Boohoo’s purchase of Arcadia group brands could provide a massive benefit for the High Street

Vincent Page, of Antiques on High (Image: Archant)

Only a week after online retailer Asos completed the deal to buy Top shop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and Hiit, their leading rival Boohoo grabbed former Arcadia brands, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton from the administrators and made it very clear that they would not be taking any of their once iconic high street stores.

In a bizarre twist, as much as many will miss the familiarity of these long-established brands in the High Street it provides a massive opportunity for smaller companies who have the right business model in place to thrive as their competition has essentially been consigned to a website, which has no fresh air, no sun, just a picture and a keyboard.

During the last year we have all been guilty of online purchases, largely for our own safety due to the restrictions we have faced, however there is no better shopping experience than spending the day with friends, out and about meeting and interacting with real people, venturing into shops at will and enjoying the satisfaction of arriving home with an armful of bags.

Sidmouth provides the ideal opportunity for such an experience with such a diverse range of independent businesses all neatly housed in and around the town.

Progress is something to be interpreted, relative to the subject matter its being applied to.

Many see online sales as a progression from the traditional High Street and it cannot be denied that there has been substantial growth in this sector over the last year due to the crisis in which we find ourselves.

Opportunities for those willing to speculate, with the cash available have presented themselves in abundance, but Interestingly we only have to look back to the late 90’s to be reminded of the dot.com boom which saw a phenomenal growth in online companies between 1995 and 2000 only to see 78 percent of it disappear from the Nasdaq stock market in 2002 as it all came crashing down.

In all honesty it is unlikely that the same thing would happen again but as long as companies continue to buy up traditional High Street brands leaving shops empty, the opportunity will be vacant for those who want it, after all we have been locked up on and off for almost a year now and the euphoria of being released into the town again could make us all realise what we have been missing!

Long live the High Street!