THERE used to be a time when Manchester's Kendals store was so swish, some shoppers hardly dared step inside.
On a shopping trip "to town" some would look in wistful awe at the window displays of what was then Kendal Milne, but feel they were not "dressed up" enough to go inside.
Others would don their Sunday best, in an effort to bolster their confidence enough to pass through the portals of the mighty emporium.
Once inside, they were often overawed by the Exotic Creatures of the Cosmetic Counters, coiffured and dressed as if they were straight from a mannequin parade (catwalk model, as they are known today).
The store was certainly regarded as top of the posh shops then, but behind the rather stiff façade lay a chain of command that allowed accessibilty to the highest level.
A journalist with a simple inquiry about how trade was going could just pick up the phone and chat to the manager. Not now. Shades of déjà vu here, because this week started as the last one ended.
I recalled last week that it took two days and being passed through four public relations outfits just to glean some information about queries over their store card being answered by a call centre in New Delhi.
Competition
This week, we were interested to see how Kendals was holding up against the onslaught of fierce top-class competition which has made city centre Manchester a national shopping hot spot.
Kendals could not field anyone to comment and passed me on to House of Fraser's in-house PR people in London. From there, I was niftily shunted on to an outside PR company (yet another one - not of those involved in my Indian inquiries) who passed me on to a third PR guru.
He was unable to tell me anything, but he was a very nice man.
House of Fraser, it seemed, was staying tight-lipped, because its results were out next day. We would have to wait until then, for a local picture.
Next day dawned, and a chance to speak to the top man himself - John Coleman, chief executive of the HoF empire. Mr Coleman was confidence itself, bullish about the Manchester store - and dismissive of the opposition.
Kendals, he says briskly will remain the largest upmarket store in the city - twice as big as new kid on the block Selfridges, and three times the size of next year's new arrival, Harvey Nichols. Naturally, it is not taking any chances.
A treatment spa will open before Christmas and its four fashion floors are to under-go a multi-million pound revamp.
Kendals is a landmark in the city, and the days when its upmarket image were a barrier to some shoppers have thankfully long gone. Perhaps someone will take a scythe to the swathes of public relations machinery that now cloak it instead. Tweet