House of Mary

All hail Mary Portas - crowned Queen of Shops since the early noughties due to her vast retail knowledge and hard business ethic. We've seen her on television, heard her on the radio, read her books and even followed her tweets on twitter but never before have we bought her products or witnessed her endoursement of a brand within the retail sector; until now.


According to a source, the press have gone wild over her new age ideas of opening up her very own "shop within a shop" alongside lucky department store House of Fraser. Mary will work on the brand said to be a clothing range aimed specifically at the fashionably forty year old woman and rumoured to be called "Mary" (although I'm hoping she swiftly changes this to "Portas" a little more desinger-esque don't you agree?!)

The retail guru is set to take the retailing world by storm by taking customer service right back to basics with traditional old fashioned service. Not only will there be the best patrons of fabulous customer service being employed, but expert stylists to assist each customers needs.


All eyes will be on Mary in October as every part of the process will be documented by her company Yellow Door and aired on television for all to see. Portas is putting her career on the line as if this fails, our Queen of retail will be no more...

But she must have every faith in herself as the process is moving full steam ahead with the support of House of Fraser Oxford Street apparently giving her the whole of their third floor to accommodate her department, the employees having already been recruited and the press being filled in on whats what. Exciting stuff.

Lets hope the customer service orientated retail presence will wow us with her own credentials and can practise what she has preached about for so long. Mary has previosly slammed House of Fraser for losing the heritage and independence of Jenners department store in Edinburgh stating

"Jenners internal design is absolutely stunning," she said. "But it feels like House of Fraser got a hold of it and it's just ended up with a slightly hybrid shop instead of one that is still 'Jenners'

And when a journalist complained to Portas of bad customer service from another House of Fraser store when she was unable to return a faulty item, Mary didn't hold back and  advised the said employee "You know what, my advice to him is 'take the damn thing and smile',

So maybe her goal is to prove herself to the retail industry once more and to also show House of Fraser how its supposed to be done too...




(References www.dailymail.co.uk,www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com)