop operates – a factor frequently overlooked, but which is an integral part of any store design.

Topics