"We have lots of brands - our stores are quality stores, they're usually bigger than the traditional pound shops and the shopping environment and ranges are better, " he said.
It said that total sales in its shops and via home shopping rose 15% between August and Christmas compared with the same period in 1998.
According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), 11.2 per cent of all shops on high streets and in shopping centres are vacant.
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The percentage of shops lying empty in High Streets and shopping centres stabilised last year, a report says.
Factories and shops, including the Meadowhall shopping centre, were badly damaged by flooding in 2007 at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds.
It's far from the only place to find traditional bites: Dim sum is served in upscale hotels and back-alley tea shops, in tourist traps overlooking the harbor and the basements of shopping malls.
Now another big expansion is under way, which will further weaken shops in high streets in smaller towns and secondary shopping areas in big cities.
But you know, one fantasy I have -- and the Secret Service, they keep looking at me because they think I might actually do it -- is to walk right out the front door and just keep walking. (Laughter.) Just go right over there and go into some shops, and stop and have some ice cream and -- yeah, go shopping.
Rivals Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda, the other members of UK's "big four" supermarkets, have been operating online shops for a number of years, and online food shopping is growing by about 20% a year.
"It's about adult play, making a space different to other shops and offering things like art and music as part of the shopping experience, " says Staton.
But the very act of making them like glitzy shopping centres has put a long run of shops and restaurants between you and the departure gate.
Visit China's huge, new shopping malls and you find quite a lot of shops are empty, collecting dust.
Past the shopping mall with a Citibank and Sony and Adidas shops, a row of office towers houses IBM, EMC and Oracle.
Tucked deep into the back corner of a shopping mall, past the Tommy Bahama and Coach shops, sits the tiny, well-laid-out Whalers Village Museum.
Shops, restaurants, galleries and museums will take part in the annual celebration of shopping and fashion which was launched by Vogue in 2009.
In Jakarta's Chinatown, some shopkeepers are rebuilding their smashed and looted shops under the shadow of the blackened shells of burnt-out shopping malls.
In the future, electronics shops in shopping malls will give way to retailers that are focused on dining and fun, according to a new report out today by Jones Lang LaSalle.
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The mall houses more than 250 shops with 70 spots to eat and drink, making it Europe's largest urban shopping center.
The town is a hub for shopping, both in the independent shops that sell goods from local collectives and in the affordable markets around Santo Domingo that sell brightly embroidered rugs, blouses and soft furnishings.
It is so demoralising going into the shops and finding so little on offer that actually fits, that it is not fun going shopping.
The Boutique plays host to pop-ups from luxury shops and brands including Browns and J Brand and is small enough to feel like a personal shopping service.
The landlords of the three shops being offered in the competition - the Mander Shopping Centre, The Wulfrun Shopping Centre and the council - will donate the premises rent free and cover most of the running costs.
Well apparently we are thriftily using up what we buy in our main shopping expedition some time during the week, and then popping out to smaller shops to top up.
Those technology companies with strong balance sheets--and little debt--may soon start doing some bargain-basement shopping for smaller tech shops.
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