Blood Bath In January For Some Retailers

[SNACR]

You can't beat a good book made from paper - I suspect they will be around for several hundred years to come. Flicking through the books, turning pages, turning down age corners, underlining parts of the text, quickly referencing the index and then flicking to the page you want, user friendly whether sat down or lying down or stood in a queue.

Also very tactile - for many of us being in contact with the paper pages of a book is perhaps the only contact we still have with Mother Nature.

On the shop closing front I noticed some trendy shoe shop in Swansea's main shopping centre called Quebe(?)or something was closed today. All the stock was still visible through the windows, people stood outside looking confused and there was a handwritten piece of A4 on the doot saying that it had closed with immediate affect and that returned shoes could be sent somewhere.

Noticed a few other empty shops in the town also.

Qube is part of JJB. In the trade press today that they have cut about half a dozen branches loose including Swansea. Looks like JJB are well into a death spiral.

[The 4 Horsemen]

I've not been shopping in the high street for years, so i'm just wondering how Rumbelows are doing?

[debt_scared]

Maybe the high street itself will be the victim. Expensive and inconveient for both the retailers and the consumers relative to either out-of-town shopping centres or the net.

For a long time McDonalds have made more money through their property arm than by cooking burgers, could they be finished off by the property downturn? I doubt it, but some of the mid-range food chains like Nando's and Pizza Express may find themselves hard squeezed.

[The Masked Tulip]

Qube is part of JJB. In the trade press today that they have cut about half a dozen branches loose including Swansea. Looks like JJB are well into a death spiral.

Only been in there once. I felt very old and out of touch as the shoes looked, IMPO, ridiculous and over-priced.

[uptherebels]

Only been in there once. I felt very old and out of touch as the shoes looked, IMPO, ridiculous and over-priced.

Yep. That's old and out of touch alright

I feel like that every time I go into town

[Ash4781]

Only been in there once. I felt very old and out of touch as the shoes looked, IMPO, ridiculous and over-priced.

shoe trainers for clubbing

[pepsi]

Thanks for the insights "Soon not a Chain store".

It's been a long time since I had any business in the retail sector, but I'd be surprised if River Island or Clintons had problems - unless they've been tempted into the "dark side" of debt. They were very much "cash" businesses when I had anything to do with them.

Anything with a Icelandic owner will probably go.

The other issue for the electronics / computer / photography retailers will be the costs of re-stocking with the current value of the pound. I say that as I'm tracking the price of a very specific camera my wife needs - trying to get the timing right. It continues to go lower... until the current stock goes, but later in the year I'm sure it will go up.

As with house repossessions the banks that get in early will probably get the most back. So I'm sure there will be a temptation to pull the plug early (plus most of the value in retail is generated now), so there is more money to get back now.

[BigBlue]

Noticed in Lincoln this afternoon that JJB Sport have "Closing Down Sale" notices plastered all over their windows...

Saw similar on the way past the one in Cheltenham. 'All stock must go' plastered all over the windows.

[Wad]

Argos - not been doing that well anyway, so may be in trouble by second half of the year.

Not sure about that. TBH Argos was the only shop I have been in before Xmas that actually had a queue.

They are not cheaper than anywhere else but if I want something that is a standard purchase without going and ordering it over the internet then Argos is always the place I try first. I just cannot be bothered searching along teh shelves in four other shops first. Better to just go and stab the item into the Argos machine and shove in the credit card.

Agree wth a lot of your other suggestions though - I have noticed that almost all the coffee chains I have been going in lately have hardly anyone sitting down. Lots of people are now just popping in for a takeout if they are going in at all. In a place like North Oxford the 'coffee culture' took off but it really does seem to to have died on its feet in teh last few months.

I would also add 'juice bars' and 'nail bars' and 'internet cafes' and 'hairdressers'as being typical small businesses that are already and will contineu to close in their thousands across the economy.

[blankster]

Not a retailer, not British, but I gleaned from an excerpt in 'The Week' that the car manufacturer Fiat is looking for partnership deals otherwise its survival is in question.

[the-sign-jacker]

before anyone tries to say - the high street is suffering because of people shopping online. they are NOT.

online sales and high street sales have always had a balance. this year BOTH sets of retailers have had a disaster.

some of my clients are going to go under in jan-march. its a fact. some have overstocked in october and didnt see it coming have seen sales down almost 70-90% depending on price of product sold.

i work in IT on online shopping systems and can see ALL orders taken from client hosts.

they ALL did incredibly badly. very badly and some are becoming elusive to contact.

from all the gossip between the online retailers its clear some big online names are going down.

its been total carnage. thats what makes me laugh about the news regarding retail.

they are attempting an online smokescreen. believe me, its a smokescreen.

they also got a kick in the nuts too.

[Lander]

Re Halfrauds, they mostly stock the same products that can be bought at motor factors for significantly less money. And their bikes are cheap, and low spec that fall to bits if you ride them on anything more challenging than a canal tow-path. Does anyone know how much debt they are carrying?

[Swipe]

+1 on Halfords. Unless you are after a cheap and nasty mountain bike forget it. I recently went in there after a tub of all purpose grease and walked straight back out again when the assistant led me to to a shelf where it was priced up at £5.

[Saving For a Space Ship]

before anyone tries to say - the high street is suffering because of people shopping online. they are NOT.

online sales and high street sales have always had a balance. this year BOTH sets of retailers have had a disaster.

some of my clients are going to go under in jan-march. its a fact. some have overstocked in october and didnt see it coming have seen sales down almost 70-90% depending on price of product sold.

i work in IT on online shopping systems and can see ALL orders taken from client hosts.

they ALL did incredibly badly. very badly and some are becoming elusive to contact.

from all the gossip between the online retailers its clear some big online names are going down.

its been total carnage. thats what makes me laugh about the news regarding retail.

they are attempting an online smokescreen. believe me, its a smokescreen.

they also got a kick in the nuts too.

Thanks for that. Perhaps we should be theorizing on who (I appreciate you probably can't) .

I was viewing the ebay.co.uk powersellers forum the other day. Many of the big dvd sellers were being supplied by the Woolworths part-owned supplier EUK, so were affected. Some of the ebayers were talking of trying to sell their businesses.

Relevant article: - 'EUK & Woolworths to impact DVD sales on eBay'

http://www.tamebay.com/2008/11/euk-woolwor...es-on-ebay.html

Edit: also Amazon.co.uk offering free shipping at sales of £5+ instead of previously £15+ appears to have hammered the used & new goods sellers at Amazon.co.uk marketplace (according to their forums)

Edited December 26, 2008 by Saving For a Space Ship

[HenryWeston]

Woolworth

Jessups

Boots (May be)

Halfords (Cars are well built these days)

Any more

Oh Yes M&S (BLoody expensive!)......get their ass kicked!

Mike

The boby etc may be well built but its the over complex electronics that let them down.

[the-sign-jacker]

Thanks for that. Perhaps we should be theorizing on who (I appreciate you probably can't) .

I was viewing the ebay.co.uk powersellers forum the other day. Many of the big dvd sellers were being supplied by the Woolworths part-owned supplier EUK, so were affected. Some of the ebayers were talking of trying to sell their businesses.

Relevant article: - 'EUK & Woolworths to impact DVD sales on eBay'

http://www.tamebay.com/2008/11/euk-woolwor...es-on-ebay.html

Edit: also Amazon.co.uk offering free shipping at sales of £5+ instead of previously £15+ appears to have hammered the used & new goods sellers at Amazon.co.uk marketplace (according to their forums)

a key thing about retailing in the uk is that since they bought the stock in 08, import prices have since then rocketed. once this stock goes, the next set of stock will cost at least 25% more. they will either fold or try to sell inflated products to maxed out unemployed consumers. the high street and internet sites will be a ghost town. even this christmas its been a ghost town.

its a disaster. thats why we are unable to join the euro

Edited December 26, 2008 by the-sign-jacker

[ajay]

a key thing about retailing in the uk is that since they bought the stock in 08, import prices have since then rocketed. once this stock goes, the next set of stock will cost at least 25% more. they will either fold or try to sell inflated products to maxed out unemployed consumers. the high street and internet sites will be a ghost town. even this christmas its been a ghost town.

its a disaster. thats why we are unable to join the euro

When do you think prices will start to go up and what sort of percentage do you estimate, one of the laptops i was watching was a dell which has gone up by £20 in the last week was expecting it to fall.

Edited December 26, 2008 by goldman

[Not Long Now]

I did nip into the sales at the Fort in Birmingham earlier.

Pretty busy...didn't go into most shops (couldn't be arsed), but HMV was busy....but they were knocking out DVD's at £3 a pop.

Popped next door into WHSmith.

My god.

Dead. Nobody at all in there.

[Spoony]

Coventry already does. They should just go the whole hog and demolish the increasingly redundant post-war shopping precinct and replace it with some parkland, flower beds and trees.

Agreed. Coventry is a dump. I should know I used to work there and couldn't wait to leave. If it were nuked it would do everyone a favour. Living in Coventry depressed me.

The thing is about the last depression compared to this one, is that there were no such things as online shops then. I think online shops are going to put physical shops out of business.

Edited December 26, 2008 by Spoony

[Walton Goggins]

from all the gossip between the online retailers its clear some big online names are going down.

its been total carnage. thats what makes me laugh about the news regarding retail.

they are attempting an online smokescreen. believe me, its a smokescreen.

they also got a kick in the nuts too.

There seems to be a belief amongst " shoppers " interviewed for BBC /ITV/SKY news vox-pops that online is where you find the best bargains because " they " can afford to sell 30% or 40% below high street prices as their overheads are much less.

What many don't realise ( or care about ) is the fact that the online companies are often the very same companies behind operating the high street stores. This applies to large multiples and small independents alike.

The idea of multi-channel retailing is flawed, shoppers simply use the high street and the online to research then buy from the lowest price. So in fact the online sellers often carry the huge overheads AND sell at the typical 30%/40% discount. This business model is wiping out their profit margins, one only has to look at yoy figures for certain electrical retailers to see that as they have migrated from high street to online their balance sheet has weakened enormously - they ate themselves.

Edited December 26, 2008 by Walton Goggins

[OnlyMe]

Agree the the-sign-jacker, there are going to be hits all over the place, online as well. The reality is that nothing like the amount of consumer supply (in terms of outlets) can be carried by anything like normal spending levels. The spending levels of the last 10 years have been fake, built on borrowing, worse that borrowing is now going to cripple expenditure, whatever the rates because falsifying the interest rate market will scupper expenditure from those who have savings.

Also agree on what happens when re-supply comes, many of the retailers are just clearing the deck of crap or converting old stock into cash. The consumer won;t have the stomach for the pricing of the new goods imported following the collapse of the pound and the retailers won't have the purchasing power to buy in enough bulk to sanitise the cost increases (they will of course still have their absurd running costs, which in themselves with falling turnover would require ever higher pricing to cover). Some retailers will still do well, they will be the survivors, many won't.

Ebags, the first one I stumbled across.

http://www.ebags.co.uk/

Edited December 26, 2008 by OnlyMe

[Little Professor]

When do you think prices will start to go up and what sort of percentage do you estimate, one of the laptops i was watching was a dell which has gone up by £20 in the last week was expecting it to fall.

They've already started going up - been on the lookout for new computer parts, and CPUs, RAM and motherboards have all gone up significantly over the last 2 weeks.

[The Masked Tulip]

It is self-fulfilling now - low pound will see price rises. How long before there are demands for IRs to go up to strengthen the pound so that retailers can buy in goods cheaply and stay alive?

[Spoony]

I've not been shopping in the high street for years, so i'm just wondering how Rumbelows are doing?

Not sure, theres a lot of competition out there from the likes of D.E.R. and Radio Rentals, who incidentally do not rent radios, they only rent TVs, what a silly name in this day and age!

[laurejon]

PC World

DFS Sofas

Boots

Halfords

B&Q

Next

Abbey National