Growing pains

Shortly after Starbucks entered the UK market through the acquisition of Seattle Coffee Company back in 1998 it rapidly opened a raft of stores in London before it realised it might have been rather gung-ho with its property selection criteria and it retreated from some of those initial unsuitable and probably over-priced units. From that…

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Really Putting the Customer First

Regular conference goers will have heard far too many presentations from retail leaders extolling the virtues of putting the customer first. Maybe if they had actually done this at their respective organisations the industry might not find itself in quite so much trouble as it does right now. This is a problem that has been…

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Sustainability focus: Deliveries

Welcome to our section of the site which focuses on the sustainable side of retail. It’s exciting times for anyone involved in this area as technology and retailers try to keep up with customers’ demand for all things ethical. From palm oil to fur farms, fast fashion to one-use plastic, excess packaging to food waste…

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LVMH looks to beat Kering in the sustainability stakes

When Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris suffered a very serious fire in April this year the Pinault family, which heads up the Kering luxury goods group, pledged Euros 100 million on the night of the fire towards its rebuilding. That was then beaten the next morning with a Euros 200 million pledge by the Arnault…

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Time to ditch rental principles

For a long time the commercial property industry was a relatively straightforward place within which to operate. The rentals for shops and restaurants on the high street were set according to the levels achieved by similar nearby units and these deals were always agreed on the basis of upward-only rent increases at future renewal and…

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