The future of department stores

The days of the department store could be well and truly numbered as consumer behaviour and expectations have evolved.

The demise of the department store became more pronounced post-pandemic with the well-known Beales among the latest to call it a day on 7 September. The likes of John Lewis, perhaps the nation’s favourite department store, has closed 16 stores since 2020.

Those of us who are old enough will remember several department stores from childhood, many of which would have been independent and known only to its locale. In Kingston upon Thames, that department store was Bentalls, originally opened as a drapery shop in 1867, it was purchased by the Fenwick group in 2001 and rebranded last year although the name lives on with The Bentall Centre.

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The loss of department stores up and down the country has followed a similar downward trajectory to that of the High Street which here at Bonsors, we’ve written about extensively.

In 2023, 5,000 chain stores shut up shop which, according to PwC, equates to 39 per day last year with a loss of almost 120,000 jobs.

The obvious impact comes from the rise of online shopping which went catastrophic during the pandemic and whilst shoppers have returned to physical locations, it hasn’t recovered. There are plenty more nails in the department store’s coffin - retail parks with easy parking; supermarkets which have handed over floorspace to other retailers such as the Sainsbury’s and Argos partnership; hypermarkets which offer shoppers practically everything under the sun in one huge facility – not unlike a department store but very different in its feel and out-of-town rather than a High Street landmark.

It's not quite all over, though, here in Kingston upon Thames, we have two department stores. In addition, many town centre department stores are now in receipt of a new lease of life as town councils and local authorities seek to revitalise their high streets

The Davidson Prize, an annual competition to transform vacant non-residential buildings into homes, was this year won by a project that reimagined an empty Debenhams’ 1938 art deco building in Taunton. Apartment Store involves transforming the store into low carbon apartments complete with communal and cultural spaces or hubs including units such as a repair café.

Meanwhile, Bournemouth has breathed new life into its former iconic department store Bobby’s. Opened in 1915, Bobby’s was incorporated into the Debenham’s portfolio in 1972 and closed in 2021. It has now been repurposed with co-working providers Patch taking space and pizza oven company Gozney taking a floor for its R&D workers. Other plans include ‘retail pods’ and a craft market.

Department stores nationwide are now receiving refurbishments as towns collaborate with architects and innovators to save these once proud buildings which dominated Britain’s town centres. Often found in a host of building styles – Edwardian, baroque, art deco, there is renewed vigour to reignite their former glory.

And that trend can also be seen here in Kingston. Frasers Group, which includes Sports Direct and Jack Wills among its brands, was granted planning permission in December 2020 to repurpose a former High Street store building to create a 40,000 sq ft open plan store with 33 residential apartments above.