I DID something I haven’t done for years at the weekend: I shopped at BHS.
If anyone had asked me why I was there, I’d no doubt have said something about wanting to show solidarity with the store’s employees, all of whom now face the dole queue following last week’s announcement that the 88-year-old brand has collapsed into administration, putting more than 11,000 jobs at risk.
It would, of course, be disingenuous to say solidarity was the main reason I was in there. Nostalgia also played a part – when I was growing up, we were very much a BHS rather than a Marks and Spencer family. But what really lured me in on Saturday was also the reason the Sauchiehall Street branch was probably busier than it had been in years: few can resist a bargain, even when it comes on the back of somebody else’s misfortune.
Misfortune is something that the workforce of BHS know all about, of course. It has been plaguing them for years. And it looks like it will plague them for many years to come, in the shape of reduced pensions.
There is nothing the staff, most of whom – in common with others in the retail sector
– work for the minimum wage, could have done to avoid this. There’s little any worker can do when ruined livelihoods are nothing more than collateral damage in the big business deals and gambles played out every day in the City of London.
You could argue the writing was on the wall for BHS more than a decade ago when then owner Sir Philip Green appeared to put all his energies into taking massive dividends out of the business – totalling about £400 million – instead of reinventing the ailing brand for the 21st century.
When the profits stopped rolling in, rather than staying on to fight, Sir Philip abandoned ship, selling the company last year for £1 to
a venture capitalist consortium headed by Dominic Chappell, a twice-bankrupted former racing driver with no experience in the retail business.
Surprise, surprise, over the next 13 months BHS withered and died as the pension deficit mounted – that now stands at some half a billion pounds. The only consolation came for Mr Chappell and his fellow investors,
who somehow managed to pay themselves £25 million. I’m sure store staff were heartily relieved for them.
It emerged over the weekend that Sir Philip, his wife Tina – whose name appeared on the ownership documents – and Mr Chappell have all been asked to appear in front of MPs and explain what happened.
If they choose to appear – and it will be their choice – I don’t doubt that they will be asked difficult questions and made to feel uncomfortable. Who knows, they may even apologise to the workforce and sacrifice some of their wealth in a gesture of goodwill.
I don’t doubt that they probably feel bad about what happened. But ultimately they will go back to their gilded lives, the mansions and yachts, and simply move on to the next big deal.
The taxpayer, meanwhile, will be left to look after the BHS employees who lose their jobs, and it’ll be a case of “bad luck” to those who don’t receive the full pensions they worked so hard for.
What won’t happen is exactly what needs to: a root and branch review of UK and European company law that would require owners, and indeed former owners, to take real responsibility for all losses – including pensions – and for strict rules around who should be allowed to buy a business. Such rules would not have made BHS more successful, but they would have put more onus on Sir Philip to seek a better solution.
There’s no way a Conservative government will press for such change – its friends and donors in big business simply would not allow it. And with so many other big fish to fry, I can’t see the European Union having the will to enter the fray any time soon.
So, in the meantime, as has always been the way, the little people – the shop assistants, the steel workers, the City Link delivery drivers – take the brunt of the losses while the boss class rewards itself for failure.
To be honest, I felt pretty dirty as I walked up to the sales counter in BHS with my bargain bale of towels.
The wee woman who served me at the till told me she had worked there for almost
30 years – as she was hitting 60 she probably wouldn’t find another job. She was sad but stoic about her pension. She only became visibly annoyed when I asked her about the past owners of the business. I won’t repeat what she said about them.
I doubt either Sir Philip Green or Dominic Chappell will lower themselves to set foot in
a BHS store any time soon to hear these words firsthand, more’s the pity.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel