John Lewis: can kinder capitalism compete in ruthless retail? | FT Film
The UK's much-loved John Lewis department store is a bellwether for Middle England. Its partnership model means the store is owned by its staff. But can this kind of 'caring capitalism' survive in a world of ruthless online retail?
#johnlewis #retailindustry #capitalism #capitalinvestment #retail #retailstrategy
01:43 - Challenges for John Lewis
03:38 - A radical model of partnership
06:56 - Stores boom
10:38 - Profits warning
13:12 - Stores closed
16:42 - 'Never knowingly undersold'
18:41 - Funding crisis
22:50 - Battle with Marks & Spencer
28:20 - Can the Partnership survive?
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They need to advertise that they are employee owned and are trying to operate a fairer commercial model. I had no idea, i would 100% choose them over M&S now i know!!!
I had no idea either to be honest. It would've made a difference if I had. I just saw them as a more expensive alternative.
It’s literally in the name.. ‘John Lewis & PARTNERS’
@@HarryJ10 yup and that was a rebrand to underline that it is employee owned. clearly didn't work for everyone :D
I always saw the wall mural where they explicitly say they are owned by their employees when entering the Oxford store, I thought they would have it everywhere
This is strange that so many people aren't aware of this, it's literally the only reason most people know of them.
Reducing income inequality isn't only kinder, it's more prosperous as well. It reduces crime, healthcare expenditures etc
Indeed! If people are happy and taken care of, the chance of revolutions is much lower.
Retail is an industry too cutthroat for them to survive in when you have lean and hyper-efficient companies like Amazon in the arena.
@@theoldgods8229 Amazon is not very efficient; it has a very high churn rate amongst other issues.
John Lewis isn’t failing because it’s too ‘nice’ or too good to its employees. For years it has failed to invest in its stores and made a lot of very poor decisions about how it runs. John Lewis stores today are cluttered, dirty and dated and employee perks have been cut back massively and their lack of enthusiasm shows. I don’t know if it’s the CEO or some other executive responsible or just mass complacency but John Lewis Is the author of its own misfortune.
employing Sharon White was a massive mistake too
Huawei use the same model. If you work for the firm you can hold shares and if you leave you have to sell the shares. The firm is 100% employee-owned, and interestingly the government at the time criticised it for being "too capitalist". Later on the firm made so much money and paid so much tax that the government changed its mind and thought, wow this is great, and chances are the ways of the firm influenced government thinking rather than the other way around. John Lewis' model is fine, but it is in a difficult sector. People shop online now and so the grand department store is a thing of the past. It's still living in the 1950s.
Huawei the company is effectively owned by the Chinese Communist Party? the government that is undertaking ethnic cleansing and re-education in some of its provinces?
Expected to see more data driven answers from FT. For example would have liked to see productivity per employee or at least sick leave or staff turnover data in comparison to the UK or retail and grocery averages.
JL wouldn’t release this data surely
For sure they'd never disclose that
As long as the customers are not considered the main investors of the company capitalism will not be able to compete with models that do not have to squeeze max profit out of each and every little step. This is true for governments as well, as long as the tax payer is not considered the main investor in the nation then they will lose as well.
A w.hite corporate leader is always more efficient at running an organization
Actually the cruise industry has started for the very first time. And I think that's brilliant for a niche in extensive but at the same time fragile hospitality industry
As an American, I had never heard of this company. Based solely on the information provided here, it seems pretty obvious that the chairwoman they hired seemed to be a terrible decision. She had no experience in that industry or with that business model. Rather than trying to fit into the mold of the company she was leading, she tried to remold it into something she knew, to something that was completely antithetical. We can also talk about standards here. Within the past 2 decades. John Lewis endured the 2008 financial crisis, a global pandemic, Brexit, the rise of broadband internet and ecommerce along with the first generation born into it, and fierce competition in a low margin industry. It is completely absurd to believe that such a company should remain profitable year over year throughout all that. It's far more important that they weather the storm and have some savings to fall back into instead of relying on government handouts. Despite this, you talked about the company condescendingly and defended a bad executive because the owners refused to engage in the practice of wealth extraction and consolidation to facilitate larger scale wealth extraction.
American who agrees. 100 years is impressive. In the US no retailer hasn’t been hurt by Amazon’s model. Also, I’m on second startup in SF. Secret of the valley: Startups are coops.
100% correct. To be fair, John Lewis was going downhill before she arrived but she was the worst appointment they could have made.
Seems to me like the chairwoman had the balls to make decisions her predecessors couldn't. They were bleeding money and refusing to diversify their products and adapt to the online shopping trend
@@backto-il9ne Her inexperience in retail showed. Instead of performing the surgery that was needed and rebuilding the brand for the modern age, she tried diversifying away from retail into other areas like banking and property which was a costly & bizarre move. She had her head in the sand and ran the company like a govt department. JLP is still on the hook for her mistakes. Instead of talking up JLP, she went on national television to tell everyone all about in-store thefts that were happening.
Many would agree.. although I think she could’ve had the chance to diversify (with investments) but it’s a huge legacy British brand and not entirely profit driven. Apparently JL have now hired someone very very experienced in the retail sector so he might turnaround the firm.
I would say that an issue JL is facing is there isn’t much appeal to younger shoppers. This was something I noticed Debenhams had an issue with before the buyout. M&S actually has items I’d like to buy as an under 30. I think if the range of products were improved and the stores modernised, then sales could potentially improve. I also think the flagship store in grand central may not have been the best location. In grand central, people are focused on getting their trains or getting food to go. There are smaller stores owned by well known brands but no where near as large as JL. I think if they were located in the bill ring where the pool of shoppers is far greater, the results may have been better. I do hope they return to Birmingham in the future, albeit with improvement in approach.
But most young people had cars as well to drive to and it gives them the freedom. If some of those stores either created a nice space to have kind of like co-working spaces or gatherings. And young millennials are very green conscious. M&S wear are now cross generational move. I.e. bridging the age gap and it's modern. So that allow the average family to cut costs ?.... It needs a good strategy for the young generation though.
If John Lewis and M&S are middle market then I wonder what is considered upper market?
Harrods, Selfridges
Harrods, Harvey Nics, Whole foods, Peter Jones
@@munaali840 Peter Jones is the John Lewis store in Sloane Square
@@munaali840fortnum and masons.
Good coverage, a bit slow and repetative. Would have been nice to hear the views from the actual partners on the ground. Sharon White's creative approach would probably have worked better in a less institutionalised company. I feel this coverage is a bit too easy/apologist towards her.
They can't admit publicly that White was a DEI hire, and that's caused a lot of problems.
I have worked for JLP, as well as many other companies. From my experience working there, I honestly don't think they treat their employees any better or worse than any other other employer. Also, with regards to the co-ownership model, it didn't really feel like it meant anything, rather than owning shares in the business, the company pays you an annual bonus (dependent on performance), but many other (non employee owned) businesses do the same. All that said, I do agree that Waitrose and John Lewis are among some of the best places to shop.
And the quality is decent for a reasonable price. I still have some of their bedding and cashmere jumpers that I got from my uni days nearly ten years ago. Most other brands would have fallen apart ages ago.
John Lewis bath towels are so nice. One of the few house things I forcibly found space to bring with me when I left the UK lol
Fascinating business structure, from what it describes it almost sounds like a democracy and like most democracies i think in the long term it will be the most sustainable
Very good piece on JL.
The retail experience is gone. Where I live it’s just awful to shop. From shootings to poor customer behaviors- Retail seems to be doomed because there is nothing pleasant in brick and mortar shopping
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Worth finding out what proportion of the population (start with a low cost curve of JL customers) know John Lewis is owned by the staff? There maybe a gulf between that being bleeding obvious to insiders and little known to the population at large. I’m sure if a great step more people knew the shop is owned by the staff an important marginal increase in people would shop there. Many people aren’t dancing in the streets to shop where the profits go to a private equity firm. Only talking about market share reprising firm 3.8% to say 4.2%
From America, went to multiple countries. Britain, France, Germany, and Italy are supposed to be richest countries in all of europe. Where I'm from their Walmart (great company, worked there when I was teenager), Aldi, dollar general, lidl, trader Joe's, food lion, Kmart, Ingles, and hundreds of other retail stores.
I'm surprised you mentioned Kmart. I know a few are open, but it's mostly going out of business. Food lion is a regional chain, right?
@@TheWedabest yup, I've always wanted to go to germany. Some of my family came from Wales, some of them came from germany. Supposedly 1000 people in London have same last name as my family, so do poland.
I dont like seeing any classic Brit firms go down but big up M&S!!! Was also just seeing some funny comedy about Brit culture and how highly Waitrose shoppers think of themselves. Even funnier Tesco and Asda seemed to have ticked along so well. And many Lidl customers are happy.
man, as a german i was wondering when the part about child labour is coming up. To quote a famous Ferrari driver: I am stupid. (kinder=children in german)
to answer your curiosity: yes, child labor is competitive in a ruthless capitalist environment.
Ask china .
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The partnership needs to go back to basics, sell quality, check quality. Jason has a lot of work to do, they have three brands of clothes, and or, kin, John Lewis, it's confusing. Staff training is so important customers need advice, with good selling skills. The partnership card change upset lots of customers both for J Lewis and Waitrose they were refused a card even though they pay off each month. Waitrose introduce things to customers then take them away, this upsets them. Free newspapers paper voucher's, some customers get more offers than the staff discount, partners are wondering why they work there, on minimum pay, Customers hate S White, partners are thinking she's stayed for the pay out. The small profit they are talking about has been boasted by selling the assets, the golf course was sold the buildings they owned were sold and rented back. The last Xmas advert they created a cuddly toy which they had to give away to children in store as they couldn't sell them. John Spedan Lewis would say, back to basics, look after employees, and they will look after the customers, of course a profit is more complicated than that every detail needs to be looked into. I T systems need to work.
This is the first balanced assessment of Sharon White that I’ve seen. I do think Tarry will step change their performance
Betteridge's Law of Headlines applies.
They need to change the partners to something that makes it more clearly worker owned I had no idea until now.
You would be a fool to be buying in John Lewis or Waitrose just because they are “nice” as per FT. Go buy the cheapest thing you get, you are consumers (the kings and queens of the market) in this crazy, costly UK.
I like m&s products but I like JL ethos
The absolute last thing a co-operative should do is bring in financial capitalists. That way lies disaster.
As an ex-loyal John Lewis and Waitrose shopper, who used to shop there because of the great customer service and their ethos, I have stopped shopping there. Their customer customer service in both JL and Waitrose have been declining in the past 10 years. They have lost their USP!
Can’t blame you.. customer service is a key factor for me and could make a firm lose my custom. M&S were always nice. Not much to expect from Tesco/Asda but they have what’s needed and I had no issues. Surprisingly I’ve been a long term amazon customer, way before the behemoth it became and they were always about quality customer service.
John Lewis staff if you can find one on the shop floor are the most entitled and ill informed staff or co-owners you’ll ever come across in retail. And the fact that they’re the most boring environments to shop in … literally need to fork my palm to stay awake trying to find what I’m looking for Kinda good for customers who have private pensions and invest in government bonds and 30% cap invested in BP shares for the dividends
Tokenize ownership and issue it to employees. Use it as collateral for financing. Issue bonds. DeFi awaits.
How lovely it must be for all the upper middle class people who can afford to shop there
Actually a large percentage of them are absolutely miserable not so lovely really under the surface
Why you hating on upper middle class? They're not the ones pulling the strings of big corporations, lobbying governments, and hoarding billions in wealth. They play the game well but don't make the rules.
Ah yes, the Middle class, the REAL enemies of the people! Are you for real?
@@HarryMonnwho do you think I pull those strings? Which socioeconomic class do those people executor fall into? Fact of the matter is that they are the foot soldiers.
@@HarryMonn your definition of hatred is pretty low bar
I worked for Waitrose and the one year I was there, they cut the employee bonus because of poor performance so really its a façade.
they probably made those difficult to access in the first place. my ex worked there and they would dock 1/4 of the Bonus and the explanations given were laughable frankly
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the current management team are to blame
The word kind does not go with capitalism or business or money. The energies or qualities of business and money has nothing to do with kindness, so to put the two together is akin to blind faith
Employees do not own the business, the shares of JLP PLC are held in trust and not by the employees. The staff are employees of that PLC they are not partners in any legal sense.
Michael, Wusste Ich nicht . Das ist Echt Derbe .
Would be interesting to see how much of the profits goes to people that don’t work there. And not on pensions.
As an American I think M&S blows John Lewis out of the water. M&S just has better designs, quality, mix of products, innovation and value. I think M&S food has better variety as well, better pre cooked meals, better snacks etc. Waitrose quality is better but I only buy certain items from them, whereas I can buy pretty much everything I need at M&S food.
M&S changed all their stores too. It looks like an Asda which I don't like. Their offerings changed to a lower price point as well. M&S got their food everywhere. In service stations. In small local middle class stores. Small but near good schools. Near good families. It's like a convenience store but it still serves like a big store. So they didn't go for a flag ship.. but they played around with their strategies. Definitely a store near car run routes. Drop offs for school runs. Has school kits to grab as well. Etc etc. Maybe they didn't trust a lot of big data but decent small local knowledge...
@@MeiinUKI don't know if Oxford Street is still relevant but would love to see a revamped M&S flagship on the Oxford street
@@leoprg5330 : Nobody shops any more, cos it is too expensive.. and we are all living in mostly HMOs.... and living by hand outs, or by actual low wages.. etc etc etc. It matters not that we watch these form of videos.. it doesn't do anything for the average individual that cannot get out of the matrix. Blue pill, or the red pill ?
M&S pre cooked meals are bland, unsatisfying and overpriced, just like other pre cooked meals. I really don't understand the appeal.
Love JL/Waitrose and wish they could keep the same employee owned policy yet share with the nation and allow shared ownership with the British public... 😍
For all of that growth, they never left GB. They should have expanded the brand into key markets overseas.
My compensation has a significant stock component. The moment it vests I immediately sell it so that I’m not doubly exposed to my company’s performance (if things go south, my job AND my savings would be at risk). I think pensions are awful ideas for the same reason… just pay your employees more and let them take care of themselves. Plenty of companies are famously great to their employees without marrying them.
wonderful production, i'll watch until the last sec'
Sharon White was a disastrous chairwoman
nice video John Lewis is usually the first place I think off when I want to buy stuff but there's know longer any real jobs or job security and young people see crime as a sense of family
It has to... cos it is the only way..... for humanity.
So now we know. There is a PR department at the FT that produces puff n fluff videos for it's cronies.
Brexit probably didn't help. I used often buy bedsheets or clothing off their online shop here in Ireland but then they shopped shipping abroad in 2021. There are 20 places to go for discounted goods nowadays I think if they can weather the storm a bit they'll do well sticking to their existing model because nearly everything equivalent is now gone out of business.
Same here, pre their change in international orders we bought a lot from them. M&S have only got better in this regard over the same period. At the same time, last time we were visiting the UK in store one of the partners recommended and found our 11 year old daughter (too tall for children's clothes albeit with age-typical tastes) a personal shopper who did an absolutely fantastic job and enabled us to get a full season's clothes and shoes in one shop.
Compete when you are ahead. Sanctions when your competitor is shoulder to shoulder, or ahead. Compete is not in the empire's playbook.
That’s the Balham Waitrose
A big part of the problem is that it’s not a true worker’s co-op. Look at Mondragon, and it’s retail arm Eroski, for an example of how to make it work.
Amazing to see so many experts in the comments 🤡
Sharon White was a DEI hire without retail experience and despite this documentary defending her, she’s done a terrible job and proven why DEI is so damaging
Yes I noticed they tip-toed around that one.
Sharon white seems to have been set up to go off the glass cliff
John Who? I never been to this store for anything... Just buy online, it's cheaper and save money on parking.
There's already a model of how to make a co-operative work in the long term: The Mondragon Co-operatives. But a British co-operative probably has a bad case of not-invented-here syndrome.
"Beloved company" yet no one is shopping there lol Nostalgia and business are fuel and fire. They need a Sharon White forward-thinking type figure 10 years before they hired a Sharon White.
What Gen Z's are buying clothes at M&S? 🤣 - a Gen 'Zed'
British: "We ain't got no money innit cuz of dem Tories fam". That explains why John Lewis is doing so well, car sales are good, McD's is still open at all, Tesco and Sainsburys are still going (come get the same food from us but spend a tenner more minimum). Liars, all of you then at how much you're "suffering".
Amazon in British English = Amazin haha
partnership lol
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Dinosaurs did not anticipate their Extinction
Government manipulations of flu season in 2020 put out so many retail business.
🇬🇧🇬🇧💰FT staff💰🇬🇧my sincere congratulations for this🇬🇧really classy reportage🎲🎲💰I’m a WSJ perpetual subscriber💰🇬🇧and sadly I can’t afford to subscribe your rosy🇬🇧🎲🎲newspaper💰💰🇬🇧🇬🇧Maybe FT learns a thing or two fromJohn Lewis descent. Let me then know when my opportunity to join your readship is offered. 🇬🇧💰🇬🇧💰🇬🇧💰🇬🇧💰🇬🇧 21:35
They picked a diversity-hire chairman: and it went about as well as you'd expect.
How absurd. A business I work for is not responsible for my happiness. I am. No wonder its failing.
Go woke and hire someone who has no idea about retail to run the company because they tick some boxes.
Go woke go broke
There are people living inside your walls..
@@TheFalseShepphard you should always hire based on merit not DEI metrics
that literally has nothing to do with it, people are not all of a sudden going to stop shopping on amazon instead of John Lewis just because they become less "woke" whatever that even means. PS. Companies dont care about being "woke", they care about making money, the reason so many companies look like they are going "woke" is because they lerned that thats what most people like and improves their puplic image
How dare they advertise for their luxurious supermarket 😤 While more than 50% of working parent in the UK are in debt to pay for childcare. This country is a wreck and will always be because english population is thick.
Etienne, ouh laaa tu vas trop loin mon gars .
Imagine if John Lewis provided some form of childcare structures.... "Free coffee with childcare".... That will pick up the millennials... And move forward...
@@MeiinUK coffee is not native to this country. Unless they grow on the rooftop.we need to consume what we can grow. Hello, global warming
Diversity hire, predicted consequences..
I realised there is Only one grave mistake they did ..... a) They should have treated employees as employees 😂 not over kindness it fckd thm
Better???... they appointed a CEO with ZERO retail experience because she was a DEI appointment, and she created a disaster .... by the way, John Lewis is just equal to any other retailer zero difference is caused bybthe ownership structure
Have you got a degree from Oxbridge? 🤡
@@MayorSom when you have no argument to add you just resort to boring mindless ad-hominem
@@MayorSomlmao yeah because a degree makes someone always right for the rest of their lives
@@03samjon1”DEI appointment” came from the horse’s mouth 🙂
@@MayorSom neeeeeh
This is completely nonsense and misleading information about this Company, I did work for them for 6 years and my experience was completely different, lots of stress, very little pay for hard work, and like in that pigs story one group much more important than other, you don’t mansion that this company employees workers to spy on the team and reporting to the Mangers and after they will be promoted in the higher position. And company will find any thing to not increase your salary in your appraisal and for this reason so many people never been paid nation minimum wage, and very interesting how many millions company paid to these two newspapers for this rubbish misleading video, or they helping to promoting community for arrival on the stock exsangue market. Company for 4 years didn’t pay fo the “ partners “ the Bonus and they made just small amount of profit, but Bosses and management didn’t forget to make own salary increase
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