1. Marks and Spencer
2. Primark
3. Asda
4. Tesco
5. Next
6. Matalan
7. Sainsburys.
I'm disappointed that only M&S is keeping Primark off the coveted spot of UK's top clothing retailer, and no less than horrified that the supermarkets' successful encroachment on yet another non-food sector means they now make up nearly half of this list.
It's not snobbery- I think the concept of 'fashion democracy' in which no-one is excluded from making the fashion choices and statements they want on the grounds of price, is important, and a great step forwards that has come about primarily because of the rise of value retailers. They are great at providing both extremely keenly priced goods, which of course is more important when the income is ever squeezed further, and also, fast turn-around of items 'inspired' by catwalks and celebrities. As such, value retailers have a crucial spot on the retail landscape.
But in the quality vs price trade-off, I feel that these retailers put the emphasize very, very firmly on the later. Cheap prices typtically (but of course not always) go hand-in-hand with relatively poor quality, lack of customer service, questionable supply chain values, bad store layout, limited design input in some cases, the list goes on.
And with the supermarkets in particular, this is yet another category they are muscling in on, and arguably now starting to dominant, which will inevitably be at the expense of smaller and or dedicated category retailers, as we have seen in other sectors already.
And any lessening of competion weakens the market for you and I, as there is less incentive to improve quality, design, supply chain values, shopping experience and so on, if the retailers who still prioritise these values, fall by the wayside....
And then we'll miss them when they're gone.
