Mary Portas brought the latest series of Mary Queen of Shops to a close last night by overhauling a store as far removed from the world of fashion and luxury goods she made her name in as any in the series.
Lightware Homecare was a Surrey DIY store whose profits had plunged 60% in three years as customers deserted to large chain stores. The proprietor, Tony, had made millions in the 80s but was feeling somewhat demoralised now.
Not that he particularly appreciated the input of Portas, whose nous for clothing seemed to offer little in the way of transferrable skills to the utilitarian sphere of screws, nails, locks and lightbulbs.
Not that Portas would accept that the products were simply function and fundamentally uninteresting. “I think the DIY sector is missing a trick,” she insisted. “ Just because Tony is selling plungers, doesn’t mean they can’t be fun and fabulous.”
She loves her, I love me and we hate each other – it might be that way
Tony, the hardware store owner, on the "love-hate" relationship with Portas
Fun and fabulous plungers – whatever next?
Anyway, employees had neither a DIY background nor training in the discipline. One staff member had at least received a toolbox for Christmas, a purple one to match her purple hair. “What else are you into?” asked a bemused Portas. “Handbags,” she replied, of which she had 250, she added.
One of Tony's chief problems was that he was almost trying to replicate the very supermarket model Portas was railing against: diversifying from the original core service into every conceivable area. What was supposed to be a hardware store was now, alongside screwdrivers and hammers, selling cards, party balloons, novelty calendars and even pets.
The store had effectively become a Jack of all trades but master of none. The demise of Woolworths should have been a salutary lesson , but it’s amazing how personal pride can outflank the possibility – becoming very real in Tony’s case – of losing one’s retirement fund.
Tony proves quite a recalcitrant recipient of Portas’s retail therapy. Nowhere near as obstructive as Angela Maher, the obstinate bakery owner from earlier in the series, but neither as humble and receptive as last week’s Rochdale-based salon owner, John Peers.
Portas’ idea for establishing an edge over the likes of B&Q, launching a home check up, fix and delivery service, met a bulwark of resistance. Similar to the personal service offered successfully to the likes of Jo Wood in the home furnishing instalment of Mary Queen of Shops last week, this was supposed to be a preemptive strike against the chain stores, reaching and meeting customers' needs before they’d even left their home.
It would be perfect for the cash-rich, time poor citizens of Surrey, Portas reasoned. But Tony was deafeatist: “I’m not a salesman, I can’t go round knocking on doors,” he insisted, and he refused to pursue the idea.
Portas’s suggested name change, the Fix it Factory, was adopted only begrudgingly.
Tony described his interactions with Portas as a “love-hate relationship. She loves her, I love me and we hate each other – it might be that way.”
Portas did make a real breakthrough though when she took them to an art exhibition, where the exhibits were formed out of the sorts of functional products, such as lightbulbs and and piping, that Lightware Homecare sold. Remarkably, Portas had finally managed to elicit some enthusiasm by applying her knowledge of more creative sectors to the no-frills world of hardware. It even yielded a creative flourish from one of the members of staff, who created a how-to-put-up-a-shelf display, impressing Portas considerably.
