A nation of shopkeepers closes its doors on the high street


  • English
  • Arabic

I've been reading with envy this week about the World Luxury Expo, being staged at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. Surely the planet's most opulent marketplace, items available for purchase include Fabergé eggs, $10 million (Dh37 million) yachts and even a jewel-encrusted pen.

If a wistful smile flitters across my features as I imagine wandering among the aisles with my credit card in hand, you must forgive me. For here in the UK, we're facing the imminent prospect of having nowhere left to shop at all. Nevermind Fabergé and yachts, if things continue, Britons soon won't be able to purchase anything more extravagant than a pint of milk.

It was Napoleon Bonaparte who famously dismissed the English as "a nation of shopkeepers". Yet if the remark was supposed to be disparaging, it had the opposite effect: Brits have always prided ourselves on the traditional high street, with the variety of businesses that each contribute to the commercial and social cohesion of the community.

But now many of the household names that once made up the fabric of town centres are collapsing faster than faulty picnic chairs. First to go was Clintons, the greeting-card company, which last summer declared insolvency and the closure of 345 outlets. Comet, the audio and TV giant, soon followed suit, as did the clothing retailer JJB Sports.

Now, with the new year not yet three weeks old, more major chains have collapsed, including Jessops, the camera retailers (187 stores), and Blockbuster, the movie rental chain (528 stores).

The biggest casualty in this grim commercial roll call, however, has to be HMV. One of the nation's most recognisable brands, with its famous logo of a Jack Russell terrier peering at an ancient gramophone, Britain's pre-eminent music and DVD chain was recently voted one of the 10 best-loved brands in the UK.

But the internet cannot be denied, and shoppers now download their favourite tunes and movies straight to their computers. HMV failed to cope with changing trends, and now all 235 stores have closed with the loss of 4,500 jobs.

While the global recession has obviously been a contributing factor, it's not difficult to see the reason for this tsunami: namely, the nation's love affair with online shopping, and in particular Amazon. Like the mighty Brazilian river, this giant of online retail is threatening to swamp everything in its path.

With its head offices registered in the tiny European state of Luxembourg, the company pays relatively little corporate tax. Instead of costly premises, it conducts its business from a few distribution warehouses (called, with chilling prescience, "fulfilment centres").

Indeed, the inequality between online businesses and those still struggling in the high street was illustrated at the weekend when I visited HMV in central London. With closure imminent, prices at the flagship store on Oxford Street were slashed. When I spotted a DVD box set of a popular drama series reduced from £55 to £45 (Dh320 to Dh260), it seemed too good a bargain to refuse.

Yet a quick check online via my BlackBerry showed Amazon was selling the same set for £35. Needless to say, I left the shop empty-handed.

And therein lies the problem. With such a lopsided playing field, high-street retailers simply cannot compete. They may be able to offer a unique shopping experience, but the proprietor of our small local bookshop in north London summed up the difficulties: she told me that she often spends time helping customers to select the right book, only for them to blithely announce that they are going home to order it online. No wonder that a recent survey predicted that all of the nation's bookshops will have disappeared by 2015.

Indeed, this week the British Retail Consortium claimed that one in every nine high-street premises is now empty; and with 140 other well-known chain stores rumoured to be in deep financial trouble, that ratio will surely rise.

Of course, there'll always be a few things that can't be delivered in a van - such as a yacht for instance. But I wouldn't bank on it remaining that way. I can't quite imagine how Amazon will fit a 60-foot ocean-going cruiser into your letterbox, but of one thing you can be sure: somewhere, someone will be trying to figure it out.

Michael Simkins is an actor and writer based in London

On Twitter: @michael_simkins

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Virtuzone GCC Sixes

Date and venue Friday and Saturday, ICC Academy, Dubai Sports City

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Engine: Two permanent-magnet synchronous AC motors

Transmission: two-speed

Power: 671hp

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Range: 450km

Price: Dh601,800

On sale: now

The National's picks

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About Okadoc

Date started: Okadoc, 2018

Founder/CEO: Fodhil Benturquia

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: Healthcare

Size: (employees/revenue) 40 staff; undisclosed revenues recording “double-digit” monthly growth

Funding stage: Series B fundraising round to conclude in February

Investors: Undisclosed

Ruwais timeline

1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established

1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants

1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed

1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.  

1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex

2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea

2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd

2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens

2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies

2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export

2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.

2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery 

2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital

2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13

Source: The National

Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Volvo ES90 Specs

Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)

Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp

Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm

On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region

Price: Exact regional pricing TBA

Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
If%20you%20go
%3Cp%3E%0DThere%20are%20regular%20flights%20from%20Dubai%20to%20Addis%20Ababa%20with%20Ethiopian%20Airlines%20with%20return%20fares%20from%20Dh1%2C700.%20Nashulai%20Journeys%20offers%20tailormade%20and%20ready%20made%20trips%20in%20Africa%20while%20Tesfa%20Tours%20has%20a%20number%20of%20different%20community%20trekking%20tours%20throughout%20northern%20Ethiopia.%20%20The%20Ben%20Abeba%20Lodge%20has%20rooms%20from%20Dh228%2C%20and%20champions%20a%20programme%20of%20re-forestation%20in%20the%20surrounding%20area.%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

Director: Laxman Utekar

Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna

Rating: 1/5

ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

In numbers: China in Dubai

The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000

Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000

Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent

The%20Killer
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Biography

Her family: She has four sons, aged 29, 27, 25 and 24 and is a grandmother-of-nine

Favourite book: Flashes of Thought by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid

Favourite drink: Water

Her hobbies: Reading and volunteer work

Favourite music: Classical music

Her motto: I don't wait, I initiate

 

 

 

 

 

ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

Getting%20there
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'Of Love & War'
Lynsey Addario, Penguin Press

The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting 

2. Prayer 

3. Hajj 

4. Shahada 

5. Zakat 

COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Bidzi

● Started: 2024

● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid

● Based: Dubai, UAE

● Industry: M&A

● Funding size: Bootstrapped

● No of employees: Nine

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Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed 

Rating: 1/5