Desert Island Stores: Peter Williams, former chief executive of Selfridges
In this latest Desert Island Stores interview, Glynn Davis chats to Peter Williams, former chief executive of Selfridges.
The store you remember from childhood?
I am going to cheat and mention two.
My father owned and ran a market garden nursery in St. Cross on the outskirts of Winchester. Watching him struggle financially and physically with the business made me very sad but determined to avoid similar circumstances. In an era before the advent of oil-fired boilers with timing systems, as a small child I would go with him on Christmas Day to manually stoke coke-fired boilers that provided heat to the greenhouses. He very rarely had a holiday throughout his working life.
Never Miss a Retail Update!As a teenager I worked in the local grocery store at weekends, initially doing a paper-round and then working in the shop itself. Using an old-style cash register I would have to add up the value of the customers shopping basket in my head. There were customers of all ages, many looking for a conversation and a connection.
Most inspirational store to your career?
I spent 13 years of my executive career at Selfridges, initially as CFO and then CEO. During that time the Selfridges store on Oxford Street was transformed from “Grace Brothers” to what is still today one of the best department stores in the world.
Whilst respecting the historic architecture, we opened up the interior of the store with new escalators and a central atrium – taking away selling space (sacrilege!) but improving sight lines. We increased space for fashion at the expense of home, eliminated private label, let the brands express themselves in their own image, created a vibrant young womenswear fashion section on the ground floor and held storewide events, not devoted directly to product, such as “Tokyo Life” and “Bodycraze”.
At the start of the transformation, we forecasted to our then parent company, Sears plc that we would need £46 million for the capital investment over five years – we spent £93 million. On one shop! Many people contributed to the dramatic transformation, and it was both exhilarating and a privilege to be a part of that team.
Most frequently used store?
In reality it is the supermarket Waitrose, but in my dreams it’s Selfridges (see above).
The major supermarkets all deserve fulsome praise for their ability to deliver a wide choice of food, fresh and ambient, in both a variety of physical formats and online. I marvel at the way in which these “self-pick warehouses” get the consumer to do all the work. Now they even have us manning the checkouts. Waitrose is a cut above the average.
The store you wished you’d created?
My first financial role in industry was in the 1980s working for a consumer electronics company, Aiwa, owned by Sony. The retail electronics landscape was dominated by Dixons, Comet and Curry’s – boring stores with a dreary and often misogynist customer service experience.
In the early 2000s the first Apple stores revolutionised the approach to this sub-sector of retailing by providing a modern, generous and open store environment in buildings with architectural merit. Staff are knowledgeable and do not pressure for a sale. The world’s best example of a brand merging wonderful product, design and technology to create a great consumer experience.
Your overall favourite store?
Confession time – I am a Paul Smith addict, especially for his suits. I have 15 of them in a variety of colours including white, pink, green and various shades of blue. The “sea of dark blue suits” you encounter at most business meetings is boring and lazy. The Paul Smith store in Floral Street, Covent Garden is a beautiful fashion emporium.
The store you’d like to take to the desert island?
If I’m on my own I would seek solace in music. In the old world pre-internet I would like the Tower Records store at Columbus and Bay in San Francisco. During the summer of 1974 I drove a “Mister Softee” ice cream truck in Norfolk Virginia and then travelled all over the USA on Greyhound buses. In San Francisco I made a point of visiting this legendary store. Albums piled high and stacked on the floor in an era when contemporary music exploded across the world. I would revisit the lost art form of album covers.
In the modern world it would be Spotify – technology delivering the world’s catalogue of music to consumers on demand, anytime, anywhere.
