Habitat’s London stores may still not survive

Walking around Habitat’s Tottenham Court Road flagship on Saturday it was quite hard to understand why this branch was one of the three that will remain open when the Homebase deal is complete. It was busy, but not a huge amount of action was taking place at the tills and much of what was on view was pretty much the same as the last time I visited - around a year ago. Granted, it did provide a modestly lower-priced alternative to its neighbour Heals. But the preponderance of plastic among the smaller items that were on offer did make you wonder whether were Ikea to set up a micro-store in central London this one would be able to stand the pace.

At the time of visiting, late PM, things were hotting up in central London and the likes of M&S, Charles Tyrwhitt and HMV, to name a few, provided a welcome respite with their efficient air conditioning. Not so Habitat where the pots and pans section wasn’t really needed as all the shoppers who had come in were cooking nicely without recourse to gas mark 3 and piece of Le Creuset metal.

No wish to quibble really, but isn’t buying aspirational stuff about being made to feel good and enjoying the moment of purchase as well as the goods for which you eventually hand over the credit card? Most of the West End’s mid-market players seem to have grasped this elemental retail truth, so if you have a store with a low-ceilinged basement, is making shoppers sweat a good idea? It is not and the tasteful desk fans that were working overtime in the lighting department did little to alleviate matters.

Good in-store design should take into account the environment as a whole and while grey slate floor tiles and white surfaces with steel edges may look good, if you’re feeling uncomfortable this won’t cut the mustard. At this point the green lobby will probably be saying that at least Habitat TC Rd’s CO2 emissions will be on the low(er) side. But if getting shoppers through the doors is the object of the exercise then perhaps a measure of non-greeness is still necessary.

Strangely, there are a number of Habitat stores, think Cambridge and Cheltenham, that are a pleasure to shop from an aesthetic and body temperature perspective. The plain fact however is that there are more well-heeled types who are prepared to put up with relative discomfort for a slice of this time-worn brand in central London than anywhere else, so why not make ‘em suffer? Wouldn’t bet on more than one out of the three remaining stores staying the course though. A single flagship is all that’s needed to carry the brand for wider distribution purposes.