Mary Portas: Save Our Shops, Tuesday, BBC2

Posted by Liberty Jones

In this worrying Money Programme report, retail therapist Marty Portas – fresh from saving the charity shop – attempted to revitalise the fortunes of not just a single business, but the entire town centre of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. Potentially a great shopping environment, Tewkesbury is dying a death – hardly surprising when only 11% of its residents choose to shop there.

Despite her scary front-row-of-the-fashion-shows demeanour, we’ve long been a fan of Portas and we had high hopes as she brought her fierce urban glamour to Tewkesbury. With one in five shops in the town already closed for business, she faced a tough task.

First item on the agenda was a crisis meeting for local shopkeepers, who painted a grim picture. Music shop owner John used to do a roaring trade, but now business is down by 50%. "I've gone through the despondency and the despair. Now I'm just bloody angry," he said through gritted teeth.

It was a similar story at Dawn To Dusk, a cluttered boutique, where frou-frou ballgowns jostled for position along men's pinstripe suits. "Sometimes I go a whole day without speaking to anyone except the postman," said owner Amanda, who'd been forced to remortgage her house and snaffle her parents' life savings just to keep the business afloat.

We're used to seeing Mary turn struggling businesses around in the space of an hour, with her unique brand of ass-kicking and wand-waving – but sadly this time there were no quick fix solutions. The retailers of Tewkesbury threw themselves into the challenge, but John's offer of ukele lessons for local kids in a bid to expand his customer base, and Amanda's attempt to offer "a bit of theatre" in the shape of free cupcakes barely scraped the surface of the problem.

"It's not rocket science," said Mary, waving her gloriously accessorised hands. "Retailers that deliver service, a fun shopping experience and good value for money still get customers during a recession. That's what they need to learn in Tewkesbury." Hmmm… easier said than done.

 Picture: BBC

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Comments

[Karen Connolly]

Mary, come to Glossop. PLEASE. If I tell you why, I will get upset and don't want to! Come and have a coffee.
Kind Regards
Karen

[Skillsmart Retail]

It is sad that Mary Portas signed off the show last night by saying “for the smaller independent retailers, I don’t think there is anyone there who is going to lend them a hand”. Thankfully for the many increasingly desperate shops out there, this is not the case.

At Skillsmart Retail, Sector Skills Council for Retail, we believe that the launch of the National Skills Academy for Retail, a network of retail training centres or ‘skills shops’ located on high streets and in shopping centres across the UK, offers a solution. Designed to help support both successful and struggling retailers, the National Skills Academy for Retail skills shops offer free advice and access to a range of services, including forthcoming retail masterclasses for independents.

In attendance at the launch event for the National Skills Academy for Retail was Charlie Mayfield, a vocal supporters of the concept and, incidentally, contributor to last night’s programme. In his speech at the launch, the Chairman of John Lewis, said: “It’s absolutely the right time for businesses to be investing in skills”. And he couldn’t be more right. Recent UKCES research has revealed that companies investing in the skills of their workforce are 2.5 times more likely to survive than those who do not.

In last night’s show, Sainsbury’s boss Justin King explained how his supermarket chain has battled the downturn by cutting prices and adding value. But part of the reason Sainsbury's growth has outstripped most of its rivals must also be attributed to its excellent, structured and comprehensive training offer. At Skillsmart Retail’s recent Parliamentary Reception, King spoke passionately about it, saying: ”We have posted good results recently and one of the reasons for this, we believe, is investing in quality and having that consistent offer to customers. Investing in people is exactly the same. Organisations that continue to invest in training will be rewarded with loyalty and hard work”.

As one of the Tewkesbury retailers said in yesterday’s programme: “We get back as much as we put into it”. In these tough times, your local skills shop can help you put more in, making a connection to the training that could help you survive and thrive. Independent retailers in need of help in the recession should visit www.nsaforretail.com to find their local skills shop and discover how they can get help for their business.

[Lin B]

I run a small business with my husband and our sales are badly down. We open in the evening but that makes no difference customers would rather go to the supermarkets pay extra for lots of items so that other customers can buy their booze cheap.It's odd how customers find their way to our door when they want something that's difficult to find!!! Old fashioned service like same day free deliveries, carrying goods to cars etc count for nothing the small business cannot cope with Tesco and its ilk advertising and loss leaders. Mourn the loss of your local shops you've only yourselves to blame.

[Kate]

Have we forgotten that the people making the money are probably all at work during the day. KEEP THE LOCAL SHOPS OPEN IN THE EVENINGS SO WE CAN ACUTALLY HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHOP IN THEM!!!

[Bubbles]

Charity shops have priced themselfs out of bussiness.I took some clothes into my local Heart Foundation shop and I saw an ordinary T shirt priced at £4.50. Who is going to pay 4.50 for a USED one when you can go to places like Trimark and but a NEW one for 3.00. At Mataland 2.00. All this stuff has been GIVEN and I for one don,t want my stuff left on the rails.Sell it cheap and it will go.

[Andy]

The main problem is that the supermarkets are allowed to sell everything from clothing to alcohol and are, therefore, killing off the specialist shops. I get tired of customers coming into my shop asking for advice and have the cheek to start by saying 'I've just bought this item from the supermarket and I don't know how to tune it in' and expecting me to help them out free of charge. When all the local retailers have gone and village and town shops are all boarded up and you are left with reduced choice and world domination at the supermarkets and an attitude of 'you'll get what you're given, not what you want' remember those shops with specialist knowledge and service that you chose not to support for the sake of convenience rather than quality.

[Paul]

Yeah, i watched the last show about the charity shop.
How to make the charity shop work.
Don't sell the usual charity shop tat, which we all expect. Sell shirts and blouses for £30 a shot. ???
Yeah that'll work. (errr)
But then the charity shop customers will disappear, to another charity shop.
This was the theme.
Did she succeed? She may be successful, but not here .
The shop was transformed, but was that the task.
She is probably excellent at what she does, but i didn't see what good was done here.

[lilith, customer marketing that's direct in every sense]

Let's get one thing straight - I love Mary too.

But this really was window dressing while the high street burns. And not particularly good window dressing at that.

Town planning, globalisation, the rise of the internet, lazy consumers who've forgotten there was once a world beyond the mall and its identikit shopping - much bigger issues than Mary can handle or was allowed to address here.

Clearly, Mary is not as dumb as the crass script we endured last night or she wouldn't have smartly carved herself a second career in tv as retail budgets nosedive.

But she's going to have become more choosy about what she puts her name to or we might fall out of love with her and won't be listening when she's got something of real value to say.

Take a dose of your own medicine Mary - make sure you're adding real value not contributing to discount tv.