Another retail chain goes west: Wilko follows a dozen familiar names into administration. Hardware, clothing and hospitality chains that seemed impregnably familiar are gone; 15,000 retail jobs were lost this year even before Wilko, business insolvencies are at their highest for 14 years. All but the luckiest high streets are gap-toothed, windows blank or boarded. Even out-of-town malls struggle, footfall declining while costs do not. Where doors reopen in tourist zones such as Oxford Street, it is for cheap “candy” stores or souvenir shops.
It’s not that we’ve all stopped shopping. Vans of all sizes whizz through cities and suburbs, along motorways and country lanes. Sometimes they’re laden with routine groceries, but the new age of click-delivery brings clothes, furnishings and equipment that once meant
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