Waterstones conning high street shoppers?
James Daunt, managing director of Waterstones spoke on Radio Four this morning defending the three new unbranded Waterstones shops. These shops are not easily identifiable as branches of Waterstones but rather have developed an individual and ‘local’ identity, being called after the name of the town they are in and not using any Waterstones branding material. The story brings up various themes we have discussed in the last few weeks. Why is a shop ostensibly rooted in the local area more attractive, more authentic, than a shop with a national brand? Why is an independent shop more acceptable on a local high street than a chain? Why is it considered subterfuge if Waterstones is simply removing its branding? Of course there are numerous other factors playing into this, increases in high street rents pricing out independent stores in particular, but the counter argument is the need for high streets to be revived and a book shop is generally seen as more acceptable than, for example, supermarkets. James Daunt himself was an independent book seller originally – setting up Daunt Books – and he is able to put this part of identity to good use when defending Waterstones and what he sees as the need for various different methods of book selling in the UK. There was similar intrigue around the Harris + Hoole coffee shops which were backed by Tesco but but used iconography typical of independent coffee shops with no mention of Tesco.
Contributed by PollyDavies on 27/02/2017
2 responses to “Waterstones conning high street shoppers?”
Oh, I missed this programme this morning. Will try to find it because it is indeed very relevant to many of our discussions.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/27/waterstones-chief-defends-decision-to-open-unbranded-stores
The Guardian of course would cover this too!