2020 Retailers in trouble thread

[hyphen]

jakesmith said:

We live near Guildford but in 6 years I don’t think we’ve driven there once. It’s a nice town with nice shops but parking and traffic are horrendous. Surely park and ride is the answer? There’s space around it surely?

I go into Guilford every so often. Parking is fine- a few multi storey car parks, street parking, waitrose car park etc

Never had issues with traffic anymore than other similar towns, would be surprised if it needed park and ride, that's for large tourist destinations such as Brighton in summer.

You could drive to local station and train it in?

[BrabusMog]

hyphen said:

jakesmith said:

We live near Guildford but in 6 years I don’t think we’ve driven there once. It’s a nice town with nice shops but parking and traffic are horrendous. Surely park and ride is the answer? There’s space around it surely?

I go into Guilford every so often. Parking is fine- a few multi storey car parks, street parking, waitrose car park etc

Never had issues with traffic anymore than other similar towns, would be surprised if it needed park and ride, that's for large tourist destinations such as Brighton in summer.

You could drive to local station and train it in?

I lived in London for years so perhaps my tolerance for traffic is a lot higher, but Guildford is fine for me. If I go in with my missus for lunch she makes me park in Tunsgate car park, otherwise I just park in one of the outside pay and displays.

[anonymous-user]

I have pretty much given up on expecting to go to a shop and actually coming home with what I went out for. I wanted a new TV, knew exactly the model I wanted so went to Currys, Fenwicks (Bentalls in Kingston) and John Lewis.

1)Currys - Didn't sell the model at all
2)Fenwicks - Didn't have the model I wanted, salesman then started asking me my budget and that he had an LG available in the same size. I hate being sold to, I know exactly what I want so I made my excuses and left.
3)John Lewis - The Samsung representative was very helpful but they didn't have any in stock. I could order it but it would be at least two weeks before they got some more.

Samsung online, ordered at 8:00PM Sunday, arrived at 2:00PM on Monday for the same price with free delivery.

We also want a new bed frame so we went to Bensons for Beds to have a look. As soon as we walk in the lady there was obsessed with us using hand sanitiser and not walking within two meters of anybody else in the store. The bed frame we wanted was £799, so I went home and the first Google search revealed the same bed frame delivered for £349 from another company.

I just find shopping a frustrating waste of time these days. You spend hours traipsing around shops only to find nobody has what you actually want. I much prefer to search online, do my research, find the one I want, find the best price and then get it delivered the next day.

[alangla]

Joey Deacon said:

I have pretty much given up on expecting to go to a shop and actually coming home with what I went out for. I wanted a new TV, knew exactly the model I wanted so went to Currys, Fenwicks (Bentalls in Kingston) and John Lewis.

1)Currys - Didn't sell the model at all
2)Fenwicks - Didn't have the model I wanted, salesman then started asking me my budget and that he had an LG available in the same size. I hate being sold to, I know exactly what I want so I made my excuses and left.
3)John Lewis - The Samsung representative was very helpful but they didn't have any in stock. I could order it but it would be at least two weeks before they got some more.

Samsung online, ordered at 8:00PM Sunday, arrived at 2:00PM on Monday for the same price with free delivery.

Vaguely related - I bought a new Samsung TV recently. Didn't go to the shops, but Currys wanted £250 from their website for it. Other sellers were around £200-250, but Curry's Ebay shop was £199 and a 5% voucher was on the page (no idea if Currys or Ebay paid for that), so I got it delivered for £190. Same DPD courier it would have been from Currys themselves & the same email trail and receipt as if I'd bought it from Currys themselves. I know some companies run "outlet" type operations on Ebay, but why would Currys be undercutting themselves on a 3rd party website?

[anonymous-user]

alangla said:

Vaguely related - I bought a new Samsung TV recently. Didn't go to the shops, but Currys wanted £250 from their website for it. Other sellers were around £200-250, but Curry's Ebay shop was £199 and a 5% voucher was on the page (no idea if Currys or Ebay paid for that), so I got it delivered for £190. Same DPD courier it would have been from Currys themselves & the same email trail and receipt as if I'd bought it from Currys themselves. I know some companies run "outlet" type operations on Ebay, but why would Currys be undercutting themselves on a 3rd party website?

Sure its not a "refurb" i.e bought new and returned so sold "as new"

I thought thats what most of the ebay shop sites did

[alangla]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Nope - brand new. Boxed, sealed, no sign it had ever been opened. Condition is shown as "New" and the ad is still here, apparently they've shifted 764 of them so far - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114249467565

EDIT - interestingly, the same model is now £199 on their own website. Was definitely £249 or £259 when I ordered. https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertai...

[rah1888]

jakesmith said:

We live near Guildford but in 6 years I don’t think we’ve driven there once. It’s a nice town with nice shops but parking and traffic are horrendous. Surely park and ride is the answer? There’s space around it surely?

The car parks in Guildford have around 4500 spaces between them, and there is a well established park and ride scheme that operates 4 separate sites on the edge of the town centre.

[Bullett]

We went sofa shopping at the weekend. Not something I'm happy buying online as I want to sit on it/feel it. Apart from masks.
Sofology was bright and breezy, no one way system, lots of space, quite a few people.
DFS as above but the store looked a bit dowdy.
SCS awful oppressive place, one way system, rigorous sanitising staff barking orders at people.
Furniture Village, as SCS but not quite as bad.

I don't find the traffic in Guildford any worse than any other town centre, parking is pretty good. I usually use Bedford road. The town was actually quite busy last time I visited (last week) almost normal, only one queue which was a tiny shop so understandable to a point. Things felt much more relaxed than when they first reopened.

[Thankyou4calling]

rah1888 said:

The car parks in Guildford have around 4500 spaces between them, and there is a well established park and ride scheme that operates 4 separate sites on the edge of the town centre.

Jakesmith:

Lives near Guildford
Hasn’t visited for 6 years
Somehow Knows traffic is awful
Suggests park and ride which already exists.
Can’t park in 4500 spaces

Says it all really.

[h0b0]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Best Buy in the US used to have different prices on their web site to their retail shops due to the costs being very different to maintain the same margin. The cunning part was that in the shops they had PCs set up so you could price check on line. But, the version of their own online store was false! They had created an "online" site for people to access only when in the shops with the same prices as the shop and not their real site. They claimed it was so you could do a price check of in store products. Instead, it was to prevent you from using Best Buy as their own competitor.

[Robertj21a]

hyphen said:

I go into Guilford every so often. Parking is fine- a few multi storey car parks, street parking, waitrose car park etc

Never had issues with traffic anymore than other similar towns, would be surprised if it needed park and ride, that's for large tourist destinations such as Brighton in summer.

You could drive to local station and train it in?

Park& Ride worked very well the last time I was in Guildford.

[jakesmith]

Thankyou4calling said:

rah1888 said:

The car parks in Guildford have around 4500 spaces between them, and there is a well established park and ride scheme that operates 4 separate sites on the edge of the town centre.

Jakesmith:

Lives near Guildford
Hasn’t visited for 6 years
Somehow Knows traffic is awful
Suggests park and ride which already exists.
Can’t park in 4500 spaces

Says it all really.

I worked there for 4 years though and we used to ‘nip in’ at lunch which often involved sitting in a fair bit of traffic. I genuinely didn’t know about a park and ride, is it signed from the A3? Only 4 routes though you say. Bet there isn’t one that’s that convenient for me.

[rah1888]

jakesmith said:

I worked there for 4 years though and we used to ‘nip in’ at lunch which often involved sitting in a fair bit of traffic. I genuinely didn’t know about a park and ride, is it signed from the A3? Only 4 routes though you say. Bet there isn’t one that’s that convenient for me.

From memory they are:

• Surrey Sports Park (by university)
• Spectrum Leisure centre
• Artington (off Portsmouth Rd, heading towards Godalming)
• Merrow (a short way past Horse & Groom pub)

[joshcowin]

Went into 2 shops I thought would be busy today but both were quiet! Halfords, hardly anyone in there, had what I wanted and some extra bits on sale, that was good. Brewers (paint shop) dead no one in there and the staff looked half a sleep.

Guessing both these places have done well recently.

[HTP99]

I drive in, park just outside the town, Nightingale road or around there where it's free (2hrs) and walk in; 10 minutes.

[Tyre Smoke]

Son needed a new laptop. Found what I needed on Currys website. Available for collection or delivery. So we decided to go to the store and check the laptop and buy it if it was really what we wanted.
Get to Currys. Nobody interested in selling anything. Approached two sales people who were chatting to each other and was told they would find someone for me. Err, why can't you help? So eventually another sales person turns up. I point to the laptop and ask if I can buy it. No, sorry we haven't had any stock of those for two weeks. So I point to another one. Ahh, yes can have it ready for pick up in two days. We don't have any stock here. So what's the point if this huge store? So you can ask any technical questions...

Went home and ordered another laptop on line, delivered next day. High Street (any retail store) is dead or dying.

[jammy-git]

joshcowin said:

Went into 2 shops I thought would be busy today but both were quiet! Halfords, hardly anyone in there, had what I wanted and some extra bits on sale, that was good. Brewers (paint shop) dead no one in there and the staff looked half a sleep.

Guessing both these places have done well recently.

Halfords has been empty in Canterbury for a long time now. I'm not in there at the weekend which I presume is when they do most of their trade, but the last few times I've gone in there's been max of 2-3 other customers.

[jakesmith]

Tyre Smoke said:

Son needed a new laptop. Found what I needed on Currys website. Available for collection or delivery. So we decided to go to the store and check the laptop and buy it if it was really what we wanted.
Get to Currys. Nobody interested in selling anything. Approached two sales people who were chatting to each other and was told they would find someone for me. Err, why can't you help? So eventually another sales person turns up. I point to the laptop and ask if I can buy it. No, sorry we haven't had any stock of those for two weeks. So I point to another one. Ahh, yes can have it ready for pick up in two days. We don't have any stock here. So what's the point if this huge store? So you can ask any technical questions...

Went home and ordered another laptop on line, delivered next day. High Street (any retail store) is dead or dying.

Laptop stock is absolutely decimated at the moment across most retailers due to unprecedented demand. Yes you had a st experience in store, just saying though.

[TTmonkey]

jakesmith said:

Tyre Smoke said:

Son needed a new laptop. Found what I needed on Currys website. Available for collection or delivery. So we decided to go to the store and check the laptop and buy it if it was really what we wanted.
Get to Currys. Nobody interested in selling anything. Approached two sales people who were chatting to each other and was told they would find someone for me. Err, why can't you help? So eventually another sales person turns up. I point to the laptop and ask if I can buy it. No, sorry we haven't had any stock of those for two weeks. So I point to another one. Ahh, yes can have it ready for pick up in two days. We don't have any stock here. So what's the point if this huge store? So you can ask any technical questions...

Went home and ordered another laptop on line, delivered next day. High Street (any retail store) is dead or dying.

Laptop stock is absolutely decimated at the moment across most retailers due to unprecedented demand. Yes you had a st experience in store, just saying though.

Yes lots of pressure on manufacturers.. The organisation I work for has just announced a roll out of 180,000 brand new laptops to all users so that they can work from home going forward.

[skilly1]

jammy-git said:

Halfords has been empty in Canterbury for a long time now. I'm not in there at the weekend which I presume is when they do most of their trade, but the last few times I've gone in there's been max of 2-3 other customers.

Went to Halfords a few weeks ago, the bike section was decimated, they must have made some serious cash from bikes over the past 6 months.