Amid all the bunting, fanfare and pageantry, one of our most traditional retailers went that extra mile with a tip of the hat to the royal lovebirds last week.
The Marks & Spencer store in Windsor changed its signage to reflect its admiration for the new Duchess of Sussex, adapting its affectionate nickname to… Markle & Sparkle.
Any good publicity may have been short-lived, however, following the subsequent announcement of store closures.
Perhaps M&S should give a thought to extending the initiative, to see if Meghan’s magic can make some of its less successful locations sparkle once more.
Main image: Finbarr Webster/Rex/Shutterstock
A right royal result?
It may have escaped your attention – not much was made of it by the media – but there was a royal wedding last weekend.
And few things can boost the national mood quite like that. It certainly had Patrick Scanlon, head of central London research at Knight Frank, coming over all dewy-eyed and optimistic.
“As we all look forward to celebrating this weekend’s royal wedding,” he tweeted, “it is worth noting that after the last two big royal weddings, the City office market didn’t see any fall in rents for at least seven years. Just saying…”
Fingers crossed Harry and Meghan can keep the streak going – and even get beyond the seven-year itch – as we probably have a long wait until the next “big” do.
What’s the buzz?
Diary’s curiosity was piqued this week by a graph of the phrases that get the most traction in Buzzfeed headlines (ranked by average number of Facebook shares), and couldn’t help but ponder what EG might look like with something of a similar attention-grabbing approach.
Analysis of the popularity of Buzzfeed headlines suggests that our favourite topic is ourselves
In Hooked pic.twitter.com/oPIJdcnK9u
— richard shotton (@rshotton) 17 May 2018
So look forward to “Which collapsed retailer are you?”, “10 things only a surveyor from the 90s will remember” and “20 offices you should work in before you die” – all variations of Buzzfeed’s three most successful clickbait techniques.
We’re still figuring out how to shoe-horn in Game of Thrones (the 14th most popular headline phrase) or “dogs who” (19th), but you’ll know them when you see them!
What makes a millennial?
Not one to mince his words, Kontor’s James Townsend pulled no punches at EG’s Workplace of the Future summit this week.
The EG Award winner and former Rising Star took to the stage on a panel discussing “what millennials really want”.
Talk soon turned to what defines someone who falls into this bracket.
“We are demanding,” said one panellist. “We know what we want and we work hard for it,” said another.
Townsend’s take? “We are entitled, overpaid little sh*ts.” So now we know.
The art of the deal
The wildest a house purchase has ever got for Diary was negotiating over a fridge, but it seems that some buyers go a bit further.
NAEA Propertymark has compiled some of the “weird and wonderful things househunters do to get their offers accepted” – including one buyer who volunteered to landscape the seller’s new garden and tend it for two years.
Another, rather spectacularly, wheeled in the entire sale price in cash, in a gingham shopping trolley, to secure the property.
But we like the style of the buyer who, nervous things would collapse at the last minute, offered to purchase the seller’s Porsche as well, securing two sets of keys in the process.
It makes Diary wonder in what ways commercial buyers have gone that extra mile to seal a deal.
Image: Egon Bömsch/imageBROKER/Rex/Shutterstock
Location, location, station?
Are you on the lookout for a Victorian three bedroom property in the leafy suburbs of Essex? Are you tired of a stressful commute to the office?
Well, Diary may have found the perfect investment for you.
This particular property isn’t just close to the local train station – its actually on the platform. Station House, a detached former station master’s home, has arrived on the market this week through agent Mullucks Wells for £375,000.
Aside from the obvious transport benefits of being located at Newport Station, it comes with two car parking spaces.
The only drawback? It totally eliminates the old “sorry I’m late – I missed the train” excuse.
To send feedback, e-mail jess.harrold@egi.co.uk or tweet @jessharrold or @estatesgazette
