Cheap and (very) Cheerful

Writing about low-cost retail environments in the food sector last month, it was relatively easy to be judgmental. When the decision is made to battle with the discounters, perhaps low-cost interiors are part of the formula that tells shoppers what to expect.

Yet, it isn’t always like this. Take the fashion sector. Cheap or low cost, to be politically correct, clothing has been a reality in the market for years and somewhat uninviting interiors have been part of this. Yet, budget-fashion-retailer Primark, which now boasts stores in Ireland, the U.K., Germany, France, Spain and Holland, shows that cheap can be cheerful.

This retailer’s stores are increasingly a response to wherever they happen to be with the store’s designers, Dalziel and Pow (London), and its in-house team working together to create difference in different locations. And they look good, too. Digital signage, large-format graphics and a palette of materials that varies from branch to branch, all contribute to the sense that this is a fashion destination first and it just happens that the offer doesn’t cost much when you get to the checkout.

All of this has not happened overnight, of course. The Primark design team, internal and external, has been evolving the in-store appearance of its branches on a continual basis for some years now. The outcome is that visitors to its city center branches, in particular, are now greeted by store interiors that are snapping at the heels of the mid-market operators in a manner that must have them looking over their shoulders and wondering just what can be done.

The answer is probably very little. ‘Primarni’ – the phenomenon that sees Armani shoppers being perfectly prepared to rough it in a Primark store, is very well established and the discounter has responded to this. Discounting in some sectors, it would appear, does not mean design compromise, or not much, anyway.  

John Ryan is a journalist covering the retail sector, a role he has fulfilled for more than a decade. As well as being the European Editor of VMSD magazine, he writes for a broad range of publications in the U.K., the U.S. and Germany with a focus on in-store marketing, display and layout, as well as the business of store architecture and design. In a previous life, he was a buyer for C&A based in London and then Dusseldorf. He lives and works in London.