‘Retail has changed a lot’: local makers drive department store revival | Shops and shopping

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“We’ve brought that light back on and hopefully can bring the spirit back inside.” You may have heard the shop is dead, but they open the windows again at Bobby’s of Bournemouth.

The independent store, which officially opened on Thursday, has moved into the now-defunct Debenhams store, retaking the shop’s original local name, founded in 1915, with a new spin on a somewhat old concept.

In place of the fashion floors, there will be an ice cream parlour, a coffee parlor, an art gallery and an old loading bay that will be converted into a microbrewery while the former elevator will be converted into a smokehouse. Besides the well-known brands in the beauty parlour, there are local organic skincare makers with artisan producers—from silver makers to coffee roasters shared throughout the premises.

Bobby’s cosmetic department in downtown Bournemouth before it reopened. Photo: ZacharyCulpin/BNPS/The Guardian

Later this year, the Bobby & Co Market Hall is set to open on the first floor, a space for dozens of members of the South Coast Makers Market group to showcase their wares.

One entrance has been transformed into a pop-up space that houses, for now, the Drool, billed as the world’s first food court entirely dedicated to dogs, which can nestle in a doggy version of cake, ice cream, fish and chip flavor.

Ashley Nicholson, principal of Verve Properties, developer of Poppies, said the idea was not to create a store but rather a “destination” centered around beauty, health, food and drink, culture and sustainability. Verve specializes in repurposing hard times buildings into homes and offices, and has chosen Bournemouth as its first store.

Where Debenhams blocked out the original picture windows to fit more shelves and rails, Bobby’s opened up views of the gardens and beach, revealing the beauty of the original building.

Nicholson said Verve began looking into the retail sector about three years ago. “With everyone out, values ​​have been dropping and that means real estate that was previously only owned by pension funds and big real estate companies is becoming more accessible to more casual investors and real estate companies like us.

“I got to the point where I was able to buy well-functioning retailers and department stores for between a third and a quarter of what it cost to actually build it.

Historically, city centers have suffered from a lack of organization. You can go to Camberley or Stockport and there will be the same shops on Main Street. We have seen that this model has been broken and that the future will be more independent, local and experimental companies. As the Amazon grew into the world, the desire for an artisan baker or a local fish shop grew at the same rate. People want more human, and more local.”

Bobby’s reimagining may be part of a wave of new retail business popping up in empty stores across the country.

Debenhams, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, may have left Main Street, closing 124 stores after its collapse last year, but low rents and local councils keen to keep town centers alive are helping independents and small chains take root.

While John Lewis, House of Fraser and Marks & Spencer have all been closing stores as shoppers want to take a selection of well-known brands online, new projects are testing the waters.

All the way straight from Bobby’s in Poole, a different reinvention of the department store is taking place. Beales, which closed all 22 of its stores last year after entering management, has reopened three stores with new ownership.

In Poole, the upstairs group signed on to the NHS to become a ‘Health Village’ accommodating the departments of dermatology, orthopedics, ophthalmology and breast cancer screening. There will also be counseling rooms for those suffering from the prolonged Covid-19 disease.

Former president Tony Brown, who has been brought back to help find a way forward in the Beals, says leasing the space to the NHS will help drive rent, keep store costs down below, and also attract new customers via 150,000 annual outpatient appointments.

“I don’t think anyone needs 60,000 square feet of store floor anymore,” he says. “Really anything over 30,000 square feet is impractical and anything else [department store] Perhaps a chain of 10+ stores is impractical in terms of costs and property management.”

“I don’t see a big chain store coming up again. We will see small local chains appear with eight or 10 stores. The model will change dramatically over the next couple of years. People want something more local.”

In Southport, where Bells has reopened other outlets, rather than the NHS, it has partnered with local brands including coffee shop, beauty products and fashion labels that all act as franchises – requiring less investment for the store owner.

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Brown says the setup also provides small businesses with a relatively low-risk opportunity to grow — local fashion brand Lucy Law is now a bestseller.

Beth Dyson with a hunting dog at the Lick and Mix station at the Drool outlet in Bobbies, Bournemouth. Photography: Andrew Matthews/PA

Back in Dorset, Beth Dyson, 26, who runs Drool, has worked at Debenhams since she was 16 and studied retail management at Bournemouth University. When I first worked for Debenhams a decade ago, I thought she would be on Main Street forever. “Then the cracks started to appear,” she said. “Retail has changed a lot. You can see that in the number of empty units in the city now.”

She believes stores like Bobby’s, which offer services from hairdressing to dentistry as well as the opportunity to shop, are the way forward. “What’s going on here is great, new hope again.”

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