High street trends - pop-up shops and Poundland niche

Two stories featured last Saturday showed trends in High Street shopping this year. On Sky TV news there was this report into new ‘pop-up’ shops – temporary stores which can be quickly installed in some of the many empty retail units available at the moment (15% of all high street retail units are unoccupied, compared with 7% this time last year). Originally conceived for niche brands such as the temporary Marmite shop on Regent Street, in which Marmite fans can buy 100 variations on the Marmite theme – they have been adopted by chains such as HMV who want to take advantage of a gap in the Christmas market left by disappearance of retailers like Zavvi and Woolworths, but don’t want to invest in a permanent shop.

Then there was an item on the Radio 4 Today programme the same day in which Evan Davis examined the rise of the Poundland chain, which is opening its 250th store. Poundland has cashed in on the growing desire to seek better value during the recession, with many brand names producing special pack sizes just for sale in their stores. The rise of the chain during the recession mirrors the growth of discount food stores like Aldi and Lidl and the rise of Primark in clothes retailing, and there is a 7-minute podcast that can be downloaded from here (scroll down to find the heading “Budget shops ‘opportunistic’” from Sat, 21 November). Apparently you can buy a pack of 50 Duchy Originals tea bags for £1 – so excuse me, I am just off to do the Christmas shopping….

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