My Inspiration: Artist Lauren Baker on vows of silence, an infinity coffin and her love of John Everett Millais’ Ophelia September 22, 2016 Artist Lauren Baker talks about her love for John Everett Millais’ Ophelia In Shakespeare’s play, Ophelia is picking flowers in the forest and falls into the river, where her billowing dress keeps her afloat for a while before she slowly drowns. In the painting she’s pale white with long, gingery hair, so I kind of see [...]
It’s facile to blame the referendum for everything: Digital killed the TV star, not Brexit October 26, 2016 It matters not which sector you work in, if something has gone wrong since June, chances are it was the fault of Brexit. Just try it, it’s easy: “_______ happened, due to Britain voting to leave the European Union”. Feels good, doesn’t it? As sinecures go, doomsayers have only just stopped short of blaming Brexit [...]
Yes, Selfridges has just opened its Christmas shop and this is what it looks like August 1, 2016 Is that a little bit of Scrooge spirit we sense spreading across the capital? That would be because Selfridges became the world's first department store to open its Christmas shop. Bah, humbug. The retailer has put 50,000 decorations on display, with plans to expand the store later this year to accommodate another 70,000 decorations. When the [...]
Debenhams target share price cut by Investec due to post-Brexit foreign exchange concerns and an expected slowdown in UK demand July 20, 2016 Brexit is beginning to bite for retailers. Investec this morning said Debenhams face a "foreign exchange headwind" that will hit the department store in 2018. Read more: Debenhams raids Amazon for new chief executive Retail analyst Kate Calvert cut Debenhams' target share price to 52p. The cut comes after analysts expressed concerns about Sports Direct at the beginning of the [...]
Debenhams’ share price falters after retailer announces drop in sales June 22, 2016 Debenhams share price fell this morning as the struggling department store posted a drop in sales. The figures Like-for-like sales at the UK chain fell 0.2 per cent in the 15 weeks to 11 June. Discounting the effect of currency movements, this figure adjusted to a 1.6 per cent fall in sales. Online sales grew by seven [...]
Black Friday UK 2015: John Lewis deals revealed on Miele vacuum, Sony TVs, Amazon Fire tablet and more ahead of 27 November launch November 26, 2015 John Lewis has finally revealed a handful of the many deals the retailer will be offering at this year’s Black Friday sale, just hours before the midnight kick-off as bargains go on sale online. Many retailers have already begun revealing their offerings, but John Lewis has been very secretive about its bargains, keeping them hush-hush [...]
Is Amazon Fresh about to land on our doorsteps: Amazon signs 10-year lease for former Tesco warehouse August 10, 2015 Amazon has signed a 10-year lease on a warehouse formerly used by Tesco fuelling speculation that it is about to launch its grocery operation Fresh in the UK. Amazon will take on Logicor's 304,751 sq ft warehouse in Weybridge, Surrey, which have been lying empty since Tesco vacated the premises at the end of [...]
Drop in supermarkets sales leads to UK plc revenues sliding August 15, 2016 Dwindling supermarket sales have weighed heavily on the performance of UK plc, causing listed companies’ revenues to dip 2.2 per cent to £341.7bn in the last quarter, according to new research from retail stockbroker The Share Centre. Supermarkets, which account for nearly one third of the UK's publicly listed companies, saw sales fall below £100bn [...]
TV wars: Amazon banishes Google Chromecast and Apple TV to “avoid confusion” as it focuses on Prime October 1, 2015 Is this the new war of the smartphones? Amazon, which has increasingly placed a focus on its Prime Instant Video TV offering, has banished Apple and Google's TV streaming offerings from its shelves. Businessweek reported today that the company has decided to stop stocking both the Apple TV (a new version of which is due [...]
The infinite bookshop: How Chinese architects created a reflective space using mirrors July 7, 2016 With Amazon, ebooks and high street supermarkets pushing bookshops to the brink of extinction, the few independent sellers remaining have sought to reinvent themselves as shrines to literacy, intimate meeting places for authors and their readers, and serene reading grounds amidst the urban noise. One such spot is Zhongshuge-hangzhou, a newly- opened bookshop in Hong [...]