Companies That You Expect to Disappear Soon

[DelayRepay]

Also interesting to note that the slump even seems to be affecting companies like Amazon who have enjoyed strong growth for decades up to now, with them reported to be laying of workers and their share price having dropped 40%.

This doesn't surprise me. I used Amazon a lot over the last few years for convenience because I mostly worked from home. Now I'm back in the office more often, I tend to use real shops (which are near where I work so I can park for free).

Also, a lot of what I bought on Amazon was things I wanted rather than needed. If my budget was squeezed, most of the Amazon purchases, plus the Prime subscription, would be the first to go.

 

[trebor79]

This doesn't surprise me. I used Amazon a lot over the last few years for convenience because I mostly worked from home. Now I'm back in the office more often, I tend to use real shops (which are near where I work so I can park for free).

Also, a lot of what I bought on Amazon was things I wanted rather than needed. If my budget was squeezed, most of the Amazon purchases, plus the Prime subscription, would be the first to go.

Amazon sell a lot of tat, and it's difficult to tell exactly what you're buying or from whom. Lots of illegal non CE/UKCA marked stuff.
I avoid Amazon.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Amazon sell a lot of tat, and it's difficult to tell exactly what you're buying or from whom. Lots of illegal non CE/UKCA marked stuff.
I avoid Amazon.

Indeed. I have seldom used amazon. I cling on to face to face retail but next I prefer eBay to amazon. It seems to me amazon are not cheap and sometimes the product selected drifts away from what I was aiming for.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Indeed. I have seldom used amazon. I cling on to face to face retail but next I prefer eBay to amazon. It seems to me amazon are not cheap and sometimes the product selected drifts away from what I was aiming for.

Amazon aren't as good as they were due to the flooding of their listings with cheap Chinese tat. If I wanted that there's Aliexpress.com.

However, what Amazon do do, if I buy direct from them, is guarantee the avoidance of the execrable Evri/Hermes, which means I still do. It's just more effort to filter out the tat than it was. I've just had an Ebay seller lie to me that they'd use Royal Mail and actually use Hermes (negative feedback forthcoming). The trouble is that so many small businesses (which are what fill Ebay's offering) simply cannot be trusted.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Amazon aren't as good as they were due to the flooding of their listings with cheap Chinese tat. If I wanted that there's Aliexpress.com.

However, what Amazon do do, if I buy direct from them, is guarantee the avoidance of the execrable Evri/Hermes, which means I still do. It's just more effort to filter out the tat than it was. I've just had an Ebay seller lie to me that they'd use Royal Mail and actually use Hermes (negative feedback forthcoming). The trouble is that so many small businesses (which are what fill Ebay's offering) simply cannot be trusted.

I remember experiencing Hermes delivery - I remember to avoid them.

 

[trebor79]

Indeed. I have seldom used amazon. I cling on to face to face retail but next I prefer eBay to amazon. It seems to me amazon are not cheap and sometimes the product selected drifts away from what I was aiming for.

I'd forgotten that they can be very expensive too.

Amazon aren't as good as they were due to the flooding of their listings with cheap Chinese tat. If I wanted that there's Aliexpress.com.

However, what Amazon do do, if I buy direct from them, is guarantee the avoidance of the execrable Evri/Hermes, which means I still do. It's just more effort to filter out the tat than it was. I've just had an Ebay seller lie to me that they'd use Royal Mail and actually use Hermes (negative feedback forthcoming). The trouble is that so many small businesses (which are what fill Ebay's offering) simply cannot be trusted.

Hermes are sometimes OK. It depends on who actually does your local delivery round - ours is OK.
That said, I hate them with a passion still. It's over a decade ago but I used to live a few doors down from someone who ran some kind of Hermes hub. Every weekday morning from 6am people pulling up in cars, standing around chatting. laughing etc waiting for the lorry to rock up, then chaos and noise as the packages were stuffed into their cars.

 

[Broucek]

However, what Amazon do do, if I buy direct from them, is guarantee the avoidance of the execrable Evri/Hermes, which means I still do. It's just more effort to filter out the tat than it was. I've just had an Ebay seller lie to me that they'd use Royal Mail and actually use Hermes (negative feedback forthcoming). The trouble is that so many small businesses (which are what fill Ebay's offering) simply cannot be trusted.

I HATE Herpes. I have a locker 30 seconds from my house. It never works. One time, their driver came to my house with the product which he was NOT ALLOWED TO GIVE ME. Took it to the locker and I then couldn't get in. And their (end) customer service is literally non-existent - you have to go to the vendor

 

[Cowley]

I think we’re meant to be discussing companies that may be going out of business, not parcel delivery firms/eBay/Amazon etc…

 

[jon0844]

Anyone mentioned Twitter yet?

 

[43096]

Anyone mentioned Twitter yet?

I was just about to!

 

[Bletchleyite]

I doubt it will disappear. Its value will dwindle, someone else will buy and fix it, and Musk will lose a fortune, but won't mind as he owns several fortunes.

 

[dosxuk]

I doubt it will disappear. Its value will dwindle, someone else will buy and fix it, and Musk will lose a fortune, but won't mind as he owns several fortunes.

Considering the reports of the number of teams that have completely departed, and that Musk was having meetings* to try and make people, his team regarded as essential, reconsider leaving, there is a very real risk of it just disappearing off the internet. Apparently the on-call engineering team, who deal with any/all immediate platform issues, have all left, as have the entire system libraries team who manage the core parts of all the Twitter apps. The API team is also looking pretty barren.

All big tech companies like Twitter have enough technical debt that there is always a limited number of people who can fix certain things, and there's always at least one system that needs more care than it should. If you annoy all those people, it's only a matter of time before those systems fall over in a major way.

*Apparently one of these was happening during the 5pm deadline, and multiple people just dropped off the call while Musk was talking when the deadline hit. The company also doesn't know who is still working for them as they only captured "yes's" to their request, and don't yet know who had a valid reason to not respond (e.g. being on leave).

 

[jon0844]

I wasn't entirely serious about Twitter. Even if Elon destroys it, it will return when more sensible control returns. The concept of Twitter is sound and it has the user base, but Elon just won't be able to make it profitable enough to cover his investment and interest payments.

I did have issues this morning where I couldn't reply to some Tweets and briefly it said I hadn't tweeted anything at all (like I was a new user) and lots of people are now experiencing glitches and outages on a weird random basis.

Guess some of the servers or mirrors are buggered, and there are no staff able or willing to fix.

 

[PG]

Guess some of the servers or mirrors are buggered, and there are no staff able or willing to fix.

Always a possibility for someone to 'steal' the domain (it expires in a couple of months) if the staff who deal with this have left and nobody realises their role is uncovered.

 

[wilbers]

Interesting and true enough. Although I would argue that the traditional British elite Agrarian landowners who were extremely rich in the 1850’s, were not so by the 1950’s, hence many of their estates now being owned by the National Trust etc, wealth can and does shift.

Also interesting to note that the slump even seems to be affecting companies like Amazon who have enjoyed strong growth for decades up to now, with them reported to be laying of workers and their share price having dropped 40%.

Just to be slightly pedantic, those 1850s landowners were all dead by the 1950s; but I know what you are intending to say.

 

[jon0844]

Just to be slightly pedantic, those 1850s landowners were all dead by the 1950s; but I know what you are intending to say.

Jacob Rees-Mogg is still alive somehow...

 

[PG]

Anyone mentioned Twitter yet?

Anyone mentioned the one so beloved of politicians - UK plc?

 

[LowLevel]

AMT Coffee sold out of administration to SSP with loss of 100 jobs

Sale of chain that operates sites across UK and Ireland means closure of 18 outlets but 25 will remain open

www.theguardian.com

Sadly AMT Coffee joined the list. I was always very fond of them, being in my opinion by far the best of the larger railway station chains, and I'm gutted that it's SSP that have bought the business.

 

[Iskra]

AMT Coffee sold out of administration to SSP with loss of 100 jobs

Sale of chain that operates sites across UK and Ireland means closure of 18 outlets but 25 will remain open

www.theguardian.com

Sadly AMT Coffee joined the list. I was always very fond of them, being in my opinion by far the best of the larger railway station chains, and I'm gutted that it's SSP that have bought the business.

How can SSP be buying them, when they made a load of people redundant not too long ago?

I agree, I liked my few trips to AMT but a bit like Pret- their portfolio isn’t diverse enough to survive shocks like Covid and Working From Home, and probably also pays very high rents, which means even a minor footfall drop can leave you over exposed.

 

[skyhigh]

How can SSP be buying them, when they made a load of people redundant not too long ago?

That was during the height of Covid. SSP are bottom feeders and will do anything that will save them or make them money.

Only a portion of AMT branches are remaining open, I assume these are the branches that make a profit so worthwhile for SSP (though I expect they will do their best to cut costs and T&Cs as soon as possible).

 

[Bletchleyite]

I wonder will they replace the Ritazza brand with AMT?

 

[DelayRepay]

That was during the height of Covid. SSP are bottom feeders and will do anything that will save them or make them money.

Only a portion of AMT branches are remaining open, I assume these are the branches that make a profit so worthwhile for SSP (though I expect they will do their best to cut costs and T&Cs as soon as possible).

I would imagine that part of their thinking is to eliminate the competition. At stations with both AMT and SSP outlets, I imagine one of them will close. Costs reduce and customers will probably switch to the remaining outlet.

 

[Russel]

Shame about AMT, I refuse to give SSP my custom, though admittedly that's easier said than done given its not always obvious if a place is an SSP outlet.

 

[busestrains]

Wimpy is one that i am always surprised is still open. It amazes me that they survive. They used to be one of the largest fast food chains in the UK as they had over 400 branches at one point. Now there is only 67 left (64 in England and 3 and Scotland and 0 in Wales) and more seem to close every year. Although in South Africa they still have over 500 branches and are the largest fast food chain there so seem to be more popular abroad. It is a shame as Wimpy is a lot nicer than Mcdonalds and Burger King and KFC and the other chains. I had always thought Wimpy had much better quality food.

The remaining Wimpy branches are in some interesting locations. Most seem to be in run down seaside towns or other rough suburbs. But then Dorking and Horsham both have Wimpy still and they are both very posh and wealthy commuter towns. I have been to the ones in Dorking and Horsham quite a few times. So i am not sure how they have decided on which ones to keep open.

Spud U Like is another one that i am surprised is still open. I see they are still clinging on with just a few branches. At one point they had over 50 branches and even in 2019 there was 37 left. So up until a couple of years ago there was still quite a few left. But then they suddenly closed a massive amount of them leaving just a couple left. I remember until 2019 there was one in Guildford which i used to go to sometimes. Then in 2019 the one in Guildford shut down along with almost all the other ones.

They seem to have 7 branches now. Looking online they seem to have some sort of sponsorship with James Martin now. It is a shame they were not more popular and widespread as it is nice simple tasty food and a lot healthier in comparison to any of the other fast food chains out there. There is nothing else like this available.

I wonder how much longer the remaining Wimpy and Spud U Like branches will last. I would certainly not be surprised if they disappear in the coming years.

Also another one is Safeway which still exists. But i do not imagine that it will for much longer. Although their supermarkets all shut down in 2005 when they were bought by Morrisons the Safeway brand continued to exist to supply own brand products to Mccolls and Martins stores. There is a large Safeway branded lorry that i always see that parks in the bus stop on the High Street in Lewes every morning (causing traffic chaos every morning) to deliver to the local Martins store.

Recently though Morrisons has bought Mccolls and has converted most of them to Morrisons Daily stores. So all of these stores now sell Morrisons own brand products instead of the Safeway ones. There are still quite a few Martins stores and a few remaining Mccolls ones so maybe the Safeway brand will continue for a little longer. But i imagine that eventually Morrisons will discontinue the Safeway brand. So it may not be long until Safeway disappears for good.

 

[Lost property]

It will be interesting, hopefully they will as you can get some very good reductions, Spar survive given the niche market they serve.

As for Wimpey, saviour of my hunger in years past, certainly at Crewe and other stations, they have a large outlet in Nottingham I believe (open to correction here) and certainly a small kiosk at Milford near to Shugborough Estate, albeit parking can be a nightmare and even more so now the adjacent pub has installed number plate recognition cameras....thankfully, their famous " Bender" sausage is still available

 

[Bletchleyite]

Shame about AMT, I refuse to give SSP my custom, though admittedly that's easier said than done given its not always obvious if a place is an SSP outlet.

There are far worse companies than SSP. I can't understand why anyone would specifically boycott them, they don't have a major ethics issue or anything.

It will be interesting, hopefully they will as you can get some very good reductions, Spar survive given the niche market they serve.

As for Wimpey, saviour of my hunger in years past, certainly at Crewe and other stations, they have a large outlet in Nottingham I believe (open to correction here) and certainly a small kiosk at Milford near to Shugborough Estate, albeit parking can be a nightmare and even more so now the adjacent pub has installed number plate recognition cameras....thankfully, their famous " Bender" sausage is still available

Supposedly they surveyed customers to see if it should be renamed to something that wasn't an anti gay slur as well, but it was a resounding "no, keep it".

 

[Cloud Strife]

All big tech companies like Twitter have enough technical debt that there is always a limited number of people who can fix certain things, and there's always at least one system that needs more care than it should. If you annoy all those people, it's only a matter of time before those systems fall over in a major way.

Agreed. I worked on a startup that was funded by my company, and we simply never had enough people to deal with everything. Even with 30 people in the company, and even with my golden rule of 'document everything', it still frequently happened that things would get broken and only two or three people knew how to fix it.

I fully expect Twitter to become one of the big name tech failures, but not the only one. The tech bubble is starting to burst, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are some big name failures.

 

[Benters]

It will be interesting, hopefully they will as you can get some very good reductions, Spar survive given the niche market they serve.

As for Wimpey, saviour of my hunger in years past, certainly at Crewe and other stations, they have a large outlet in Nottingham I believe (open to correction here) and certainly a small kiosk at Milford near to Shugborough Estate, albeit parking can be a nightmare and even more so now the adjacent pub has installed number plate recognition cameras....thankfully, their famous " Bender" sausage is still available

The Wimpy at Milford, Staffs does well due to passing trade. There used to be one in Stafford town centre until quite recently and it did OK over the years.
Meanwhile McDonald's, in their quest for world domination, have FOUR branches in Stafford, including the drive-through down the road from my house.

 

[Techniquest]

Shame about AMT, I refuse to give SSP my custom, though admittedly that's easier said than done given its not always obvious if a place is an SSP outlet.

Agreed on AMT, I haven't bought much from there in the past but they aren't too common in the places I've been to I guess. Certainly in years gone by I would favour places like Pumpkin and Upper Crust because of the sadly long-gone Bite card discount and the loyalty scheme they ran. I don't boycott SSP brands, but I rarely use them given how expensive they are.

Someone mentioned Wimpy, and I'm also amazed they're still going. I never went to the one in Swansea, I had many opportunities and it was fairly well located. Back then though, 17 years ago, I was much more into my favourite meal, a supersize XL Bacon Double Cheeseburger meal from Burger King. Oh my the amount of times I used to have that meal! I honestly am not sure if that is the primary reason why I didn't ever try Wimpy.

Spud U Like sounds awesome, I don't know why I am not familiar with them. Perhaps I only ever found them when I was still in my meat-eating days, or only when I had already been somewhere else for a meal, whatever the reason I've not tried their food but it sounds like an excellent idea. With an ever-increasing number of vegetarians and vegans, there is every chance they'll manage to cling on and become a success. I'm so interested in this company I'm about to look them up!

EDIT: Good grief no wonder they don't appeal to everyone, the majority of the photos on their website are full of images that appeal only to meat-eaters There's not many locations that's for sure, it'll take some effort to get to one of their outlets! Put it this way, their website put me off the food. Takeaway potato-based dishes sounds great, but this lot that I've seen offered made me *less* hungry rather than encouraging me to visit!

 

[317 forever]

If the extra grants for buses post-Covid cease, or the £2 single cap is insufficiently subsidised, I reckon CentreBus and Wellglade could cease, being taken over by Kinetic (owners of Go-Ahead) or Rotala (owners of Diamond). In the case of CentreBus, some subsidiaries could go to other purchasers or even close where there is already a large operator in the area.