There are a couple of stories to interest small retailers in today's paper. First there's Boots reporting its third consecutive fall in quarterly takings, becoming relieved that the competition's suffering as well and taking in lots of cheap gifts for the Christmas market.
So the High Street is in trouble again, yes? Well yes, but as I've mentioned before there are other factors too. Here's a story about Tesco buying in new expertise for its clothing range. And here's another story about a High Street success, also in the textiles market.
Clearly these stories have no bearing on the Boots example, but they suggest that people with the right product and business model will still do well. Take into account that only last week Dixons said etailers were getting at its profits, and shortly before that Woolworths announced its plan for mixed on-site and cyber-shopping, and I start to suspect that we're actually seeing not an economic downturn alone but a change in the way people shop. And the older brands aren't keeping up unless they do something radical as Woolworths appears to be trying.
Media coverage of an economic downturn will continue of course, because commentators and economists are still entrenched in the traditional economy model. I believe that to get a true picture of what's going on we're eventually going to have to factor in electronic retailers as part of the High Street rather than simply reference them as an explanation as to what's going on in the rest of the world.
In fact, the term "High Street" is looking distinctly dated by now. I suspect we'll see it phasing out as a useful phrase in the headlines over the next few years
