Britain's high street comes back from the dead

Creative destruction has wrought its magic on the high street and there are new signs of life in retail, says Matthew Lynn

Zara shop on Oxford Street
Zara: the fittest retailers have survived
(Image credit: © Alamy)

Ever since Woolworths closed its doors for the final time in 2008, the post-Christmas retail collapse has been as much a part of the festive season as leftover turkey and worryingly high credit-card bills.

Retailers are critically dependent on the festive season, often the one month when they actually make any money. Many of them would hang on, hoping that Christmas would save them for another year; when that didn’t happen, there would often be no choice but to call in the receivers. Comet, Blockbuster, Austin Reed, Maplin and Toys R Us are among the household names that have disappeared in this way over the last few years. Many more announced profit warnings or the closure of some stores.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.