First retail ‘name’ to pop off 2018

[vikingaero]

I quite like Argos now. Their range is a lot better since they upgraded their systems. In the past you would stock check and it would say 45 in stock. Now it says 2 or 3. When one of those 2 or 3 are sold, another is despatched overnight to the store. They have much tighter control over inventory which can only help with costs and survival.

[SydneyBridge]

There is obviously not much room to store many products in a SainsburysArgos so they nèed a big Argos fairly close by.
There is an argos in my town centre but Sainsbury ten mins closer and free parking

[Lemming Train]

Argos of course also handle all Ebay's Click & Collect purchases too, although I've no idea how they make money from providing that service as there is no charge to the Ebay seller nor the purchaser.

[Zad]

Presumably they profit from the "well I was there anyway" effect, of people buying random things that they may otherwise have bought elsewhere?

[talksthetorque]

Zad said:

Presumably they profit from the "well I was there anyway" effect, of people buying random things that they may otherwise have bought elsewhere?

Or they get the money that would have been spent on ‘free’ postage.

[Uggers]

jsc15 said:

Uggers said:

.....But there is a very large and affluent pensioner population here in Ayr.

If you know any can you get them to spend money into the town centre of Ayr, as everytime I go there I get more depressed at the offerings, especially the cost of the underground carpark, where they charge even on a Sunday. It's starting to make Kilmarnock attractive

Not much between the 2 towns anymore.

The council do seem to be intent on killing the city centre. Looking at the eye watering rents and rates for all the empty shops I'm not suprised no one is enthused to setup business there.

There are large historic buildings going to rack and ruin in the city centre and yet they are spunking millions on a large out of town council HQ. So that's 100's of workers no longer popping out of the office to get lunch/shopping on their lunch hour.

No big picture thinking, just the bottom line.

[Seventy]

House of Fraser’s proposed rescue seems to have fallen through as the Chinese owners of Hamley’s have been unable to raise the funds through the issue of new shares.
I wonder if the Ashley deal rumours will now come to the fore? He owns a significant percentage of both H of F and Debenhams.

[SydneyBridge]

Doesn't he own the max that he can own without having to put in a formal takeover bid.

He is a cock, they will probably all become Sports Direct shops
And yes, he is a rich successful cock...

[Robertj21a]

Regrettably, I doubt that many will mourn the passing of House of Fraser on the High Street. A great shame for the staff, and for increasingly empty town centres, but H of F is from a different generation.

[V8 Fettler]

Uggers said:

jsc15 said:

Uggers said:

.....But there is a very large and affluent pensioner population here in Ayr.

If you know any can you get them to spend money into the town centre of Ayr, as everytime I go there I get more depressed at the offerings, especially the cost of the underground carpark, where they charge even on a Sunday. It's starting to make Kilmarnock attractive

Not much between the 2 towns anymore.

The council do seem to be intent on killing the city centre. Looking at the eye watering rents and rates for all the empty shops I'm not suprised no one is enthused to setup business there.

There are large historic buildings going to rack and ruin in the city centre and yet they are spunking millions on a large out of town council HQ. So that's 100's of workers no longer popping out of the office to get lunch/shopping on their lunch hour.

No big picture thinking, just the bottom line.

Are there any local caaaancils taking positive steps to entice wealthy shoppers to town centres?
Easy driving and free parking would be a good start.

[skwdenyer]

Seventy said:

House of Fraser’s proposed rescue seems to have fallen through as the Chinese owners of Hamley’s have been unable to raise the funds through the issue of new shares.
I wonder if the Ashley deal rumours will now come to the fore? He owns a significant percentage of both H of F and Debenhams.

The Chinese co had to give its own profits warning and watch its shares drop 70% on the HKSE. That put paid to the idea of placing a few new shares to raise a bit of pin money for HoF.

What is remarkable to me about HoF (and other department stores, in fairness) is the degree to which they apparently *haven't* experimented. Their prime asset has been their footprint in towns and cities, yet there's been little apparent appetite to do anything other than "more of the same" when it comes to attracting customers.

HoF at least did try to leverage their brand by offering their website as a "platform" (much of the stock on there is owned by the brands, not HoF, aping the Amazon model. They didn't, however, address quite *why* people would choose to shop there...

[SydneyBridge]

John Lewis seem to be trying different things in their stores to make best use of space

They also seem to have a good website and the ordering process is efficient

[Seventy]

What will happen to these large high street shops if/when they go?
How many are owned by the businesses that use them? Many must be in large pension fund holders portfolios.
It would seem as though the model didn’t work for many and conversion to smaller shops/units would be very expensive. Not my area of expertise but I find it very interesting being a shop owner in a small town - selling my own goods.

[So]

SydneyBridge said:

They also seem to have a good website and the ordering process is efficient

I am having loads of trouble with ordering some curtains from them. The telephone base staff appear to be utter cretins.

[Moonhawk]

SydneyBridge said:

They also seem to have a good website and the ordering process is efficient

My recent experience begs to differ. We needed a new fridge freezer as ours died. In stock on the website so I ordered it and paid. Payment taken almost immediately off my card - website says delivery within 10 days.

On the morning of day 9 (a saturday) we get a phone call to say the fridge freezer is actually out of stock and has been discontinued - so they won't be able to supply it. Can't offer a suitable replacement - nothing they can do except refund the payment.....oops sorry!

Top tip John Lewis. How about only advertising/selling stuff on your website you know you can actually supply.

Spent most of Saturday looking for an alternative. Ended up getting one from Currys - fridge was delivered within 3 days.

Edited by Moonhawk on Wednesday 1st August 21:05

[Vanden Saab]

John Lewis have the massive advantage of offering click and collect at Waitrose, rather than having to be in to accept delivery or driving the 20 miles to the nearest John Lewis store. I know this to my cost as Mrs VS regularly picks up parcels from them when we do our weekly shop...

[joestifff]

Moonhawk said:

SydneyBridge said:

They also seem to have a good website and the ordering process is efficient

My recent experience begs to differ. We needed a new fridge freezer as ours died. In stock on the website so I ordered it and paid. Payment taken almost immediately off my card - website says delivery within 10 days.

On the morning of day 9 (a saturday) we get a phone call to say the fridge freezer is actually out of stock and has been discontinued - so they won't be able to supply it. Can't offer a suitable replacement - nothing they can do except refund the payment.....oops sorry!

Top tip John Lewis. How about only advertising/selling stuff on your website you know you can actually supply.

Spent most of Saturday looking for an alternative. Ended up getting one from Currys - fridge was delivered within 3 days.

Edited by Moonhawk on Wednesday 1st August 21:05

10 days. That’s ridiculous.

Should have tried AO.com I ordered a replacement a few months ago on a Saturday at 3pm. The fridge freezer was on my doorstep on the Sunday at 8:30 in the morning. Mental.

[Vaud]

I'm often reminded of this quote:

Amazon did not kill the retail industry. They did it to themselves with bad customer service.
Netflix did not kill Blockbuster. They did it to themselves with ridiculous late fees.
Uber did not kill the taxi business. They did it to themselves with limited the number of taxis and fare control.
Apple did not kill the music industry. They did it to themselves by forcing people to buy full-length albums.
Airbnb did not kill the hotel industry. They did it to themselves with limited availability and pricing options.
Technology by itself is not the real disruptor.
Being non-customer centric is the biggest threat to any business.

In HoF's case - the last time I went in a store it was messy, mix of brands, underground and dark (for menswear) and the staff were curt and unhelpful...

[So]

Vaud said:

I'm often reminded of this quote:

Amazon did not kill the retail industry. They did it to themselves with bad customer service.
Netflix did not kill Blockbuster. They did it to themselves with ridiculous late fees.
Uber did not kill the taxi business. They did it to themselves with limited the number of taxis and fare control.
Apple did not kill the music industry. They did it to themselves by forcing people to buy full-length albums.
Airbnb did not kill the hotel industry. They did it to themselves with limited availability and pricing options.
Technology by itself is not the real disruptor.
Being non-customer centric is the biggest threat to any business.

It's a daft quote.

[iwantagta]

So said:

It's a daft quote.