How many shops have you closed this year? Following the high-profile opening of Liverpool One and all the associated festivities, that might come across as a grumpy old man’s question, but, as the downturn persists, it’s one that all retailers should ask themselves if they haven’t done so already.

Retailers often get fixated on opening programmes. Of course, openings are essential and big-draw shopping developments, which change the retail dynamic of their localities, are priority selling locations.

But many store groups have a tail of underperforming shops that are allowed to stumble on from one year to the next while making, at best, a marginal contribution.

Some of the administrations of the past six months are perfect cases in point – these are businesses with a profitable core, dragged down by a loss-making rump of shops that are nevertheless costly to run.

I’ve been told that one of the big pub companies made it standard practice to shut a set number of its worst-performing bars every year. Perhaps more retailers should do the same.

Although the issue is more pressing during harsh high street conditions, a rigorous portfolio review makes sense at any time. Action should be taken if a store’s problems can be rectified – by training staff, for instance – but if there are fundamental problems, closure is surely the most sensible option. Attention can then be devoted to the shops that trade well.

Landsbanki’s John Richards, a seasoned observer of the retail scene, points out in his column in this week’s issue of Retail Week that some of the groups that are doing best at the moment, such as Mothercare and JD Sports, are those that have managed their store portfolios most aggressively.

With ever more space slated to come on-stream, the pressure to get out of locations that don’t work is only likely to increase.

The growth of multichannel is also changing the metrics for shops and we report today on Asda’s plans to launch its Direct business in time for Christmas.

Asda has been relatively slow to build its online business and the debut of Direct is likely to close ground on rivals pretty rapidly.

A vast non-food catalogue will put an extra squeeze on general merchandisers. But market leader Argos has more than held its own against the incursions of the big grocers – most notably Tesco – into its sector.

The battle that has taken place on the high street over the past decade as grocers ramped up their general merchandise offers is now being replicated online. But the strong general merchandisers are still on the high street – or at least on the retail park – and will survive online, too.

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