Liverpool Two

I was in the north for the day on Friday and had an hour to kill in Liverpool before my train home, so it was a good opportunity to catch up on the city’s retail scene, which has been transformed in the past couple of years. Liverpool had suffered for a long time with a sub-standard retail offer, but that’s all changed with Grosvenor’s Liverpool One development.

The first time I visited Liverpool One was during the BCSC conference in November 2008, when the weather was absolutely horrible with gale force winds and rain coming in sideways off the Mersey. That’s when a largely uncovered shopping centre compares unfavourably relative to its indoor rivals. For my second visit on Friday, the sun was out and so were the shoppers - the centre was absolutely humming and had a really nice feel to it. It lost it’s developer a fortune, but to my mind it is one of the very best retail developments in the UK.

John Lewis was absolutely teeming with shoppers, as were many of the other shops. Another store which stood out for me was Waterstone’s, which featured the latest store design and was the best multiple bookstore I’ve been in in ages. The store had real personality, authority in its range, lots of colour, a nice coffee bar and felt to my mind just what a good bookshop should be. It feels like a business making real progress under Dominic Myers.

Other highlights included a new Clas Ohlson in the Clayton Square centre, a format which is really gaining critical mass here, and the giant Rapid Hardware store in part of the George Henry Lee store which John Lewis vacated when Liverpool One opened - John Lewis appears to have kindly bequeathed the cash desks to its successor. This store is a classic independent which some would have you believe has no place in today’s retail scene, but there were plenty of shoppers there and the store had a good product range, keen prices and friendly, knowledgeable staff - I was even greeted by the security guard.

While Liverpool One seems to be doing very well, it seems to have taken its toll on the Met Quarter development round the corner, which despite having some great brands was as deserted as Liverpool One was busy, and has quite a few empty shops. Oddly the landlord has chosen to decorate the front of some of them with interesting facts about penguins. Other lowlights included the deserted Habitat store, where it’s impossible to find the way to the even more deserted upper floor thanks to a mad decision by someone not to install an escalator, and the value focussed St John’s Shopping Centre, truly one of the most depressing places I’ve ever been.