Visiting the new Louis Vuitton store in Westfield London last week was an impressive, but ultimately unsatisfying experience. Yes, it’s a fine example of the brand’s current shop-fit, but were you to travel to Munich and to wander into local luxury department store Oberpollinger, you’d find more or less the same thing, albeit smaller.

Supporters will say that it’s a good example of a brand delivering on its promise in a consistent manner, regardless of location. The counter-argument to this however, would be that perhaps at the top-end, shoppers deserve a little variety, rather than visiting clone outlets.

Now contrast this with the Post Office (yes really, the Post Office). If you have the time, get the train from London Victoria down to Wallington. Close to the station, the medium-sized branch of this faded British institution houses a surprise. Having just emerged from a major makeover, Wallington’s Post Office actually feels like a retailer.

It’s got stock that’s associated with the activities that you normally go to a Post Office for (rather than the usual plastic Alice brands or maybe novels that have narrowly avoided being pulped). And all of it is offered on tastefully muted units that are the same across the store (might as well call it that, in this instance at least). All in all, this looks like a retail business where buying stamps or getting your car’s tax disc is just part of the reason you might visit. 

The big question for the Post Office, is can it replicate this experience across its network? The answer is probably not, for no better reason than that many Post Offices are, in effect, franchises, meaning that the cost of refurbishment is borne by the owner/operator.

But the Wallington model is what you might wish all Post Offices to look like. If this were possible, the result would be a seamless and efficient brand delivery – you’d know what you were in for when you walked into a branch. The problem for Louis Vuitton is that it really isn’t a Post Office and if you’ve chosen to part with cash on the scale required to make a purchase in its stores, you might expect a little variation.

Pay a visit to Louis Vuitton’s flagship store in Paris and this is what you get. The flagship is certainly different from anything you’ll see anywhere else. The problem is that the brand has treated it as a one-off. Elegant variation on a theme should perhaps be what luxury retailers aim for when they open a store in a new location.