BHS, Southend On Sea.

It is that time of the year again in retail, between new year and pay day and all is slow.
With a trip to Southend I decided to take a look in BHS and see how things looked after Christmas. Being early on a Sunday it was very quite in shop (and on the high street) the shop at first looked reasonably tidy, well merchandised, and till you look past the products, its the season of red and white signage  and its out in force on fixtures and stuck on the walls. yes A3 signage suck on the walls, something that was forbidden when i was there. The dividing white walls that split up the large floor space within the marked out walk ways and presented well but the down fall is the remainders of double sided tape still attached to the wall to gather dirt.- nothing that a scraper and baking soda or vinegar wouldn't budge.
At this time of year I can under stand not having mannequin groups at the front of the store as sale mercy tends to take the space, but this store needs something to distract the view from the badge and brown gondoliers that, especially as on the left side of the store you have Dorothy Perkins concession which is made up of rails and 6 ways fixtures and tables and dose put the store to shame.

I under stand that it can be hard to make the store look immaculate  like the res of the year, but the little things can make a huge impact, clean walls and fixtures,  signage placement and fixtures being used.

Visited 18th January 2015

BHS Southend-On-Sea

This store opened in 1969 in a purpose built store on Southend high street, and after 45 years it is still going strong.

I worked in for the company and was based at this branch for 5 years. After being out of there for 4 years I thought it was time to look at it as a visual merchandiser rather then a customer.

It is finally nice to see the windows with mannequins and props, It beats the oversized photos of products that half the time we did not have in stock, looking sometimes lost in the large windows. They now have shelfs, beds, and mannequins in them, sat on wooden pallets, either left raw or painted white.

The only thing is if you are walking along the street you don’t really get to see the displays as they are obscured by graphics, attached to the window. Meaning you only really get to see the display if you are standing directly in front of it.

Window 3. Runs parallel with Heygate Avenue.

Window 2,  Runs parallel with the High Street, But can be seen in to by three sides.

In the centre as you walk in they currently have a display of mannequins  on display grey painted steps, enabling the display of shows bags and accessories.
Running down the right hand side of the store is the Christmas gift shop and on the left Dorothy Perkins concession.

The store as a whole is is immaculate presented and bright. They were currently at the end of the day and were about to start a move but they were doing this without causing to many disruptions, High level visual bright and eye catching.

Being Christmas you might expect a bright festive in store theme, instead the store was dressed some what pathetically with single holly and berries hug from the ceiling. 

I know that the visual merchandiser dose not get a say in the stores theme, or even on the windows, but this was a sorry sight. I just hope the model stores and flag ship stores have a better theme going on.

Visited on the 25th November 2014. 

Photos taken by Gary Patel at Finger press studios.