2021 - Retailer woe & retail sector chat

[Castrol for a knave]

Vickers_VC10 said:

eldar said:

Goodbye, Debenhams on the high street.

End of an era for Debenhams as final shops set to close https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56993816

No Biggie.

Apart from the hole in many pension fund portfolios, the clear lack of corporate governance, unpunished, as a once healthy business was leveraged with debt and dubious sale and leasebacks. add in the loss of business rates, the loss of visual and social amenity when a major retailer closes.

[hyphen]

Castrol for a knave said:

Vickers_VC10 said:

eldar said:

Goodbye, Debenhams on the high street.

End of an era for Debenhams as final shops set to close https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56993816

No Biggie.

Apart from the hole in many pension fund portfolios, the clear lack of corporate governance, unpunished, as a once healthy business was leveraged with debt and dubious sale and leasebacks. add in the loss of business rates, the loss of visual and social amenity when a major retailer closes.

You forgot the jobs, the most important bit!

[Castrol for a knave]

hyphen said:

Castrol for a knave said:

Vickers_VC10 said:

eldar said:

Goodbye, Debenhams on the high street.

End of an era for Debenhams as final shops set to close https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56993816

No Biggie.

Apart from the hole in many pension fund portfolios, the clear lack of corporate governance, unpunished, as a once healthy business was leveraged with debt and dubious sale and leasebacks. add in the loss of business rates, the loss of visual and social amenity when a major retailer closes.

You forgot the jobs, the most important bit!

Nope, that was mentioned by another poster - but I agree, it is the most important. It will a lot of households hard.

[tescorank]

Maybe the debenhams staff could do some waiting work, most are used to being on their feet all day.

[Vasco]

tescorank said:

Maybe the debenhams staff could do some waiting work, most are used to being on their feet all day.

That's not such a silly idea. It wouldn't suit the Mrs Slocombe's of the world, or those who won't work evenings etc, but it could well suit many others.

[sherman]

tescorank said:

Maybe the debenhams staff could do some waiting work, most are used to being on their feet all day.

Plenty of hospitality work. Alot of the EU nationals went home for lockdown and havent come back.

[SydneyBridge]

Sure wages would not be much different, plus tips

[ChocolateFrog]

KTF said:

Jazoli said:

I work for a medium sized hotel (70 ish rooms) and we cannot get staff at all, a lot of the live-in staff who have been furloughed are leaving now, several key managers/supervisors have left to take jobs in other sectors and we are at 95% occupancy from the day we re-open, we have 70 non-exclusive weddings between 18th May and 30th October, its going to be a complete clusterfk, I'm glad I'm not on the F&B or customer facing side of the business but I really can't see how we are going to be able to operate with any level of service, I suspect other staff will leave as the workload is going to be huge, its going to be a challenging year.

I know a few people who work in pubs and are saying similar things about how hard it is to get staff at the moment.

If you believe the Brexiteers spiel that these 'foreigners' were coming over here and stealing 'our' jobs, then there should be no shortage of British unemployed people queuing up to replace them.

How strange that there isn't given all the articles about how hard it is for the under 25s to find work at the moment... Its almost like they didn't want to do it in the first place.

Those whinging about not being able to get staff will undoubtedly be offering minimum wage or very near.

Funny old thing that my industry isn't struggling to recruit at all.

[neutral 3]

I walked past a Debenhams that I’ve shopped in for years today. Surprised to see it open, so I went in to take a look @ what was left.
Very very sad wandering around a store that was once so busy but is now a shambles.
Feel very sorry for all of the staff who have lost their jobs.
Most of the shoes and clothes were either small or XXL, but I found a shirt that was marked @ £15 and a jacket that was £75.
Changing rooms were shut and a guy moving stock around said that all of the staff there were sent in by the administrators ( although I’m sure I recognised one Debenhams staff member under her mask ) and that due to Covid and lack of staff, there was no where to try anything on and all purchases were Non refundable !
Went to pay for the shirt and the lady behind the counter said £8, so I shot back to the rail and grabbed the £75 quid jacket and was stunned when they said £22.50 !

[sherman]

neutral 3 said:

I walked past a Debenhams that I’ve shopped in for years today. Surprised to see it open, so I went in to take a look @ what was left.
Very very sad wandering around a store that was once so busy but is now a shambles.
Feel very sorry for all of the staff who have lost their jobs.
Most of the shoes and clothes were either small or XXL, but I found a shirt that was marked @ £15 and a jacket that was £75.
Changing rooms were shut and a guy moving stock around said that all of the staff there were sent in by the administrators ( although I’m sure I recognised one Debenhams staff member under her mask ) and that due to Covid and lack of staff, there was no where to try anything on and all purchases were Non refundable !
Went to pay for the shirt and the lady behind the counter said £8, so I shot back to the rail and grabbed the £75 quid jacket and was stunned when they said £22.50 !

Give them a tenner and you could probably have the lightbulbs this week.

[anonymoususer]

sherman said:

neutral 3 said:

I walked past a Debenhams that I’ve shopped in for years today. Surprised to see it open, so I went in to take a look @ what was left.
Very very sad wandering around a store that was once so busy but is now a shambles.
Feel very sorry for all of the staff who have lost their jobs.
Most of the shoes and clothes were either small or XXL, but I found a shirt that was marked @ £15 and a jacket that was £75.
Changing rooms were shut and a guy moving stock around said that all of the staff there were sent in by the administrators ( although I’m sure I recognised one Debenhams staff member under her mask ) and that due to Covid and lack of staff, there was no where to try anything on and all purchases were Non refundable !
Went to pay for the shirt and the lady behind the counter said £8, so I shot back to the rail and grabbed the £75 quid jacket and was stunned when they said £22.50 !

Give them a tenner and you could probably have the lightbulbs this week.

Cruel. But I remember when Comet went under and you could buy anything.

[Blib]

Is this process also going on elsewhere in the World? Or, have some countries found a "solution"?

[Electro1980]

KTF said:

Jazoli said:

I work for a medium sized hotel (70 ish rooms) and we cannot get staff at all, a lot of the live-in staff who have been furloughed are leaving now, several key managers/supervisors have left to take jobs in other sectors and we are at 95% occupancy from the day we re-open, we have 70 non-exclusive weddings between 18th May and 30th October, its going to be a complete clusterfk, I'm glad I'm not on the F&B or customer facing side of the business but I really can't see how we are going to be able to operate with any level of service, I suspect other staff will leave as the workload is going to be huge, its going to be a challenging year.

I know a few people who work in pubs and are saying similar things about how hard it is to get staff at the moment.

If you believe the Brexiteers spiel that these 'foreigners' were coming over here and stealing 'our' jobs, then there should be no shortage of British unemployed people queuing up to replace them.

How strange that there isn't given all the articles about how hard it is for the under 25s to find work at the moment... Its almost like they didn't want to do it in the first place*.

• At minimum wage, on zero hours contracts.

I bet if the hospitality industry offered better wages, conditions and the offer of long term employment then things would be different.

Edited by Electro1980 on Friday 7th May 07:21

[vaud]

Electro1980 said:

• At minimum wage, on zero hours contracts.

Not all.

Our local restaurants are advertising for full time roles (cooking and front of house) and above min wage, but it is a relatively affluent area.

[Jazoli]

ChocolateFrog said:

Those whinging about not being able to get staff will undoubtedly be offering minimum wage or very near.

Funny old thing that my industry isn't struggling to recruit at all.

You are wrong in that respect, we pay well above minimum wage and offer free food and accommodation, an 'average' waiter should earn £22k/yr with zero living costs, when you take that into account they actually have a lot more 'disposable' income than the senior management do.

[menousername]

Problem is we are assuming anyone can rock up and get those jobs

Firstly, its human nature that despite how much they say they need hospitality staff, there will be a manager type person going through CVs looking for people with the exact same experience. The idea of training people or people being capable of being retrained is usually lost in the recruitment process unfortunately.

Secondly, my experience of Debenhams was a mixture of young female staff / student type staff and then older women working the beauty counters. if you are a 50+ y/o former Debenhams worker, how likely are you to be getting the waitress job at a bar / restaurant, even if you are up to the long late evenings on your feet. Exceptions exist of course, but there is still a tendency for hospitality recruitment to hunt out young 18-25 type people. It may not be admitted or even conscious, but a fair chunk will gravitate towards recruiting dolly birds not 50+ women.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

Why work in catering a d hospitality?

I doubt the hours are 39hrs a week and you get any weekends off?

[menousername]

anonymoususer said:

Cruel. But I remember when Comet went under and you could buy anything.

Not sure if it was a joke but when Debs first hit trouble and started selling out and closing down entire floors a member of staff said we could buy the mannequins. Not sure what it was about my appearance that made her think I would be in the market for a mannequin!

[vaud]

Hugo Stiglitz said:

Why work in catering a d hospitality?

I doubt the hours are 39hrs a week and you get any weekends off?

Some people like it but you are right - the hours are antisocial and rewards low. Plus you have to work with the general public.

[55north1west]

Jazoli said:

ChocolateFrog said:

Those whinging about not being able to get staff will undoubtedly be offering minimum wage or very near.

Funny old thing that my industry isn't struggling to recruit at all.

You are wrong in that respect, we pay well above minimum wage and offer free food and accommodation, an 'average' waiter should earn £22k/yr with zero living costs, when you take that into account they actually have a lot more 'disposable' income than the senior management do.

Maybe they don’t fancy a hard shift wearing a face covering. A lot of young people have moved over to the construction industry, good old fashioned working, plenty of fresh air

Edited by 55north1west on Friday 7th May 07:50