It was with a degree of hopeful intrigue that we visited the Cool Britannia 'emporium' on Piccadilly Circus a couple of weeks back. Going by their website and the moderately appealing store front, you could be forgiven for thinking that a retailer was finally making an attempt to lift the abysmal standards of London souvenir shops and products.And as you enter the store, first impressions support this belief: a Union Jack adorned Mini Cooper; actors dressed as Queens Guards and Yeoman Warders posing for photos with tourists; a full size replica post box and phone box and nice open store layout, all provide the illusion that Cool Britannia delivers exactly what the store name suggests.
But, oh, how wrong first impressions can
be!Peruse any of the multitude of shelves (and they seem endless) and guess what you find? The same boring, badly made, badly designed, tired old tat that you find in any other crappy tourist shop in London – only this time all the products have got department store mark up. (It also has "day" prices and "night" prices – with the prices going up once the sun goes down.) What a dreadful wasted opportunity!
The store was rammed with people when we were there; the cash registers on the other hand were strangely quiet. Considering the eye-watering rent they must be paying on the Piccadilly Circus location (this place used to be the Virgin Megastore), you would think this experiment in hypermart tat won't last long. We will continue to provide updates on the Walmart of Shite.
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