Emailed in by Lola from The Telegraph:
Harrods’ Knightsbridge store alone will pay £17.1m this year in business rates, according to property consultant Altus Group. Retailers large and small claim the property tax is deeply unfair because it hits high street stores far harder than online players such as Amazon, which rely on cheap out-of-town warehouses.
“There isn’t a level playing field and nobody’s tried to put in place a level playing field,” Ward says, “Until there is a fundamental review of the business rates system, then I think that the high street is really doomed.”
According to this, Harrods has an annual turnover of £2 billion, most of that will be from its flagship store in Knightsbridge, so they are paying less than 2% of their turnover in Business Rates.
Does he not realize that there is a perfectly level playing field? If he thinks he can make more profit by shutting down the flagship store and just selling stuff online from an out-of-town warehouse, then why doesn't he do it?
He doesn't do it because he knows perfectly well that the £17.1 million a year they pay is only a fraction of the extra profit they can make by trading from a huge building in the swankiest area of London, surrounded by obscenely wealthy people and tourists who have nothing better to do that go to Harrods and spend money.
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