Will US fashion import Forever 21 last the UK course if things continue as they are currently?

On the face of it, news that Forever 21 is not going to expand at anything like the pace originally anticipated when it broke UK ground in the UK in 2010 should not surprise. When Birmingham’s Bullring welcomed this American fashion outfit, it seemed to threaten almost everyone, from Primark to River Island. Indeed, on opening day, there were moments when visitors from rival retailers seemed almost to outnumber the crowded that had waited patiently to be among the first to shop a store that had previously been home to the ill-feted Dixon’s XL.

That was then and at the time this looked a real success story in the making with a ritzy interior coupled with low price clothing.

Then came Oxford Street and once again, the publicity machine did its job and the crowds obliged, for a while at least. The third part of the Forever 21 UK store trilogy was a rather different story however. The newest branch is in Westfield Stratford and while it has a pretty dominant position as far as visitors to the mall are concerned, a quick zip round the store at any point in the last month would have revealed an uncomfortable fact: a lot of the stock hasn’t sold.

There are probably two reasons for this. Not only are there other retailers with generally more credible fashion offers, Forever 21 could easily be termed fashionable rather than fashion, but Stratford is a location where UK retail put its best foot forward. Almost every store in the centre represents the best that any given retailer can achieve currently, in spite of a very mixed economic picture.

Now consider the fact that if you’d visited Forever 21 on opening day it looked the same as it looks now - there’s actually been very little change. The visual merchandising, which looked enticing on opening day, has hardly altered. The windows have changed, but with Primark just along the way, these really don’t measure up. There is also a feeling of making do, rather than making headway about what’s been done in this store.

Unless, Forever 21 can raise its game as far as the internal appearance of its stores is concerned and give shoppers a reason to return, the store opening ambitions mooted when it first appeared in the UK may prove not just elusive, but the whole enterprise may be shaky.