I WAS IN LONDON for a day last week and, of course, I couldn’t resist visiting several shops. Our trade has seemed a bit despondent lately, so I have decided to devote this entire edition of Knightline to good news

I started off at the Richer Sounds branch at London Bridge. This is the store with the highest sales per square foot in the world. The Guinness book of world records has been recording this achievement for the past two decades and the store was very busy when I called.

A friendly salesman called Fernando had already clinched the sale of a 32in Sharp TV for a very reasonable £189, but he was soon talking up an extra sound bar. Peter was busy demonstrating a Cambridge Audio hi-fi system. It certainly looks as if this Richer Sounds will retain its title for many years to come.

There is a similarly-sized outlet next door, but this one is fitted out as a traditional café. I had a quite magnificent all-day breakfast for just £3 and the coffee was served in a Richer Sounds mug!

Then I took the train to Wimbledon to pay my first visit to the new-style Sony Centre. This store incorporates many of the features of the new American format. It is a very open concept and it incorporates the play and try-before-you-buy feature that has proved popular in the USA.

I especially liked the curved model display that lets customers try a Sony camera that takes panoramic pictures. Andy Graham of Sanus will be pleased to hear that his top-quality wall mounts were being shown to a TV customer.

A saleswoman called Diana was busy selling a laptop, but managed to sell me some batteries at the same time. The shop looked absolutely perfect, but I was disappointed to see that some shops in this prestigious mall had already closed. On to Winchmore Hill and the marvellous Pounds shop. Darren gave me a friendly greeting as soon as I got in the door and I marvelled at the very wide range of white goods on display.

TV rental is still well to the fore at this business with a 42in Panasonic being offered for just £5.95 a week. Pounds also has a cinema room that must be the best in the area. This room was bigger than the aforementioned Richer Sounds shop.

A couple of miles further on, I paid my first visit to Albany Radio in Enfield. This well fortified shop has Euronics well to the fore as you would expect – the owner is the chairman of CI. A Bosch poster said: “This product is sold by us as an agent on behalf of Euronics.” I do wonder what customers make of that wording?

Although the shop did sell TV products, the vast majority of the space was devoted to white goods. I should also say there wasn’t much free floor space at all, as almost everywhere was filled with appliances, including many large farmhouse-style cookers.

THE MAIN REASON I went to London was to attend a special Retra event. Retra was celebrating its 70th anniversary and had kindly invited former presidents, such as myself, to attend a special dinner.

I was surprised to meet 15 former presidents and even more surprised to find I was the oldest surviving one. Most of the others had retired or were no longer trading. I am like Stanley Kalms, I intend to go on and on.

Bryan Lovewell, Mike Floodgate, Jan Bray and Andrew O’Gorman are to be congratulated on organising this event. We traders sometimes forget all the things our trade association does on our behalf. Where would we be without Retra to represent us?

And finally, as Dixons shops hardly ever fare well in ERT’s Take A Town feature, I am pleased to end this good-news-only Knightline by reporting that I liked the shop at Luton Airport. A salesman called Asid was doing a great job of greeting and selling to customers.