INCOMPETENT & UNCARING
Stores won’t reopen as brands go internet-only
WAREHOUSE and Oasis, once familiar on every high street, will not reopen when lockdown lifts.
They have been bought by Boohoo, the hungry online retailer that has been chomping through the bricks and mortar chains that once dominated fashion shopping.
Boohoo has paid £5.25million for the two store groups, which went into administration in April. All 90 UK branches, plus 437 concessions in department stores, will remain closed as lockdown lifts. About 1800 staff have lost their jobs.
The deal is for the stock and the names – Boohoo will not reopen the stores. Instead, they will live on as online brands.
Boohoo, based in Manchester, scooped up two other fashion businesses in administration last year – Karen Millen and Coast. That £18.2million deal saw 32 stores and 177 concessions close. They now exist only as online brands.
Online-only brands have gone from snapping at the heels of high street giants to swallowing them whole.
Retail expert Louise Ellerton said lockdown has left any struggling business vulnerable. “It has exposed the weakness of the highchurn, high-volume sales retail model.”
She reckons that smaller stores, like branches of Warehouse and Oasis, would struggle to implement social distancing. Branches in shopping centres would be at a double disadvantage, if customers had to wait to get into the building and then face another wait at the store. She added: “If you have to spend 25 minutes queuing to get in, browsing for fun has far less appeal.”
Their disappearance from the high street leaves the leisure shopper who likes a wander and a browse at the weekend with fewer options.
At the budget end of the market, Primark, with its giant stores, is well placed to take advantage of postlockdown regulations.
And, unlike other retailers with slower stock turnover, it does not have such a huge backlog of old items to shift.
Ellerton said: “H&M, which also does high volume and
Even before lockdown, Warehouse and Oasis were not in good shape. They were squeezed on price by Primark and H&M as well as the online likes of Boohoo and Asos, and Zara had stolen their older customers. low prices, has smaller units with tighter aisles. They will find it harder to attract customers to their stores.”
Professor Leigh Sparks, of Stirling University’s retail management department, sees Boohoo’s move as part of a bigger shakedown of how we shop.
Sparks said: “There will be more changes, we will see more closures on the high street, among big and small retailers – anything that doesn’t work will be vulnerable.
“Customers are going to be nervous – shops look and feel different and they will either stay away or switch to shopping online.”