Posts tagged ‘shopping’
a Leeds retail safari – with an unimpressive Trinity
I went on a bit of a Retail Safari round Leeds yesterday morning:
We’ve heard of Pound Shops, but how about the Pound Bakery? They’ve over 30 stores, mostly in the North.
picture from a RidingsFm promo event because I didn’t think to take pics, doh
M&S have taken a stall at Leeds Market (where the original M&S first launched as open-air stall in 1884) selling souvenirs and PRing their new museum (yes, really) which exhibits stuff from the company archive and has just opened at the other end of town.
photo by the lovely LeedsGrub
There’s a pop-up One Direction store, which I kept getting asked for directions to by harassed looking Mums.
photo from the YEP
And that 1D store is in the newly opened Trinity Leeds. I first saw the plans for it in 1998ish (my old agency had a lot of property development clients) and it was sold to us as a way of connecting disparate shopping offers, rather than as a new development. It’s obviously been re-positioned since then because from all the hoo-ha round here you’d think it was the biggest thing to happen to retail since Bluewater.
photo by the gang at Leeds retail agency Gratterpalm
In reality, they’ve put a funky glass cover (note not a weatherproof roof, you can see the gaps at the edges in the photo above) over several different buildings that already had shops in them, connected them up, created walkways to access upper floors more easily and added some extra square footage by taking advantage of awkward corners and so on. It’s only half-open at the moment and freezing cold because not only is the roof more of a roughly fitted awning than something capable of stopping hot air getting out, the entrances are all ten foot wind tunnels with no doors that simply serve to bring the cold air in. It was so cold when I visited that people were wearing gloves inside and one Spanish restaurant had abandoned their al fresco terrace and stuck this sign up:
pic by me, for once
I thought there would be enough interesting stuff around Trinity to keep me going for a few hours of nosing about. In reality, I gave up and went on a hunt for some new jeans, finding them in a store outside the development. Where it struck me that the one thing Trinity has changed is the shape of the shopping hub for Leeds. It used to be T shaped (Briggate and Albion Place) and now with Trinity’s main entrance on Briggate and stores from Albion relocating into it, it’s become a one street town center. Which can’t be a good thing.
on targeting and being Too Old For Topshop
I’m working on a couple of fashion led projects (yay!) at the moment and I suppose in fashion more than anywhere else, targeting is a real issue.
Do you design and market aimed at the demographics of your current core target audience? Target the younger end of your audience because that might attract in the next generation of brand loyalists? Or target at the older end because that’s where the spending power is?
Problem is, you’re always going to upset somebody, somewhere. I read a great piece recently (god knows where…) pointing out that all the 18 year olds would like Topshop back please because its full of 30-somethings who spent their teens shopping there and aren’t ready to give it up quite yet.
I would definitely categorise myself as ‘too old for Topshop’ (google the phrase and you get 7,000+ results), I also don’t have the legs for Karen Millen or the bank account for Reiss. And as the Telegraph puts it, Dorothy Perkins has its moments – but the last, alas, was in 2002.
Where’s a girl to shop? Like (it seems) every other not-very-funky thirtysomething I end up hitting the yummy mummy brands – Boden and Monsoon. Add in some bling from Designers at Debenhams and basics from Next, Gap & M&S and you might not have the world’s most inspiring wardrobe, but at least it fits and flatters. On the other hand, I saw the most amazing dress on ASOS this morning…
So I suppose all this leads me to concluding that fashion brand allegiance is more about mindset, finances and body shape than age – but that’s very hard for brands to put into a database.
I can’t predict the future, but I’m fairly sure about Staycationing, Staying In and Savvy Shopping
I keep being asked at work to have a stab at predicting consumer attitudes and behaviours in three, six or even twelve months time. Since no-one seems to be sure whether we are in a W or V shaped recession, this is a tad challenging to say the least.
I am fairly sure about a few things:
- When economic recovery does appear, it will be mild
- Gordon Brown will try very hard not to call an election until the economy (and with it, consumer confidence) picks up a bit
- But conversely, the election itself might be the catalyst for consumer confidence in new beginnings
- We will still be Staycationing next year, but sales of overseas holidays will be up on 2009 as the Staycationers that got rained off fly away in search of guaranteed sunshine
- Staying In will still be the new Going Out in 2010, but the ‘dine in for £10’ type offers will start to focus on ‘semi scratch’ cooking rather than ready meals
- Christmas 2009 will be all about Savvy Shopping – holding out until the retailers give in and start their sales early, searching online for discount codes and the best deals, practical present giving – and trying hard not to stick it all on the credit card
What do you think?
understanding value
Like many other Planners I suspect, I’ve been pulling together a lot of insight pieces for work recently looking at the effect of the downturn economy on buying behaviour.
Since it’s proper paid-for-by-my-employer stuff drawing on all the groups and depths the research team have been doing with mums recently, I can’t really share it in full here, but one of the most interesting things that came out is about the broadening definition of what ‘value’ means for UK shoppers – and it’s NOT just about cheaper prices:
- for many hardcore premium supermarket shoppers, it’s still about the store delivering value via a less stressful shopping experience (no screaming kids or muzak)
- value is getting tied into brands providing a rationale for purchase, ‘ammunition’ to justify spending money on non-essentials while other people are skint
- value can also mean a reassurance of quality (which is where big brands still have a role to play), or can be about delivering quantity (a dozen Value loo rolls) or even minimal packaging – mums seem to have finally woken up to the fact that they have been paying over the odds for overpackaged goods
- value can even be delivered via advice, in terms of how to use up leftovers or quick and healthy meal ideas
- when it comes down to it, value is now all about delivering an acceptable compromise to conflicted mums struggling with tight budgets
Going upt’market
I’ve been struck by the number of black 4x4s with tinted windows I see on the way to 
work in every morning. No, its not a drug dealer’s convention – it’s the school run. When did Leeds get so upmarket?
I know everyone made a fuss when Harvey Nicks moved in eleven years ago, but now according to rumours, a very-well-known-and-expensive-shoe-designer is to join Jo Malone, Louis Vuitton, Vivienne Westwood and Nicky Clarke in parting (the apparently not all that tight-fisted after all) Yorkshire folk from their brass.
Its not as if we even have a premiership football team whose WAGS might provide some spending power.
