By Charlotte Turner
Just walking down Walsall high street you see the pound shop takeover … With retail giants closing smaller branches ‘bargain bins’ like pound land and wilko are snapping up the majority of the retail space.
Since the last lockdown walsall high-street has lost a giant TK Maxx, next, peacocks. These empty lots are too big to fill. Pound shops have already filled the high-street leaving this once popular shopping destination borderline destitute.
Not only has the face of our high streets changed but what customers are purchasing has done a U-turn. I spoke to Becky Turner who is a manager at River Island “people that would regularly buy from us, have basically not been going out of the house. They can’t go out on a Friday or a Saturday night so their spending habits have changed”. As a collective shoppers have hung up their heels and are snapping up comfy slippers instead.
Miss Turner told me that “Loungewear sales have increased significantly compared to going out clothes”. She added that her employer has had to adapt , “We’ve changed our target audience”.
This is a huge change for them as previously they were mainly marketed as an up market
Store to get “going out” clothes from. “Previously 10% of the store was loungewear/ casual wear I would now say it’s 40% of the store”.
Throughout the pandemic workers have had to learn to effectively work from home. This has created a whole somewhat new lucrative market that brands like River Island seem to be cashing in on, “Slipper sales have increased dramatically”.
Unfortunately, from speaking with this employee I’ve heard about a lot of aggression she’s faced while at work. Miss Turner told me that she’s faced adversity from “Simply asking” customers to “wear a mask if possible”. She’s had personal experiences with anti-vaxers and Covid-19 deniers in store who’ve not responded well to being asked to wear a mask. Is this something retail workers will have to accept? Or are they heading down the same path as the service industry?
“We’re hiring” signs are in nearly every store window as workers are refusing to put up with low pay and poor conditions. Many restaurants and supermarkets are struggling to retain staff whilst desperately trying to hire more. Is the retail industry heading in the same way? According to Miss Turner, It looks that way. The question is will they keep their doors open long enough to do so?
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