During the Oxford Literary Festival, I was lucky enough to see Mary Portas in conversation. She was at the festival to promote her new book ‘Shop Girl’, an autobiography about her life growing up in Watford and how she eventually became Mary Queen of Shops.
As a small business owner at Kinship of Oxford and co-founder of Independent Oxford, I find it invaluable to attend talks like this, if nothing else but to catch some infectious enthusiasm and intoxicating passion for retail.
Mary grew up in a large Irish family with four brothers & sisters. She described how this established her own self confidence and cheeky streak as she would always have to shout louder than her siblings to be heard. So, by the time she was 16 she was a confident teenager, fully ready to take on her place at RADA to study drama. Tragedy struck just before she turned 17 when her mother died suddenly of meningitis. She was devastated but worked through her grief by giving up her position at RADA and becoming the family house keeper.
The hustle and bustle of a large family life and tragedy at such an early age shaped who she was to become, as she put it she was already ‘fully baked’ by the time her mother died meaning that she was able to draw on her inner strength to get through the experience and make her a stronger and more resilient person as a result. Her iconic drive and determination, after all, put her where she is today.
Having turned down her first love, drama, Mary signed up to do a window dressing course and so set herself on her immense career path. She told us how her passion for the theatre really drove her to approach retailing in a different way, and ultimately led her to be the revolutionary creative force behind Harrods and Harvey Nichols.
Mary was evangelical about the importance of stores creating ‘theatre’ in their shops, and I think this is true for both online and bricks & mortar stores. Whether its eye catching photography or a fantastic display, we can really mould the experiences people have with our brands by creating amazing spaces and experiential content.
Businesses need to make sure they offer something that competes with the chains. Mary made a great point when someone posed the question ‘how can indies create this scale of theatre & compete?’ She pointed out that Selfridges et al need to have big showcase window displays as they don’t have the power that independents have to create fantastic customer experience through making sure customers feel valued; whether it’s through remembering their regular order, building relationships or creating a sense of theatre and a social space by linking up with local community groups and other businesses. This is so key to what we believe at Independent Oxford.
There are some great indies in Oxford that are brilliant at doing this like Big Society, Love Your Plane, Wild Honey and the Old Fire Station. Whether it’s putting on art shows, pop up shops, music events or offering yoga classes, these are great examples of adding an experiential and unique element to their businesses.
I thought it was also interesting that she talked about her current project which is working with charity shops to improve their image. I do love hunting through charity shops, however there should be a balance, and at the moment Cowley Road, as an example, doesn’t have that balance. There are at least 5 charity shops and a whole plethora of barbers. It would be great if we had more diverse indies to make it a great destination for shopping, eating etc. Charity shops get 80% reduced rates, wouldn’t it be great if indies qualified for this for 1 year, if they offered a service or a unique offering that wasn’t available in the community at present? Alongside working with Barnados she is also working with the government to champion ideas like this. We need to look at how people live and what we can offer as business owners to support that. It was interesting to hear her frustration at working at government level to enable change on our high streets. She has worked with a constant carousel of ministers (6 to date), starting off inspired and motivated and quickly worn down by the life and rig moral of government.
The change, she therefore felt, needs to come from a far more grass roots level, and we really hope that ventures like Independent Oxford will make a difference to businesses and the general public alike to make our city a better place to live, work and enjoy our surroundings.
So over to you, are you a shop that would like to see a designated free parking day to boost footfall? Are you struggling with rates or are put off from having premises because of them?
Do you shop in Oxford? What makes you feel valued by businesses, and what do you feel is missing from your neighbourhood or the city centre?
Love, Rosie xxx
