The shops have reopened. And while there may be queues outside Primark and H&M, other retailers are not seeing similar rushes to shop, shop, shop.
A personal stylist told me this week that one London department store was so keen to accommodate her and her client – who, by the way, isn’t a celebrity or someone guaranteeing to spend a certain amount of thousands – that they opened up the entire store an hour early. Yes, things are that bad.
Many people aren’t yet feeling mentally or physically ready to go into stores in the carefree way that they used to. I read in The Times this week that it only takes two weeks to lose a large percentage of muscle tone during a time of inactivity and I think it could be the same for our habits. Many consumers have lost their shopping muscle, certainly when it comes to bricks and mortar.
But if we don’t want our high streets, town centres and stores to just wither away and die, retailers and brands are going to have to provide brilliant reasons for consumers to start putting in the leg work again. To change that mindset, reassure and protect in order to get this country moving again is going to take one hell of a push. PRs now need to be the equivalent of a Joe Wicks, motivators to get people shopping fit again. From Couch to Cash Register? Who’s game?
