Big, bland stores are at odds with modern consumers’ need for speed and individualism
I have a deep love for the fourth floor of John Lewis’s Oxford Street flagship. The homespun wizardry of the haberdashery department bewitches me like a grownup’s Diagon Alley. And when my children were little, I found the no-nonsense advice and cheery colours of the nursery department profoundly comforting. But even those of us who love department stores have to admit that it is, at this point, a sepia-tinted and nostalgic kind of affection.
The decline of the department store is in direct proportion to the rise of the brand. The allegiance of the modern shopper is to their favourite brand – with which they may have a “relationship” on Instagram or via pop-up shops– not to a permanent physical space.
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