Selling the Olympics

A mere 144 days to go until the Olympics - which still sounds like quite a long time unless you happen to be in the business of selling Olympics-related merchandise. The London 2012 shops - in John Lewis Oxford Street and Stratford, as well as St Pancras station, should be an opportunity to celebrate one of the most significant events to hit the UK for years. This, after all, is a festival of sport - a time when we all gather around the TV to cheer on our faves, or maybe even pick up a t-shirt or two to show we really care.

That’s the theory and it’s clearly had traction in the minds of those who decide these things, as there’s been an Olympic shop at St Pancras since the summer of 2010. Phew! A two-year run-in might sound like overkill even for London 2012 and certainly on a busy weekday evening last week the shop appeared to have peaked too early, if the number of shoppers is anything to go by.

There might however be another reason for the signal lack of passengers onboard the good ship St Pancras London 2012 - the shop is irredeemably dull. As a retail destination, St Pancras is good and it has to be the most glamorous station to meet somebody in the whole of the Capital. Bearing this in mind, the range of small eateries, bookshops and posh chocolate emporiums is upscale and designed to satisfy the demand for gifts on the way to or from Paris. The problem with the London 2012 store however is that it doesn’t measure up when compared to other retail offer and the product boils down, more or less, to t-shirts, jogging bottoms and a few lapel pins. Small wonder that shoppers were entering and leaving empty handed.

At John Lewis in Oxford Street there has been a 2012 Olympic shop on the fifth floor since 2011 and in April it will almost double in size when an area currently behind a hoarding is unveiled. Like St Pancras, this is more than a little lacklustre and its location at the back of the floor speaks volumes about its importance within the scheme of things. Rather more to the point, you can buy tea cosies, oven gloves and suchlike - all of them London 2012-branded and perfect for getting fit or showing perhaps how sporty you are.

In total, the London 2012 stores look a bit like an attempt to maximise sales for the minimum merchandise or store design effort and should be so much better. It seems likely that heavy markdowns will be the result as the starting gun finally sounds.