Murder on the High Street: But who is responsible?

N.B. This is the original of an article I wrote for The Conversation. The edited and updated version is available here. I preferred the title of my original!  

Christmas trading figures have revealed an all too familiar bloodbath on the British high street. Mid-market giants M&S and Debenhams saw sales fall. But specialist retailer Halfords and discounter B&M Bargains also struggled. Even that most Christmassy of stores, John Lewis, saw profits fall markedly as it discounted to keep up with competitors.

The current state of the British high street is a horror story. Debenhams, founded in 1778, has seen its share price drop more than 90% over the last year. HMV went into administration for the second time in six years shortly before Christmas. An estimated 93,000 UK retail jobs were lost in 2018 and it looks like 2019 may be even worse.  

Familiar underlying causes have been blamed. Economic stagnation, unfair online competition and global warming. Each of these has been cited with regularity every time another set of dismal retail trading figures has come out.

Brexit fears have been suggested as dampening the economy. Amazon’s UK business rates taxbill for 2018 was significantly less than smaller high street rivals. Superdry blamed its poor autumn results on unseasonably warm weather reducing demand for its jackets.

These issues and similar can likely explain much of the crisis hitting the high street and making Christmas 2018 the worst sales year since 2008. So too poor business practice must play a part. Many retailers are overburdened with debt, focused on cost-cutting rather than reinvestment, have poor stakeholder relationships, or simply lack vision.

WHSmith came bottom of a 2018 survey of British shoppers by Which, criticised for its overpriced and out-of-date stores. Many visitors to the chain will likely agree that they have little to blame but themselves for their uninspiring spaces. 

However, there is another culprit which has gone largely overlooked and it is one which poses the most serious long term threat to traditional retail. Consumerism is arguably over.

Within consumer studies, an area of research which looks at how and why people make purchases, academics have for a number of years been picking up signs of changing habits. This includes an increased ambivalence towards consumption itself. Basically, people are buying less often and less overall.

This is particularly the case in the clothing industry, where research in the USA shows that Americans are less and less likely to buy apparel. Similarly US car salesare stalling as younger people seem less interested in ownership. The average age of a US new car buyer was 50 in 2015. 

Some of this shift may be ideological. Researchers have suggested that environmental concern might push some people to consume less. Economic drivers can also explain. Following the 2008 financial crash for instance, alternative consumercommunities have emerged which are more collaborative and self-sufficient; doing things amongst themselves rather than buying in from outside.

But more broadly lifestyle changes mean that we are moving away from the consumer model which has dominated post-war capitalist economies, whether in arcades, high streets, malls, retail parks or online. We are seemingly bored with consumption as a lifestyle mode and increasingly aware that we can live happily by consuming less. 

Buying more and more things as source of activity, identity and meaning seems to be gradually but consistently falling out of favour. Rather than things, people are increasingly interested in experiences. This means interactions with people and places, attending events, undertaking adventures. Making and sharing memories through these, instead of possessing objects is where we increasingly place importance.

It has repeatedly been said that the future of the high street lies in providing experiences. Retailers have dutifully tried to incorporate new, interactive and surprising experiences into their offerings for many years now. Shops such as bath-bomb and politics peddling Lush, or the revitalised book-seller Waterstones, are success stories.

However experiential marketing is not a panacea. Plenty of interactive retailers are struggling also. The casual dining sector, once held up as the answer to every struggling shopping centres woes, has struggled throughout 2018 for example. 

The problem with selling experiences rather than things, is that it is easy for an individual to create these themselves. We buy things because it is convenient or we don’t have the skills to make them ourselves. However some of the best experiences, such as going for a walk or meeting a friend, are free.

Evidence for a fall in overall consumption can be found beyond the high street. Asos, the online fashion retailer, shocked the City with a profit warning shortly before Christmas. It isn’t just that people don’t want to shop in traditional spaces such as high streets, malls or big box superstores, all of which are struggling. They are perhaps becoming less keen to do so in virtual ones too.

At the beginning of January Apple reported quarterly revenues below expectations. People are not only opting for cheaper smartphones, but they are keeping them for longer. If the world’s first company to pass the trillion dollar value mark is increasingly struggling to shift its highly desirable wares then we ought to take note.

Again the reasons for these sales downturns are varied and complex. Among them however, a growing dissatisfaction with the idea that passive consumption equals happiness plays its part. Increasingly people are getting more involved, not in consuming, but in creating their own experiences.

There are plenty of daggers being thrust into retail right now. But the most overlooked of them all; that consumption itself is increasingly passé, may just be the bloodiest.