Kruidvat is the ‘most indispensable’ high street store: survey

Retail chains must innovate if they want to survive on the highstreet, a survey among 5,000 shoppers has shown.

The survey, carried out by retail rating firm Q&A, included questions such as ‘which retail chain would you consider to be the most indispensable’, and ‘which shop makes you happy?’

The best-performing shops in a list of 200 are Kruidvat, IKEA, Albert Heijn and the ANWB shop, while Spar, CarpetRight, Marktkramer and New Yorker bring up the rear.

The top contenders scored on internet presence, originality and visitor numbers to the physical shops.

Only 8% of the retail chains managed to make people happy, the survey showed. ‘We are talking about shops such as Dille & Kamille, Ekoplaza, Hans Anders and Rituals,’ Q&A spokesperson Frank Quix told broadcaster NOS.

‘I compare it to sport. There are only so many world champions. The in-between grey area is large and it is still growing. That has to do with resources that the big retailers have and the smaller ones apparently don’t. Don’t forget: the economy is growing but spending in shops is still not keeping pace.’

Q&A also found that many well-known retail chains, Aldi, Dirk and Primark among them, still don’t have a web shop. This explains their lower rating, it said, although budget retailer Action, which doesn’t have one either, is unaffected.

More chains will find themselves in trouble in future, Quix said, although that may not result in whole chains disappearing but in in fewer outlets.

Recently supermarket chain Emté closed its doors following the earlier demise of C1000, Edah, Super de Boer and Konmar. In 2016  department store V&D disappeared from the high street.