SnapShop Blog
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Development news |
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Posted At: 27 June 2008 13:54 PM
Related Categories: General |
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Just a quick update to let everyone know that we are working on some exciting new SnapShop features which should be with you very soon! Most notably, there will be a new Freezone page, explaining a bit more about SnapShop for those who don’t already know, and a statistics page where you can access useful information such as sales growth, pedflow and base rate information.
We’ll keep you posted!
The SnapShop Team
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Pedestrian path measurement technology |
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Posted At: 26 June 2008 09:57 AM
Related Categories: Retail Suppliers |
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A noted Liberal Democrat MP has been jumping on the bandwagon voicing his concerns over the tracking of customers via their mobile phones in a popular UK shopping centre this week. Everyone is entitled to air their views but it always helps if they do a bit of homework first to ensure what they do or say adds value and is factually correct!
The technology in question has been implemented by Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth and is the brainchild of Path Intellegence, also based in Portsmouth.
The ‘pedestrian path measurement’ system, FootPath™, consists of a small number of discreet monitoring units which calculate the movement of customers by detecting signals from their mobile phones. Even though it doesn’t capture any personal information (and therefore has no idea who you actually are) the words ‘Big Brother’ (not the Channel 4 reality TV show) and ‘Orwellian’ have been banded around by privacy campaigners yet again, so we here at SnapShop decided it was time to let the technology developers and owners, Path Intellegence, have their say.
Sharon Biggar a co-founder of the company says “Our system is basically the modern day version of having a market researcher installed within a shopping centre asking shoppers if they had a satisfactory visit. But the system takes the tedium of surveying away and gathers the statistics anonymously and automatically. It’s much better for consumers than being bothered when shopping.”
And I [the author] personally don’t see it as an invasion of any of my privacy rights; as long as no one has my telephone number (and as such I don’t get any pesky marketing texts or calls) then I’m quite happy for my whereabouts to be tracked. In the end, it will make all our shopping experiences much more timesaving and, consequently, more enjoyable.
Footpath is useful for Shopping Centre managers, property owners, asset managers and managing agents. Path Intellegence can be contacted at Unit 27 The Slipway, Marina Keep, Port Solent, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO6 4TR or visit their website
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Retail Rents |
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Posted At: 23 June 2008 17:00 PM
Related Categories: Retail Property |
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The Colliers CRE Midsummer Report was issued last week and reports that “in real terms rents have fallen by 3.1 per cent since the early 1990s”, whilst also highlighting a fall in the amount of new shopping space in the pipeline. I am somewhat sceptical of calculations based on “Constant Prices” – the weightings used to translate from current to constant prices are inexact. For example, the deflation of the price of electronics is based on the idea of comparing “like-for-like” products. In an area of very rapid technological advance this means comparing what is now mainstream with what at the time was highly specialist. Within the context of shop rentals, traders pay for access to target customers but rents are proportional not just to the number of shoppers passing the shop but also to the time they are in front of it (for which the length of frontage is a surrogate measure). As retailers make better use of their shop space (the advent of flat screen televisions has dramatically reduced the space required by electrical retailers) and their shop frontages, they require less overall space. So, they now do not require the same space as 20 years ago to make an equivalent impact on shoppers.
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Power To The People |
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Posted At: 20 June 2008 14:40 PM
Related Categories: General |
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Another chapter in the long tale of Battersea Power Station is set to be written should yet another redevelopment plan of the historic site be approved when put forward for planning permission towards the end of the year.
Real Estate Opportunities, 67% owned by Irish developer and investor Treasury Holdings, bought the power station in December 2006 for £400 million and plans to spend in excess of £4 billion redeveloping the site into a mixed-use scheme of flats, hotels, shops, cafes and restaurants. Designs by Uraguyan architect Rafael Vinoly show blue prints encompassing 3m sq ft of flats, 2.5m sq ft of offices, 1m sq ft of hotels and services flats, 900,000 sq ft of Covent Garden-style retailing and 500,000 sq ft of leisure and cultural space.
Since Battersea Power Station ended final production in 1983, several companies have bought the site and a variety of uses have been put forward (notably another mixed-use scheme proposed by Parkview International after acquiring the freehold in 1996) however nothing has ever come to fruition.
Fortunately, many areas which other schemes have ignored have been addressed in these new plans; the need for a tube station, environmental fears (current plans aim for the scheme to be ‘zero-carbon’), replacement of the irreparable chimney towers (to keep community groups and listed building inspectors happy rather than anything else, I suspect) and the fact that affordable housing commitments will have to be reduced if the scheme is to be financially viable have all been investigated, so its with fingers crossed that I await results of yet another Battersea Power Station planning application.
I have great hopes for this site, targeted to open to the public by 2014, and comments about the UK retail market being in decline thankfully don’t apply here; Property Week estimates around 4,000 residents and 25,000 employees alone will be in the area daily, and I suspect a successful redevelopment (with good transport links) will also mean an awful lot of interested tourists spending their hard earned cash in the retail sector of the scheme for many years subsequent to the launch!
SnapShop would also like to remind readers that parent company, FSP, are one of the leading names in Retail Business Information and Consultancy and can provide a variety of services to owners and prospective retail tenants of such sites. For more information about FSP’s Market Potential and Tenant Mix Recommendations services please visit http://www.fspretail.co.uk or comment as such below. Author: Lorraine Shingler
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The Devil Wears Primark...or M&S, or MK One, or Gap, or Nike etc etc |
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Posted At: 16 June 2008 16:11 PM
Related Categories: General |
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Primark – the UK retailer known for rock bottom fashion – has said in a statement issued today that it has cancelled orders with 3 southern Indian factories that failed to meet its ethical rules in relation to sub-contracting, home working and child labour.
Primark operate strict Supplier Code of Conduct which bans the use of child labour and requires all third party sub contractors be vetted in accordance with this, and so made the decision to cancel orders with factories contravening its Code of Conduct while withdrawing the affected garments from sale. Yet the cheap as chips retailer has been under the microscope over the past few weeks in light of the Channel 4 documentary ‘The Devil Wears Primark’ (later pulled due to ‘editorial issues’)…so which one is it, sinner or saint?
I would argue that Primark is no worse than any of the other high street chains and designer labels, and that in all actuality the responsibility and blame should be shared and shared alike.
Thought all those free range/organic/ethical fair trade food and clothing adverts meant M&S had a bigger halo than the other high streeters? I’m afraid not. A recent research report into the ethical ratings of our clothing retailers named Primark the least ethical retailer in the UK, however MK One and Britain’s favourite - Marks and Spencer - were ranked second and third worst! Heard about this ‘living wage’ that is supposed to be a benchmark for pay in India and Bangladesh…it’s not official! Think the £80 you pay for your Nike Air’s represents value, quality and ethical manufacturing? Nike were accused of using sweatshops back in the 90’s! So it’s incredibly confusing for the discerning consumer who WANTS to do right but just doesn’t know where to turn.
As our own Jo Creech states: "With the cost of living at such a high premium I found myself in a bit of a quandary during my weekend splurge. The issue of Primark’s ‘sweat shops’ [was] in the forefront of my mind, [so] it was difficult to decide whether to shop in there or not, however my justification for my £4 T Shirt rooted from the notion that more and more shops that we think are ‘good honest places’ are in fact not so untarnished". And really, we all feel the same.
The basic facts are that no one knows who’s to blame. British press likes to blame the retailers; the retailers say they audit their factories to ensure none of the Ethical Trade Initiatives rules are broken; staff at the factories say they are forced to lie to auditors and factory management say they are forced to bring down prices and therefore cut wages due to pressure from the retailers to deliver cheaper goods, so the circle of blame continues and the truth evades me. All I know is that the garment industry is vital to countries like Bangladesh (it employs nearly 2 million workers there and accounts for 75% of their exports) and that if Primark, Gap and whoever else keep being forced to pull orders from their factories their economy is going to be in deep trouble. Everyone needs to work together to ensure that factory workers have good conditions and get a fair wage, and I'm afraid you do have to commend Primark for its latest announcement – the launch of the Primark Better Lives Foundation (yes, I know it’s a basic rule of PR that you implement damage control in light of bad press, so its no surprise that Primark have done this, but who cares what the reason is, surely its enough that the retailer is stepping up and doing something positive about the situation rather than just apologising like people – and retailers - always do?) – and hope that other retailers make the same kind of moves.
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The latest victim of violence on our streets...and in our shops |
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Posted At: 12 June 2008 11:45 AM
Related Categories: General |
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It’s a long standing joke that Britons will queue for almost anything. Give us a reason and into line we will fall, safe in the knowledge that everyone knows and will abide by the unwritten, unspoken laws of ‘the queue’…until now, it seems.
It was today reported that a 57 year old man has died after an attack at a Sainsbury’s in Merton, south west London, provoked, seemingly, by queue jumping.
CCTV recorded the victim being accused of jumping a queue at a checkout at around 7pm on Tuesday 10th June by a woman who is then seen making a phone call and pointing the man out to a male who arrived shortly after. Said male then punched 57-year-old ‘Kevin Tripp’, father of 1, knocking him unconscious; Mr Tripp later entered a coma and died the next day as a result of ‘serious head injuries’.
This isn’t the first attack of its kind and it seems that Checkout Rage is a global phenomenon in itself, with similar stories being reported around the world.
Now, not that I’m defending it, but when did it become ok to jump queues, cut people up at roundabouts and to basically treat the world as if it revolves around you in the first place? If you do one of these things, expect to be reproached (not punched, reproached) – social niceties seem to have flown so far out the window that they’ve ended up in the next county, and that in turn makes me feel a little bit angry. On the flip side, it has to be said that the world has serious issues when you can be kicked and punched for loading 13 items onto the ’12 items or less’ checkout.
I don’t know what the cure is (aside from appointing etiquette police), all I know is that I’m going to join the back of that queue like a true Brit, defend my place when someone jumps in front, hope they don’t stab me, grit my teeth when they refuse to move, leave, and get on with my life safe in the knowledge that I haven’t been sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment just because I so desperately needed that extra 30 seconds the queue jumper in front of me stole from my day.
Author: Lorraine Shingler
Credited sources: timesonline.co.uk and davesdaily.com
All blogs are the opinions of the author and not the views of FSP or any other member of staff.
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Milk In A Bag - a revolution, or a fad? |
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Posted At: 11 June 2008 16:00 PM
Related Categories: Environmental |
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I think the powers that be may have gone a bit strange in the midst of this glorious weather; first Supermarkets take plastic bags away from us and then they give them back…for us to carry our milk in. That’s right, front runners in the eco campaign Sainsbury’s have announced the introduction of ‘milk in a bag’, milk packaged in a recyclable plastic bag designed for use in conjunction with a specially designed jug for pouring adaptation at home.
It’s hoped that the pouches, produced in partnership with Dairy Crest, will reduce packaging waste by 75%, and although I have to say I find the idea a bit hard to swallow (no pun intended) I do agree that any way we can save waste should be welcomed with open arms.
I wonder how far this will go, though – what about our dawn deliverers, the milkmen, for example? Instead of pallets, will they have to update their floats to incorporate hangers, reminiscent of the drip bag holders usually seen on our hospital wards!? If the majority of us are trying to save the planet by buying milk in a bag then I don’t see why the privileged few should be allowed civilised glass bottles anymore!
Nick Gammage, from the environmental organisation Waste and Resources Action Programme speculates “Another innovation we think is on its way is having a self-dispenser in supermarkets, where customers can take their jugs and fill up with milk actually in the store itself.”
We’ve had several suggestions in the office today on how to cut back even further, all revolving around cows being placed either directly into supermarkets or on milk floats, (enabling us to cut out packaging all together) but that leads into a whole new post about the morals of genetically modifying cows to enable them to pasteurise their milk themselves and I’m just not ready to go there!
What are your views on ‘milk in a bag’ – is it more hassle than its worth, or a sign of the new, eco-friendly, innovative future in store for retailing and everybody else involved?
(Credited sources: BBC News)
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