What’s around the corner (shop)?
What corner shops tell us about cultural trends and the prospect of retail on our high streets
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) called for urgent government and police action following its latest retail crime survey, covering the 12 months to April 2024. Store losses from theft surged to ￡2.2bn, up from ￡1.8bn the previous year, despite ￡1.8bn invested in security. Violent incidents rose 50% year-on-year, with over 2,000 assaults per day, many involving racial abuse and weapons.
Retailers also continue to battle changing consumer habits and economic pressures. WHSmith, for instance, is exploring a sale of its 500 high street stores as its traditional retail business falters. While its travel division thrives, reporting 22% profit growth, its high street arm saw sales fall by 4%, leading the company to consider strategic options.
Meanwhile, according to The Standard, Oxford Street faces further disruption, with major brands such as Pandora, Swarovski, and River Island planning to exit Park House due to declining footfall and spending. In response, Westminster Council has approved a redevelopment plan to incorporate leisure, medical, and hospitality spaces. Microsoft, too, is closing its 21,000 sq. ft. flagship, shifting focus towards “digital growth”.
Elsewhere, retailers are exploring unconventional business models. Lidl has received High Court approval to open its first in-store pub inside its Dundonald store near Belfast. The pub will accommodate 45 customers and feature an off-licence section, marking a bold departure for the discount grocer.
Retail turbulence is not confined to the UK. In the U.S., store closures are expected to double in 2025, following 7,325 closures in 2024, according to Coresight Research. The shift is driven by rising inflation and online competition, with major retailers like Family Dollar, CVS, and Big Lots among the hardest hit. While 5,970 new stores opened in 2024, closures are outpacing growth, reflecting changing consumer expectations. Deborah Weinswig, CEO of Coresight Research, highlights the challenge: "Not only do (customers) want the best prices, but they also have no patience for stores that are constantly disorganized, out of stock, and that deliver poor customer service," Weinswig said. "We have seen Shein and Temu capture market share as consumers choose to shop online to save time, money, and avoid frustration. Retailers need to embrace technologies like artificial intelligence to deliver a better customer experience and to optimize pricing to remain relevant and avoid ongoing closures.”
While some retailers struggle, others are investing in physical expansion. Jo Malone London plans to increase its UK store count from 37 to 45 by mid-2025, reaching 51 by 2026. Speaking to the Financial Times, Jo Dancey, senior vice-president and global general manager, reaffirmed the brand’s confidence in brick-and-mortar retail: “We are committed to physical investment. There was a level of pause though Covid?.?.?.?[but] we always believed [physical retail] was coming back, and now we’re full force into the investment,” she said. Unlike brands burdened by high costs and e-commerce competition, Jo Malone is targeting affluent market towns like Wilmslow, Farnham, and Chichester, where remote work has reshaped spending patterns. Smaller store formats and lower rents offer a path to sustainable growth.
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As rents have rebased a broader retail rebound is underway. According to Bisnow, improving store profitability have reignited investor interest in brick-and-mortar retail. Despite e-commerce growing to 22% of total U.S. retail sales, physical stores still account for nearly 80% of consumer spending.
However, retail remains divided between winners and losers. Walmart and Amazon continue to dominate, while brands such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Big Lots, and Party City face closures or acquisitions. Former Saks Fifth Avenue CEO Steve Sadove challenges the notion that digital has fully replaced physical shopping: “The idea that physical retail is dead and has become a digital play is incorrect. Eighty percent of sales remain in-store. Customers want the physical shopping experience.”
At a smaller scale, Britain’s independent corner shops are thriving by filling service gaps left by post offices and banks. Bossman, a term rooted in London slang for those who run Britain’s small, independent shops, has adapted to new consumer needs, offering cash deposits, benefit withdrawals, and parcel collection. With 4 million households reliant on prepayment meters, these stores provide a crucial service, ensuring steady footfall.
These services have been a lifeline for the country’s 35,000 independent corner shops, sustaining them in an era of relentless retail consolidation. Parcels are just one piece of the puzzle. Customers of online-only banks like Monzo can deposit cash at any PayPoint terminal, a service widely available in convenience stores. Benefits, too, can be withdrawn in cash via corner shops. Meanwhile, the four million households reliant on prepayment gas and electricity meters, must regularly top up in-store, ensuring a steady stream of footfall. Bossman will happily provide these services, so long as enough customers leave with a can of Diet Coke or a pack of Rizla.
Corner shops have always evolved alongside British society. Once steamrolled by supermarkets, they found new life in the 1950s and 60s, driven by Punjabi and Gujarati entrepreneurs. In the past, corner shops produced politicians such as Margaret Thatcher, whose father ran a grocer’s in Grantham. Today, they have produced politicians such as Priti Patel, a former home secretary. Strip out race, and the story of the petit bourgeois made good remains a cornerstone of the British high street according to an Economist article.
Bossman is thriving in a sector where convenience commands a premium. Trip frequency is rising - now just under three times a week - and so is basket size, according to Lumina Intelligence, a retail research firm. The treat mission, a glorious piece of industry jargon, is on the rise. If downturns once triggered the lipstick effect, where consumers splurged on small luxuries, today’s equivalent might be the Tony’s Chocolonely effect: when a night out is too expensive, shoppers settle for a ￡4 bar of lurid Dutch chocolate to devour in front of the telly.
Parcel collection is also driving traffic. Evri now delivers 180 million parcels annually to corner shops, 22.5% of all its shipments, with each delivery earning a shop 30p. Despite the slim margins, the added footfall makes it worthwhile. While independent stores still dominate, major players are adapting. Nisa (owned by the Co-op) and Londis (owned by Tesco) now operate under the same convenience model. If big chains can’t beat Bossman, they’ve decided to join him.
When the coronavirus first hit Western economies in 2020, UBS analysts wrote that “retail store closures are likely to accelerate in a post-COVID-19 world… and that the gap between well-positioned retailers and struggling chains will expand because of the outbreak.” Barnes & Noble, which reported seven straight years of falling sales at the time, hired James Daunt (of eponymous fame) who took advantage of pandemic-era shutdowns to reorganize stores, culling less popular titles and creating more communal spaces to encourage shoppers to stay and hang out—something rival Amazon.com hasn’t been able to pull off. Sales are up by the “mid-single digits” since 2021, as reported in Bloomberg, and last year it opened 57 stores, the most in a single year since at least 2007 – and it plans to open another 60 this year. Like J.Crew, the first national US retailer to file for bankruptcy protection during COVID adorned by the debonair Michelle Obama and Duchess of Cambridge, it is now doubling down on expansion, planning 20 new store openings in 2025 after 15 in 2024. The brand’s multichannel strategy, across e-commerce, physical retail, and third-party partnerships, drove a 45% increase in Christmas sales. Online demand surged 70%, but physical stores still saw 22% growth, highlighting the role of brick-and-mortar retail in a digital world. As journalist Maggie Bullock notes in her book ‘The Kingdom of Prep: The Inside Story of the Rise and Near Fall of J.Crew’, some of J.Crew’s greatest hits were relatively subtle improvements on existing items from the canon. Consumers are no longer bound to one idea of style, shopping behaviour, or retail loyalty. The rules of retail have changed, but the brands that understand their customers, balancing physical and digital, convenience and experience, are the ones that will endure.