This week's retail news 'you may have missed'........
At mdj2, we’re passionate about retail and always looking to share our news, views, and insights. With so much information out there, we wanted to share just a small selection of retail news headlines from last week that we found interesting…?
?Wilko confirms locations and opening dates of first three new stores.
Wilko has revealed the opening dates and locations of the first three concept stores.
New owner CDS Superstores, which also owns The Range,?recently revealed it would?open five concept stores?ahead of Christmas before a wider rollout next year.
The new stores will open in the Armada shopping centre in Plymouth and Guildhall shopping centre in Exeter on 1 December.
Meanwhile, a further shop will debut in the Arndale Centre in Luton on 8 December.
The final two locations will be unveiled soon.
The value retailer?is planning to recruit up to 80 local team members per store, with CDS Superstores pledging to prioritise interviews for ex-Wilko staff.
CDS Superstores CEO Alex Simpkin said: “This initial rollout is only the beginning for our plans for revitalising the Wilko brand on the nation’s high streets and retail parks, and we’ll be announcing further store launches and re-openings throughout 2024”.
Last month,?Wilko relaunched its website under its new owner,?after it was bought out of administration in September.
?Breaking: M&S to open 9 new stores this month with thousands of new jobs.
This November is set to be M&S’ biggest ever store opening month.
Across the month M&S will open nine new stores, investing ￡80m in sustainable bricks and mortar retail and supporting over 2,200 local jobs across the UK.
Kicking off with a major new 65,000 square foot store in Birmingham’s Bullring on Tuesday 7th?November, M&S will open at least one store every seven days throughout the month. This also includes two further new store openings, alongside three new M&S Foodhalls and a further three store renewals.
The openings are part of M&S’ aim to become the UK’s leading omnichannel retailer, with its store rotation programme at the centre of this ambition. The store rotation programme ensures M&S has the right stores, in the right place, with the right space. The retailer is aiming to rotate from a base of 247 stores to 180 higher quality, higher productivity full line stores that sell its Clothing, Home and Food ranges, while also opening over 100 bigger, better food sites, by FY27/28.
At the start of the year M&S set out a c.￡500m investment in its store rotation programme and outlined its ambition to go faster in the programme and target delivery in three years instead of five by FY25/26. In the last year M&S has seen strong performances from its recently relocated stores with strong payback on invested capital giving the retailer the confidence to go faster.
As part of this headline investment M&S has already relocated to new stores in Leeds White Rose and Liverpool ONE in the summer with both performing ahead of expectations. The relocations also deliver significant environmental benefits. The new Liverpool ONE store for example is a more efficient and modern building which uses LED lighting and a natural refrigeration system which is 55% more efficient than the old store and delivers a 69% reduction in carbon emissions.
M&S has also opened a number of new Foodhalls this year as part of its aim to deliver 100 new bigger, better food stores, including Purley Way, Stockport and Clacton. Today’s announcement outlining M&S’ biggest ever store opening month is the next stage of the retailer’s investment and acceleration of its plans.
The three new full line stores in Birmingham Bullring, Lakeside Thurrock and Manchester Trafford Centre are all store relocations – part of M&S’ investment to regenerate vacant sites. The three store renewals also mean M&S is nearing over 100 stores in the renewal format. Each store aims to appeal to local families, with customers able to browse in wider, brighter aisles and a clear line of sight across the store. With fresh market-style food halls stocking the full M&S Food range, spacious Clothing, Home and Beauty departments, as well as free car parking to make shopping more convenient for customers. Lakeside and Trafford Centre will also have brand-new M&S cafes.
Sacha Berendji, Operations Director:?“Stores are key to our business, and we see them as part of our competitive advantage. Increasing numbers of customers are heading back in to stores to experience the best of M&S all under one roof, supported by outstanding service from our colleagues, and we expect this to continue as we head into Christmas. To deliver our biggest ever store opening month which supports thousands of jobs is an outstanding effort from the team and shows just how serious we are about accelerating our rotation plans, so we are in the right locations for our customers.”
Alongside store openings, M&S recently announced it is?hiring over 10,000 new Customer Assistants?to support in its stores over the festive period. The vacancies represent a 40 per cent increase on last year and reflects the additional investment M&S is making in colleague hours to support customers on the shop floor so that the retailer is well set up to support customers as it heads into the festive season.
?New full line stores with jobs available and opening dates:
NAME OPENING DATE JOBS?
Birmingham Bullring 7th?Nov 233
Lakeside 15th?Nov 419
Trafford Centre 30th?Nov 306
New Food halls:
NAME OPENING DATE JOBS
Uckfield 8th?Nov 85
Earlsfield 16th?Nov 65
Barnsley 28th?Nov 94
Store Renewals:
领英推荐
NAME LAUNCH DATE TOTAL JOBS SUPPORTED
Camberley 20th?Nov tbc
Handforth 23rd?Nov 408
Newcastle (FH only) 29th?Nov 278
?WH Smith launches second hand buy-back scheme for unwanted books.
WH Smith?has launched a trade-in service for unwanted second hand books, offering customers vouchers in?exchange for their old volumes.
Through the new BookCycle scheme, which launched this week, readers can?register their books online, take them to a branch and then receive a voucher to spend in-store or online.
According to the WH Smith website, those?used books will be passed on?to another reader or responsibly recycled.
WH Smith customers will need to use the book’s ISBN number to register it online, before being given a price for the book’s worth. This is based on a particular criteria that estimates its condition, popularity and demand in the book market.
A well-kept paperback version of Bell Hooks’s?All About Love?gets ￡1.65, while an almost new copy of Sara Cox’s?Sunday Times?2023 bestseller?Thrown?is valued at 20p and a battered copy of Sally Rooney’s bestseller?Beautiful World, Where Are You?is worth 50p.
The scheme marks the first time a major high street retailer has offered a buy-back book initiative, though many companies have already attempted to address the environmental impact of the book publishing industry in recent years. In 2021, heavyweight publishing houses Penguin Random House UK, Simon & Schuster UK and HarperCollins all signed the sustainability pledge Publishing Declares, which addresses the environmental impact of deforestation, paper milling, printing, packaging and transport.
WH Smith is working alongside Zeercle, a company that offers buy-back logistic services for large-scale retailers, such as phone trade-ins or book recycling. The retailer says on its website that the majority of the books will find new homes through Zeercle’s resale system, which relies on using online marketplaces including Amazon and eBay to sell second hand books.
Ian Sanders, the commercial development director of the WH Smith group, has said that it hopes to encourage a “circular economy” for its book customers.
“It makes great sense for our customers and our business to support a circular economy for books, as we aim to minimise our impact on the environment and support our local communities,” said Sanders.
“The buy-back scheme really does offer a compelling reason for customers to recycle their second hand books, and being able to exchange these for WHSmith eGift cards gives them another great reason to shop with us.”
?Amazon shuttering Amazon Style brick-and-mortar apparel format.
Amazon is ending its sojourn into brick-and-mortar fashion apparel retailing.
The retailer opened its first Amazon Style store, a format designed to combine the personalization of e-commerce with the immediacy of brick-and-mortar shopping, in?May 2022?at The Americana at Brand, an upscale lifestyle center in Glendale, Calif. and followed up with a?second location?at Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio?in October 2022, will close both stores by Thursday, Nov. 9.
“After careful consideration, we’ve decided to close our two Amazon Style physical retail stores and focus on our online fashion shopping experience, where we’re offering new, exciting selection at great value and introducing innovative technology to meet the needs of every customer,” Kristen Kish, Amazon spokesperson, said in emailed statement to?Chain Store Age.
“We’re working closely with our affected employees to help them find new roles within Amazon,” Kish said in the statement. “Physical retail remains an important part of our business, and we’re continuing to invest in growing our grocery stores business, which spans Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Go, and third-party partnerships.”?
All brands that were available in the Amazon Style stores are still shoppable on the Amazon site, and the retailer said it is?working with employees affected by the closures to identify new opportunities within Amazon or obtain a severance package and access to career transition services.
Amazon also remains focused on its brick-and-mortar?Amazon Go, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods Market convenience and grocery formats. The company put a?temporary pause?on opening new Amazon Fresh grocery stores in February 2023, but continues to expand its frictionless Amazon Go convenience format in?suburban areas.
In addition, Amazon recently?opened a new?Whole Foods Market in Jersey City, N.J., and plans to have the format anchor a new 7.4-acre retail center and serve as a “catalyst” for the expansion of?Downtown Summerlin?in Las Vegas.?
In March 2022, Amazon?closed 68 physical stores?across the U.S. and U.K. markets. These closures marked the end of the?Amazon Books, Amazon 4-star and Amazon Pop Up brick-and-mortar banners.
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