John Lewis is far more than ‘just’ a shop
Napoleon meant his observation about Britain being a nation of shopkeepers sneerily, but for centuries, shopkeeping and shopping served us well. From Harrods to M&S, big temples to the fruits of our industrialised labour have woven themselves into the nation’s cultural fabric. John Lewis did even more than give us a window on our relative wealth, its partnership structure gave us a uniquely British form of collectivism.
That’s why it was surprising to hear how surprised the reporter on yesterday’s Radio 4 news show was at the responses to the firm’s announcement that it was closing some of its branches, with a combined loss of 1,300 jobs.
The reporter sounded as though he’d anticipated a massive shrug from the citizens of Watford when he canvassed them for opinions – perhaps like Napoleon imagining that shopping was a pastime for little people. The inference was that while an eye-catching opera house or art gallery designed by a world-ranking architect can obviously transform a city, who really cares about a middle-class department store? Yet Watfordians were devastated, recognising John Lewis’s closure not only as a personal loss – whether they bought sandwiches, duvets or coats there – but as a body blow to their town.
Ditto Birmingham, whose branch is also on the endangered list. At least Andy Street, that city’s mayor, who happens to be a former John Lewis executive, gets it, pointing out that Britain’s second city “is one of the top three in the whole of the UK for retail, with high footfall and many other retailers thriving in recent years”.
Anyone who has bought or sold an urban property knows the importance of local retail – Little Waitrose? Yes! That’s another five per cent added to the value of your home. A local
branch of Caffè Nero, a bookshop, a posh bakery, a friendly boutique that, if you’re aiming high, sells Isabel Marant Etoile… The right brands can be as much a marker of how a neighbourhood values itself as the quality of its local school. When London’s mighty Westfield opened over 10 years ago I remember the executives lamenting that amid all their trophy store fronts (Louis Vuitton, Prada et al) the one company they hadn’t at that point secured was John Lewis.
It’s not just the range of quality merch in John Lewis, but, as anyone who really uses their local town knows, the sense of vibrancy and success it brings, even to a city with as many other cultural and retail diversions as Birmingham. As Neil Rami, chief executive of the West Midlands Growth Company, said: “We’re incredibly disheartened… it’s an important part of our city centre fabric and visitor offer.”
But what do you do when, for all kinds of reasons, shopping in bricks and mortar has gone out of fashion? There’s clearly no point in propping up zombie chains past their sell by date. Let them become housing. But isn’t there now a compelling case to help good retailers with rents-and-rates packages, incentivise consumers to visit stores with reductions they can’t get online, free alterations (how often do online purchases actually fit properly?) and some decent on the house coffee, and stop sneering at shopping? Done properly it’s an art form.