Quarter of Homebases to close

[Theo Markettos]

"a large estate with low sales densities that result in a challenged financial model."

I wonder what they're on about there, and what else they're planning to change?

Theo

[Andy Burns]

Turn them into Argos or Habitat stores?

[sm_jamieson]

Surely that's a buzzword-encoded statement that just means they have too many stores for the number of customers, and it's costing too much ! Homebase is nobodies first choice for DIY or Homewares, and always quite empty when I go there.

Simon.

[Adrian]

Large estate - shedloads of space low sales densities - people aren't buying enough challenged financial model - we're losing money hand-over-fist

TMH will be SO disappointed.

[sm_jamieson]

Remember Habitat ? All that sort of stuff is cheaper in Ikea now - although their prices have started to creep up. Simon.

[Andrew Gabriel]

On the radio, they cited as one of the reasons that new home owners nowadays are neither capable, nor interested in DIY.

There is a homebase I occasionally visit, and for the last 10 years it's had so few customers in there I never expected it to last as long as it has. The main thing I have used it for is its lighting section (although they stopped stocking some of the items a couple of years ago which I used to buy), and I occasionally buy their cacti/succulants/venus fly traps.

20-30 years ago, I would buy plumbing, electrical and timber there too, but the range/price became too small/high.

[Chris J Dixon]

"We have large stores full of rubbish that nobody wants to buy, so we can make no money."

It is a shame that they have gone this way, but it is quite some time since I even considered looking there, whereas I was once a regular shopper.

Can't say I will miss their passing.

There was a suggestion that younger householders are less keen on DIY. Is this because they can afford not to, or a reflection of increasing bureaucratic control?

Chris

[GB]

Shedloads of sheds.

[Robin]

Combined effect of (a) parents who did less DIY than their parents, (b) less hands-on experience at school, (c) scare stories from the safety lobbies, encouraging (d) the perception that it's not allowed (eg all the erroenous warnings that anything to do with gas "must be fitted by a GASAFE fitter" and that "the electrical connections must be carried out by a qualified electrician"?

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

I sometimes nip in because there's one very close to us, and I'm usually going past it on the way to elsewhere. But I usually find that they don't have what I want. Half the time, it isn't that they don't sell it

- just that they've run out.

[Muddymike]

Ah, good! More opportunities for pound shops to to pick up cheap leases.

Mike

[Martin Brown]

They will close the least profitable stores first and then spiral downwards from there. A rerun of Comet's decline I would guess.

[whisky-dave]

Young houueholders a few in number because they can;t afford to become householders. If you end up renting yuo arent; realyl allowd to do any major DIY. Well you could chnage a plug on a lead if they weren't all moulted. Most things can be brought cheaper than it'd cost to build something similar.

Both I'd have thought.

[Adrian]

Living up to your name again?

[Tim Watts]

People I think are busier - and more scared because of the perception of more regulations.

And we've lost the post war "mend and make do" generation.

[Theo Markettos]

If stuff isn't selling well, what are they going to replace it with? I can't quite read which way they're going. Does that mean 'our top seller is scatter cushions, let's get rid of all those pesky tools' or 'what we need is more angle grinders'?

Theo

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Good point. It never occurred to me. Although many landlords don't mind a bit of decoration if it's done well.

[meow2222]

Plus delusions of being a rock star, plus an upbringing based in computers & phones not practical physical stuff, plus a complete inability to realise that ith the right strategy they can make several x as much per hr doing d iy as they can doing overtime. Plus inability to understand and deal with l ife's risks. Oh, plus expecting everything given to them on a plate.

NT

[meow2222]

I've not had any plugs moulting, guess its the wrong time of year for it

yeah, that too. Only customised stuff is worth making now.

NT

[Nightjar]

On 22/10/2014 13:28, sm_jamieson wrote: ...

They give Nectar points, which usually makes them my first choice.