RIP: Blockbuster

WH Smiths? The stores around here look shabby, and are crammed full of stuff that noone seems to buy.

Largely a place to browse magazines as far as I can tell. Folkestone (and Canterbury IIRC) now have the post offices in them - so now you spend ages queuing through all of the stuff that noone buys, making it even harder for someone who does actually want to buy an overpriced pen to get to them.

Darren

Reply to
D.M.Chapman
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M&S offers nearly that now. Order online for delivery to your local shop, where you can also return it if you don't like it. Don't need a warehouse at the local shop if the customer is prepared to wait the same time as for an Internet delivery to the home.

Reply to
David.WE.Roberts

Bloody hell. I didn't know that. And my best mate works for them!

Reply to
Huge

Good. The sooner the better.

Reply to
Huge

Have to say, I rather thought many shops would have gone down a related route many years ago. When Sunday trading started, quite a lot of shops either stayed closed or opened completely with all the attendant overheads.

I can think of a tool shop not so far away which could, perhaps, have managed a serviced counter on Sundays (and maybe to open later into the evening) and by so doing would likely have picked up quite a lot of sales which instead went to the sheds, SF, etc.

Reply to
polygonum

Except for many the nearest M&S shop is quite a distance away. In our case about 30 miles... However getting stuff delivered to that shop specifically for you means they will have stock. B-)

I do make good use of the various store stock check systems. Going a few extra miles on a trip that is going to happen anyway knowing that either what you want is reserved or at least in stock is a lot better than going "on spec".

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

My father was involved in retail at the time and I got a running commentary. I see that Wikipedia documents it too, briefly.

Reply to
Bob Eager

Please let it be true.

Reply to
Steve Firth

No, that's already under new management I think the crappy clothes shops. Gap, Next Debenhams..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Customer returns would be higher, but probably much lower rates of shrinkage through theft and shop soiling.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

They're at a dangerous age (founded 1937) q.v. Jessops (1935) and Comet (1933)

Reply to
Tony Bryer

Except for IKEA, whose stock control system has an overactive imagination.

Reply to
Huge

S'where I looked it up, innit.

Reply to
Huge

En el artículo , Mike Tomlinson escribió:

H'm. Maybe not:

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Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

Several have gone already. There was a nice page on the BBC site that listed the retailers that had gone bust in recent years but can I find it now...

Debenhams might, doesn't have enough range just clothes and make up. At least that was all I could find the last time I went into a Debenhams maybe a decade ago, haven't been in since as they didn't appear to sell anything I want. No "hardware basement", white goods, kitchen ware, soft furnishings, furniture, etc.

With Comet gone I shouldn't think Currys is likely to go. I can't think of another whitegoods retailer I'd look in other than John Lewis but they don't have anything like the "High St" coverage of either Comet or Currys.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

We don't shop at ikea...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I thought I had read Debenhams had an excellent pre-Christmas time?

Reply to
polygonum

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Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

Primark is attributing unexpected good results in part to a drop in cotton prices. That, no doubt, also benefits other clothes shops.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

Nothing wrong with Next. I shopped there for the first timne only recently fo myself and interviuew suits for the two eldest kids. One was a very nice suit in fact, made in England from English cloth. Figured out the size and style in the shop then bought on-line in the sale and collected from the shop a few days later.

I wonder how many were previously bought by "venture capitalists" and then loaded with debt during better times?

Or how many were previously in trouble and "rescued" only to prolong the agony?

MBQ

Just reported good sales over Xmas at Currys and PC World.

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

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