John Lewis & Partners is a department store network that is aimed at the upper class who operate throughout the UK. They also have branches in the Republic of Ireland and Australia.
The department store is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, which was built by Spedan Lewis, son of the founder, J Lewis, in 1929. This store was first opened in 1864 on Oxford Street, London.
This shop has been promising since 1925 that it is “never knowingly undersold” or never sells lower than the standard, a phrase used as a slogan. They will always at least match the lower prices offered by “national high street competitors”.
The department store has 50 stores across England, Scotland and Wales, including 12 “at Home” stores, and “flexible format” stores in Exeter, York, and Chelmsford.
John Lewis and At Home Shop
In 2009, this department store announced their new store format “John Lewis at Home”. This shop was first opened in Poole in October 2009. The “at home” store is located within the pre-existing shopping area and focuses on selling Electrical equipment, home, and technology products.
The department stores in the fashion sector are increasingly showing their determination to protect the earth and the environment so that they carry out a program that is buying back clothes worn by customers. If customers don’t want it anymore, they can return it to them because the goal is to reduce the impact of the fashion industry on the planet.
John Lewis and the Green Mission
Customers can sell the old clothes back by using the social enterprise application Stuffstr. Mobile devices will calculate the amount that customers will receive for their old items.
After that, if they collect a sum of 50 pounds or more, the courier will collect the remaining pieces of clothing from their customer’s home. Customers will then receive an e-gift card from John Lewis for the number of items sold.
They feel that Stuffstr can offer a unique solution to this particular problem, which shows the value of the items they no longer use. Besides that, they encourage them to change their habits so they will buy high-quality goods that can last longer.
The repurchased items will be resold, but previously repaired or recycled into new products. Unwanted items can be made into new clothes again.
Last year according to data from Guardian, they managed to recover more than 27,000 electrical products and 2,000 sofas were used for upcycling, and recycled materials from 55,000 mattresses.
This initiative is the first by offering incentives to customers involved in the “end-to-end” fashion system so that clothes can be used longer.
M & S has launched a schwopping scheme in 2012, and H & M also Zara has since introduced recycle bins in stores, but the industry must state it a more clear vision of what the circular economy is like, and why it’s important.
Currently, 87 percent of fashion waste has been stockpiled or burned, according to statistics revealed at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. This is a big problem when we consider that we have doubled the number of clothes we have used in the last 15 years.
John Lewis is committed, that if it cannot be resold or repaired, the item can be made into a new item. The task of consumers is to buy goods of higher quality so that they no longer need to throw away the old things because they remain durable.
