Shops offered £1 rents on high-vacancy streets

With vacant shops increasing on high streets, retail landlords seek to avoid paying business rates on empty units and are happy to offer £1 annual rental in return for payment of business rates.

Retailers taking advantage of the rental offers on end-of-lease outlets include Dixons and Card Factory, a lower-cost rival to Clinton Cards according to the Financial Times.

Apart from falling demand, unfair competition from charity–shops that have an 80% discount on business rates, and unrealistic parking charges, high street retailers have been unable to compete because of being tied into long (25 year) leases with no break-clauses and upward-only rent reviews. This legislation has to some extent fallen into disuse in recent years in response to market realities, but the law still needs to be changed in order to totally eliminate the practice.   

Finally, according to the Financial Times, high street retailers are also disadvantaged by the fact that business rates are based on a shop’s estimated annual rental value, on a five-year cycle, pegged to inflation More  

This will inevitably lead to further trade concentration in out-of-town developments, at the expense of the high street.
Suppliers face the dilemma of wanting to stimulate and support alternative routes to consumer, but current high street realities force them to invest in major players giving more reliable returns on trade funding investment... 

If the government are serious about attempting to restore the health of the retail high street they need to conduct realistic diagnoses and tackle root causes on a fair-share basis, in line with market realities…

Why Walmart’s new pharmacy-only shop is a breakthrough…

The Retailnet Group report that Walmart have opened their first standalone pharmacy in Mexico, a 3,000 sq.ft. outlet specialising in pharmacy goods and services.

They already operate their instore pharmacies in Argentina under the Farmacia Walmart brand, so the name is not unknown

Apart from the full range of Health, Beauty and Wellness products, the outlet offers optical, medical consulting services by qualified staff in the store

Why is this so fundamental?

Given their experience of instore pharmacy, this trial outlet represents a step-change for Walmart, and could be scaled up, fast.

Previously pharmacy was an ‘add-on’ to their mass-merchandise outlets, merely an additional service for shoppers.

The new standalone pharmacy represents dedication, Walmart-style…

Think about the possibility of Walmart buying up small independent pharmacies that are feeling the (after?) effects of the global financial crisis, small/medium sized chains, before they check out the big players like Boots, etc

Think about the buying power, prices & terms disparities, influence on global/regional and national government…

There is only one way this is going to go…

More details and instore pics   
Time to dedicate this weekend to rewriting your global and local pharmacy trade strategies?

Turning Product Placement on its head?

Loblaw has revealed an innovative move for its own label food range, the development of ready-meals based on recipes from reality TV show ‘Recipes to Riches’

The show features 21 contestants cooking up recipes which are voted upon by industry experts as well as home audiences. Loblaw said the winning recipes from each of 7 categories – from appetisers and entrees to desserts – will be offered as samples at its outlets across Canada. Once the winners of all the categories are declared on the show, they will then be turned into ‘President’s Choice’ own label products. The Canadian public will then vote for their favorite among the category winners and that person will take home the $250,000 grand prize.

An innovative application of an old Lateral Thing tool ‘what is the opposite of (product placement)?’

Application to the UK retail?

It would probably need an ex-Loblaws COO wanting to try something really innovative in a well-established No3 Grocer, ideally based in Bradford..(come-on folks, need I say more?)

Watch this ( TV ) space….

‘A trillion here, a trillion there, soon we will be talking about real money’

The eurozone's bailout fund now stands at one trillion euros (£880bn or $1.4tn) after a deal was thrashed out in Brussels by European leaders. A trillion is a number - 1,000,000,000,000  – we all need to factor into our trade strategies! In fact the Namnews team are currently exploring the possibility of increasing the Namcalc cell-size to accommodate more up-to-date number sizes….

However, the real issue is how to keep the sheer scale of a trillion front of mind, lest we end up ‘signing off’ our entire future through over-familiarity..

One way to enhance understanding is to divide a big number by the number of people affected, so if the population of the eurozone is about 330m, then a trillion shared represents about 3,000 euros for each person. Another way is to count the numbers one at a time, one per second. A million seconds is 11 days, a billion seconds is about 32 years and a trillion seconds is 32,000 years.

For those in sales and marketing, the use of 'trillions' in our general conversation can be seen as part of a trend towards linguistic inflation or 'bigging up'. This means that some words are used to the point of exhaustion and need replacing with others in order to maintain the strength of expression. So 'heroes' are now 'superheroes', we're not just angry any more, we are 'incandescent with rage'.

This suggests that it may be time to take a fresh look at your brand and concession-value claims in a search for new superlatives?

Finally, those working on future trade demands may appreciate the following definitions

Trillion - 1 + 12 zeros

Quadrillion - 1 + 15 zeros

Quintillion - 1 + 18 zeros

Sextillion - 1 + 21 zeros

Septillion - 1 + 24 zeros

Octillion - 1 + 27 zeros

Nonillion - 1 + 30 zeros

Decillion - 1 + 33 zeros

CASH CONVERTERS: an alternative route to consumer?

Yes and no, in that your brand may reach new consumers, second-hand…

SECOND-hand goods retailer Cash Converters is opening a new store in the UK every nine days thanks to the harsh economic climate and aims to increase its number of stores five-fold to 1,000. 

Cash Converters International Limited is a worldwide pawnbroking franchise company, listed on the ASX and London Stock Exchange. They also offer small financial loans to people.

The purchase price of the goods on show can be ascertained by looking at the price ticket which will have a code on it relating to BLACKSMITH = 1234567890. For example BH = £10 Some stores use differing codes such as BLACKWHITE or MONEYTALKS. This code can then be used to bargain with sales staff, an item will generally be let go at twice purchase price, regardless of marked price.

Easy to miss on a normal storecheck, cash Converters began trading in the UK in 1992, New Zealand (1993), South Africa (1994), France (1994), Canada (1995), Spain (1995) and the USA (1994).

Key categories are consumer durables, but little reason to exclude consumer packaged goods, as the sector develops… 

A new option for the savvy consumer as pre-owned goods increasingly take up consumer demand in austerity?

Debenhams launches first virtual pop-up stores in the UK

Customers with an iPhone or iPad2 can now virtually try on invisible Debenhams'party dresses at cultural hotspots around the country.

After downloading a free app from Apple, customers standing in Trafalgar Square can scan the area using their camera function, until they discover the 10 invisible party dresses nestling between the famous bronze lions or peeping out from behind the pillars of the National Gallery.

Shoppers can then virtually try on the dresses without changing room ordeals, and make a Facebook upload for an instant reaction from friends.

Virtual stores will be popping up from today until October 29 in Glasgow (George Square), Birmingham (Centenary Square), Manchester (Albert Square) and Cardiff (Cardiff Castle), all at a 20 per cent discount.

Just imagine the excitement generated by groups of shoppers in simultaneous engagement on an evening out, or even properly ‘out, out’ (Micky Flanagan)

Ever get the feeling that yesterday’s ‘normal’ shopper-engagement initiatives have just been rendered a little passé?

Despite that, why not have a really engaging weekend, from the Namnews Team!

World's First Diamond-Dispensing ATM Launches in India

The Gitanjali Group, which claims to be the world's biggest integrated manufacturer of branded jewellery, opened the machine in a luxury shopping mall in Mumbai last Sunday and said that it already served a "substantial number of customers."

It hopes to roll out 75 more of the ATMs -- which also sell gold and silver coins -- in shopping malls, airports and at Hindu temples.

A pointer for other countries and categories?

"NAM-flu" is real to a fifth of British women!

One in five British women believe that the debilitating "NAM-flu" disease which temporarily leaves male sufferers prostrate on the sofa watching televised sports is real, according to a new study.

The survey, which questioned 2,000 British adults about health and wellbeing, showed that misconceptions and old wives' tales, including the myth that eating carrots improves night vision, prevail among the population when it comes to beliefs about common illnesses.

More than a third of people said that sugar makes children hyper, and 37 percent said they believed we lose most of our body heat through our heads -- the most popular misconception of the survey, despite millions spent on consumer health and education.

However, the survey is weakened somewhat by its endeavours to show that when illness strikes, almost half of people agreed that men exaggerate their symptoms to get attention, with 38% also believing that men take longer to recover from illness than women.

NB Additional indepth research on man-flu diagnosis and treatment now available

Have a gentle, comfy weekend. From the Namnews Team!