The doyenne of department stores may be departing for a rival soon, but she is confident that reinvention can keep physical shopping alive
The queen of department stores is hanging up her crown. In her trademark shiny bob, worn with an immaculate designer outfit and chunky jewellery, Anne Pitcher, the boss of Selfridges, has just a few weeks left in the job after more than 40 years stalking the shop floor.
She is exiting stage left just months after the upmarket department store changed hands, but Pitcher insists this is not because department stores are in their death throes. She is, after all, off to help run the department store chain of Selfridges’ former owner, Canadian firm Holt Renfrew.
