HAS RETAIL NOW CHANGED FOREVER?
LINDA MAHER
One of the biggest casualties of the Covid pandemic is going to be high street shops. So many of them have already closed or scaled back and I’m sure there’s more to come. It’s funny how certain shops become the background to your life. Miss Selfridge, Fab, Angel and Japan were my go-to stores in my teens; Jane Norman and Awear got me through my 20s; while Oasis and Warehouse became my favourites in my 30s, when office life took over my wardrobe. None of them exist in store form any longer. Like many people, I dabbled in online shopping in the past decade, with that ramping up for obvious reasons in the past year. But there’s nothing like a ramble around the shops on a Saturday afternoon, browsing through your favourites with no time limit and no pressure to buy anything. It’s hard to know when we’ll ever be able to do that again. Because even when we can get back to some semblance of normality, many of the shops are gone and won’t be returning. Has retail now changed forever? I really hope not. I miss meeting my mam for a wander around the shops followed by lunch, maybe a cheeky glass of wine, and a good natter. If the chains that have gone bust or gone online are replaced by Irish boutiques that champion local designers then the experience will be all the richer for that, but those kinds of boutiques are unlikely to be able to afford high street rents. So what will they be replaced by? More phone providers? More coffee shops? Please no. This is a chance for us to reclaim the high street and make it what we want. Will ‘umbrella stores’ housing several small Irish concessions be an option? This would be a lovely way to showcase many local brands without exorbitant rents falling on one person. Irish cafes, rather than big international chains, would also be a welcome addition, championing homegrown produce and offering something unique that can’t be found on every high street across Europe. Embracing the growing diversity of our country should also be a part of any revamp – we have such talented craftspeople from around the world currently developing their work here and it would be a great way to embrace that. On page 26, we pay homage to Topshop, the retail giant which was bought by ASOS and moved online earlier this month. It’s a great example of a brand that became part of the fabric of our lives and though it became a huge corporate entity, for many people it still just felt like raiding your best friend’s wardrobe. There is a place on our high street for global brands to stand beside homegrown heroes. We have a chance to mould our city centres into enviable thoroughfares – let’s make sure we take it.
Enjoy the issue.