First retail ‘name’ to pop off 2018

[eltawater]

Staples uk sold their retail stores a few years back to private equity where they've been rebranded Office Outlet.

[Henners]

eltawater said:

Staples uk sold their retail stores a few years back to private equity where they've been rebranded Office Outlet.

And are VERY expensive!

[hyphen]

Billionaire toy company boss, the ones behind the Bratz toys, has made an offer for Toys r us, but only US and Canada.

He tried to do a crowd fundraising for it, which failed, but went ahead with own cash anyway...

[DSLiverpool]

[quote=skwdenyer]


When everything "goes right" apparel can be profitable.quote]

We're working with a mid size brand and their main driver is reducing returns as a major influence on the net net.
We've set up return analysis and made the buyer state exactly why it's being returned (excepting an order with 2 sizes ordered as that's obvious)
It's a real tightrope but get it right and it's literally a money machine.

[skwdenyer]

DSLiverpool said:

skwdenyer said:

When everything "goes right" apparel can be profitable.[quote]

We're working with a mid size brand and their main driver is reducing returns as a major influence on the net net.
We've set up return analysis and made the buyer state exactly why it's being returned (excepting an order with 2 sizes ordered as that's obvious)
It's a real tightrope but get it right and it's literally a money machine.

Interesting. I'm right now working on a returns process. I remember being laughed at in meetings 3/4 years ago when I said we had to sort returns - you can't they said. Hmm.

They why question is pretty standard. But sometimes there are lots of variables that one doesn't understand intuitively.

For instance, try randomising the order of the options for that question on the form (online or offline). You may find that your returns analysis is suddenly turned on its head...

There's a *lot* of subtlety in that area. Fit can be a big thing - are you using any of the commercial fit tools?

The other trade-off is returns process ease / hurdle vs repeat business. It is possible sometimes to get returns down, but only at expense of loyalty

Anyhow, let's not derail the thread with too much returns process geekery!

Edited by skwdenyer on Monday 16th April 23:42

[ymwoods]

Henners said:

And are VERY expensive!

And they are, thought I would pop in for some folders and general office supplies about a month ago. Was very quiet inside and when I saw the prices I knew why. I walked around a bit and then walked out empty handed and went to Tesco instead, paid pennies instead of pounds for it.

[Seventy]

Poundland may be closing a third of their stores and entering into a CVA.
Owned by the same company that owns Prezzo now, South African I believe.

[hyphen]

Seventy said:

Poundland may be closing a third of their stores and entering into a CVA.
Owned by the same company that owns Prezzo now, South African I believe.

That is Poundworld, not Poundland.

Although I don't know how well the latter is doing either, Poundland are trying to move as much of their store to £3-£20 products as possible, including a lot of clothing.

[Seventy]

hyphen said:

That is Poundworld, not Poundland.

Although I don't know how well the latter is doing either, Poundland are trying to move as much of their store to £3-£20 products as possible, including a lot of clothing.

Oops! Shows how we take some things for granted - I did read it as Poundworld but wrote it as Poundland!

[anonymous-user]

hyphen said:

Seventy said:

Poundland may be closing a third of their stores and entering into a CVA.
Owned by the same company that owns Prezzo now, South African I believe.

That is Poundworld, not Poundland.

Although I don't know how well the latter is doing either, Poundland are trying to move as much of their store to £3-£20 products as possible, including a lot of clothing.

Inflation is clearly slowly eroding Poundland's business so they are having to sell other products for more than a pound. The problem is, most supermarkets are selling the same sweets and chocolate for a pound so there is less and less reason for going there.

The business model of the company is changing and I think this will eventually be a big problem for them. Nobody is interested in the clothing, and there are fewer and fewer things that are actually worth a pound anymore.

Aside from the LED lightbulbs, I rarely buy anything from Poundland anymore.

[anonymous-user]

Poundworld was the one featured prominently in the pound shop wars programmes of around 7 years ago

[hyphen]

Carpetright ceo was on the Today programme, mentioned that their premises have 25 year leases, with upward only reviews, and were signed in 1995 and that was hampering them.

Overall he blamed their woes on consumer spending confidence rather than their own inability to run themselves, people not spending he says and he doesn't know when they will return to spending. Mentioned that average customer spend is £400.

[Henners]

hyphen said:

Carpetright ceo was on the Today programme, mentioned that their premises have 25 year leases, with upward only reviews, and were signed in 1995 and that was hampering them.

Overall he blamed their woes on consumer spending confidence rather than their own inability to run themselves, people not spending he says and he doesn't know when they will return to spending. Mentioned that average customer spend is £400.

Doesn’t help they they’re running a promo, and have been for a while:

Review our service and be in to win £500 of retail vouchers or the value of your order. Some the people who had opted for the value of the order were in the £1-2.5k range.

Quite a lot of winners listed in the store I visited.

[Alpinestars]

Retail GDP down 0.5%.

[kingston12]

hyphen said:

Carpetright ceo was on the Today programme, mentioned that their premises have 25 year leases, with upward only reviews, and were signed in 1995 and that was hampering them.

Overall he blamed their woes on consumer spending confidence rather than their own inability to run themselves, people not spending he says and he doesn't know when they will return to spending. Mentioned that average customer spend is £400.

So he is basically asking everyone to stick with him until 2020 when he can renegotiate the leases.

I guess the success of that (assuming they can last that long) will depend on how much trouble the landlords are in by that time. Commercial property in the current environment looks even more over-valued than residential. It will have to come down eventually, but who knows whether that will be within the next two years.

[Greg_D]

kingston12 said:

Commercial property in the current environment looks even more over-valued than residential. It will have to come down eventually, but who knows whether that will be within the next two years.

i have to take issue with that a little bit, commercial property is cheap by any measure for what you get. both new and pre-used. per square foot it is buttons compared to resi.

the fact that a number of business models cannot support it is a different issue.

[kingston12]

Greg_D said:

kingston12 said:

Commercial property in the current environment looks even more over-valued than residential. It will have to come down eventually, but who knows whether that will be within the next two years.

i have to take issue with that a little bit, commercial property is cheap by any measure for what you get. both new and pre-used. per square foot it is buttons compared to resi.

the fact that a number of business models cannot support it is a different issue.

Indeed, that's what I meant by the current environment comment. Commercial property might be cheap per se, but if there are a decreasing number of businesses that can afford to operate at those costs then it is still too expensive for the current market.

If Carpetright and Homebase go bust, will there be other businesses ready to step into all of those units?

[number2]

They'll probably look to get out of a few stores to reduce overheads, as much as renegotiate rents/incentives on new leases.

Re. Kingston - yes, who will fill the units...?

[Robertj21a]

How many years did it take to fill all those Woolworths units ? - and that was well before any recent problems (indeed, are any still vacant ?)

There's plenty of those big BHS stores still empty.

[Ali Chappussy]

hyphen said:

Overall he blamed their woes on consumer spending confidence rather than their own inability to run themselves, people not spending he says and he doesn't know when they will return to spending. Mentioned that average customer spend is £400.

All of my dealings with that company are bad experiences. They were very good at take you money but the problems occur when the fitter doesn't come at the appointment time or if at all.