Thursday, May 26, 2011

The smell of Selfridges

For as long as it's been open I've felt slightly uneasy about something in Selfridges in Manchester city centre. At first I just thought I was being snobbish and put it down to a view expressed by one of Insider's writers that it's Debenhams under any other name. It isn't that. The men's fashion area is quality - it couldn't quite sustain some of the upmarket concessions, but it holds its own.

Then there was the cosmetics area. No, all fine. Not quite as poncey as Harvey Nichols across the way, but you could get good products for presents and the like.

I went in last week and it twigged. It was the food court in the basement. The smell of greasy food from Yo!Sushi! would rise up the store. Now that it's been closed and the lower ground is being converted to something else the smell has gone. Harvey Nics manage to have a restaurant at the top and you'd never know. It will prove to be a good idea to move any food element of the store to the top of the building.

But do you know what? The smell is now lingering in Piccadilly Station where Yo! Sushi! have opened on the mezzanine level. I can bear that though. In fact it's very, very tempting.

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