Do shopping centres dedicated to aspirational brands work? The evidence suggests not.

Is there a market for shopping centres dedicated entirely to aspirational, upper-middle market brands? I found myself pondering this question in the Met Quarter in Liverpool on Friday. The contrast between the mass market shopping areas of Liverpool One and Lord Street, which were packed, and the Met Quarter, which was not very busy at all, was really quite striking. Retailers which were busy in Liverpool One - like All Saints - were really quiet in the Met Quarter.

The Met Quarter also had rather a lot of empty shops. Inevitably it’s been hit by the opening of Liverpool One, which as well as adding a lot of space, has shifted the city’s retail pitch in exactly opposite direction away from the Met Quarter.

But there are surely parallels to be drawn with other niche shopping centres which targeted the same sort of brands. The Triangle in Manchester was another scheme in an off-pitch location designed to attract a certain type of upmarket shopper, but which has struggled since the word go, while the Mailbox in Birmingham has always been deserted whenever I’ve visited despite the presence of a very good Harvey Nichols store. The fact that it’s impossible for any visitor to the city to find the centre must be a contributory factor.

There are precedents of schemes that do work, namely the superb Victoria Quarter in Leeds. But this has several advantages which combined make it a unique situation: its stunning architecture, the absence of a decent shopping centre anywhere else in the city centre and Harvey Nichols as anchor. It will face stiff competition for retailers when Land Securities and Hammerson finally open their schemes in the city, but I’m sure it’s sufficiently established to continue to prosper whatever competition emerges.

But I think Victoria Quarter will remain the exception rather than the rule, and schemes like the Met Quarter and the Triangle will struggle to carve out an identity while they lack stores which genuinely drive footfall, and when in many cases their retail tenants are also present elsewhere in those cities in busier locations. I’m not sure what the answer is, but from tenants in those schemes, the questions might grow louder.