Blood on the High Street...

It's been nothing short of a blood bath on the High Street over the past week or two, with a number of well-known retailers closing a number of stores and/or plunging into administration, the headliners being:

Jane Norman,
TJ Hughes,
Thorntons,
and Habitat...


None of the names will probably come as a huge surprise to you, in fact you mgiht be struggling to remember the last time you bought anything from any of these- which is the crux of the matter. Quarter-end may have pushed these retailers over a cliff or at least into taking drastic action, but they've all struggled to convince us to buy in sufficient quantities from them in recent years, because they haven't managed to put together a sufficently enticing, unque proposition for us...

Jane Norman: the market for low-mid tier priced clothing for 16-25 yr olds is absoutely saturated these days, and with some very competitive players such as Primark, Asos, New Look, leaving Jane Norman, despite a strong presence on high streets, with little room to manoeuvre..

TJ Hughes: the disocunt department store retailer who again, has struggled against a backdrop of increased competition and reduced consumer spending, to remain a 'go-to' destination

Thorntons: Well many actually think the decision to starting supplying supermarkets was always going to be the death knell for many of their stores- by making themselves so widely and easily available as part of the weekly shop, they not only brought the brand down-market but rendered many of the stores unncessary... Watch this space..

Finally Habitat, who've had continued difficulty in justifying their relatively high-end price points for the minimalist style favoured by founder Sir Terence Conran, having inspired a number of cheaper imitators such as Dwell, Ikea etc...

There are further potential bad news stories on the horizon, but I don't want to end on a depressing note when the sun is shining and the tennis is on...
At the end of the day, the retailers who are going under are the ones you would have predicted- those who simply can't sell enough stock these days. Retailers who continue to exploit their USP, whilst innovating, finding new ways to offer more to customers will always be ok in the end....