Any other business | 9 July 2011

Pound shops and possession orders: parables from the post-recession high street

One of our fanciest local shops — until it closed, it sold upmarket furnishings and children’s clothes — has its windows plastered with ‘Possession Order’ notices. Rumour says the space has been re-let to Oxfam, against which neighbouring retailers are getting up a petition because they regard charity shops as unfair competition in such a tough market.

That Yorkshire parable is the story of the national high street this summer, after a particularly dismal set of retail sales figures for May. Habitat and the fashion chain Jane Norman went into administration last week. Thorntons are closing 180 chocolate shops. Mothercare is one of several other famous names with closures looming. Struggling HMV says it can no longer make money selling recorded music, which most consumers now download from the internet. Book buyers are heading the same way or simply relying on Amazon, so we wait to see whether Waterstone’s can hold back the tide under new ownership and management.