Harvey Nichols, Birmingham

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGRxjcsUOro

"When I shop at Harvey Nicks, everyone thinks I'm a star..."

The Birmingham Harvey Nicks is very nice. Set in the stylish and artistic Mailbox, it is clearly the dominant store, the name can be seen across the tall glass windows at the front of the store from well outside the Mailbox. I've only ever been to the London flagship store which I feel does have a better, more eclectic collection, naturally, but the Birmingham store measured far higher in terms of customer service. There was an unexpected welcoming feeling when I entered the store (even had the door opened for me by some meathead in a dapper suit!) and the staff genuinely looked happy to be there, not with "the pretty bird behind the till... flipping through Marie Claire", as picked up by the Mitchell Brothers.

The 'new normal' of retail stores looking to try and sell more of an experience and identity was also evident with the use of catwalk videos being played on wall-mounted monitors. This makes the whole environment feel more personal by increasing the amount of interaction/communication from the store to consumer and is more sophisticated than a standard poster. The Birmingham store was also advertising their exclusive Fashion Show on posters and flyers in-store. The show is on Tuesday 2nd March 2010, from 6.30pm and will begin with a champagne reception followed by a runway featuring the key looks from menswear and womenswear Spring/Summer 2010 collections... Nice little bit of PR and marketing for their SS10 collections. For more info, click here

The choice to put Harvey Nicks in the Mailbox away from the main department store competitor, Selfridges, gives the city a bit more stretch in terms of offering an attraction further outside of the city centre. Also this speaks for the 2 stores with Selfridges and the more youthful, commercial Bullring within the heart of the city centre and Harvey Nichols offering more of a sophisticated and artistic setting within the Mailbox. The Visual Merchandise was looking interesting... it was as if the Chapman Brothers had directed the scenes of deconstruction and mannequin massacre which also rang bells of Victor and Rolf's highly conceptual SS10 womenswear collection. The mannequins were styled to look dismantled and deconstructed within a similar backdrop of chaos with the tables and chairs bent and manipulated. It looked like a bomb had gone off in a 50's style kitchen. The whole construction/deconstruction theme looked emminent in B'ham VM with River Island and the DKNY stores using similar ideas with broken boxes and packages. (Watch out for the blog entry on this stuff later)