Entertainment could form part of the solution for the rapidly emptying department stores of Britain.
The UK has lost 83 per cent of its department stores over the past five years, accelerated recently by the impact of the pandemic, but mostly through the rise of online retail.
A report in the BBC news web is illustrated by new research on the sharp decline of department stores since 2016. An investigation has shown that the country still has 237 big stores yet to be taken over by a new business. In some parts of the world, notably the US, major FECs have been developed in large former department stores such as Sears.
The report cites the old British Home Stores in Edinburgh, which closed in 2016 and has been transformed with a number of separate ventures, an hotel, offices and a tenpin bowling centre. Suggestions in the research include boutique cinemas, food courts or other forms of entertainment.
Entertainment is one of the new roles for redundant stores that Bill Grimsey believes could be a solution. He is a former head of three major high street chains who has led three reports into the future of town centres.
You cannot rely on retail any more for your town centres and high streets as the main attraction, because of technology, because of the internet. You need to reinvent these places for something else because we are social animals and we need to have a place to congregate and it won’t be just shops.” He envisages a mix of health, education, entertainment, leisure, arts and crafts and some housing as the solution.
