Lastminute.com must be mad to open store in Birmingham
The original internet poster child Lastminute.com recently announced plans to open three high street stores in the UK.
By Glynn Davis
This might have a been a strange move a year ago but with property prices on the floor it might not be that bad an idea now. No, just hold on a minute, this is not a good idea regardless of the state of the poperty industry. The online model has proved a highly profitable beast largely through not having the headache of owning stores on the high street and so to now add these into the mix is slightly dubious. Many other big names have discussed going down this route including Amazon but they smelt the coffee and abandoned such thoughts before any damage was caused. I suppose the planned Lastminute.com store in Covent Garden would act as a flagship for marketing the brand. And I suppose the unit in Manchester might do something similar. But as for a planned store in Birmingham, that really can’t be a good idea, can it?
