Every time I walk through the David Jones store in the Canberra Centre, I think, "Why would I buy anything here?"

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Every time I walk through the John Lewis store on Oxford Street in London, I come away having bought something.

The two chains are similar. They are both "iconic" in their countries. The word is overused but in this case, justified: it is defined as: widely-recognised, established, admired.

The first English John Lewis store was founded by an English draper - John Lewis - in 1864, based on "value, assortment, service and honesty".

The first Australian store was founded in 1838 by a Welsh merchant who had migrated to Australia. His "large and commodious premises" were on the corner of George and Barrack Streets in Sydney.

Both thrived and grew as middle class affluence grew. Both stores offered fashionable and affordable items.

And both were knocked by the arrival of online shopping, and more recently, the drive of influencer marketing towards 'trendy' fast fashion.

But John Lewis reinvented itself. It did undergo a brutal restructuring. It's a partnership owned by its 80,000 employees who forwent a bonus for two years in a row.

The group also cut 1500 jobs and closed underperforming stores, much to the anger of people in the towns which had come to rely on them.

The result was the transformation of a growing loss into a profit.

There is one difference between the two groups today: John Lewis stores usually have a food hall, offering high-quality provisions, from the best meat, fruit and vegetables to wines from around the world. The group also owns a chain of upmarket supermarkets. The prices are higher than elsewhere but its........

© Canberra Times