The death of the high street.

[PBDirector]

hyphen said:

You two swallows don't make a summer by yourselves.

If everyone started to buy everything online and sending stuff to work, it would be the same as EVs, the national grid couldn't cope with 100% electric, and neither could large employers with hundreds of small deliveries per day...

I have everything I buy apart from food delivered to my work. My wife has her stuff delivered to my work, too.

The company I work for / office I work in has two full time staff in the post room handling the multiple daily amazon deliveries for the staff on site.

So that’s at least four swallows.

[Carrot]

PBDirector said:

hyphen said:

You two swallows don't make a summer by yourselves.

If everyone started to buy everything online and sending stuff to work, it would be the same as EVs, the national grid couldn't cope with 100% electric, and neither could large employers with hundreds of small deliveries per day...

I have everything I buy apart from food delivered to my work. My wife has her stuff delivered to my work, too.

The company I work for / office I work in has two full time staff in the post room handling the multiple daily amazon deliveries for the staff on site.

So that’s at least four swallows.

I have an EV as well, so I'm very clearly part of the problem : hehe:

[Uggers]

StevieBee said:

Firms that are owned privately tend to recognise that some years are better than others, but they crack on regardless.

So my theory is that - whilst accepting retail has changed considerably - the influence of venture capitalists have raised expectations to unachievable levels which is painting and creating a picture of high street woe to be greater than it might otherwise be.

As I say, just a working theory.

I think there's some validity in your theory. As soon as profits dip there is a clamour to restructure and make lay offs to maintain margins.
Then you find these shops have minimal staff numbers on the shop floor and limited amounts of stock, it compounds the problem for the next year.

I was reading a thread a while back about how the car retail industry was in 'crisis' and needed to do something to improve sales. When looking deeper into the figures, it was the 3rd best year for sales in the last 15.

To be seen to not be growing year on year constantly is seen as a poor performance.

Private shop owners I imagine know it cannot be always this way, so don't immediately cull experienced staff or cut stock.

[snuffy]

barker22 said:

Amazon has the online driver tracking nowadays that tells you how far away the driver is. DPD does this brilliantly.

I've just had a new over delivered by AO (just, as it 5 minutes). Text at 7 this morning with a 2 hour slot (07:45 to 09:45), then it changed to 08:30 to 09:30 and finally to 8:10 to 08:40. 20 minutes ago they rang and said we will be 20 minutes. 20 minutes later they arrived. That is very good I must say.

[anonymous-user]

hyphen said:

Not high street but is Costco struggling?

As had junk mail through the post offering membership. Never had any junk mail from then before.

I hope not, its the only shop I enjoy shopping at. Judging by how busy the local one is and the trolleys piled high I can't see them struggling.

[eltawater]

Uggers said:

StevieBee said:

Firms that are owned privately tend to recognise that some years are better than others, but they crack on regardless.

So my theory is that - whilst accepting retail has changed considerably - the influence of venture capitalists have raised expectations to unachievable levels which is painting and creating a picture of high street woe to be greater than it might otherwise be.

As I say, just a working theory.

I think there's some validity in your theory. As soon as profits dip there is a clamour to restructure and make lay offs to maintain margins.
Then you find these shops have minimal staff numbers on the shop floor and limited amounts of stock, it compounds the problem for the next year.

I was reading a thread a while back about how the car retail industry was in 'crisis' and needed to do something to improve sales. When looking deeper into the figures, it was the 3rd best year for sales in the last 15.

To be seen to not be growing year on year constantly is seen as a poor performance.

Private shop owners I imagine know it cannot be always this way, so don't immediately cull experienced staff or cut stock.

Is it not the case though that private owners / directors have several avenues to extract income from a shop e.g. as a wage in contrast to a VC / Shareholder who typically sees value returned via a dividend or shareprice increase? So although the shop owner and employees may still be getting paid when profits are down, a shareholder may not see a dividend and therefore gains no earnings from the business this financial year?

[Cold]

A whole thread dedicated to how reliable and dependable deliveries can be: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[edh]

eltawater said:

Is it not the case though that private owners / directors have several avenues to extract income from a shop e.g. as a wage in contrast to a VC / Shareholder who typically sees value returned via a dividend or shareprice increase? So although the shop owner and employees may still be getting paid when profits are down, a shareholder may not see a dividend and therefore gains no earnings from the business this financial year?

VC owners have plenty or ways to extract money that don't rely on profits / dividends - including loading up on debt, hiving off assets into separate companies and charging fees.

[walm]

Uggers said:

I think there's some validity in your theory. As soon as profits dip there is a clamour to restructure and make lay offs to maintain margins.
Then you find these shops have minimal staff numbers on the shop floor and limited amounts of stock, it compounds the problem for the next year.

I was reading a thread a while back about how the car retail industry was in 'crisis' and needed to do something to improve sales. When looking deeper into the figures, it was the 3rd best year for sales in the last 15.

To be seen to not be growing year on year constantly is seen as a poor performance.

Private shop owners I imagine know it cannot be always this way, so don't immediately cull experienced staff or cut stock.

Actually VC and PE owners tend to be in for the long haul and have more patience.
It's public companies who have the stock traded in real time who face the most short-term pressure.
If you show a declining top-line or bottom-line, that dramatically impacts the multiple investors are prepared to pay for the current profits (since the share price at least in theory reflects the expectations of FUTURE profits).

So you have a compounding effect: the profit drops and the multiple paid on that profit also drops leading to a precipitous move in the stock price.

E.g. I can imagine paying 15-20x earnings for a retailer growing the number of stores and growing LFL within existing stores but no one wants to pay more than 10x for a declining retailer. (Just rough numbers obvs.)

So companies under daily scrutiny will slash costs when the topline weakens since that can still show profit growth and keep the stock artificially inflated temporarily.
Aaaand then collapse....

[anonymous-user]

Shoe Zone plc interims today

Operational Highlights


· Rent on renewals fell on average by 18.5%, equivalent to a full year saving of £334k

· Rent as a percentage of turnover remained static at 11.9% (2018 H1: 12.0%)

· Operating from 26 Big Box locations at period end contributing £5.5m revenue in H1 and £0.4m of cash contribution

· Will be operating from 33 Big Box stores at end of May, on track to meet targeted 45 by the end of 2019

· Trials initiated for new Hybrid store format

· Digital sales increased by 4.9% to £5.0m (2018 H1: £4.8m) achieving profit contribution of £1.5m (2018 H1: £1.2m)

[hyphen]

I see Ted Baker is diversifying- opening up a chain of male grooming shops to balance the online fashion and department store concession decline.

[classicaholic]

Jamie Olivers just gone tits up, funny that as its always been busy when I have been in.

[egor110]

classicaholic said:

Jamie Olivers just gone tits up, funny that as its always been busy when I have been in.

We visited his place in watergate bay and I’m not sure what the fuss is ?

I’ve always found the small tatty Italians make the best food, London , Cardiff, Bristol avoid the big places and go to the small ones .

[hyphen]

Never been in one.

[saaby93]

classicaholic said:

Jamie Olivers just gone tits up, funny that as its always been busy when I have been in.

-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48352026
Did anyone go there?

[Helicopter123]

saaby93 said:

classicaholic said:

Jamie Olivers just gone tits up, funny that as its always been busy when I have been in.

-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48352026
Did anyone go there?

Suspect business rates and rent have killed this one.

[hyphen]

"grab a bit of this, grab a bit of that, chuck it in and lovely jubbley"

This image was probably fine on TV, but not for diners

He should have gone more down market.

[Helicopter123]

hyphen said:

"grab a bit of this, grab a bit of that, chuck it in and lovely jubbley"

This image was probably fine on TV, but not for diners

He should have gone more down market.

He was mid market.

I think a gap exists for a lower-end Italian, to compete with the burger and chicken chains.

The mid market is getting thumped at the moment.

[amusingduck]

Helicopter123 said:

saaby93 said:

classicaholic said:

Jamie Olivers just gone tits up, funny that as its always been busy when I have been in.

-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48352026
Did anyone go there?

Suspect business rates and rent have killed this one.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/06/jamie-oliver-close-restaurants-brexit-jamies-italian-barbecoa

This article mentions Brexit, so you can resume normal service now and ascribe it to Brexit. We all know you're itching to do so

[anonymous-user]

Helicopter123 said:

saaby93 said:

classicaholic said:

Jamie Olivers just gone tits up, funny that as its always been busy when I have been in.

-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48352026
Did anyone go there?

Suspect business rates and rent have killed this one.

You’d suspect wrong