Curtains for Habitat.

( I'm never going to win any awards for my copywriting, am I ... )

Read an article today about Habitat on the brink of collapse, looks like the key London stores will be hived off as semi independents and the brand itself be absorbed into Homebase as a niche level retail strand and potential license. Makes fiscal sense - but a shame.

Habitat 'used' to be important - but retail was very different then,. I've not even bothered going into a Habitat in at least 5 years. Pointless, over priced, irrelevant and frankly.... pretty grim.

When I still lived at home, Habitat opened up a store in Chester - a fairly bold move at the time ( early-ish 1980's. ) Even bolder, it was a new, modernist store just outside the center of town - reinforcing it's 'otherness' and making it more edgy and exciting. To get there you had to go through a shopping precinct nestled within Victorian arcades and even medieval terraces - and finally through a brutalist car park that had stained glass windows inspired by John Pipers Liverpool Metropolitain Cathedral designs. It was like going from the past to the future.

I loved it, it was was inspirational and seductive - it just reinforced my conviction that there were other places to be, other lives to live - life could be shiny, new, exciting and modern. Habitat helped me leave home at 17 - I could dream..

Obviously it didn't work out like that - I've never bought anything there that actually 'worked' or fulfilled it's promise. I did spend an obscene amount of money once on a kitchen that was so expensive I took it with me when I moved house. I never really liked it.  I even worked for them once on a piece of design research - they were terrible clients, very confused and abstract - I'm not sure they understood their own brief and it took a year to get paid. Part of the work involved going into the Brighton store to talk to staff about buying trends - I made an appointment to see several key staff members. They were surly - morose and prickly. All seemed to be apologetic about working in retail "I hope you realise I don't just do this - I have a degree in Psychology, you know ".

I won't miss Habitat - the writing has been on the wall for years - ever since I went into the Regent street Store and though -"how the fuck did they get this through the financial planning department", something else will come along and fill the void... preferably less expensive and self important.