Rich pickings

Harrods and Selfridges - to some they are look-but-don't-buy stores,while the well-heeled customer wouldn't dream of shopping anywhere else.Nicholas Blincoe pays a visit, having passed the test to get through thedoor of Harrods, to find out how both shops sell computers and software.

Not everyone loves a bargain. Some people just like shopping, which is why Harrods and Selfridges exist. The two most famous department stores in the country, they are like mis-matched twins, fighting to assert their own identities. Now this struggle is being taken into new markets as each shop woos the carefree shopping class with computers and software.

Harrods' personality is somewhat haughty whereas Selfridges, as befits a little sister, tries to be tad more informal. In the course of the past year, Selfridges has undergone a series of major refurbishments. New wood floors have been laid, walls have been demolished, glistening cafes have been crowbarred into dark corners. The end result is that Selfridges now has an open-plan feel; or at least, it does if seen from the right angle.

The idea is to present the shopper with a grand view of the store and all its levels ... an idea which is pretty much state-of-the-art in department store culture. Harrods, in contrast, has no truck with fashionable theories.

Instead, it persists with its Aladdin's cave theme: a maze of rooms, each more sumptuous than the last, which actually invite the shopper to get lost. Interestingly, Harrods has all but dispensed with signage.

Both stores have taken a similar decision on what class of product a computer actually is. A computer is, basically, a bit of hi-fi. Harrods pursues this theme with the most enthusiasm, placing its computers around the walls of a room filled with Bang & Olufsen stereos and Roberts' radios.

Selfridges has made a more determined effort to create a themed computer section, clearly distinct from its sound and vision department. In the past, Selfridges has had several false starts with computers and this latest solution represents a considered response to the way they see the market evolving. It certainly took some co-ordination.

Selfridges runs its own computer department while it has handed the software concession to newcomers Software City.

The two parts of the section are physically linked by an internet bar where punters can test the Software City internet software on Selfridges' machines. Just a week after the opening of the department, with work still to do, the section already looks good. However, as the section is in Selfridges basement, some shoppers might not find out quite how good. The department cannot actually be seen from any other floor. On the plus side, regular Selfridges customers will find it as it is situated on the main through-route to the laundry and key-cutting concessions. Not exactly glamorous, perhaps, but well-used: the well-heeled need their heel bars.

Harrods has handed its computer business over entirely to concessions, one Mac and one IBM PC. Coincidentally, the IBM Aptiva concession is run by Silica, Selfridges' erstwhile partners in the PC business. The Selfridges/Silica link-up was severed around the same time that Silica went into administration last year. Now owned by Anglo Technology, Silica is once more in business.

The manager of the Harrods concession, Sanjay Patel, might be thought to have an odd relationship with the store: a kind of marriage twice-removed insofar as it is IBM that holds the concession. Patel nevertheless feels a part of Harrods, claiming it is the best place he has ever worked. He cites the staff canteen as a good example of the Harrods ethos: "It's a very good restaurant, all subsidised. Al Fayed expects his staff to work their bollocks off when they're on the shop floor. And the restaurant is a place to relax." He admires Al Fayed, the owner of Harrods, as a hands-on manager, not a desk-driving administrator: "He is a businessman. He walks around about once a fortnight and if he sees something he doesn't like - he says, Get that right."

According to Patel, the mission to "get it right" extends to the customers.

He says: "Harrods turns away 7,000 customers a week. Al Fayed insists his staff look good and expects the customers to do the same."

Another part of the Harrods difference is the customer's enthusiasm for home delivery. They actually expect items to be delivered ... a situation that is very different to Silica's experience in Debenham's store where customers get anxious if they cannot walk off with their new purchases.

His new customer's relaxed attitude means that Patel is able to save on space by keeping virtually no items in stock. He says: "They won't take a PC away with them because it might tear the seats of their Porsche, although a laptop's fine."

Saving the storage space for laptops makes sense because, Patel says: "We sell a hell of a lot of them. If people are here for the weekend then they just want to grab and go."

Both PCs and laptops are, of course, IBM machines and are undiscounted.

As Patel says: "Harrods customers will pay full price." Selfridges has a similar range of PCs, despite the fact that they are not tied to a manufacturer. Among other known-brand names like Hewlett Packard, the range of Aptiva, as well as the Macs, get prominence. Where Selfridges really scores is in its far greater range of software and in laptops.

Software City's first store, in Leeds, was opened by Annalise from Neighbours.

For the Selfridges opening its chairman Cecil Parkinson cut the ribbon.

The range of software is excellent. Harrods, due to lack of space, can only keep a few best-selling titles.

Patel once worked the Silica concession in Selfridges and should be well-placed to comment on the store's differences. But as a born-salesman, his comments centre exclusively on the respective returns policies. Selfridges policy was so lax, it gave him nightmares. He says: "If Mr Smith walks up and says I want a full refund, you've got to give it with a smiling face. It's great for the customer but from the staff's point of view, the customers are getting away with murder." In contrast, Harrods has an authoritarian 28-day policy.

In the end, the two stores' similarities probably outweigh their dissimilarities.

In the past week, Selfridges sold two Playstations and u2,500 of games to a lone Arab. Patel, meanwhile, is busy polishing top-of-the-range VR Helmets ready for an expected Christmas rush. As they say, the rich are different. They have more money. And they will always tend to spend it at Harrods or Selfridges.

SELFRIDGES

Location: Oxford Street, W1

Store Type: A collaboration between Selfridges' own computer department and a software concession operated by Software City

History: After a series of hesitant starts, Selfridges has come up with a bright and welcoming section complete with internet bar

Customer profile: Well-heeled locals, tourists and anyone on the Oxford Street trail

Growth Potential: The new-look store is not intended to grow. It is more a sign that Selfridges recognises a mature market that has to be addressed with some imagination

HARRODS

Location: Knightsbridge

Store Type: Mac and Aptiva concessions in a Sound and Vision Department

History: Harrods looked for high-class partners who run their concessions through specialist third parties - as in the IBM/ Silica partnership

Customer profile: As Selfridges, but the heels are a little higher

Growth Potential: In Harrods, computers are sold as though they were top-of-the-range hifi. The concept is unlikely to change while it remains successful.