Saturday 21 December 2019

Closing soon

Not a week ago, I was in Debenhams department store at Eastbourne. This is one of the Debenhams branches which is going to close under the overarching rescue scheme to keep the company viable. Like the Canterbury branch (which is also closing), the Eastbourne branch occupies an old building and has been deemed uneconomic to continue with. It will be shut by late January. When that happens, Eastbourne will no longer possess any kind of traditional department store. Debenhams was the last remaining. There will only be smaller shops in future - some important names, it's true, and many of them in an attractive shopping centre recently extended - but the town will not be able to offer a major big-store shopping experience any more.

Not that Debenhams could nowadays be described as a 'major shopping experience'. Ten years ago it was easier to claim that. But now? It's become too ordinary. I foresee the demise of all Debenhams branches within a year or two. It will follow the fate of House of Fraser. And before that famous names like the Army & Navy. It's difficult to see how any national chain of near-identical department stores can survive in the face of other ways to shop.

Thankfully the smaller department stores scattered around the country in country towns, sometimes one-branch affairs with local roots going back generations, will be able to take up the slack and carry on. I have no idea how profitable these small stores are. I'm guessing that if they own the freehold of their premises, and don't have to pay an exorbitant rent, then their future is probably assured. Otherwise, they too will bite the dust sooner or later. The West Country (which I visit often) has several of these smaller stores: Banbury's in Barnstaple; Wroes in Bude and Launceston; Fields in Sidmouth; Trinity House in Axminster; Goulds in Dorchester; and more. Being local, and not national, is definitely a strength. They reflect the tastes of the local area better, their atmosphere is intimate, and their cafés are natural places to meet up and share a light meal or coffee before browsing the rails and shelves. As for stock, it's often surprisingly comprehensive. Long may they thrive.

Back to Debenhams at Eastbourne. With its closure five weeks off, it still had plenty of stock on display, but not necessarily in the right sizes, and you felt that it would be pointless asking whether the size you wanted was tucked away in the storeroom. They wouldn't be ordering any more. It wasn't at the 'absolutely final sale' stage yet, but nevertheless the store was plastered with big '50% off, everything must go' signs, and these made the atmosphere seem rather forlorn. There were a few shoppers, but I didn't see any sales taking place. Why buy today, when soon enough they would have to offer '70% off' or better? In any case, there weren't all that many staff around. Perhaps some of them had been released already, and were hunting for other jobs in a shrinking sector.


As you can see, this part of the interior was quite elegant. I had a closer look at that plaque.


Hmm! This - the Adam Room - was 'originally the tea room to the Bobby's Department Store. It was refurbished in 1995.' I remember Bobby's in Bournemouth from way back, when I was young, and trolley buses ran in the streets of a more genteel Bournemouth than you find now. Bobby's there had turned into a Debenhams, just as here. I wondered what would happen to the building. It might well be listed, but if not, it would be demolished for redevelopment. And this former tea room with its ornate ceiling, plasterwork and light fittings, would all be destroyed. That would be sad. You can imagine what such a room might have been like in its heyday.

A group of dummies caught my eye. 


They were standing together and putting on a brave show, but they knew the game was up - you could see it in their faces. They looked resigned, all hope gone. And indeed they faced a very uncertain future. Stripped of their fashion garments, they would be bundled unceremoniously into the back of a van and carried off to another branch, or a warehouse. One or two might be displayed again, clad in spring outfits somewhere else. The rest? Who knows. I've seen battered old dummies waving frantically from the upstairs windows of private houses, acquired for some obscure purpose and now prisoners; or dressed in bizarre outfits in bric-à-brac shops and flea markets; or used as fancy scarecrows in gardens. Perhaps those are the lucky ones. It's a scandal. But will the government intervene?  


This dummy had been 'sold' - into slavery? Or did the label refer to her outfit? Her gaze was blank and unfathomable. 

I didn't feel like buying anything. To do so would feel like pecking at a carcass. I preferred the buzz of living shops. I was relieved to get outside again.

3 comments:

  1. The world we were born into will soon be little more than a memory, and once we are gone, not even that. A world of human scale slow evolution now changes as if struck by a hurricane and little of substance replaces things of character.
    Since local shops do not seem to stock the sorts of things I desire like quality or, thinking of feet, size, I have been forced to try the new fangled click shopping online. I thought wandering crowded shops before christmas was bad but time wasted searching through deviously unhelpful google can bring on despair. Once the item is discovered the pain has only just begun as the promised deliveries are nothing but a fiction. Days are wasted with nothing arriving, I tried ticking the "wait one day extra and get three items delivered together", I got three deliveries, one intact book, one long light fitting loose in bow designed for a dozen and the item was clearly broken (poor driver looked pained at his wasted journey for my impossible to write signature to denote refusal on that stupid small screen!), the last was two more lamps just loose and slightly crumpled! What happens to the broken item and my cash I have no idea!
    I am now loath to wander my nearest city centre which because of lack of imagination on how to revitalise and reimagine a new purpose is filing with charity shops, beggars and grubby smokers making the whole place smell disgusting.
    There are several small businesses trying to make a go of it, such as a fine cheese shop, but they have told me that rents and local taxes are not related to real world conditions...
    Small city centre locally owned supermarkets in the past served us better than the bland edge of town pile them high, keep moving stock placement establishments we have ended up with. Who could have imagined it would end up like this...?

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  2. Are you being served? I think not.

    Lucy

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  3. I have a friend who likes (liked?) shopping in Debenhams. I would dutifully accompany her but loathed the experience - row after row, floor after floor of overpriced designer label products. When they finally disappear, I'll hardly notice it.

    I will, however, miss Bon Marche. It was small, it was friendly and the prices were sensible, and they even have/had a branch in our little town. I live in hope that it will yet be rescued by Peacock.

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