In spite of the apparent emergence of Germany and France from recession (that’s what the figures indicate), retailers in those countries are under the cosh just as much as over here and store openings are as thin on the ground.

This is not to say however that things are not happening and there, as here, refurbishment, the booming supermarket sector excluded, seems the order of the day.

The logic is simple. A time is coming when things will not be quite as black as they have been over the first half in the UK and it would be best to be prepared for that. The Paperchase megastore on London’s Tottenham Court Road is a case in point. Wander into this store and if you haven’t been in for a while, you may not be aware of the many changes that have taken place, but you will probably notice that things are different.

The walls look different, the ground floor has a, well, new floor, and the lighting scheme has been altered. Now head upstairs and it’s hard not to see the cerise pink frames that have been used to set the stage for various merchandise categories. These are very simple and hardly represent major in-store investment, but they do have a significant impact upon perceptions of the way the interior works.

In short, what has been done is to take a retail interior that has remained broadly untouched for some years and to provide an update. And it all works. There have always been good reasons for going into this store, but a low-cost refurbishment has now added to them.

This sounds like unwelcome news for those whose business it is to kit out new stores. The net effect of this kind of activity is that there are fewer large projects around and what money is available is being spent on existing estates rather than adding further outlets. On the other hand, at a time when shoppers do tend to examine the width of their wallets rather more closely than a couple of years ago, stores that really don’t pass muster simply won’t.

The past year is littered with examples of retailers that have paid insufficient attention to the way their stores look and one of the major reasons why customers deserted them, is simply because they didn’t look up to scratch. Yet, quite a lot of shopfit and design companies remain busy, although at a lower level than 2008, because retailers are renewing tired outlets. When we do eventually follow Germany and France, shoppers, as well as retailers will be the winners.

Retail Week will be publishing a survey of UK shopfitting on September 4th.