As a dinosaur of retail I am often asked questions like “how was it in previous recessions?” and “how long did the recovery take?”

There is no satisfactory answer – it’s different each time. One can dig up statistics such as it was seven years before house prices rose again or that it was four years before retail sales growth returned to normal. But, apart from fuelling scary media headlines, it serves no useful purpose.

This time around it is really different. The global credit crunch is not only unprecedented but governments have been panicked into bailing out banks and consumers (yet not productive businesses) and, in the process, often preserving the behaviour patterns that created the problems to begin with.

As the game of spotting green shoots gathers pace and has become – unlike in January – an acceptable thing to do, the good news is that provided you keep your job this recession will not prove to be very painful.

The bad news, unfortunately, is that governments have mortgaged the future to such an extent that any recovery is likely to prove anaemic as governments are forced to rebalance their books. The question we will all be asking in 2010 and beyond will be: “Recovery? What recovery?”

In a purely retail context it is also different. The retail geography – regional shopping centres, retail parks and online growth – has changed almost beyond recognition. The retail players have also changed – no C&A, Littlewoods and Woolworths, replaced by a new breed of discount retailers such as Primark, Poundland, Peacocks, and an influx of overseas entrants such as Lidl, Zara and H&M.

The one eternal truth is managing space. Every retailer must know what their natural retail footprint needs to be. The rationalisation of space – whether by sleight of hand (pre-pack or administration) or genuine restructuring – is one of the most potent retail profit drivers.

“Reverse cannibalisation” was the saviour of Signet (Ratners) and Next in the last recession and provided Sir Stuart Rose with his successful platform at Arcadia – a lesson seemingly forgotten at Marks & Spencer.

This time around there are obvious potential casualties suffering from an excessive space overhang – the sports retailers (JD Sports Fashion excepted) or DSGi for example.

It is pleasing, but not surprising, to see Sir Philip Green moving to merge Bhs and Arcadia since if C&A, Littlewoods and Woolworths have gone can Bhs be far behind? The “future” has already been trialled at Peterborough where the Bhs store incorporates Arcadia’s mass-market brands.

Young fashion (Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge) retains its solus presence and even the most overpaid, incompetent banker must be able to see the next move – a demerger of Topshop from Arcadia and Bhs and its flotation on a premium rating, similar to Inditex and H&M.

This assumes of course that last month’s entry into New York proves to be a successful prelude to establishing Topshop as a truly global brand.