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Companies That You Expect to Disappear Soon

SteveM70

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I have literally no idea who shops in Dixons or the related brands these days

Huge stores means massive overheads, row upon row of TVs on display (might have worked a decade ago but now I suspect most people have a flat screen TV they are satisfied with)

Indeed. More specifically to them, to a degree they’ve become somewhere people can go and get advice and/or look at stuff, which they then go home and buy cheaper online.

Also, the simple fact is that things like tellies last a lot longer than they used to, so they’re being replaced less often. We’ve had the shift from CRT to flatscreen and those that really want 4K UHD or whatever it’s called are only a subset of the market. I suspect with tellies we’re at the stage now that the marginal (apparent) improvement in quality doesn’t make a new purchase worthwhile.


William Hill to close 119 betting shops

Wonder what odds you could’ve got on that?
 
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DB

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Indeed. More specifically to them, to a degree they’ve become somewhere people can go and get advice and/or look at stuff, which they then go home and buy cheaper online.

Also, the simple fact is that things like tellies last a lot longer than they used to, so they’re being replaced less often. We’ve had the shift from CRT to flatscreen and those that really want 4K UHD or whatever it’s called are only a subset of the market. I suspect with tellies we’re at the stage now that the marginal (apparent) improvement in quality doesn’t make a new purchase worthwhile.

If people go for advice, it's not likely to be very good advice!

As regards things like televisions, I really don't think it's true that they last longer - most modern electronics are designed to break and be uneconomic to repair.
 

SteveM70

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As regards things like televisions, I really don't think it's true that they last longer - most modern electronics are designed to break and be uneconomic to repair

A flat screen TV is intrinsically longer lasting than a CRT one.
 

DB

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A flat screen TV is intrinsically longer lasting than a CRT one.

No, it's not - many CRT ones (and monitors as well) would last for years. There's nothing inherent in an LCD screen which makes it likely to last longer, and build quality is designed so that it doesn't last too long.
 

scotrail158713

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William Hill to close 119 betting shops
I obviously feel for the staff, however I can’t say I’ll be sad to see betting shops go. It’s never something I’ve set foot in, and when you see the sad effects that gambling has on people it’s hard to feel sympathy for the businesses.
 

C J Snarzell

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I obviously feel for the staff, however I can’t say I’ll be sad to see betting shops go. It’s never something I’ve set foot in, and when you see the sad effects that gambling has on people it’s hard to feel sympathy for the businesses.

This goes cap in hand to the mass redundancies sweeping the country. The knock on effect is people won't have the disposable income to gamble with.

CJ
 

Trackman

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WHS has got so bad (other than the motorway services ones, which are the same only really in name) that I have no idea how it's still going anyway.

I remember when that one was a John Menzies! :)

They must have been doing something right, they made £155m profit last year, now it's at £70-75m loss for the year ending this August.
At least they separated Smiths News a few years back.
 

Darandio

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They must have been doing something right, they made £155m profit last year, now it's at £70-75m loss for the year ending this August.
At least they separated Smiths News a few years back.

Surely that's mainly down to the eye watering prices at their transport outlets and the increased price gouging at hospitals? I certainly cannot see how they can turn a profit simply from their high street stores.
 

si404

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Surely that's mainly down to the eye watering prices at their transport outlets and the increased price gouging at hospitals?
Any company whose main profitable markets are travellers (esp rail and air) and hospital visitors will have been hit incredibly hard by COVID. Even as stuff continues to opens up, people won't be buying papers/snacks at stations or airports in large numbers, and visiting hospitals is not going to happen anytime soon.
 

Darandio

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Any company whose main profitable markets are travellers (esp rail and air) and hospital visitors will have been hit incredibly hard by COVID. Even as stuff continues to opens up, people won't be buying papers/snacks at stations or airports in large numbers, and visiting hospitals is not going to happen anytime soon.

Indeed, it therefore makes you wonder how much that side was propping up the high street side. Is there a figure breakdown anywhere that shows this?
 

C J Snarzell

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Many central Post Offices have closed their doors and decamped inside of WHS - Wigan, Lancaster & York to name but a few.

It would seem very unlikely these 'partnership' stores will go as the PO is still a necessity in towns & cities, even if the smaller PO branches are disappearing from villages & suburbs.

My feeling is that WHS will ditch their smaller outlets which maybe will be taken over by a tradition convenience chain like McColls or Spar.

CJ
 

SteveM70

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If i'm reading that correctly i'm staggered.

I think you are, and I was too

Every high street branch of Smiths I can think of is to some degree or other run down, dingy, and understaffed.

I don’t think they sell anything you can pay less for in a nicer environment somewhere else
 

Darandio

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I think you are, and I was too

Every high street branch of Smiths I can think of is to some degree or other run down, dingy, and understaffed.

I don’t think they sell anything you can pay less for in a nicer environment somewhere else

If I didn't pop in the Post Office occasionally I wouldn't have a clue what they sell any more. It's impossible to tell by looking from outside, there has been a continuous supply of 'on offer' Sharpie gift packs blocking the windows for at least 18 months now.
 

C J Snarzell

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WHSmiths celebrated 225 years in business in 2017. Makes you wonder if they will survive for their 250th birthday.

CJ
 

Ostrich

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Every high street branch of Smiths I can think of is to some degree or other run down, dingy, and understaffed.

I don’t think they sell anything you can pay less for in a nicer environment somewhere else

I can't do anything other than agree, you've summed up the Smiths branch in my nearby town very accurately. I've used it in the past to source both books and stationery but in the last couple of years or so, their hardback and paperback fiction selection has contracted to the extent that the second-hand Oxfam bookshop in town has become a better bet for a browse and purchase, and the final straw was when Smiths tried to bill me £42 for a printer ink cartridge pack that my local independent computer repair / supplies shop had previous charged me less than £20 for ..... :frown:

I would be sorry to see them close and create yet another unwanted hole in the High Street, but they really do seem to have lost their way.
 

Ianigsy

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I agree with the general consensus that WHS has lost its way and it's hard to see what's left to focus on that somebody else isn't doing better or cheaper.

Part of the problem across all businesses is that modern business theory doesn't seem to countenance the idea of accepting that your business doesn't have a future in anything other than the immediate term and winding down in a managed and orderly way. You either keep going until you run out of money or sell out to the asset strippers.
 

C J Snarzell

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The only time I venture into my WHS branch is to purchase a monthly magazine that I cannot find on the shelves in a local newsagent.

There is a WHS in the M56 services at Helsby, Cheshire - this is perhaps one of their stores that will survive the cull. The roads are more or less back to normal and people are more likely to travel by road these days than use a train for long distance travel.

CJ
 

richw

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My feeling is that WHS will ditch their smaller outlets which maybe will be taken over by a tradition convenience chain like McColls or Spar.
The smaller stores round here feature post offices and are franchises and not company owned. Assuming they will survive as long as the franchisee. They’re no more than oversized newsagents in honesty, but always appear busy. If I need some stationary quickly and need a specific item they are the first place I head to rather than searching other places.
 

37424

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No, it's not - many CRT ones (and monitors as well) would last for years. There's nothing inherent in an LCD screen which makes it likely to last longer, and build quality is designed so that it doesn't last too long.

I'm not so sure about that certainly I think a lot of the early LCD last I have a 32" Samsung which is now 13 years old and works fine, a relative has a 12 year old one still as their main TV, and at a School I worked for until recently still had some LCD Monitors that were up to 15 years old.

Judging by the number of TV's that go out of the door of the retail company I work for there is still substancial demand for TV's.

WHS I can see their convenience element stores surviving but I don't see much purpose for their bigger stores except the ones with a post office in.
 
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scotrail158713

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There is a WHS in the M56 services at Helsby, Cheshire - this is perhaps one of their stores that will survive the cull. The roads are more or less back to normal and people are more likely to travel by road these days than use a train for long distance travel.
I’d agree. Their motorway service station shops will do alright just now however the shops in railway stations in particular will struggle. (There’s something wrong with people thinking but I believe they’ll more happily go back to flying before train travel, so airport shops won’t struggle as much)
 

WelshBluebird

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I'm not so sure about that certainly I think a lot of the early LCD last I have a 32" Samsung which is now 13 years old and works fine, a relative has a 12 year old one still as their main TV, and at a School I worked for until recently still had some LCD Monitors that were up to 15 years old.

Certainly the older CRT's lasted for decades though. Its the newer ones that were less well built. Flat panels are probably better than the more recent CRT's, but in terms of built quality can't touch older CRT's. The old school CRT my Gran had lasted at least 30 odd years, and the one my parents had before getting a newer widescreen one lasted at least 20 (whereas the newer widescreen CRT they got lasted less than 10).

The issue going forward from now in terms of TV's will be software support with Smart TV's. You are already seeing models just a few years old lose support for some of their major features, and whilst you can usually just plug in a Fire TV stick or similar and just use that, it does make you question what it will be like in a few more years. I expect it will end up like what we have with older smartphones, where not only do they start to lose features, but they also become slow and unresponsive and a potential security risk.
 

Peter Sarf

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I would never seek to dismiss or even downplay the anxiety and economic impact that employees might face, but the point is that the whole sector has been spiralling towards this for years, and thousands have already lost their jobs over the past few, with 'the system' still steaming on and those folks being given little to no specific support when they're on the receiving end of another CVA.

This sudden acceleration in the trend does shine a spotlight on the unsustainability of the whole commercial rental property and venture capital/fund managed/investment backed 'concepts' in retail and hospitality, especially in shopping centres. If that means that the folks at the sharp end do get some support to get through the inevitable, because the scale of the problem can no longer be ignored, then that may be a small upside.



This is part of the problem with these types of places.

They're perceived as pricey by a large proportion of the popoulation, but not special enough by another large proportion to be an everyday choice. There are not enough people to patronise these places say, once a month, for a special treat, when there are so many of these places vying for business. Their rents and often the locations that they operate in mean that they must be open seven days a week, often 365 days a year, so they absolutely must drive custom way beyond the special occasion. To try and do so, they're the ones who have dumped '2-4-1' type vouchers into the market for quiet time dining, which then serves to dilute the proposition when trying to charge full price at busier times.

As an aside, this is likely to be a problem with the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, too. A proportion of folks won't pay £20 on a Thursday for what was £10 on a Wednesday, so the effect is diluted.

My hope is that, at the end of this, local and more independent, privately owned and perhaps more freehold restaurants and cafes can find themselves doing far better, working on a more level playing field without the likes of Pizza Express with unsustainable institutional support covering £1.6m of debt per restaurant being (I'd argue) unfair competition down the road. They'll also employ more people per £ of spend (small independents almost always do) and some of those spat out by the chains find better employment with them as a result.

Remember that fifty years ago most people NEVER ate out, they used to cook. Perhaps we are going back to how things were with less disposable income. Our economy is based on people buying things they really do not essentially need.

A flat screen TV is intrinsically longer lasting than a CRT one.



Certainly the older CRT's lasted for decades though. Its the newer ones that were less well built. Flat panels are probably better than the more recent CRT's, but in terms of built quality can't touch older CRT's. The old school CRT my Gran had lasted at least 30 odd years, and the one my parents had before getting a newer widescreen one lasted at least 20 (whereas the newer widescreen CRT they got lasted less than 10).

The issue going forward from now in terms of TV's will be software support with Smart TV's. You are already seeing models just a few years old lose support for some of their major features, and whilst you can usually just plug in a Fire TV stick or similar and just use that, it does make you question what it will be like in a few more years. I expect it will end up like what we have with older smartphones, where not only do they start to lose features, but they also become slow and unresponsive and a potential security risk.

I agree CRT was generally reliable. But it does depend on brand. Panasonic and Toshiba were reliable and still are for flat screens as far as I know. Other cheaper brands, of which there are now more are a lot worse. Not just in the case of TVs.

I used to buy ex-rental CRTs. Particularly god when wide screen came along as the standard ones became un-rent-able. They were good for small houses where a wider box was too much in the room. there was a letter box setting for wide screen broadcasts. It is amazing how much space a removed CRT frees up though !.

For people to buy a product it has to have a new feature worth having. Widescreen, followed by flat screen, followed by built in free view (lost on me as a separate box was fine), followed by internet ability. All the time boosted by bigger and bigger - but thinner !.

As for becoming unable to cope. I witnessed freeview receivers failing to cope with more and more channels.

As an aside no one buys other periphery's for the TV. Gone are sales of video recorders, DVD players/recorders and separate freeview boxes.

Although I am eyeing up a PVR so I can miss all those adverts. Thing is I will inevitably buy it online and rely on "Which" magazines' reports and reliability figures. Then backed up with peoples reviews of the products - which are not too promising I am afraid (it looks like a two year life is all I can expect).

I obviously feel for the staff, however I can’t say I’ll be sad to see betting shops go. It’s never something I’ve set foot in, and when you see the sad effects that gambling has on people it’s hard to feel sympathy for the businesses.

Gambling is a filthy parasitic industry preying on the gullible. It kills people - I should now. However there is plenty of underground gambling to replace the high street gambling I am afraid.
 

DB

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Remember that fifty years ago most people NEVER ate out, they used to cook. Perhaps we are going back to how things were with less disposable income. Our economy is based on people buying things they really do not essentially need.

THe trouble is, in that time the economy of this country has been heavily realigned to retail and services, so if this happens suddenly rather than gradually it's going to cause massive unemployment.
 

37424

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THe trouble is, in that time the economy of this country has been heavily realigned to retail and services, so if this happens suddenly rather than gradually it's going to cause massive unemployment.
Our Manufacturing GDP is a disgrace at the side of Germany considering we used to be major manufacturers, its even worse than Italy now, plus a potential no deal could be a double whammy as it likely affect sectors that been less affected by the virus more such as Manufacturing/Food and Agriculture.

For a while in Hospitality there has been too many business chasing too few customers and this has just made it a whole lot worse, and the writing has been on the wall for retail and the high street for some time, but as you say rather than it happening gradually it going to come in a big lump.

Some people talk about working from home as if its something new but it isn't I worked occasionally from home 15 years ago it was more practical from around 2013 when fibre to cabinet broadband arrived, but I think a number of companies in this country were slow to adopt, but now having seen potential advantages the consequences for those businesses that are dependent on office footfall are clearly not going to be good, and potentially another big lump of unemployment.
 

Busaholic

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Remember that fifty years ago most people NEVER ate out, they used to cook. Perhaps we are going back to how things were with less disposable income. Our economy is based on people buying things they really do not essentially need.










Gambling is a filthy parasitic industry preying on the gullible. It kills people - I should now. However there is plenty of underground gambling to replace the high street gambling I am afraid.
My parents were middle class, and we lived in London. We NEVER EVER ate out, even on annual holiday, when all your meals were supplied in the guest house. I do remember once being taken by my grandfather for lunch in the local department store, as a special treat for something or other.

Gambling is as you say - I worked very briefly as a croupier in a casino when I was desperate for cash, and it was well-paid. I hated every minute and left without notice at the earliest possible opportunity. One of the conditions of gaining a Gaming Licence was that I was then never allowed to enter a casino in this country as a 'punter', which was how the customers were derogatively described. No need for that, I'd never be tempted. The son of a good friend lost his marriage due to his online betting habit.
 

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