In the city: The John Lewis partnership and planned shopping centres

Abstract

A defining feature of large-scale retailing during the period 1950–1980 was the emergence and evolution of planned shopping centres. During the 1950s, department stores in the United States were in the vanguard of this phenomenon. In contrast, British department stores continued operating from traditional high street sites, and had limited opportunities for expansion within planned shopping centres until the 1970s. This paper addresses the connection between department store retailing and the development of the planned shopping centre in Britain from the perspective of one enterprise: the John Lewis Partnership. The article demonstrates that the Partnership was willing to operate department stores within centrally located shopping centres, but was circumspect about operating stores in non-centrally located shopping centres.

Keywords:

• John Lewis partnership
• department stores
• productivity
• shopping centres
• retail change
• retail performance

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Judy Faraday and Gavin Henderson at the John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre for their patience, generosity and assistance, and participants of the Evolution of the Retail Trade in the twentieth century workshop held in Paris, August 2015. Thanks are also due to Victoria Barnes, Andrew Hull, Lucy Newton, Peter Scott and James Walker for their comments, feedback and advice. The manuscript has greatly benefited from the comments of the editor, and two anonymous referees. Any errors remain solely the author’s responsibility.

Notes

1. See for example Sandbrook, State of Emergency.

2. The scholarly essays collected in Coopey and Woodward (eds.), Britain in the 1970s, is the standout reference.

3. Holmes, Failure, 68–70.

4. Tomlinson, British Government, 752.

5. This refers to short-term interest rates. The peak of 17% occurred in November 1979. Throughout the 1970s interest rates averaged 13.74%. Homer and Sylla, History of Interest Rates, 458; Bank of England, Table 10.

6. In 1970 the influential trade journal The Draper’s Record (January 2, 1971, 9) predicted that the 1970s were ‘likely to present a greater than usual challenge’. This sentiment was later echoed in a study published in 1976, by the Economist Intelligence Unit (Retail Distribution in Britain, 5), which stated, ‘the most striking characteristic … has been the toughening of conditions under which the [retail] trade operates at all levels. In times of economic difficulty such as the present and immediate past the going always gets harder for the retail trade’.

7. A planned shopping centre is defined, following the Urban Land Institute definition as ‘a group of architecturally unified commercial establishments built on a site that is planned, developed and managed as an operating unit related in its location, size and type of shops to the trade area it serves’ (Shopping Centre Development, 1).

8. In terms of shopping centre development in Britain, the 1970s have been characterised as a ‘decade of debate’ (Effects, 39).

9. This is my own, relatively crude estimate from awkward data in the 1950 Census of Distribution. Jeffreys (Retail Trading, 61) puts the market share of department stores between 4.5% and 6%. Lancaster (Department Store, 195) explains clearly and succinctly the difficulties of calculating department store market share in the immediate post-war period, and suggests 5.6% as a good approximation.

10. Retail Business 258, August 1979, 32.

11. Retail Business 103, September 1966, 10.

12. Retail Business 258, August 1979, 32.

13. Lancaster, Department Store, 204.

14. The last major piece of historical work on the British department store was a social history published more than 20 years ago: Lancaster, Department Store. It contains only a brief chapter on the post-war period and focuses in much more detail on British department stores up to 1939. Recent work on the economic history of the British department store has similarly focused predominantly on the period up to 1939, for example Scott and Walker, “British Failure”’ Over the past five years, the post-1950 history of department stores in the United States has received much more attention: particularly Howard, Main Street; and Longstreth, American Department Store.

15. The term ‘regional shopping centre’ follows the standard typology of shopping centres into three categories: ‘neighbourhood’ ‒ the smallest; community – mid-sized; and ‘regional’ ‒ the largest. Such categories, while meant to have clear and neat distinctions, do not fit all situations or circumstances at any one moment in time. A useful definition (which this paper adopts) of a regional shopping centre, contemporary with the period 1950–1980, as ‘having 300,000 to 1,000,000 ft² of selling space … with one or two department stores’ as well as having an assortment of other retailers was used by the British retailer Boots the Chemist. Alliance Boots Archive & Museum Collection, Visit to United States of America, April 8 to May 8, 1962. A50/14.

16. Siggelkow, “Persuasion,” 20.

17. Alexander, “Format Development.”

18. Shaw, Curth, and Alexander, “Selling.”

19. Shaw and Alexander, “British Co-operative Societies.”

20. Tennent, “Distribution.”

21. McNair and May, Evolution, 43.

22. Retail Business 166, December 1971, 20.

23. Shopping Center Development Handbook, 12.

24. McNair and May, Evolution, 44.

25. This shopping centre opened in the Seattle suburb of Northgate in 1950; see Clausen, “Northgate”; Laulajainen, Spatial Strategies.

26. Rowley, On Target, 110.

27. It is worth noting, in contrast, that only 16% of branch stores opened by department stores in the 10 years or more before 1960 were located in planned shopping centres.

28. National Retail Dry Goods Association (US) Controllers’ Congress, Departmental, ix.

29. 32.6%; McNair and May, The American, 14.

30. French, U.S., 189.

31. Retail Business 94, December 1965, 40.

32. Gruen and Smith, Shopping Towns, 20–21.

33. McGoldrick and Thompson, Regional Shopping Centres, 13.

34. Davies, Retail, 60. The process of reconstruction, though, did see the implementation of the shopping precincts idea ‒ an idea particularly associated with the creation of New Towns.

35. Bennison and Davies, Impact, 12.

36. Marriot, Property, 120.

37. Scott, Property Masters, 48–63.

38. Crowther, Traffic in Towns, 180.

39. Transport Statistics, Table 53, 60. The respective number of private cars and vans for the United Kingdom (i.e. Great Britain and Northern Ireland) was slightly higher. In 1951 there were 2,433,000 private cars and vans in the UK; in 1961 there were 6,114,000.

40. Transport Statistics, Table 61, 75.

41. Davies, Retail, 41, British Cities, 10.

42. Cullingworth and Nadin, Town and Country Planning, 14.

43. Cullingworth, Town and Country Planning, 20. The object of the 1909 act was ‘to provide a domestic condition for the people in which their physical health, their morals, their character and their whole social condition can be improved’.

44. Davies, Continuity and Change, 137.

45. Guy, Retail Location, 89–90.

46. Hall, The Containment, 396.

47. Guy, Retail Development, 67.

48. Marriott, Property Boom, 238.

49. Retail Business 190, December 1973, 21.

50. The Financial Times, June 6, 1966, 8.

51. Retail Business 190, December 1973, 21.

52. Wrigley, Retail Restructuring, 11.

53. Economic Development Committee, Future Pattern, 64.

54. Ibid.

55. Department of the Environment, Out of Town Shops.

56. Ibid.

57. Wade, “Retail Planning,” 56.

58. The Drapers Record, September 30, 1978, 31.

59. Whysall, Retail Planning, 785. Of further significance is that Whysall argues that the Victoria Centre continued to act as a retail magnet in a dumb-bell configuration from ca. 2004. However, in this new configuration the Bridlesmith Gate fashion cluster replaced the Broadmarsh centre as the southern anchor.

60. Jeffreys, Retail Trading, 345.

61. These were now House of Fraser, Debenhams, the John Lewis Partnership and Lewis’/Selfridges: Retail Business 258, August 1979, 33.

62. Jeffreys, Retail Trading, 346.

63. Lewis, Partnership.

64. Lewis, Fairer.

65. Flanders et al., Experiment.

66. Bradley, Business Performance.

67. Cox, Spedan.

68. Scott and Walker, Advertising, 1106.

69. Lancaster, Department Store, 85–6.

70. Lewis, Partnership, 59.

71. JLPA 3842, Statement of the Partnership’s Sales, 1913/14 to 1960/61.

72. Ibid.

73. JLPA 4186/t; Cox, Spedan, 165–81.

74. Lewis, Partnership, 304.

75. In addition to the two (John Lewis and Peter Jones) it already operated.

76. JLPA open access, Retail Trading: The Philosophy and Practice of John Spedan Lewis, 11.

77. JLPA open access, Retail Trading: The Philosophy and Practice of John Spedan Lewis, 14, 148.

78. JLPA 3842, Statement of the Partnership’s Sales, 1913/14 to 1960/61.

79. JLPA 2662/b, John Lewis Partnership Limited Accounts for the Year Ended January 31, 1961 and Report of the Directors.

80. JLPA 3842, Statement of the Partnership’s Sales, 1913/14 to 1960/61. The first part of the rebuilt Knight and Lee had opened in September 1956.

81. Bainbridge’s was acquired on 2 February 1953; Heelas on 3 May 1953: JLPA 3842, Statement of the Partnership’s Sales, 1913/14 to 1960/61.

82. JLPA 920/W, The Partnership’s Strength, DCH/1011, August 13, 1969.

83. Ibid.

84. If the smaller stores, i.e. those with sales under £250,000, are not excluded, and all stores are included regardless of size, the coefficient of variation falls from 1.23 in 1950 to 0.90 in 1959.

85. JLPA 920/W, The Partnership’s Strength, DCH/1011, August 13, 1969.

86. JLPA920/W The Partnership and its Department Store Competitors IQ/58731, July 18, 1969.

87. Ibid.

88. JLPA 4235/a12, We are Never Knowingly Undersold, Memorandum 1138, August 3, 1956.

89. This included acquiring department stores in places as diverse as Oxford and Hull in 1952 and 1953, The Financial Times, June 20, 1953, 6; Bradford in 1958, The Economist, December 20, 1958, 1111; Ipswich in 1959, The Financial Times, April 17, 1959; and Guildford in 1960, The Financial Times, Tuesday, November 1, 1960, 12.

90. JLPA 920/W, The Partnership and its Department Store Competitors IQ/58731, July 18, 1969. 120 is a Partnership approximation. A Draper’s Record Article (July 19th 1969, 13) states there were 115 Debenhams stores in 1969.

91. JLPA 920/W, The Partnership’s Strength DCH/1011, August 13, 1969; JLPA 768/i, John Lewis Company Limited, Report & Accounts 1969/70. Retail Trade Developments.

92. The Financial Times, October 3, 1968, 1.

93. In 1966, Debenhams’ chairman John Bedford announcing his board’s decision to adopt central buying for all stores, commenting: ‘this is probably the most revolutionary decision that Debenhams might have had to make, but we are convinced that in the changed circumstances it is the right decision. It confronts the directors and the management teams with a tremendous challenge’. Corina, Fine Silks, 159.

94. JLPA 920/W, The Partnership and its Department Store Competitors IQ/58731, July 18, 1969.

95. The Financial Times, June 25, 1969, 19.

96. JLPA 920/W, The Partnership and its Department Store Competitors IQ/58731, July 18, 1969. JLPA 920/W, The Partnership’s Strength DCH/1011, August 13, 1969.

97. Retail Distribution in Britain, 81.

98. Retail Trade, 358.

99. JLPA 920/W, The Partnership’s Strength DCH/1011, August 13, 1969.

100. JLPA 920/W, Long Range Projection, RE/3514, August 20, 1970.

101. For instance, Bain, Barriers.

102. JLPA 920/W, Long Range Projection, DRE/413, August 19, 1970.

103. Ibid.

104. JLPA 2555, Minutes of a Meeting of the Central Board Held on March 20, 1969, CH/14354, March 25, 1969.

105. JLPA 920/W, Long Range Projection, RE/3514, August 20, 1970.

106. JLPA 2555/h, Review of Jessops After the Move to the Victoria Centre, GI/3680, May 8, 1973. The extension of the existing Jessops store involved expanding the selling area from 66,000 square feet to 99,000 square feet.

107. JLPA 920/W, Long Range Projection, DRE/413, August 19, 1970.

108. Ibid.

109. JLPA 920/W, Long Range Projection, DRE/413, August 19, 1970. The powers refer to those incorporated in the statutory system set up by the Town and Country Planning Act 1947, and subsequently modified.

110. JLPA 920/W, Long Range Projection, DRE/413, August 19, 1970.

111. Ibid.

112. The Economist, August 7, 1971, 62; The Drapers Record, January 1, 1972, 9; The Drapers Record, February 26, 1972, 13.

113. This relates of course to acquiring an advantage over existing competitors, as well as attempting to disadvantage future potential competitors. Gilbert (“Mobility Barriers,” 488) discusses the potential disadvantage future entrants may encounter if an incumbent acquires access to a preferential location. Lieberman and Montgomery (“First Mover,” 44–6), meanwhile, explicitly discuss prime retailing locations in their analysis of a first-mover firm gaining advantage over existing rivals.

114. As well as Bainbridge’s subsequent relocation to Eldon Square.

115. And the resulting closure of the smaller speciality store in that city.

116. As does the decision to open a new store in a planned shopping centre in Milton Keynes in 1979.

117. Even if this might involve a temporary or permanent loss of trade. A 1974 review of Jessops noted that ‘it had to be accepted that Jessops for the present has lost a number of its more conservative customers (and among them some of the more well to do) simply because they disliked going into a shopping centre’. JLPA 2555/h (ii), Review of Jessops November 1974, Memorandum GI/142 142, December 5, 1974.

118. This SCAN store, described as ‘filthy and tatty, intent on stunting’, in the 1974 review of Jessops was subsequently relaunched as a ‘Debenhams One Stop’ in 1976 before being sold to Tesco in 1978. JLPA 2555/h (ii), Review of Jessops November 1974, Memorandum GI/142 142, December 5, 1974. The Drapers Record, September 11, 1976, 60; The Drapers Record, February 11, 1978, 5. It is worth noting that because of Debenhams’ decision not to operate a traditional full-line department store in the Victoria Centre none of the other three of the four major department store groups operated such a store in the same planned shopping centre as the John Lewis Partnership until 1981, when House of Fraser opened a department store in the Milton Keynes shopping centre. By that time the Partnership had already been trading in the centre for two years.

119. The Estates Gazette, December 19, 1970, 216, 1552; The Estates Gazette, October 6, 1973, 46, 228.

120. Consequently the Partnership operated department stores in two of the very limited number of post-World War II city centre shopping centre developments that leased stores on a turnover rent basis – Bainbridge’s in Eldon Square and Jessops in the Victoria Centre. See Healey and Baker, French. In the United States it was conventional for tenants to pay rents consisting of a guaranteed base amount, plus a percentage of their gross sales volume: see Carlson, “Role,” 16.

121. Extension of the timeframe to 1984/85 means that two new stores, one located in a city centre shopping centre in Peterborough and one not located in a city centre shopping centre in Welwyn Garden City are included in the quantitative analysis.

122. JLPA 2660/b, Finance Director’s Examination of Financial Sanctions 1977–1980, General Secretary from Finance Director, FD/7129, July 11, 1979.

123. JLPA 917/C, Out of Town Centres, Memorandum CH/15910, December 22, 1971.

124. JLPA 920/W, The Partnership’s Strength DCH/1011, August 13, 1969.

125. JLPA 917/C, Out of Town Centres, Memorandum CH/15910, December 22, 1971.

126. Kennedy, Guide, 302.

127. Following Matthews, Feinstein, and Odling-Smee, British, 201; Scott and Walker, “Failure,” 291.

128. Baltagi, Econometric, 12.