Opinion: Welcome to the ‘curated’ shopping experience

It matters little whether it’s an emporium on the scale of Selfridges or a boutique that is one up from a kiosk, you’ll not have to look too hard to find the ‘c’ word being used with relative abandon.

This is a word that carries with it the implication that every single thing in a store is the result of not just careful choice, but also of selecting it from a large range of options so that it represents the best of the best.

Rarified overtones

But hang on! Isn’t that what shops and buyers do as a matter of course?

Every range everywhere is curated inasmuch as it is the outcome of a retailer opting for one particular piece of merchandise instead of another and thereby saving shoppers the considerable chore of doing the same thing.

“It’s flim-flam and it’s quite hard to see how shoppers might be taken in by the curation term”

Curation, however, has rather more rarified overtones. You won’t find much ‘curation’ in Poundland, even if what’s on view is just as much a matter of choices having been made as in, say, Louis Vuitton – even if the prices are a little different.

Those who use the word will be much keener on store environments where there isn’t actually much on view because that way the emperor can rest assured that his new clothes have been whittled down from a massive initial shortlist.

Curation camps

As well as few items being on view, there is also the matter of the store itself.

Curated interiors fall into two camps: those that are rough and ready – these tend to be curated pop-ups; and the highly wrought store designs with prices to match in prestigious locations such as Bond Street, Mayfair and suchlike.

Either way, it’s flim-flam and it’s quite hard to see how shoppers might be taken in by the curation term.

“As ever, there are buzzwords, and this is just another example of the word machine in action”

Perhaps it’s just a matter of having an offer that shoppers want. Do this and not only have you got stock that has been curated in your stores, but you may actually be making money as well.

As ever, there are buzzwords, and this is just another example of the word machine in action.

On which note it may be time to sign off and to point out that what you have just waded through has been curated – I could have written a lot of other stuff, but chose otherwise.