2019 Retailers in trouble thread

[jakesmith]

bloomen said:

jakesmith said:

If you saw some of the brazen theft that takes place it would blow your mind.

It doesn't have to be out on the shelves. There should be a dedicated sales section with all the stuff ready to go behind a counter where you go after looking at the display bit. Most of the time I don't need anything displayed to me.

Cut the goons strolling around by 50 or more per cent and set them to actual work.

Too many laptops & TVs and iPads near the door
Also you can't cut their staff any more! They are cut to the bone. Large stores might onliy have 2-3 people on the shop floor now. They are shortly moving to sharing a manager between 2-4 stores too that's not going to help!

[kiethton]

My predictions:

Debenhams
Claire’s Accessories
Quiz
Harvey’s
Tepi Carpets

[Muzzer79]

jayymannon said:

Superdry is my tip.

They seem to be one of those brands that became a fad and got very popular very quickly. Every second person seemed to be wearing some kind of Superdry clothing.

It may just be my perception (or the fact that I'm getting older) but the fad seems to have worn off and their stores always look quiet. It feels as though I rarely see people wearing Superdry anymore.

Superdry are the ‘Bench’ of recent years.

First, it was OK, then it saturated everywhere and now it’s in the realm of the chav

They have too many retail stores to survive; when it goes fully out of fashion, it’ll die and the brand will end up in Sports Direct outlets.

[skwdenyer]

Raygun said:

I never understood how a council would rather have an empty shop and no rates coming in rather than a shop open with reduce rates.

That’s perhaps because you’ve never understood how business rates work? The money didn’t belong to the Council.

[DoctorX]

kev1974 said:

Argos is great. I only know about London because that's where I live, so they may be doing it in other areas of the country as well, but as well as the "click and collect next day" thing, they've had the sense to arrange their daily truck schedules to include early afternoon deliveries to many stores, which if you get your order in in the morning, allows them to offer "click and collect *today* from 4pm" on many products. I certainly find it a lot easier to go and pick something up at my convenience than having to wait in all day for Amazon who are totally unpredictable what time they'll show (and sometimes get to 8pm and give up until the next day anyway).

Missus bought some hair straighteners from Argos. Nearly a year later they broke so she took them back. Apologised they weren’t in stock and arranged an identical replacement. Also, gave her a £25 voucher as they’d gone down in price since bought. Knock on the door at 7.30 that night and there was the replacement. This was a Sunday. Very impressed indeed. Try that in Currys.

[Fittster]

Fat Face. Are there really enough middle aged dads buying hoodies for them to make it?

[Notreallymeeither]

skwdenyer said:

Raygun said:

I never understood how a council would rather have an empty shop and no rates coming in rather than a shop open with reduce rates.

That’s perhaps because you’ve never understood how business rates work? The money didn’t belong to the Council.

Most high street retail stores are leasehold, and if the tenant (the retailer) leaves, then the freeholder has to pay the rates (irrespective of whether there is an occupier or not).

The freeholder does get a period of not having to pay the rates, but after that they have to pay 100% of the rates.

Empty shop does not equal no business rates.

[Red 4]

w00tman said:

I had the.. pleasure.. of taking the wife and kids to Cheshire Oakes yesterday (think: Northern Bicester Village) and it took us 40 minutes to get a parking space. Heaving was not the word. But, certain stores more than others were feeling the pinch - GAP was practically empty, Next much the same. M&S had half a dozen men but lots of older women, Ralph Lauren was heaving.

It was, as a casual observer, interesting to see what was flying off the shelves - even some of the 50+% off couldn't get people into certain stores.

Next time you go to Cheshire Oaks have a look to see how many "shoppers" are carrying bags and have actually bought something.

Many treat it as a cheap day out and are the shopping world equivalent of tyre kickers.

God knows what they get out of it.

Cheshire Oaks is OK if you want a coat (there are lots of fashionable outdoors type stores) and the New Balance store is good - but everything else is a bit meh.

It used to be a lot better.

The Adidas shop appears to cater for Eastern Europeans with a penchant for 1980s shell suits.

Edited by Red 4 on Sunday 30th December 01:16

[garagewidow]

Fittster said:

Fat Face. Are there really enough middle aged dads buying hoodies for them to make it?

good call.

I have some items of theirs which is 25+yrs old now and it is good quality stuff,heavy duty material made to last.

I go in there now as a matter of routine and I see thin st material items that look the same as anything in riverisland or gap.

It went tits up when they sold out in the 90's (I think).

[ian in lancs]

WHS gets my vote; awful place

[Challo]

kiethton said:

My predictions:

Debenhams
Claire’s Accessories
Quiz
Harvey’s
Tepi Carpets

Tepi carpets seem to be opening up branches near me.

[Vanden Saab]

Fittster said:

Fat Face. Are there really enough middle aged dads buying hoodies for them to make it?

You are joking...Mrs VS spent a fortune in Fatface after xmas and the shop was rammed with people buying multiple items so much so it took her 15 minutes to pay. Add to that their extensive online offering with free delivery and returns to the shop and they are rock solid IMHO.

[technodup]

PF62 said:

zarjaz1991 said:

Agreed. I liked Argos long before Sainsburys took them over, but the offering is even better now and seems capable of standing up in the modern 'era'.

It isn't there yet.

Their offering is good where they have moved their store into a Sainsburys. However my local Argos is an old 'stand alone' store so only open 9 to 5.30. That is a fat lot of good if you commute and have left before they open and are back after they close, so Amazon who have lockers open 24 hours nearby are the better offering.

I've got a Sainsbury's Local next to me, you can collect your Argos stuff from there up 7am-10pm. It's obviously not the biggest store so not sure if it's small items only but I see people doing it all the time.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

New Look
Monsoon

Wild cards, Hotel Chocolate, Cotswolds.

Finally one of the Poundland/Stretcher groups?

Perfume Shop?

The biggest has to be Debenhams however, I just can’t figure out what’s keeping it sustainable?

The only positive is it may mean if it went under Marks and Spencer’s may gain their footfall to see them through.

I can see a high street without M&S, New Look, Debenhams, House Of Fraser...

That will decimate most smaller towns/cities and then the change will have to come.

[foobies]

Notreallymeeither said:

Most high street retail stores are leasehold, and if the tenant (the retailer) leaves, then the freeholder has to pay the rates (irrespective of whether there is an occupier or not).

The freeholder does get a period of not having to pay the rates, but after that they have to pay 100% of the rates.

Empty shop does not equal no business rates.

This, in a nutshell. The freeholder gets three months of no business rates, then they have to pay them anyway even if the unit is empty.

[rscott]

The Perfume Shop are unlikely to collapse - they're part of AS Watson ( massive health and beauty group) who are owned by Hutchinson Holdings. Their 2016 revenue was $21b and profit of around $5.9b.

[foobies]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

New Look
Monsoon

Wild cards, Hotel Chocolate, Cotswolds.

Finally one of the Poundland/Stretcher groups?

Perfume Shop?

The biggest has to be Debenhams however, I just can’t figure out what’s keeping it sustainable?

The only positive is it may mean if it went under Marks and Spencer’s may gain their footfall to see them through.

I can see a high street without M&S, New Look, Debenhams, House Of Fraser...

That will decimate most smaller towns/cities and then the change will have to come.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Debenhams go pop in January.

In recent times they’ve made some shrewd moves in the beauty department, bringing in some exclusive brands and turfing out some of the less fashionable brands they carried. Sadly I don’t think this will be enough for them, and I think they’ll call it a day in Jan.

Aside from the popular beauty section, my local Debenhams is just a hodge podge of stuff you wouldn’t look twice at. Can’t remember the last time I went in there, and I definitely can’t remember the last time I bought anything in there.

[valiant]

ian in lancs said:

WHS gets my vote; awful place

Quite healthy by all accounts.

Can see them reducing their high street offering where they haven’t had a post office move in but the airport/train station units are goldmines.

[BeastieBoy73]

Wilkos may struggle in the future. They rebranded a few years ago in an attempt to go upmarket. This may have pushed customers away. Also, the arrival of B&M Bargains and inparticular, The Range who sell pretty much everything Wilkos do, but from convenient retail parks will have hit them hard.

Where I live (Nottingham) one of the shopping centres (Broad Marsh) is being redeveloped into a new shopping centre. The other shopping centre (Victoria) is about to lose House of Fraser and HMV. Not sure how they’re going to fill both shopping centres.

[Vaud]

bloomen said:

Anywhere specialised in physical music and film was always going to be 100% toast. That's a phase that's now over for better or worse.

I just looked around our house.We don't have a CD/DVD or Blueray player anymore (well there is one in the loft). None of my apple devices has one any more.