ECONOMIST:IN THE city centre, Poundland is heaving with post-Christmas bargain hunters snapping up everything from underwear to shampoo, some of it for even less than the promised £1 ($1.46). Elsewhere in Leeds brightly coloured sale signs fill shop windows as varied as Ann Summers, a racy lingerie chain, and Harvey Nichols, a pricey department store.
For most on the high street, it has been a grim few months, and Leeds is no exception. Next door to Poundland, the Officers Club, a men’s fashion chain which recently called in administrators, is selling dinner jackets for less than the price of a night out (£20.80 to be exact) and slashing 60% off much else. Nearby a sports outfitter and greetings-card shop are both holding closing-down sales, with 75% off. A branch of zavvi, a music and video store that has also collapsed, is handling queues 20 people deep at its tills as shoppers rush to snap up discounted £2.99 albums and to spend gift vouchers while they can.
Jonathan de Mello at Experian foresees a radical restructuring of the market as consumer habits change and smaller retailers go to the wall. The winners are likely to be the big shopping centres where people go for an experience which might include a decent meal and also encourages them to shop on impulse as well as for necessities. Shops in high streets without sufficient “footfall”, however, will be among the losers
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