Maplin

[spuorgelgoog]

Health and safety innit

Owain

[dennis]

Its all a joke really..

What HiFi did a review of a blueray player and stated it had the same stuff in it as the more expensive version of it but it didn't sound as good. This despite it not having any analogue outputs so the sound was being done by the amp and not the player. HiFi nuts believe them.

[charles]

There's Rapid Electronics, CPC, RS and then ebay. What more do you want?

[charles]

9 miles each way for me.

[charles]

Round here the town seems to be filled with clothing shops for women,

[The Natural Philosopher]

Apparently not.

The 'they' could apply to either Boots, or as I took it 'How many can remember'

[The Natural Philosopher]

Because they are the only market that wants touch and feel and try-on.

To compete, most online retailers will allow 'sale or return' transactions.

[Huge]

That's because if High St shops want to stay in business, they need to sell "experiences" rather than "things". Many women seem to regard shopping as a recreational experience to be lingered over (rather then the loathsome necessity it actually is, to be done online or failing that, as quickly as possible), hence the women's clothes shops.

[Tim Streater]

I want touch feel look at for any TV or stereo appliance or any white goods. Or computer come to that. That's how I was able to find a 700mm wide Beko FF (*not* "American" style) with a useful and sensible ice dispenser (not one of the space-wasting plumbed-in ones).

[alan_m]

All online retailers have to abide by the distance selling regulations which allows customers to cancel orders once they have been delivered.

Possibly there are more clothing retailers in the high street because it may actually be cheaper for them. Online clothing companies have the problem that many people will order a range of sizes to see what fits at home and then return the unwanted items. The retailer than has to sort the returns often at a cost greater than just picking and sending them in the first place.

[Robin]

For some women "shopping for clothes" is an excuse to meet a lover - with the bonus that many men see a partner returning empty-handed as a cause for celebration rather than suspicion.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yaeh. Currys is good for that.

Then you buy online anyway @:-)

[Tim Streater]

When we got a greenhouse, SWMBO chose one online but then suggested we go to a garden centre near where they are made (forget the distance now, a 100 miles away or so), where they have a number of that brand on display. That made a day out and worked well and meant we could be sure of what we were going to get.

Some people like to fondle stuff before buying, but clearly the old model of having bricks-and-mortar stores everywhere is too costly. But if Curry's, f'rinstance, said OK for Kent we'll have one real store near Canterbury, another near Maidstone, perhaps another in North Kent, and touted those as well-stocked display stores perhaps with a coffee shop they might save a bob or two.

[tabbypurr]

sistor-module-ky-018

. I'm betting he;ll say he doesn't know how to connect them up as a potenti al divider. :-

Look at the thing. The LDR has legs, these are soldered to an otherwide emp ty bit of PCB... which then has legs. Ie you could plug the ORP12 in just a s well as you could plug the 'module' in. It's the total antithesis to basi c sane engineering.

Point out that you may as well just plug the 23p part in directly and the a rduino pi youngster crowd are wholly unable to take that on board.

NT

[Jethro_uk]

The problem is that landlords are f***ed. If they do want to fill a unit, they have to offer a realistic rent - which by necessity must be lower than the adjacent units whose rent was decided 3 years ago.

At which point the existing renters just wait for a break clause, and renegotiate a lower rent (probably out of self survival).

Alternatively the units stand empty. And every empty unit reduces the locations footfall pull which it uses to set the rents ...

rinse and repeat.

The fact we have no strategy for being grown ups, accepting the trend and moving such land towards residential use is another exhibit in my "if it really mattered" case folder (see upthread about remote working) to prove there is no housing crisis in the UK.

Anyone who believes the High Street will "make a comeback" is a moron on the same level as people (Gartner) who insist "PC sales will make a comeback".

No they won't, and no they won't.

Also the pisspoor accessibility of most high streets compared to shopping centres...

[Theo]

Trouble is, to do that you need to have a distinct product. It works for Apple or Tesla, who don't care if you buy online because they still make the same profit. But Curry's selling a Zanussi washing machine is always going to be more expensive than AO or whoever who have no store overheads. So a display store is actually displaying for your competition.

But it might work if Curry's did deals with brands to become their showroom, rather than be the showroom for the Curry's warehouse. I think this already happens - it sounds like salespeople from the likes of Sony and Samsung already inhabit Curry's stores. So Sony win if people buy a Sony TV from any channel, and Curry's pick up the crumbs of people going in wanting a TV today and a power extension (not a Sony product).

The ambience is not exactly the Apple Store. But maybe the business model works for Curry's, who knows?

Theo

[Jethro_uk]

Personally, an intelligent supermarket (is that an oxymoron) would simply leave their specialist tenant to it *as long as they provide economic footfall*. The aim being to draw in the sort of person who may not regularly visits a supermarket but is happy to drop £100 in a single visit to their hobby store.

But, if history has show us anything, it's that the level of hypothecation in modern business is so granular, that you can't really implement any form of ecosystem.

Like the local authority beancounters who save £X by turning off the streetlights, while RTAs and crime costs increase by £3X - but on someone elses budget.

[mechanic]

Oh yes these surface mount components are so reusable!

[Jethro_uk]

Last year, got stopped outside a Virtual Reality "experience" boutique. Of course they don't do any experiences I might have paid for (some sort of flight sim). They had set their target market as racing/shoot-em-up punters. Who, one wonders, may not have as much cash ?

Mind you, in my last job, I saw lots of research suggesting that generation Rent will actually have a lot of spending power, as they realise they can never own a home. Which has *massive* implications for the future of retailing. It's also probably the worst news the Tory party could hear currently.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well unless some function we haven't thought of makes themn desirable again.

Was good enough for steptoe...

Nah high streets will become 'cafe culture' - a place to sit and have coffee and a snack.

No point in having shops.