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Companies That You Expect to Disappear Soon

sprunt

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22 Jul 2017
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Pretty poor management systems that would penalise a manager for a return/replacement arising from a sale in a different store/online.

I agree that it would be poor management, but sadly that doesn't make me believe any less that it's the case.
 
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Tetchytyke

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Pretty poor management systems that would penalise a manager for a return/replacement arising from a sale in a different store/online.

It's fairly common though. My sister's been a retail manager for years but has just qualified as a secondary school teacher. Teenagers and OFSTED are less capricious :lol:
 

Bobdogs

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19 Dec 2017
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Carmarthenshire
Re: Greasy spoons. The greasy spoon in my local town was always full and you would often have to wait for a free table. It has been taken over by a vegan company. When I walk past now on the way to the local burger van there's never more than 2 or 3 people in there. I live near a small town in West Wales and we have a regular turnaround of townies with big ideas coming in and open "arty fatty" art and craft shops. They don't last long. No market research. I remember speaking to a man from the Midlands who said he was going to pull the punters in by buying a village shop and charging 1p for a bottle of milk. I told him "they'll drop in buy the milk on the way to the local supermarket".
. You have to be really clever to succeed in retail, you can't expect to just open a shop and the public will flock in.
 

michaelh

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23 Jun 2007
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Worcestershire
WHS in Droitwich is always pretty much deserted. There are only ever a couple of staff on but with two lots of doors at opposite ends of the shop, I'm sure there must be a serious level of shoplifting. They have at least repaired the roof, so it's no longer festooned with buckets every time it rains heavily but I cannot see how it can be profitable - even at their extortionate prices.

Before anyone asks, I only go in to read the railway press for free!
 

ComUtoR

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Re: Greasy spoons. The greasy spoon in my local town was always full and you would often have to wait for a free table. It has been taken over by a vegan company.

You could have the busiest restaurant in the world but it you aren't balancing the books then your going to go out of business.
 

Darandio

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Redcar
All greasy spoons are owned by someone called Kath, she has to retire at some point.
 

Peter Mugridge

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Epsom
I wonder how secure the future of Urban Student Life Limited is after the well publicised event, namely a major cladding fire, involving a building they own in Bolton, given that they had already had what is described as a rare suspension from the National Code of Providers for breaches of buildings regulations and malpractice?


https://www.nus.org.uk/en/news/pres...suspended-from-national-code-for-malpractice/

Urban Student Life (USL) was suspended for a year from the Code for Non-Educational Establishments by the Codes Full Tribunal. The suspension applies to all accommodation USL provides across the UK, including in Canterbury, Chester, Leicester, Liverpool and Nottingham. Such a suspension is very rare, and this is only the third time the tribunal has met.

The tribunal upheld a complaint about USL’s development Asquith House in Leeds, where students lived in hotel accommodation for 11 weeks after the date they were due to move in. The company then failed to act quickly enough to provide compensation and, once the building was complete, provide any fire safety guidance. In total, USL breached five parts of the National Code.

The National Code is operated by the Accreditation Network UK, which promotes voluntary schemes designed for landlords, Unipol, a not-for profit student housing charity, and the National Union of Students (NUS).

Following the tribunal’s ruling, Leeds City Council sent the Fire Authority to inspect the building, and has decided it is still not fit for use. The tenants who were due to move in are now required to find alternative accommodation, which local students’ unions advice teams have been supporting students with.
 

tbtc

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Eddie Stobart? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/busines...heaMmuVh7uLYqhxFEVUH6T1Su291pG3kQDR07Tg6MeE0o

Scandal-hit trucking firm Eddie Stobart Logistics has been forced to accept an emergency high-interest loan to avoid a collapse before Christmas that would put more than 6,500 jobs at risk.

The firm is taking a £55m loan from investment firm Dbay Advisors - with interest charged at an initial rate of 25pc. The deal will give Dbay a majority stake in the company, saddling existing shareholders with massive losses.

The cash injection came after Eddie Stobart’s banks refused to lend it more money, as it grapples with a multimillion-pound accounting black hole.

One insider said: “If the deal doesn’t happen extremely soon, it could be curtains."

Eddie Stobart has been racing to finalise its accounts...

<< given how tight margins are in the freight world, and how much more complicated/slow things may be if we leave the EU, this could be an interesting one to watch

I wonder how secure the future of Urban Student Life Limited is after the well publicised event, namely a major cladding fire, involving a building they own in Bolton, given that they had already had what is described as a rare suspension from the National Code of Providers for breaches of buildings regulations and malpractice?


https://www.nus.org.uk/en/news/pres...suspended-from-national-code-for-malpractice/

There seems to be a few of these organisations owning thousands of new-build Student flats that have cropped up in big cities - I'm not sure how secure the
 

Bald Rick

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Eddie Stobart? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/busines...heaMmuVh7uLYqhxFEVUH6T1Su291pG3kQDR07Tg6MeE0o



<< given how tight margins are in the freight world, and how much more complicated/slow things may be if we leave the EU, this could be an interesting one to watch

Eddie Stobart Logistics (the lorry firm) is on the blocks for sale with a few interested parties. A private equity firm has made a bid, but it includes a loan with, to quote the FT, ‘an eye watering interest rate’ (25% now, reducing to 18% when the deal is concluded).

Wincanton are also conducting due diligence; they decided whether to bid (or not) yesterday but nothing has been made public. If I was an Eddie Stobart shareholder I’d wait to see what Wincanton have to offer, as they are a good firm with a great top team.
 

Alanko

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Laura Ashley, in my opinion. The Edinburgh store is a bit of a mess. Harsh lighting, high ceilings, worn out fixtures and fittings and water coming into the room at the back. The last time I was in they had tables set out with random tacky trinkets set out, like you might see in a charity shop. Not the sort of environment conducive for spending a lot of money, really. I spy the Glasgow store sometimes when I walk past, and it looks to be fairly similar.

You can get a lot of the same tat from Next Home or even, gasp, retailers like Asda and Sainsbury's these days, but without the eye-watering markup.

Anybody I speak to about the place always says "buy X, but wait until Laura Ashley have a sale on". I remember picking around the BHS closing-down sale during their dying days and feeling a similar atmosphere. I was surprised at the cost of the tat they were selling, even with a 60% discount! Grubby shop, disinterested staff, questionable quality products and a horrible price tag!
 

michaelh

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Laura Ashley, in my opinion. The Edinburgh store is a bit of a mess. Harsh lighting, high ceilings, worn out fixtures and fittings and water coming into the room at the back. The last time I was in they had tables set out with random tacky trinkets set out, like you might see in a charity shop. Not the sort of environment conducive for spending a lot of money, really. I spy the Glasgow store sometimes when I walk past, and it looks to be fairly similar.

You can get a lot of the same tat from Next Home or even, gasp, retailers like Asda and Sainsbury's these days, but without the eye-watering markup.

Anybody I speak to about the place always says "buy X, but wait until Laura Ashley have a sale on". I remember picking around the BHS closing-down sale during their dying days and feeling a similar atmosphere. I was surprised at the cost of the tat they were selling, even with a 60% discount! Grubby shop, disinterested staff, questionable quality products and a horrible price tag!


That pretty much sums up both HoF and Debenhams in Worcester. I expect that both of them will close after Christmas.

I wonder too, about M & S in Worcester - it's a very large store - doubled in size when Woolworth's next door closed down and M & S took the store over and knocked them into one. The clothes floors are always semi deserted whenever I go in and even the food hall isn't particularly busy
 

ComUtoR

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https://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/in-bus...brits-test-instore-and-go-to-purchase-online/

New research reveals that bricks and mortar stores are losing out on over £18 billion in sales each year as consumers find products instore, before leaving and purchasing online.
With over half of Brits admitting to browsing a product instore before purchasing online, high-street stores have a fight on their hands to convert showrooming consumers into instore sales.

The findings from leading retail job board RetailChoice have revealed that while one third of us are showrooming once a month, one in ten of us are doing so once a week. With the average consumer having spent £467 through showrooming in the last year and over half stating they enjoy browsing products instore, even with no intention to buy, there’s lots to be gained by retailers who can encourage those potential buyers to make instore purchases.

I went shopping yesterday and done plenty of 'showrooming' I need a new laptop and went into John Lewis. I've checked online and they have it at a reasonable price. They didn't have it in store and although I was offered a price match if it went down on Black Friday, I still left a little disappointed. They could have offered to order it in, check if a store had one in stock, had a wider range in store, offered an alternative. I asked the assistant about a Thunderbolt 3 port and suffice to say that didn't go well either.
 

Alanko

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That pretty much sums up both HoF and Debenhams in Worcester. I expect that both of them will close after Christmas.

Indeed! There is a big Debenhams in Ocean Terminal in Edinburgh that I feel won't be with us for ever. The area it occupies is too large for the shop, so they've stuffed a dingy Costa in there to plug the gaps. the men's clothing section is awash with dowdy beige and brown clothing, usually cut in an unflattering, utilitarian manner. I can buy better, cheaper clothes from Asda!

The cosmetics section is apparently no better; a scant selection of products and brands, worn out testers and disinterested staff.

In fact, disinterested staff summed up my Laura Ashley experience as well. I'm looking to repaint much of my house, and I know a few people who bought all their paint from LA (when there was a sale on!). We went to look at the paint range, and the woman tending to the paints both ignored us and acted as though we were inconveniencing her in some capacity by trying to get to the paint swatches while she was adjusting the pots.

It seems that a few of these retailers are dining out on their pre-Internet success. I don't buy clothing or paint over the Internet; I need to see these products in the flesh. I'm not paying vastly over the odds for inferior products, or going to go the extra mile to gain the attention of shop staff, simply because the shop had a good reputation back in 2001.
 

Darandio

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Redcar
I might be an old git, but I wouldn't be seen dead in brown or beige :lol:

It doesn't happen automatically then? I thought it was a bit like the menopause where we just gravitate to looking for and wearing beige clothing, maybe you just haven't got to that point yet?
 

Busaholic

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It doesn't happen automatically then? I thought it was a bit like the menopause where we just gravitate to looking for and wearing beige clothing, maybe you just haven't got to that point yet?
I used to wear beige occasionally when I was younger, hard though I find it to admit it now!
 

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