The HMV Group has just opened its first joint HMV and Waterstone’s store, near Newcastle. John Ryan visits to see if the new format works

Borders went under just before Christmas and there are still a significant number of its former shops (such as the one you see when driving round London’s North Circular road) in search of new occupants. Generally, these are large footprint stores and they were posited upon a melding of things bookish with a measure of entertainment and the ability to wash everything down with a skinny latte, an Americano, or something similar.

The sad thing about its failure is that a decade or so ago the notion of what seemed like incompatible elements being yoked together under one roof appeared the way forward. There were banks that incorporated coffee shops and fashion retailers that sold homewares, and the list seemed to grow and grow.

Today, some of this remains, although there has not been the wholesale convergence of formats that once seemed on the cards. But it would be a brave retailer, having witnessed the pattern of events at Borders UK, that would seek to do something similar.

Yet travel northeast from Newcastle, in the general direction of North Shields, and after a few miles you’ll arrive at Wallsend, home to, among other things, the Silverlink retail park and a former Borders store that has a new tenant. That tenant is HMV. That tenant is Waterstone’s. That tenant is Orange. And there’s even a slice of the action that has been taken by Paperchase.

Oh yes, and there is a Starbucks on the extensive mezzanine level. Sound familiar? At first glance the parallels with Borders are pretty hard to ignore, so the obvious question is why has the HMV Group decided to seemingly replicate what has been done in this location before when following in the footsteps of a demonstrably failed form of retailing.

Yet here it is, the UK’s first joint HMV and Waterstone’s in a 12,500 sq ft store - a book-cum-entertainment format that smacks of something we might have imagined we’d seen the last of.

Stand outside the store and there is little mistaking what can be found within. The lion’s share of the matt black frontage is devoted to HMV’s fuchsia logo with the Waterstone’s part playing a somewhat secondary role. Then there are the also-rans with the brand logos for Orange, Paperchase and Starbucks stacked on top of each other at the far right of the fascia.

Under one roof

Step through the door and it is immediately apparent where the power resides. The store’s footplate is rectangular, with a mezzanine extending from the back of the store to about halfway towards the front door. HMV occupies the 4,500 sq ft at the front of the store and benefits from being the first thing that the shopper will encounter as well as having the room to breathe afforded it by not being underneath the mezzanine.

Walk thorough HMV and you’re into Waterstone’s - the whole of which is penned in by the lower ceiling created by the mezzanine and which does not have the natural daylight that floods the space in which the HMV offer is situated. Waterstone’s actually occupies 5,500 sq ft, according to Adrian Robson, regional manager for the Northeast, but its position within the store indicates the primacy attached to the HMV brand by the retail group.

It is also distinctly bland when set against the Dalziel + Pow-adapted store design used in the HMV area. And perhaps the final indication of pecking order is the fact that there is only one supermarket-style cash desk area in the store and it is right at the front, forming part of HMV. So if you want to buy a book in this shop, you do so within a store environment where Bono or Lady Gaga are likely to be doing their thing, while you consider whether to pay for the Trollope and the Turgenev, or just to go for the chick-lit that you’ve been hiding between them.

That said, in terms of store environment, the Waterstone’s area in Silverlink is pretty similar to what you are likely to encounter in the average standalone branch and you won’t be distracted by the music being played in the HMV part of the shop. This is principally because the speakers used to blast sound around the front of the shop are angled in such a manner that when coupled with the dampening qualities of the mezzanine ceiling, there is very little aural spillage.

Back at the front of the shop, it’s HMV business as usual with simple overhead graphics bearing the words “watch” and “listen”, information rather than any kind of command, helping shoppers to make sense of the offer. Store manager Andy Pritchard says: “We wanted to give it all a bit of an HMV feel when you walk in.” On this reckoning, it’s a case of job done, but it’s difficult not to wonder about the effect that all of this is likely to have on potential book buyers.

Best of both worlds?

In case you still miss the point of all of this, staring from the front towards the back, the front of the mezzanine floor is plastered with the words Waterstone’s, on the left, and Paperchase to the right of this. The Paperchase concession is tucked away on the right hand side of the space underneath the mezzanine and is demarcated by a change in wallpaper with a mix of lilac and multi-stripes.

Finally, if Orange grabs you, there’s a piece of black and orange mid-shop equipment with graphics advertising “more music”, “more film” and “more games”, all available, presumably, on the handsets that are on display.

And when you’ve had enough of this, there is always the trip to be made upstairs to the 2,500 sq ft mezzanine, home to a branch of Starbucks. And that’s where HMV Group chief executive Simon Fox is sitting surrounded by an array of senior personnel, discussing the new store. He is welcoming and tight-lipped about the progress of the store, which has been open for just a week. This must be because there is quite a lot at stake with this one.

If HMV Group has miscalculated, then this has all the makings of a PR problem, as commentators will point to the problems Borders suffered by doing something similar. However, in fairness this is a great deal better than Borders, although the Waterstone’s offer looks a little lacklustre, which is rather the point as HMV steals the show in this store. This is not really two formats that have been married and presented to the shopper as a unified whole.

Instead, what the HMV/Waterstone’s store manages to do is to put two entirely separate retail offers that have relatively little in common, under one roof. Indeed, if you were being harsh, you might remark that the HMV Group might just as easily have put the two stores side-by-side and then walked away. This store has a fair representation of the proposition offered by both fascias, but the whole is absolutely no greater than the individual parts.

The store was busy, in its HMV avatar, on the day of visiting, but whether the Waterstone’s at the back of the shop will prove sufficiently attractive to drag book buyers in off the street, remains a moot point. This looks like a trial and Fox says that there are some things he might have done differently, although he declines to outline what these might be. Still an unproven quantity therefore and it may yet be some time before we see more of its ilk.

Store facts

  • Size 12,500 sq ft, including a 2,500 sq ft mezzanine level
  • Location Silverlink, Wallsend, Tyne and Wear
  • Brands in the store Waterstone’s, HMV, Orange and Paperchase
  • Previous occupant of the site Borders
  • Design features As seen in standalone Waterstone’s and HMV stores