High Street Retail: On the Way Up?

A lot has been written recently about the demise of the outdoor store but I wonder about this. There are signs that the retail stores are getting their acts together and – perhaps – beginning to fight back. A couple of things have caught my attention.

First off, I’ve been working in Carlisle quite a lot recently. As befits a town that straddles both Cumbria and the Scottish Borders there are quite a number of walking stores here, but they tend to be at the budget end of the market. But recently a new branch of Field and Trek has opened up, ringing a more comprehensive – and better quality outdoor – offering to the city. This is, perhaps, one of the first signs of the expansion plans of the new Field and Trek company (now owned by a major leisure group). The new store is smart and comfortable and quite unlike the old-style, shambolic stores that used to characterise Field and Trek. A nice store this, and if this is the shape of new F & T stores to come then that would be no bad thing.

The second store that has caught my imagination is in central Birmingham. Birmingham has always been a difficult place for specialist walking shops, mainly because the central retail core has such expensive ground rents. Stores have closed over recent years and what we are left with are those stores that cross over into the basic leisure market. Blacks and Millets are here. There is a Snow and Rock superstore but, in recent times, this has become more focussed on the ski market and a once impressive range of backpacking and hiking kit has now diminished -customers are pointed to web sites.

The new store is a branch of the Cotswold chain, and its located smack bang in the middle of New Street – one of Birmingham’s premier retail sites. It’s taken me a while to get round to visiting but, my goodness, this is an impressive store.

There’s no doubt that this branch of Cotswold has got just about everything right. The store is spread over several floors and has most of the gear that any walker of climber would need. There’s a full range of clothing, boots, tents, sleeping bags and cookware. Maybe it would be nice if there was a greater variety on offer but – like everywhere now -the store is often a window onto the company website (where the full range of tents can be accessed).

What is clear about this store is that is has been designed for serious outdoor folk – it is simply not just pitching for the casual, clothing market. There is, for example, an excellent book section which features not only most of the OS and Harvey Maps ranges but many titles from Cicerone, Lonely Planet and Trailblazer (to name just a few).

But while this is an outdoors store it is thoroughly modern, spacious and comfortable. Quite frankly it provides a completely different quality of outdoor, retail, experience to the one I’m used to. I hope this development reflects the shape of things to come.

It’s clear that groups like Cotswold and, perhaps, Field and Trek still think they can make a good return out of the oudoors world. But they’ve realised that they have to up there game in terms of the retail experience. If they are to compete with the e-retails world they have to provide real, added value: the Birmingham Cotswold store seems to understand that.

Congratulations Cotswold!