Sales Down 93% On This Time Last Year

[bobthe~]

She is hoping to sell at the next peak and retire. She is going to be disappointed.

Not if she is 5.

[Mick Dundee]

Sorry to hear about your problems.

The only thing that seems to be selling at present is gold bullion.

Technology stuff was very "must have" when money was easy but most people can manage without. I can afford to buy but my mobile and PC are 8 years old, my TV must be 10 years old and my kids get their playstation stuff off freecycle.

There seems to be dozens of companies selling technology on t'internet including Amazon so it must be a tough market with high advertizing costs/heavy discounting.

Have you tried selling through ebay/amazon just to keep things moving?

Thanks for the tips, I will pass them on. We were selling at a loss on ebay and Amazon is very quite too. I think you and some others are correct, it may be time to find something else to sell, while we still have a job.

[Minos]

Not if she is 5.

I bet you that home made skate board of yours that even if she is five she is going to be disappointed.

[50%deposit]

i think the problem with technology goods is confidence and specialism.

i just brought from Insight, they were linked from HP, so i had confidence. small cpmanys look dodgy. Just been onto one for shipping crates, they said they would quote and i never heard back from them. not surprised really.

but if your selling varied stuff like computers AND camcorders i would have thought you would be up against it. every indian on the planet, it seems, has an OS Commerce site touting drop shipped gear. you need to be way above those guys.

have you tried telemarketing for corporate accounts?

[DeepLurker]

Computers, digital cameras, laptops, camcorders, etc. Technology goods have crashed in sales, to the point where were not selling enough to cover our salaries. The boss may as well pay us to stay at home.

Ouch. Currently, most of the above goods are replaced well before they break down. New features drive sales, but most are fluff. Very few amateurs need a HD camcorder.

These purchases can be postponed, maybe by years.

If I was in your shoes I would be bringing my CV up to date.

[Swipe]

Imagine if Gordon had sent the £600 billion directly to the citizens instead of using that amount to bail out the bankers. That works out to £10,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. A family of 4 would have gotten £40,000. That would stimulate spending!

And if they had, here we go again with HPI. I'm glad they didn't.

[Leonard Hatred]

Imagine if Gordon had sent the £600 billion directly to the citizens instead of using that amount to bail out the bankers. That works out to £10,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. A family of 4 would have gotten £40,000. That would stimulate spending!

The price of goods would then be:

(whatever they cost before) + £40,000

[xux42]

She is hoping to sell at the next peak and retire. She is going to be disappointed.

A. How can you possibly know that there will not be an economic recovery in the next 20 years?

B. You are obviously naive to the powerful residual demand amongst women to appear young.

C. Selling for a big profit will be icing on the cake. She will be fine anyway.

[Minos]

A. How can you possibly know that there will not be an economic recovery in the next 20 years?

B. You are obviously naive to the powerful residual demand amongst women to appear young.

C. Selling for a big profit will be icing on the cake. She will be fine anyway.

So a woman's desire to look young is going to bring about an economic recovery? I think you are deluded.

[xux42]

every indian on the planet, it seems, has an OS Commerce site touting drop shipped gear.

Well if we are going to hell in a bucket at least we'll go down laughing at these pelicans!

They are like 1 billion Keystone cops or something.

You'll be telling me that recent Asian immigrants to the UK have been buying lots of tiny flats and then trying to rent them out next....

[xux42]

So a woman's desire to look young is going to bring about an economic recovery? I think you are deluded.

Well, the thing you don't appreciate is.. oh I can't be bothered.

I will have the last word in this exchange though.

PS mad-dogs picture is deeply disturbing.

[Minos]

Well, the thing you don't appreciate is.. oh I can't be bothered.

I will have the last word in this exchange though.

PS mad-dogs picture is deeply disturbing.

Typical woman.

[Optobear]

I work for an online retailer, there are just four of us, so work is like a second family. Our retail sales have plummeted to 93% less than this time last year.

To say we are in danger of losing our jobs is to put it mildly. The owner of company, a good boss, has slashed all the prices on the shop to just above cost to stimulate sales, but we all know if this doesnt work, he will have to mothball the company.

The point is what is the Government doing to stimulate consumer confidence and get people feeling shopping again. They reduced VAT by 2.5% which has done nothing.

I keep hearing about banks, being bailed out, but we dont need bailing out we, like millions of other small businesses need to see customer shopping again and their not going to do that, when were all in danger of losing our jobs.

We are in a downward spiral and the spin is accelerating.

The Governement needs to stop dithering about and do something, anything or we will see many firms like ours finished and country in ruins.

We cant hold out forever, Gordon.

Sorry to hear your situation, sounds really tough. I suspect that the advice to look around for other jobs now is sound.

I do find 93% drop-off incredible. I tend to buy electronics (and much else) from Amazon or Play, and generally only go to smaller retailers if there is no stock at the bigger retailers. My choice is dictated by good experiences with those companies, and no experience of a given smaller retailer. However, that said, I've generally been happy with smaller retailers too, most are hardworking and helpful, it is simply risk mitigation to go with the bigger company.

But even so, 93% is astonishing. 93% drop off in discretionary purchases would mean all retailers apart from Tesco and Aldi will go to the wall. It means that every Boots store employs 5 times too many staff for "essential only shopping", it means that the Sonys of the world are 80-90% overmanned. It means entire financial meltdown. It means a recession / depression / economic collapse so big that even government jobs will fail... scary, scary, scary.

[Converted Lurker]

Please don't take this the wrong way mad-dog, no offence intended, but in 1999 I created a very sexy on line e-tailer concentrating on the then emerging digital gadgets. Sold a chunk to an internet incubator in 2000 for some of their AIM floated shares, didn't work out, we got the dot com crash, 2 planes flew into the world trade centre, beginnings of a recession that was only averted by US & UK govt's lowering interest rates, the last thing on my mind was folding my arms sitting back and saying, "you fukced up the economy Gordo what you going to do for me?"

A fascinating unforseen consequence of these stimulus plans becoming such a debating point, and going so mainstream to the undeserved banks and manufacturers, is the fact that everyone now expects some sort of rescue, such as Anthony Worrall Thompson. Most businesses fail, most fail due to unforseen economic circumstances/setting up at the wrong time of the cycle, but this time every ******er has his or her hand out and is blaming the govt/downturn for their failure...

PS I blame Thatcher for everything

[applesauce]

Being a HPCer you must have seen this coming.. why didn't you get out of that industry months ago?

Look for work in an industry with more of a future. Energy, security, something public sector, etc.

You watched your car crash in slow motion and now are sitting there waiting for someone to cut you out of the wreckage. You could have switched cars long ago.

Edited February 9, 2009 by applesauce

[grizzly bear]

Mad-Dog,

I really have sympathy for you and your boss, however it may be that certain types of businesses are actually only viable in a credit boom, and actually don't work at all in a recession, especially when the high street is slashing prices as well.

I don't think the government should do anything about this - in my opinion it was madness than the credit boom was allowed to continue for so long... some businesses just don't have a good business model and aren't really worth saving.

[WSG]

Maybe you can tell me Why those involved, for whatever reason,think it is

a brilliant idea to put (for example) the cost of Photographic equipment up by 20%.

BS

Canon and Nikon have increased prices in last couple of weeks by between 10 & 20% on most of their range in the UK as the £ has fallen in value against Yen.

Blame Merv & Danny Blanchflower not the camera shops.

[grizzly bear]

The government should have gone with my plan.. sending huge cash cheques directly to all citizens. Instead they blew it all on bankers and it was lost down a black hole.

If people don't spend money(because they don't have any), companies will go bankrupt defaulting on their loans, emptying commercial real estate which will mean eventual defaults for the commercial real estate owners.. It is throwing good money after bad. And if your business goes down all the employees won't have any money to spend, meaning further losses somewhere else, and further hoarding of money and slowing of the velocity of money.

Imagine if Gordon had sent the £600 billion directly to the citizens instead of using that amount to bail out the bankers. That works out to £10,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. A family of 4 would have gotten £40,000. That would stimulate spending!

What a stupid idea -

a) if the government hadn't saved the banks the savers would have lost their money AND

everyone would have to take possession of the £40,000 in cash as their would been no banks!

[gravity always wins]

I work for an online retailer, there are just four of us, so work is like a second family. Our retail sales have plummeted to 93% less than this time last year.

To say we are in danger of losing our jobs is to put it mildly. The owner of company, a good boss, has slashed all the prices on the shop to just above cost to stimulate sales, but we all know if this doesnt work, he will have to mothball the company.

The point is what is the Government doing to stimulate consumer confidence and get people feeling shopping again. They reduced VAT by 2.5% which has done nothing.

I keep hearing about banks, being bailed out, but we dont need bailing out we, like millions of other small businesses need to see customer shopping again and their not going to do that, when were all in danger of losing our jobs.

We are in a downward spiral and the spin is accelerating.

The Governement needs to stop dithering about and do something, anything or we will see many firms like ours finished and country in ruins.

We cant hold out forever, Gordon.

You want the Govt to bail out the consumers so they can bail you out. In effect you want to be bailed out for choosing to sell the wrong goods.

I don't understand this mentality its so counterproductive for individuals, families and the country - WHEN ARE PEOPLE GOING TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS IN THIS COUNTRY?

Roll up to bailout Britain noone takes responsibility and the citizens seem to have lost the ability to fight for themselves, think for themselves or face the consequences of their own greed.

Banks, car firms, retailers, Buy to debtors, hard working families, non working families, middle class families, they all want a handout after a decade of mega growth and profits.

I spent my adult life avoiding coming even close to being bailed out I would be ashamed of myself if I couldn't make ends meet for me and my family I can't understand why the OP would expect someone else to bail them or their customers out.

[BXLONDONMAN]

What do you sell - Houses?

no way they woulden't be able to sell 7% of their property's these days !!!

[pepsi]

Canon and Nikon have increased prices in last couple of weeks by between 10 & 20% on most of their range in the UK as the £ has fallen in value against Yen.

Blame Merv & Danny Blanchflower not the camera shops.

Interestingly I was tracking the price of a high end Nikon for my wife. When I said "if you want it you should buy now before the prices go up" her reaction was: I don't really need it yet, I'll leave it another year and see what happens.

Maybe more of this spending is discretionary than people thought.

[aa3]

Its truly different this time.

I do have a friend in the Beauty treatment business who halved her overheads at the end of 2008 in anticipation of a slowdown rather than in reaction.

It was very brave of her. Imagine what an idiot you would feel if the demand stayed flat or increased. As it happens she got it spot on. I expect her to be ready to expand whenever business picks up and will probably sell the business at the next peak and retire.

As for technology - is it time to move out of mass produced Chindian gadgets and into high margin, low volume esoteric devices made in Japan, Britain and Germany?

I hope she is one of the ones able to preserve capital, then later expand rapidly after the carnage. We need business people like her that anticipate instead of just reacting after the fact.

In nations I've been most impressed with the Chinese stimulus plan, 20% of GDP, passed in November, some of the projects have already begun. Wen Jiabao said at Davos the importance of getting out in front of this thing not just reacting.

[aa3]

And if they had, here we go again with HPI. I'm glad they didn't.

In fairness my plan would have been to send it out £1,000 at a time to every citizen. Until demand stabilized in things that never saw massive HPI.

I think we have to be careful about what I call the dynamite option. Ok we've got a serious problem in this society of absurd housing prices and rents.. and it is bringing down the standard of living for most people as housing eats up so much of their income. (which also means they have less to spend thus shrinking the economy).

So we've got a problem and it needs fixing. But a lot here, not neccessarily you seem to support the dynamite option. Yeah if we have an epic deflationary crash.. house prices will crash all right. Down 90% maybe. But we'll also get massive unemployment and massive wage deflation. Eg.. those guys who lost their jobs at Nissan because people can't afford to buy cars anymore.

[OnlyMe]

The high cost of living has shredded personal budgets across the board. This has been creeping up for decades but hurtling forward this last decade.

The low rate dance is the final straw for the one financially liquid sector in the consumption field. Not now.

[aa3]

What a stupid idea -

a) if the government hadn't saved the banks the savers would have lost their money AND

everyone would have to take possession of the £40,000 in cash as their would been no banks!

If I was dear leader I'd insure all accounts too. But besides that if the economy is really moving again people are able to go out and earn the money to pay their debts. Or at least much more likely. Like this guy, if Brits still had money to buy cameras and such his business might even have increased from last year, if enough money was pumped in.

Instead there is a 93% fall, and probably the 4 guys are going to get laid off, with not much chance to find another job. Or if they do find a job it will just bump someone else out anyway. So now those 4 guys might default on whatever debts they have... meaning more losses for the banks.