Now Jessops into admin

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One of the interesting click-n-mortar thing I saw this xmas was John Lewis. You can buy something at John Lewis.com and instead of having it delivered to your place, you can pick it up at a Waitrose the next day. Very easy and gets away with waiting for deliveries as it can be to the waitrose near work. You can also return it via a Waitrose. I think this is one of the best examples of fight back in a while.
Amazon is doing something similar with Amazon 'lockers', but kind of restricted to big cities..
 
Town centres should admit defeat and start to turn retail into housing/cafe/ recreation/craft/niche shopping areas.
A local small town has a community charity shop. It is let out weekly to local organisations such as churches,youth groups, schools, sports clubs etc. It does very well and pulls many folk into the shopping area.
 
I love our high street and always make a point to support local business. I wouldn't get in my car and drive 15mins each way when I can go into town and pay 5-10% more. I do have a limit though when I will reach for the car keys ;-). As has been said High Streets need to adapt. More niche shops and community areas that will bring people in to spend time there not just to shop.
 
The only safe stores now are going to be ones selling stuff that is unique to them, can match the majority of online prices or selling stuff so cheap it's not worth hunting around for a better price.

Even for stuff you like to see what you are getting before you buy it isn't safe at the mo due to "show rooming". I was at Juntion One in Antrim and the number of empty units was a disgrace. This use to be a popular place for bus loads of women on a girls day out. Now they'd be lucky to get a Smart car full to arrive. Rent on those units is massive so no wonder so many pull out. Retail rents and rates really need to drop.

I fully expect local shops to be Supermarkets, Poundlands, and stack em high places like B&M or Poundstretchers.
 
I think it's just the way our society is going, more people sitting in front of computers, like all of us who post in this forum. We have people who spend money online shopping rather than go to the high street or shopping center. I did some of my Xmas shopping online, I bought HID some scanties and I wasn't going to go perusing the knicker aisle of a scanties shop, plus you get more choice online :whistle: but other things like the camera I bought her, which was from Jessops, I did in shop.

That said people have less money to spend, prices are going up, the cost of living is going up, but people are not getting pay rises to match, so the result is bound to be people looking for bargins and if that means less people going out to the shops and buying online, then that's what will happen. It's a vicious circle, a catch 22, shops don't get customers through the door so they have to put prices up to stay afloat, higher prices means less people and so on and so on.
 
Another problem with the High Street is opening times. Near me everything is open 9-5 on weekdays, no use there as I am at work, 9-5 Saturday (golf in the morning and by the time I have had some lunch etc it is getting on time wise and most shops have the door half shut and are packing up at 4.00) and not open Sunday. Late nights in the week or on Saturday would help but to get those opening hours then I need to go out of town or just give up and buy online. I agree, however, that I would make more of an effort to get into town if there were more independent shops offering something different, non chain places to get some lunch etc.

Jessops was, sadly, pretty much inevitable. Aside from the really high end gear (which is not something that needs a national retail presence) a camera has become an add on to something else (smartphone, tablet etc) rather than something that you buy separately. Even then, the market is in cheap snaps cameras that you can take on a night out without worrying.

The other interesting development this week has been an online retailer closing down. Play.com is shutting because the tax loophole that they have been using for years (importing low value items from the chanel islands to avoid VAT) has been closed. I have used them for years since they were only an importer of American DVDs and they have gone down hill over the last year or so but still will be missed.
 
I have to admit both the missus and I did all our Xmas shopping online this year, we live a couple of miles out of bham city centre but no way would I put up with the rip off parking charges, mad mad queues and mass volume of people heading to the German market or the bullring (where u have to queue for the escalator)
When you can order online and get delivered either next day or within 2 days maximum and even delivered to work it makes it so much easier and takes away all the hassle
 
Three words for 2013.

Click and collect

We're doing this for food shopping at asda, electrical and games at tesco, gadgets at currys, all stuff at Argos! Internet prices but the pleasure of getting it pretty much immediately.

I've got thousands of pics, all are on my computer/hdds. I don't need a print! If I did, I'd create a mailinator account and sign up to vista print for the tenth time and get 40 prints for the price of postage.

I'm running out of things I actually need to see before buying, TV maybe but would buy online without worry. Hmmmm, turn town centres into entertaining areas I say! Good food and things to do!
 
I do most of my shopping on Amazon. Never been let down by them in all the years I've been using them.

Comet? Went in there once with my daughter to buy an mp3 player. The "salesperson" (I use the term loosely) said "it was too much trouble to go and get the cabinet keys" to enable us to have a closer look at the model we were interested in.
Cheerio mate, have a nice life on the dole.

PC World? Went in there once with Sam and she saw a netbook that she liked because it was pink. I decided to get it for her. Asked a "salesperson" (again I use the term loosely) if I could buy one. "Sorry, we sold the last one on Thursday" was his immediate response.
Went next door (Curry's) and the salesperson checked his stock, "I'm sorry Sir, we don't have a pink one, only the blue version. But PC World are showing as having 3 in stock".
So we went back to PC World. And this time we sought out the manager (turned out to be a manageress). Explained the situation, she checked her stock, went upstairs and two minutes later came down with the pink netbook that we wanted. I took great delight in pointing out the tosspot who had told us that he had no stock. I hope he got the sack, because he didn't deserve his job.
I wouldn't mind betting PC World will be next.
 
I think that the biggest problem facing the high street at the moment is the commercial rents being charged. They are completely out of proportion with the margins available on the high street. If you notice, when a chain calls in the administrators it is more than often on, or around a week or so after, quarter rent days (Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec).

A lot of this stems from the fact that most of the landlords for the high street stores are linked back to pension funds. etc, where there are huge pressures to get decent ROIs (especially where other investments have stagnated or are even making losses). I've seen these landlords trigger upwards only rent review clauses year on year without fail, regardless of whether the fact that it risks putting their tenant out of business. Why? Pressures from directors, shareholders and the pension funds that have invested.

I think there will be a huge shift in the commercial lease market shortly. These pension funds will only keep the premium investments (your large out of town shopping centres where they have decent anchor tenants - such as john lewis etc) and start to ditch their high street freehold investments as they loose their tenants. Also, those seasonal shops are seen as more hassle then they are worth by a lot of landlords - they only take one quarters rent, which the legal costs usually swallows most of it up and I've seen most of them fail to properly follow their reinstatement clause at the end of their tenancy, leaving the landlord with more headache and cost.

I hope this, in turn, will lead to the return of local landlords who understand local business and will have a desire to keep their tenants rather than push them to breaking point, assuming that another will come along. We'll have to wait and see.

How to survive on the high street at the moment? You simply cannot compete with online, you either have to offer something that online doesn't or work with online. I agree with whoever above predicted the demise of HMV this year, I would guess around June's rent day (24 June) as HMV doesn't really offer anything different to amazon.

Clothes shops will have an advantage, as most people will want to see and try things before buying.

I also agree with the comments about click and collect and Argos' proposed revised business model will be very interesting to watch pan out (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20054168)
 
Smiffy said:
I dislike Argos. Don't know why.
Even when I've bought a top name product from them in the past, I can't help feeling that I've just bought cheap *****!
Click to expand...

I kinda have nostalgia for Argos. Remembering as a kid going through the catalogue at Christmas circling the things you wanted (but were never going to get ;))

Helped my friend move house the other day and we found loads of old Argos catalogues - brought back memories - does anyone remember the Pocket Money Corners?!
 
Smiffy said:
I dislike Argos. Don't know why.
Even when I've bought a top name product from them in the past, I can't help feeling that I've just bought cheap *****!
Click to expand...


I know what you mean - the place "feels" cheap. But then so do a lot of shops these days. A lick of paint or a make-over costs a huge amount - something a lot can't or won't afford.

Mankind is becoming, generally, very lazy - certainly in Britain.
We have everything we need at our fingertips via a computer or phone. We don't need to go out so many of us don't.
To be honest our Town Centre is normally full of kids loitering around looking menacing (even if they aren't!) and people aimlessly wandering around getting in the way. Hardly an incentive to go.

Turning High Streets into Entertainment/Socialising areas is probably the way forward unless some bright spark can come up with a way of getting us all back there.
 
Picto said:
I kinda have nostalgia for Argos. Remembering as a kid going through the catalogue at Christmas circling the things you wanted (but were never going to get ;))

Helped my friend move house the other day and we found loads of old Argos catalogues - brought back memories - does anyone remember the Pocket Money Corners?!
Click to expand...

I can remember when Argos morphed out of Green Shield Stamp Shops... Those were the days!
 
Amazon- bought online in about 3 mins as they store all your delivery info, delivered next day, result.
One item bought for Christmas developed a fault, went online, clicked return, printed off return label and clicked 'send a replacement'. The replacement item turned up next day and I have 30 days to send faulty item back at their cost........you can't beat that service.

I've not had good customer experiences in jessops, currys, comet, pc world, Argos etc so when compared to what I did at Amazon it's a no brainer.

However, give excellent face to face CS and people will buy, John Lewis are a good example.
 
Smiffy said:
I dislike Argos. Don't know why.
Even when I've bought a top name product from them in the past, I can't help feeling that I've just bought cheap *****!
Click to expand...

Agree, it does leave a bit of after taste. However, have bought loads of stuff from Argos. Haven't touched their catalog in about 5 years. I look it up online, reserve it and walk in to pick it up. I want to spend the least amount of time inside the shop. I must say that they have a great web front. If you stuff is out of stock it will keep you updated via sms till the stock is made available. I dont know why they keep printing massive catalogs, surely some consultant should have done an inventory trend to help reduce that cost.

Having said all that, we recently lost one Argos. We had two of them within a mile of each other, one in the town centre and the other out of town. No guesses on which shut down.
 
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