design:retail - August 2014 - (Page 34)

searching for steve jobs 034 Resurrecting the Pioneers ROBERT HOCKING RETALE MATTERS robert@retalematters.com @rhockinguk "F ORTNUM & MASON opens second U.K. store in 307 years" was the title of the press release in my inbox. Opening two stores in your home market in the time it took the pilgrims to establish Plymouth Rock and for America to become what it is today seems a tad under-ambitious-but perhaps they were just trying to get it right. Nonetheless, it got me thinking about whether the rich history and legacy of department stores still mattered. Selfridges, Harrods, Le Bon Marché, Macy's Herald Square. Visiting these stalwarts of the category, many housed in buildings designed when the consideration of grandeur was still part of setting the stage for purchasing products, masks the reality of the segment-a shrinking share of the consumer's wallet and the inability to rely on economies of scale to be price competitive. So, that leaves them in a pickle: after they've reduced their footprint, cut costs and, with it, service, what's next? Department stores once made retail interesting and, as Dr. Robert Tamilia at the University of Quebec puts it, "were marketing's answer to the industrial revolution." He wasn't far oﬀ when you consider the impact they've had across many aspects of society and the retail we take for granted today. Their sheer size changed building technology and architecture, and they were precursors for skyscrapers and shopping malls. They democratized consumption and furthered gender equality by providing jobs for women; they fueled the development of mass-production technologies and hosted some of the world's ﬁrst radio broadcasts. This was the format that introduced the very notion of customer service: gift-wrapping, restaurants, home delivery and even funeral services. AUGUST 2014 Department stores used to stand for something. They used to dream big dreams and do big things. Macy's introduced the department store Santa in the 1860s that led to generations of children's memories. When Harrods introduced the "moving staircase" (aka escalator) in 1898, they needed to provide cognac and smelling salts for those who found the experience too moving. Would Rowland Macy, Harry Selfridge or Richard Warren Sears today recognize the stores they created? They set out with courage, vision and endeavor to create the retail foundations that everything else has followed. As I take my family to see the Christmas windows at Harrods or wait in line to visit Santa at Selfridges, I'm reminded again that I never rush to do the same at my local shopping mall or when I'm shopping on Amazon. Consumer desires haven't really changed, so perhaps it's time to get back to the values that started it all-a lesson physical stores need to embrace now in case they risk being a footnote in history. There's a point in business when you can't cut any more, where there's no silver bullet to devastate the competition; when acquisitions are about buying revenue and proﬁt rather than creating it. I'd argue the time to revisit history and the philosophy of these early pioneers matters more now than it ever has. In the storied history of department stores, we ﬁnd what it is that retailing is all about- the excitement of acquiring new things, of service and customer relationships, of spectacle and experience-and customer loyalty comes with it. "Look Doris, someday you're going to ﬁnd that your way of facing this realistic world just doesn't work. And when you do, don't overlook those lovely intangibles. You'll discover those are the only things that are worthwhile." DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM FRED GAILEY, "MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET" Harry Gordon Selfridge once said: "Entertainment, customer service and value for money: the ﬁrst will get them in, while the second and third will keep them there." How many department store executives still think this way? Not many, and it shows. In an interview with an HR executive at U.K. retailer House of Fraser, it was explained that 20 years ago, the gap between the ﬂoor staﬀ and the customer was much narrower. "It was a time when staff could relate more and better understand the products they were selling," she said. Today, in many cases, store employees can't aﬀord the products they sell, and their attitudes toward a career in retail have changed-and, I'd dare say, the real attitude of many retail executives is that they're expendable; they're going to leave anyway, so why bother investing? Sadly, in a recent study by Redant of retail employees in the United Kingdom (of which there are 3 million), 50 percent claimed to be embarrassed by their lack of product knowledge, and 73 percent were inclined to send the customer to another staﬀ member or even another store for advice. ROBERT HOCKING IS A LONDON-BASED RETAIL BRAND CONSULTANT WHO LOVES RETAIL BUT HATES SHOPPING-AND CONTINUES TO SEARCH FOR STORES THAT WILL CHANGE HIS MIND. http://www.DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of design:retail - August 2014

design:retail - August 2014
Contents
Editor’s Note
Show Talk
On Trend
We Love This!
Designer Picks
Innovation
Postcard
How’d They Do That?
Have You Heard?
Mingle
The Visual Eye
Searching for Steve Jobs
Global Designer Roundup
ALMACENES SIMAN
The Arvind Store
diptyque
Products
Backstory

design:retail - August 2014