“The Big Store” Available to Purchase

Time was when the lot of the department store was not a happy one. Its glorious past contrasted unhappily with its demise, and until recently, it seemed that the department store had only one fate: to comply with the laws of gravity. However, the results of an URPI workshop, “Planning for Department Stores” seemed to note the beginning of a recovery. The response to this apparently unprecedented move — a workshop about department stores and their particular planning needs — was very well attended and the results were optimistic. The main points of the conference concerned the problems of attracting a department store into town centres, something of importance to local authorities who are facing pressure for these stores from public attitude surveys. Of course, the department stores themselves are equally concerned with finding suitable sites. A report on the findings and papers held at the workshop have been published by the Unit for Retail Planning Information (URPI UIO), Victoria House, 26 Queen Victoria Street, Reading RG1 1TG, Price £6.40 to members and £10.90 to non‐members.