A Manc for all seasons

April may have been and gone, as we all enjoyed temperatures that the press said were hotter than Bermuda and Jakarta, but the retail optimism that accompanied this looked a mite overdone in Manchester last week.

It was a damp day in the Northwest’s capital and the acres of pink flesh that had briefly become the norm in April were secreted away beneath jackets, coats and (mostly) hoodies.

Britain was back to what many might consider more seasonal weather and retailers’ exhortations to snap up summer stock looked less compelling. Yet there was no denying that this was high summer if the evidence of stores such as Gap, which boasted a summer Sale, were to be believed. Indeed, about eight weeks from now, high streets will be awash with clearances as retailers prepare for outerwear just as the mercury hits 32°C.

A good time, therefore, to assess retailers’ summer campaigns and to decide on whether they will do the trick. And bear in mind, given Manchester’s rainy reputation, perhaps like New York, if you can cut summer here, you can cut it anywhere – in the UK at least. Manchester also has two of almost everything when it comes to retail, owing to the downtown offer and the edge-of-city Trafford Centre, both of which were visited.

Primark, Market Street

On a grey day in the heart of Manchester, Primark shone out as the retailer banking everything on summer. Each of its many windows had been themed to encourage Costa del Ship Canal shoppers that now would be the right time to make a budget seasonal purchase.

Messages such as ‘10 of the best sandals’, ‘Fits me to a T’ and ‘Beautiful on the beach’ seemed to be working in spite of the weather and there was nothing complex about the window displays that had been installed. Generally, this was nothing more than torsos on poles to which shorts, short-sleeve shirts and crop tops had been applied.

It was doing the trick, however, and, as usual, the area beyond the main entrance was filled with people clutching multiple Primark bags.

Ted Baker, The Trafford Centre

The thing many shoppers like about Ted Baker is its windows, which usually combine wit with a seasonal theme. The store in The Trafford Centre proved no exception, with a display featuring 3D animated, cartoon-style bees buzzing around, backed by the message ‘Let’s get ready to bumble’.

Whatever your thoughts on the quality of the pun, there was no denying that shoppers were stopping to inspect what had been done and the usual artfully contrived mish-mash of store design tropes awaited those who ventured inside.

This, along with Primark, was among the most obviously summer-themed stores in Manchester and, given the complexity of what has been done in Ted Baker, it seems reasonable to suppose that this scheme will remain in place for much of the summer.

Selfridges, Exchange Square and The Trafford Centre

Selfridges’ two Mancunian outposts are warning shoppers about the dangers of overfishing at the moment – just like the London store, where the campaign was launched by Prince Charles last week. In the two stores, ‘Project Ocean’ consists for the most part of cardboard cut-out fish, accompanied by messages suspended from the ceiling.

It is hard to miss the initiative. In The Trafford Centre, for instance, the fishes are positioned at the non-mall entrance and upstairs where the store provides ingress to the mall’s upper level.

But it feels curious in light of the fact that, as well as the fishes that can be viewed in the food halls, they have also been positioned above sundry garment areas at the top of escalators. Presumably, the notion is that even if a visit to the food hall is not on the cards, the visitor will still be made aware of what is happening in our oceans.

Project Ocean involves Selfridges teaming up with more than 20 environmental and conservation groups and runs until June 12.

Jack Wills, King Street

Given university outfitters Jack Wills’ penchant for quaint cathedral cities that have an ancient institution attached, you might not have expected to find a branch in Manchester. That said, this store is located just off St Ann’s Square in the historic heart of the city.

A strapline across the lower part of one of the windows reads ‘Summer term now in stock’ – all well and good and exactly the sort of messaging you would expect of a store premised on the notion of being governed by the vagaries of our better higher education establishments. Yet the visual merchandising team seemed to have overlooked the fact that, when visiting, the royal wedding had taken place two weeks before.

This meant that a crown and the words ‘Wills & Kate: Get your exclusive mug in store’, were still on view. Whether the choice to leave this in the window was laziness, or the effect of having bought a few too many exclusive mugs, was anybody’s guess.

WHSmith, The Trafford Centre

One of The Trafford Centre’s major pulls has to be the size of its units. This means more for both retailers and shoppers, and Boots and WHSmith
in particular have opted to take a large slice of the action. And for WHSmith shoppers, the store offers a real point
of difference. It is located on a single, very large floor and there would be a real danger in the wrong hands that this could be nothing more than a barn with a walkway and islands of merchandise, as is rather the case in the two-floor Boots.

In this WHSmith branch, however, the area to the right of the main entrance has been laid out on a diagonal to the main walkway. All of the equipment in this part of the shop is filled with books, and opting for a non-standard layout immediately make this interesting and allows the promotions for each aisle to be clearly seen. This is a very large book offer, making it a real challenge for Waterstone’s, which also has as store in the mall.

There is, naturally, the usual queuing system festooned with cheap confectionery and if you want a deal on the book of the week from the Richard and Judy Book Club, this is where you’ll find it. However, even this can be
overlooked when the ease of navigation and the unusual absence of a blizzard of overhead point-of-sale material is taken into account. Basic, but highly effective.

The Manchester Store, The Trafford Centre

You have to admire this shop if only for the way that it pokes fun at the nearby Apple Store with a distinctly white, minimalist fit-out and T-shirts that include a black number with a plain white font bearing the legend: ‘iManc’. You could be forgiven for thinking that the bulk of the shoppers walking around The Trafford Centre might actually be from Manchester and therefore having a store dedicated to the city in which they live might spell tough trading.

That said the sense of civic pride plays second fiddle to a feeling that here is a store that offers a bit of fun that happens to be about the city. It has been in this unit for a little over a year and even the shop assistant admitted to having purchased an ‘iManc’ T-shirt. Surprisingly, it’s actually quite hard to walk past this one without taking at least a look through the door. A white ceiling raft, backed by a plain black ceiling void and plain wood flooring equates to souvenirs for the design-conscious. Good for summer stock too.