Days of department stores are numbered

Department stores have been around for more than 150 years. Singapore's oldest department store John Little was established in 1845. That was around the same time that Whiteleys opened in London's Bayswater, and Le Bon Marche was founded in Paris. But even though John Little was able to survive a world war and the Japanese occupation, it could not withstand competition from smaller, nimbler retailers snapping at its heels from within Singapore's shopping malls. It couldn't cope with the powerful forces unleashed by Internet shopping either.

Department stores are so called because the goods they sell are laid out in categories known as departments. In many respects, the way that department stores operate today is not materially different to the way they were run in the 1800s. Perhaps the fact that they haven't changed is what is causing the problems that many of them face now.

Where are the returns?