Shoppers are brainwashed into thinking that the giant out-of-town retailers decision to sell all that they do is still giving us choice. The 'habit' has become an 'addiction' ... or has it?
We should give Mary Portas and Channel 4 a cheer for keeping the high street in the headlines. We should be pleased that the medium of television gets the issue in front of many more people than the research papers of academics or the lobbying of politicians.
As businesses and high-street retailers join the race to reinvent themselves, an analysis of consumer loyalty trends in Britain over the four years since 2009 shows that the days of pleasure shopping and retail therapy are behind us - as bargain hunting and rampant discounting have become the norm in a tough economy.
In the space of a month, Jessops closed with 2,000 jobs lost, Blockbusters closed with 4,000 jobs at risk and HMV, employing 4,300, entered restructuring with an uncertain future.
It has been an interesting start to 2013 as far as the retail sector is concerned. We've seen the likes of HMV and Jessops collapse and we've heard all about how the big retailers - supermarkets especially - fared over the competitive Christmas period.
How to avoid product returns is one of the most discussed topics in the retail industry. Particularly in the fashion sector, online retailers have to ...
When walking through some of Britain's high streets, one could be forgiven for feeling like they have stumbled onto the set of another end-of-the-world disaster movie. Whilst some are positively thriving amidst the bustle of January sales, others appear more like an adult's deserted playground.
here are other, equally as significant reasons, why the UK's sole surviving entertainment chain has seen its fortunes collapse. These are what I believe those shortcomings are and here is what I think could have been done/should now be done to rectify them.
The warning for Blockbusters, HMV, Jessops, Comet, and whichever major high-street company will fall into administration next, was issued four years ago. Woolworths was there as a very early example of failing to adapt to the demands of customers and should have served as a wake-up call to other high street chains.
How should we feel about HMV's troubles? Appealing to a consumer's sense of nostalgia isn't going to stop people wanting the largest choice of media as inexpensively as possible - something only the internet can now provide.
Why was there so much affection palpably pouring from the keyboards and smartphones of the general public? Well, I offer this; it is at least partly out of guilt. We have all played our role. All of us. Well, probably nearly all of us.
If you got a bit of money for Christmas or have been saving up for the sales, we've got some top tips to make sure you don't waste it on something that will stay at the back of your wardrobe for the next year or so!
In what has been a turbulent year for British retail, the high street was dealt another mighty blow last week following the announcement that electronics giant Comet was going into administration.
Positivity surrounding British high street giant WH Smith, sparked by a market announcement of its latest share buyback, is driven by more than just m...
Following last night's media speculation, troubled music retailer HMV has confirmed the appointment of Ian Kenyon as its financial director. Kenyon...
High streets across the UK have been unnervingly quiet over the past week with shoppers working from home and staying in to watch the Olympics, resear...
The number of empty shops hit an all-time high last month amid a post-Christmas series of retail failures, according to a new survey. Town centre v...
Retailer Game admitted it is in danger of collapse after several suppliers refused to provide it with new products. The group, which employs 10,000...
Many high streets are facing a "bleak" future after shopper numbers fell despite the January sales, a report warned on Monday. Footfall on high str...
Recessions mean bankruptcies, and bankruptcies in the retail sector mean boarded up high streets. Between 2008 and 2010 the number of empty shops has gone up five fold. Only one shop in 40 was empty in 2008, but the rate is now one in seven. It is higher still in some places - one in five in the north west as a whole, one in four in Blackburn, Grimsby, and Walsall, and one in three in Margate.
One in seven shops on the UK's high streets stood empty in 2011 and further closures are expected this year as more people shop online and in out-of-t...
In the Victoria branch of T.M. Sutton pawnbrokers, between the glass cabinets of designer watches and jewelry, is a life-sized bronze statue of Elvis ...
The UK's retail sales values in December showed growth over 2010, according to figures released on Tuesday by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), but...
Virgin Money hit the high street on Monday, with the first re-branded branch of Northern Rock launching in Newcastle. The nationalised lender was sold...
The UK's retail sector showed further signs of stress on Monday, as HMV and Morrisons released disappointing Christmas figures, while data from Visa s...
