Friday, 25 November 2011

"It sounds a bit like your house, but further away..."

Jasmine Gardner, in today's Evening Standard:

You'll walk in through a door on the high street, but you'll find almost nothing on the shelves. House of Fraser launched its second productless outlet this week, where aside from a few key items and some changing rooms to try on orders when they arrive for collection there will just be computers for browsing the website, using virtual personal shopping services and ordering online. It sounds a bit like your house but further away...

10 comments:

dearieme said...

Once upon a time my previously sceptical wife used the advice of a "personal shopper" and was very impressed by how helpful it was. But that was a personal personal shopper, not a virtual personal shopper. If they had personal personal shoppers in their non-store, it would be discernibly different from the computer in the hall and might even not be a non-store.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a clothes Argos...

i.e. horrid.

AC1

Mark Wadsworth said...

D, according to the article, in the HoF shop they have personal virtual shoppers, i.e. women who walk round with iPads and help you work the computer.

AC1, Argos rocks! it is exactly what it is.

Anonymous said...

We have "personal shoppers" at work they are downdrodden, lowly paid sales assistants...

JuliaM said...

"... i.e. women who walk round with iPads and help you work the computer. "

Ah. IT 'floorwalkers', as we call them in the trainin' biz. Quite different from dearieme's example!

Likely to be as much use as that Amazon 'other people read this, so you might like it!' software...

Chuckles said...

Seems a shame to intrude on the privacy of the place.

dearieme said...

Argos rocks? I've twice walked into an Argos and retreated, baffled. If I wanted to buy from a catalogue I'd do it from the comfort of my own loo.

Anonymous said...

dearimieme: "I've twice walked into an Argos and retreated, baffled."

The thrill of the place is that you never know when you are going to be attacked by one of the other customers.

Tim Almond said...

Not sure why people are so hostile about Argos. Yeah, it's not some bohemian shopping experience, but it does the job. Kettle breaks? I'm online, reserve one, then drive and get one. Takes me five minutes.

Mark Wadsworth said...

D, the advantage of ordering in an Argos shop rather than at home is that you get your goods there and then, and don't need to wait at home for them to be delivered.

Basically, it's just a normal shop where they can't be bothered to display all their wares on shelves. So for a given size of shop, they use much less space for the 'display' bit and can use a lot more space for the 'storage' bit.