Store gallery: Marks & Spencer’s 'back to school' store a textbook success

The number of parents who wander into a big store in search of ‘back to school’ clothing is considerable, whether the chosen emporium is Tesco, Primark, BHS, New Look or any of the other retailers that see the category as a moneyspinner. Yet sometimes it can be hard to undertake this shopping mission owing to the multiple distractions that are on hand in the store, for adults and children.

Now help is at hand. Marks & Spencer has opened its first standalone ‘back to school’ shop, in Manchester’s Trafford Centre. On the face of it, this would seem a perfectly reasonable thing to do and the real puzzle must be why others haven’t done it before. And the answer, in part at least, must be the availability of suitable shop units when they are needed for this to be a profitable proposition. To its credit, Marks & Spencer has seized on the opportunity afforded by a vacant unit, just along the way from its main store in the Mancunian mall.

The result is a store that looks like a standard ‘back to school’ department of the kind that you’ll find in any large M&S store for a short time longer, but it’s a standalone. The idea of spinning off categories from stores that cover multiple merchandise areas is hardly new, yet it is surprising how little it is done.

And if proof were needed of the efficacy of the approach a quick word with the store manager tells the story. Since opening, and this is not a long selling period, the Manchester Trafford ‘back to school’ shop has become the retailer’s biggest purveyor of the category. Others might do well to sit up and take notice. They’ll have to be quick though, the store closes on September 7.-