For The Love of London

The City

Who doesn't love LONDON? Once the capital of the world, where us GREAT BRITONS owned our vast Empire of countries, and ruled in a way no other man could. But these days, it's at a standstill. Whether it's the crippling economy, so-called 'British' men who attempt to bomb the London Stock Exchange, or our Government going 'tits-up'...'doolally'... literally 'getting away with murder' and so forth. Or that we let any old Tom, Dick and Harry through our borders and then give them the rights for asylum so we, the tax payers, have to provide a home and rudimentary dole money!

Westminster - Houses of Parliament - Big Ben

I hear you UK, it's madness; however, this could be our year because all that is about to change. With London hosting the spectacular sporting event of the Ancient Greeks, The Olympics, we had better pull out the big guns if we're going to beat China's near enough flawless performance of 2008. The crazy part is that they couldn't even see what they were doing in all of that smog!

No pressure London...

I live in rural Somerset, and I can tell you now that London is another realm when you compare the two places. I recently worked for Pedlars in Selfridges, on Oxford Street for the whole of December, over Christmas...and it was utter madness! Though I did love every second of it, I have never witnessed so many human beings in one small concentrated space, running around like headless chickens trying to find presents for their family and friends! You must be thinking 'What's he complaining about, it's like that every Christmas'...not this time.

The public were voicing that they didn't have any money to spend because of rising taxes, job cuts and general tellings of very little disposable income at their fingertips. They were right about BRITONS not having any money, but who's to say that the 'global recession' hasn't harmed others? Record numbers of Asian tourists, particularly Chinese and Japanese, flocked to Central London this year to splash their cash on expensive items for themselves and the ones closest to them. The Chinese love to spend their money in the UK, due to being able to avoid the high tax that is slapped onto goods back in their home towns and cities; and why should they not? China's currency value (Yuan) hit an all time high of 6.30 versus the US Dollar, funnily enough on the 26th December 2011.

US Dollars / Chinese Yuan

Then came boxing day...astonishing. Selfridges London alone was racking in £1 Million an hour for the first three hours of trading, according to figures from officials at Selfridges and Co. I was discussing this amazing feat with one of the floor managers in Selfridges, and he told me that "normally it's ALL FOUR stores that make that money this time of year". Then it was said later on that all four of the Selfridges stores in the UK, hit the £50 Million mark towards the end of the trading day. Another interesting fact that you may not have known; In Selfridges London, the fashion giant Chanel takes £100,000 EVERY DAY.

One of my best experiences whilst working in Selfridges was the Mystery Shopper that me and my colleague served in the run-up to Christmas. As with any other Mystery Shopper, we didn't know that he was surveying our every move like a well-dressed London hawk, regarding customer service. It was a long process, but we dealt with it to the best of our abilities, and we received a 100% score the following week! Any store in the world, rarely obtains a customer service and transaction score of 100% in a retail concession. Consequently, Selfridges was voted the BEST department store in the world, and so customer service is highest on their agenda - therefore, ourselves and our managers were very pleased indeed with that achievement.

I believe that cities, whether they be Capitals or Megacities, are the engine rooms of the countries that house them. I certainly think that the London 2012 Olympics will benefit us Brits profusely in the long run, due to the stampede of tourists coming into the Kingdom to witness the first hosting of the sporting event by us. Even though the Eurozone crisis is still in the wake, the US Dollar is taking a bashing, and the world just feels like it's ready to end (Were the Mayans correct?)...fear not. The Olympics is just what GB needs to pick itself off the kitchen floor after a night out, and progress through the hangover that is the 171 DAYS TO GO until the games begin. Not to worry, you're next Brazil!