Given that Marks & Spencer started as a ‘pound shop’ (Penny Bazaar, 1894) and Woolworths followed as a ‘sixpenny store’, it is perhaps valuable to seek signs of innovative pound shop retailing as a pointer for the future, and perhaps move this emerging sector closer to our core trade strategies?
Key pound shop moves include:
- Pound shop launches door-to-door home deliveries for a pound a trip
- Mobile Pound shop sets up stall at local events, offering to recycle ‘your old £10 + £20 notes for something you can use’! Also have a flourishing online pound site
- Pound shop van travelling to outlying villages (see pic above)
- Around A Pound (Newry, N.I.) have a pound shop on eBay and sponsor motorcycle racing
- East Hull Community transport offering transport at £1 a trip
Time for someone to ignore the numbers, try a BOGOF and really stop the whole process in its tracks?
For a detailed treatment of the rise of pound shops see Kamcity Library
Incidentally, we found a number of independent pound shops branding themselves as ‘Around A Pound’. Branding experts will foresee some issues here in that the label will either become generic, or may lead to possible passing-off charges being levelled at rivals.
In which case, this may cause some enterprising legal firms to combat ‘Tesco law’ by offering cut-price legal advice at a pound-a-pop?
Have a legal pig-flying weekend, from the NamNews Team!
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