We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Frank" saying something like:
Phew, that's a relief. Had me going for a month or two, there.
That's true enough - when money's tight, people think hard about what to really spend it on and the overpriced shark gets left out.
Just out of interest ...
What's there share ?
How much do they get ?
Derek
Bruce coughed up some electrons that declared:
Next door neighbour is a store manager for Waitrose (part of John Lewis as you know) and she says the same thing.
You've only got to go to Paddock Wood Waitrose or Tonbridge to see that even the young shelf stackers and in fact all the other staff are amongst the most articulate and helpful of any of the supermarkets - nothing seems too much trouble - and they actually know where random product X is.
And I see the same faces for quite long periods (like years) which I don't see in Tescos, except for a couple of career-fast-track staff and a couple of the older ladies. To most people, it's like McDonalds - something you do until you can find something else.
Cheers
Tim
Don't you think it's stretching things a bit to describe Topps Tiles as a "local trader"?
I was being completely serious.
Derek Geldard coughed up some electrons that declared:
Where? I'll take the missus! Anything's better than sitting on a footstool or the floor waiting 10 minutes times x-million sessions to spend 20 seconds to pass a "yea or nay" to a random set of clothes.
Cheers
Tim
A year or so back yes but I think they have manged to get more or less back on track recently.
It's not what other retailers are doing but how well individual stores/chains are at shifting product with a workable margin. The stores that have gone so far have mostly been heavy discounters, or up to the hilt in debt with suppliers. No room to adsorb variations in trade levels. My feeling is that the more boutique type clothing places be next.
Bruce coughed up some electrons that declared:
Fair point - but they employ local people. Let's say "bricks 'n' mortar" stores then.
They get a salary plus an annual bonus. The bonus is a proportion of the company's annual profit, divided out using complicated formulae that takes into account both seniority and length of service.
Obviously, junior staff who were only there are short time get least.
I think the 2007 annual bonus, paid in March 2008, averaged something like 20% of annual salary, which is a pretty good incentive. The 2008 bonus will be much lower because sales struggled to match the record
2007 figures and in quite a few months they fell well short.I would imagine that John Lewis is a good company to work for. The staff always seem genuinely pleasant and know what they are selling.
Quite the opposite of Tesco.
Shit innit? I came away from a bout of Christmas shopping promising certain shops would get none of my future business.
So do Tesco.
OK.
Smiths certainly.
M&S and Boots I still use..
That is the whole point. Low price zero stock and crap staff cant compete with direct selling: pleasant surrondings, helpful staff can.
If they can. I've had brilliant info off the guys selling direct over the net.Hint: if there aint no phone number, don't buy!
Next!!! - Ah the shop that sells stuff that costs a few quid to make is marked at £100 and then people queue and fight over it when it is "reduced" to £60.
If Primark can sell items at a certain price - then how much more should a better quality item really cost? (given that they are probably made in the same far eastern country on the same machines)? Using M&S as an example the answer seems to be about 10 times more. The shipping and distribution element would be the same.
Medway Council seem set upon driving business away from the town centre, car parking charges are horrific. Bearing in mind Chatham town centre is between Bluewater & Hempstead Valley shopping centers - both of whom offer free parking.
Parking charges are enforced 6 days a week until 10pm, so local shops & restaurants get stuffed as well. We even have a smart car
The breakfast is OK, its the old gits sitting round drinking pints at 10 in the morning that puts we off. How can you drink beer at that time of day?
Yup. M&S clothing is ridiculously expensive and places like Matalan have equal quality at much lower prices, longer opening hours & free parking.
Smiths don't sell any stationery I can't get cheaper (and with wider choice) than at Staples (with free parking). Books are now limited to the top ten celebrity best seller s**te, so I either go to Waterstones for a good browse or Amazon online.
Boots don't offer me anything I can't buy in Tesco or Morrisons while doing other shopping. If pushed to visit a chemists type shop I'd go to Superdrug.
I reckon the traditional town centre is going to end up a wasteland what with out of town shopping & the interweb. Town centres and high street retailers had a place in peoples lives 20 years ago, but things change.
That is good, as long as the basic salary is competitive.
And that's fair enough. Money cannot be "created from nowhere"
Dunno, here (Leeds) our John Lewis is a couple of years away. Tesco we have, and I always assumed they just paid no more than they have to.
Derek
Exactly.
Cheap Far Eastern manufacture has allowed some greedy retailers to whack up their margins to levels never seen before. Whereas typical mark-ups were in the 50% to 100% range, they became multiples of 100%.
When retailers found they could buy items at a tenth of the price they were paying for UK-made goods, they didn't drop their retail prices by more than a few per cent. As a result, their margins went through the roof. M&S is a very good example.
The result is that shopping centres have become warehouses of cheap Far Eastern tat often sold at unbelievably high prices. With cheap, minimum wage staff, their major costs are rents, refits and the marketing budget. The whole edifice has been hugely profitable for a few years, but is on the point of crumbling into nothing because it is totally dependent on moving stock that isn't selling except at deep discounts - and that's the margin gone.
The guessing game of who will survive and who will fall by the wayside is fascinating, but huge numbers of retail staff will lose their jobs this year through no fault of their own.
It is. There is a long (and growing) waiting list of people wanting to work for the Partnership.
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