World’s smallest Primark debuts at LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Birmingham
Birmingham can lay claim to being home to the world’s largest Primark store. And from next week it will break another record as LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Birmingham opens the doors to the world’s smallest Primark.
This will feature in MINILAND, which is LEGO’s version of the UK’s second largest city.
It consists of around 2,988 bricks, includes 106 people and 233 items of clothing. There’s also a Disney Café, a toy section, and a beauty salon.
The build also features 12 mannequins, four escalators, two tills and miniature shoppers exiting the store with Primark brown paper bags.
Paul Chittim, General Manager for Primark Birmingham, says: “I’m incredibly proud to manage the world’s largest Primark and serve the wonderful people of Birmingham, so I am delighted to see the world’s smallest open here too.”
“I was a bit worried about running both but thankfully the team at LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Birmingham have recreated myself and the brilliant Birmingham Primark team in minifigure form so I know the store will be good hands.”
“We put a lot of thought into ensuring we offer our customers amazing fashion at amazing prices and I’m thrilled to see that the LEGOLAND store is no different.”
“A baffling resistance to online”
Primark’s digital denial is reminiscent of Sony’s naivety during the Betamax and VHS format war, according to Elliott Jacobs, EMEA Commerce Consulting Director at LiveArea.
The retailer was hit hard during the coronavirus lockdown period, with the closure of its stores leading to a loss of £650 million worth of sales every month. It dipped its toes in e-commerce waters during 2013 via Asos, but eventually decided to pull the plug.
This resistance to an online channel is frankly baffling, Jacobs argues. “In Sony’s case, it went from owning 100% of the market to just 25% in six years, watching more agile competitors steal market share,” he says.
“Fast forward five or ten years and we could be looking back at Primark as a case study of a failed retail strategy – a huge business with a dominant market share that was too stubborn to diversify its routes to consumers.”
“Most retail experts agree that consumer behaviour has changed forever. McKinsey estimates that consumer and business digital adoption has been accelerated by five years.”
“Primark’s strategy, relying upon the assumption that high street footfall will return to its pre-pandemic levels, is unnecessarily risky,” Jacobs concludes.
