Store tours

Never been one to bite the hand that feeds, so I'm always grateful when a retailer rings up and enquires whether I'd be available to take a group around stores in, say, London or Berlin. It's generally pretty straightforward and there are invariably a few new shops that are worth showing off.

The thing is, when you talk to many of those who come over for "inspiration", it doesn't take too long to find out that they're not really sure what they want to look at, so they go for the default position. More often than not, food retailers will want to have a gander at foreign supermarkets, fashionistas will want to check out Topshop and so on.

There is a school of thought however that says that if you really are looking for something new, then looking beyond your own sector is more likely to pay dividends. At the moment, probably the most dynamic interiors are to be found in the restaurant sector - so here's a piece of free advice. If you want to see something new, now would be a good time to pick up the phone and ask me out to lunch. I guarantee I'll be able to find you something interesting and if all else fails, at least you'll have had a good meal.

A new Bhs: in Uxbridge...and it's good!

Uxbridge, slap bang in the heart of Betjeman's Metroland is not the first place you'd think of when considering a whizzy new retail format. It is the choice for Bhs however for its new store design and what is on view is so much better than anything else the chain has to offer. A cynic might remark that this would hardly be difficult as the design bar is hardly at stratospheric levels.

That would be a mite unfair in this instance as Bhs really has pulled out the stops and more or less reinvented the brand. The tricky bit will be whether the roll-out button is pressed and just how much of what is on offer in Uxbridge makes it to other branches. The answer to this is hard to discern as Sir Philip Green's Arcadia, of which Bhs is a part, is not famous for its open-handed approach to telling outsiders about its strategy.

It seems a fair bet however that if this one performs even modestly well, we'll see things taking a turn for the better at Bhs in the not too distant future.

Making more of bookselling

The trouble with many booksellers is that they just sell books. And if that sounds like a statement or the obvious, it's perhaps because it is. In a world where the great majority of retailers all try to go the extra mile, whatever that is, booksellers seem, in many instances to be rooted in the 19th century.

Consider how nice it might be to have a bookshop where you could listen to music...of your choice...while browsing or just sitting and reading prior to considering a purchase. And for those who are a little older than the UK average, think how good it would be to have a pair of reading glasses on hand to take the place of the ones that you left beside the bed at home.

Dussmann, aka Das KulturKaufaus, aka the culture department store in Berlin, does all of this. Visitors can, for a small returnable deposit, walk away with a CD player, music and a pair of glasses. The aim is to keep shoppers in the store and with books accounting for 60% of sales in this city centre landmark, you can see why this might be important.

The only real question is why other retailers haven't done something similar.

And when you look at the pictures that go with this - look at the "Service Center" bit that's written in red.

Popping up

The word 'community' is much over-used and when seen in the context of a shopping centre is generally a shameless piece of marketing flimflam. Little surprise therefore to have seen this in the Whiteleys shopping centre in Bayswater. OK, there are a handful of pop-up stores that have opened on the scheme's first floor, but does this constitute a "community"?

Probably not. Especially when it is considered that three out of the four pop-ups that have made it over the starting line here are owned by the same company. It does also make you wonder about the nature of popping-up. If the name is any kind of clue, then, by definition, a pop-up store can never be part of a community.

Perhaps I'm missing something. But I rather think not.

Crime and punishment

From time to time, you come across signs that make you smile in spite of the severe message that they promote. This one, spotted in a trendy sneaker store in Camden makes stern reading and is, presumably not to be taken at face value.

Nothing much more to say about it really, other than that I particularly like the "survivors" bit.

Banana Republic goes to the dogs

Why do we stop to take a look at windows? What is it that makes you take a few moments longer to examine a specific scheme when all around there are rivals vying for your attention. The answer is simple: simplicity.

A single message well delivered will always trump an overtly promotional vehicle and to see how this can be done effectively, a trip to Regent Street at the moment is probably in order. Banana Republic is a doggedly metropolitan format and in the UK there are just two stores: Regent Street and Brent Cross.

And currently, the theme of the Regent Street store windows is supposed to be Chinos, but is actually, well, dogs. Stuffed doggie mannequins, of various breeds, held on leads by headless mannequins.

So what's that got to do with Chinos? Just about everything as it happens. The faceless dogs are chino-coloured and their handlers are dressed in preppy Chino-based outfits. This may sound a mite contrived, but then what window isn't and as a vehicle for making you stop and stare, this is a store that currently boasts a scheme that demands attention in a way that others along the way just don't.

Keep it simple and make it fun. Every visual merchandiser wannabe should bear these two strictures in mind.

Student Art

Design-led furniture store Heal's has set about marking its bicentenary by stripping its windows of the usual expensive-looking (and when you reach the cash desk, expensive in reality) stock and replacing this with, err, a bunch of art students from the nearby Slade art school.

We have, of course grown used to the idea of windows with live models, plants and even temporary art installations in our shop windows. But a scheme posited upon the idea of allowing shoppers to walk into the space normally reserved for merchandise and then to commission a quick and dirty art work would seem new.

The whole shooting match is in place for just a week and if you want a woodblock print, hot off the press, then at £20, this may be the place for you. But hurry, it's already three days old, the groovy studes are looking careworn and the whole thing is due to be dismantled on Friday.