Companies That You Expect to Disappear Soon

[philjo]

Debenhams permanently closing 6 more stores including the large one on Oxford Street. (Wasn’t the House of Fraser store next door also closing?)

I see that the Jaeger brand has been acquired by M&S (though not the stores)

 

[dgl]

They Weymouth Debenhams will supposedly become a "The Range" store, it's good for jobs but I would rather have something somewhat decent rather than a company that sells tat that is not worth the price they sell it for, putting a different name on Chinese tat does not make it any better quality.

 

[birchesgreen]

This. If AWS went down, half the internet would cease to work, that's how widespread Amazon is.

Yes the dependence of much of the internet on a few cloud providers is something little known about outside IT circles but as Parler found out this week, kinda important.

 

[Busaholic]

The biggest problems that would cause these days wouldn't be for people buying things online, or even their thousands of employees - it would be for websites and other online services hosted by AWS!

I could live with that, in every meaning of that phrase. Schadenfreude.

 

[Dai Corner]

I could live with that, in every meaning of that phrase. Schadenfreude.

As a (former?) bookseller, what do you think of Abebooks, the Amazon subsidiary through which many independent bookshops do business?

 

[Journeyman]

As a (former?) bookseller, what do you think of Abebooks, the Amazon subsidiary through which many independent bookshops do business?

I found a book on there once that I really wanted, signed up and bought it, and was pleased with the service. However, the second I found out afterwards they were owned by Amazon, I contacted them and asked them to close my account immediately, because I don't shop with tax-dodgers who mistreat their staff.

They didn't attempt to get me to stay.

 

[Dai Corner]

I found a book on there once that I really wanted, signed up and bought it, and was pleased with the service. However, the second I found out afterwards they were owned by Amazon, I contacted them and asked them to close my account immediately, because I don't shop with tax-dodgers who mistreat their staff.

They didn't attempt to get me to stay.

Did you keep the book?

 

[Journeyman]

Did you keep the book?

Yes. But I won't knowingly buy anything else from Amazon.

 

[AshBod]

This. If AWS went down, half the internet would cease to work, that's how widespread Amazon is.

At least we would be rid of the awful AWS graphics in F1. But yeah they are more widespread then people think, after seeing that AWS advert on TV I didnt realise they were involved with Monzo Bank and so many other products.

 

[david1212]

They Weymouth Debenhams will supposedly become a "The Range" store, it's good for jobs but I would rather have something somewhat decent rather than a company that sells tat that is not worth the price they sell it for, putting a different name on Chinese tat does not make it any better quality.

Can you suggest stores likely to be viable though ? The stark reality is that other than food the only style of larger stores that seem to be financially viable are those selling relative low price items despite them mostly being low quality imports from the far East so IMO you are lucky that it will stay as retail.

Go back ~20 years and the relatively small city near to me had all of Woolworths, Littlewoods, C&A, Allders ( previously Owen Owen ), BHS and Co-op department store. Gradually all fell by the wayside, the last being BHS & Co-op. As well there are M&S and TJ Hughes and up to recently Debenhams and Arcadia group stores. Even with reduced high street competition the latter two could not remain viable. The three floor Allders building is now Primark and the three floor Woolworths now Poundland / Pep & Co then Sports Direct in the basement. The location of Littlewoods and C&A was reconstructed. Now part is a large two floor New Look. The BHS site has stayed empty. The Co-op is being rebuilt into non-retail. Even Wilko have closed the upper floor. Debenhams is three floors and realistically I can not see another retailer taking even the ground floor unless just relocation.

After barely five years of trading John Lewis in Birmingham has closed. As far as I know House of Fraser ( Rackhams ) is still, lockdown aside, trading but the store size has been significantly reduced. I think the only other stores over three or more floors are M&S and the new Primark.

Thinking of larger towns within 50 or so miles again 20 years ago all had several of the stores listed. Now in a couple even M&S have pulled out. As and when I go again I wonder what will remain ? After the last time maybe 3 years ago I will never go again to a couple of the towns unless at some future time significant change.

 

[DavidGrain]

After barely five years of trading John Lewis in Birmingham has closed. As far as I know House of Fraser ( Rackhams ) is still, lockdown aside, trading but the store size has been significantly reduced. I think the only other stores over three or more floors are M&S and the new Primark.

Talking of Birmingham I agree that the only large stores left will be the new Primark claimed to be their largest store opened about 2 years ago, Selfridges and M&S.

When I was growing up near Birmingham I can remember, Rackhams (House of Fraser). I was in there a year ago before lock down and half the floors were closed off, just a handful of staff and practically no customers. To be honest I only went into there to use the toilets. Also Henry's long gone, Greys (Debenhams), Lewis's, Birmingham CoOp, C & A, Beatties (for a few years), Littlewoods, British Home Stores, Woolworths (2 large city centre stores plus many suburban stores). Marshall & Snelgrove (Debenhams) too expensive or as my mother described them too snooty. One shop assistant in Marshall & Snelgrove was a neighbour of my grandmother and therefore knew my mother and was speaking through gritted teeth having to call her 'Modom'.

This means that Debenhams have, over the years, closed three stores in Birmingham. John Lewis opened and closed within five years.

I know the Co-Op closed in 1982/83 because I was shortlisted for interview for the post of General Manager and I questioned why they were closing the store in which I was being interviewed. I also made some radical suggestions like issuing membership cards (loyalty cards) and putting bar code readers on the tills. I could feel that the portraits in the board room of the past presidents of the Birmingham Co-Op were shaking in horror. Needless to say I did not get the job.

If you travel down Corporation Street, one of the main shopping streets in Birmingham, now almost half of one side of the street is taken up by 2 large Poundland stores just separated by a passageway. The question is why?

 

[xotGD]

Boohoo have bought the Debenhams brand, but all the stores will close.

Will be online only in future.

 

[johntea]

Is a brand name alone worth £55 million? They tried the same with Woolworths (UK) a few years ago, didn't last very long

I heard a similar story about some of the Phillip Green empire over the weekend, bidders are interested in the brands but not the stores

 

[philjo]

Sadly The Jenners store in Edinburgh is closing after 183 years ( currently part of House of Fraser).

Jenners: Building's owner says store 'will remain' despite Frasers move

The building's owner vows it will continue as a department store despite the departure of current tenant, the House of Fraser.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[nlogax]

Sadly The Jenners store in Edinburgh is closing after 183 years ( currently part of House of Fraser).

Jenners: Building's owner says store 'will remain' despite Frasers move

The building's owner vows it will continue as a department store despite the departure of current tenant, the House of Fraser.

www.bbc.co.uk

Just saw that.. the old building will make a lovely hotel but another retail icon bites the dust. I really hope the lochside one in Balloch will survive.

 

[geoffk]

Someone will have to decide what kind of town centres we want. Many councils appear to think that a new shopping centre is just what their town needs to help regenerate it, those most familiar to me being Bradford and Rochdale, but there will be others. As a result many shops moved into the new centres, leaving stores elsewhere in the central area empty. There must be a limit to the number of cafes, Building Societies and Estate Agents which a town can absorb. More homes would be part of the solution but then you have to sort residents' parking and planning regulations.

 

[johntea]

Hays Travel cutting 89 of their 535 estate

Sad how they tried to look after the former Thomas Cook staff only for the pandemic 6 months later

I do fear the way things are going to be for quite a while with the travel industry that this will just be the starter for travel agent firms, makes me wonder if eventually there will barely be any retail presence and they'll just have staff on the end of a Zoom call to help advise / book holidays for people

 

[GusB]

Hays Travel cutting 89 of their 535 estate

Sad how they tried to look after the former Thomas Cook staff only for the pandemic 6 months later

I do fear the way things are going to be for quite a while with the travel industry that this will just be the starter for travel agent firms, makes me wonder if eventually there will barely be any retail presence and they'll just have staff on the end of a Zoom call to help advise / book holidays for people

Hay's already have "staff" who are homeworkers, although they make it clear on their website that you'll be self-employed:

Homeworking | Hays Travel Careers

careers.haystravel.co.uk

When Thomas Cook first went under I had a look at Hay's website and noticed that they had home working opportunities. I've been working from home on a self-employed basis for a few years now, but not having had any experience within the travel industry, the set-up fees were rather prohibitive for me.

To be fair to them, at least they tried to give the former Thomas Cook retail staff a lifeline instead of just buying the brand and saying **** off to those on the shop floor.

 

[FQTV]

Sadly The Jenners store in Edinburgh is closing after 183 years ( currently part of House of Fraser).

Jenners: Building's owner says store 'will remain' despite Frasers move

The building's owner vows it will continue as a department store despite the departure of current tenant, the House of Fraser.

www.bbc.co.uk

Just saw that.. the old building will make a lovely hotel but another retail icon bites the dust. I really hope the lochside one in Balloch will survive.

The Jenners situation seems to be quite specific; I’ll bow to locals, of course, but my feeling is that House of Fraser has significantly undersold the store for a number of a years, never more so than most recently under Mike Ashley. I have numerous things that were Jenners excellent and unique own products from up to about twenty years ago, when they sourced, bought and branded their own products.

Unlike many ‘landlords’, the actual owner of the Jenners building is not only a multi-billionaire, he’s also a retailer. He’s long had plans to redevelop particularly the back half of the building, but I suspect that he’s lost patience with Ashley stacking the front half with trestle tables of Donnay sports socks and flourescent sale banners in the windows.

Hays Travel cutting 89 of their 535 estate

Sad how they tried to look after the former Thomas Cook staff only for the pandemic 6 months later

I do fear the way things are going to be for quite a while with the travel industry that this will just be the starter for travel agent firms, makes me wonder if eventually there will barely be any retail presence and they'll just have staff on the end of a Zoom call to help advise / book holidays for people

Hay's already have "staff" who are homeworkers, although they make it clear on their website that you'll be self-employed:

Homeworking | Hays Travel Careers

careers.haystravel.co.uk

When Thomas Cook first went under I had a look at Hay's website and noticed that they had home working opportunities. I've been working from home on a self-employed basis for a few years now, but not having had any experience within the travel industry, the set-up fees were rather prohibitive for me.

To be fair to them, at least they tried to give the former Thomas Cook retail staff a lifeline instead of just buying the brand and saying **** off to those on the shop floor.

At the time of the takeover, there was a very natural discussion about the duplication of retail sites that Hays and Thomas Cook had. They’ve been slowly de-duplicating, so towns that might have had three branches combined may now just have one. This seems to be something of an attempt to rip the last bit of the plaster off as quickly as possible, but has to be declared legally owing to the numbers affected.

This takes nothing away from the absolutely catastrophic state of the travel industry at the moment, but Hays is a good business, with no debt to speak of, and hopefully they’ll be leaner and stronger into the future.

Indeed, bricks and mortar retail travel agency is something that may well have another resurgence shortly, as it did post ash cloud, as folks remember how they were left high and dry by online operations. Expect to see reorganisations, though, which will yet further affect high streets, such as TUI opening branches within NEXT stores.

 

[david1212]

Someone will have to decide what kind of town centres we want. Many councils appear to think that a new shopping centre is just what their town needs to help regenerate it, those most familiar to me being Bradford and Rochdale, but there will be others. As a result many shops moved into the new centres, leaving stores elsewhere in the central area empty. There must be a limit to the number of cafes, Building Societies and Estate Agents which a town can absorb. More homes would be part of the solution but then you have to sort residents' parking and planning regulations.

Certainly the appearance and layout of a town / city centre is an element when people decide where to go but ultimately it is shoppers who are core to determining if a shop / chain is viable or not. Just as an example the stark reality is for years Primark has always been far busier than Debenhams.

For shops that are empty now or soon will be I'm expecting some to be converted to offices. For a proportion of those currently working from home this is far from ideal both for the employer and employee. What I see is a move to a local satellite office rather than a return to regular longer distance commuting as before mid-March 2020. The employee wins by both a shorter door-to-door working day and lower travel costs while for the employer the cost of the satellite offices will be lower.

 

[eoff]

Sadly The Jenners store in Edinburgh is closing after 183 years ( currently part of House of Fraser).

I didn't think of it as Jenners after the HOF takeover. There was a time when I would be quick off the train to get to the sale to stock up on new Pringle jumpers at a huge discount.

 

[xotGD]

I didn't think of it as Jenners after the HOF takeover. There was a time when I would be quick off the train to get to the sale to stock up on new Pringle jumpers at a huge discount.

Grabbing the bargains before the CCS Casuals!

 

[westv]

I moved to Hull in 2011. Then we had BHS, HofF, Debenhams, M&S. Soon they will all be gone - the only M&S here now are two food halls on the outskirts of town.

 

[LOL The Irony]

the only M&S here now are two food halls on the outskirts of town.

I personally see that as M&S's future.

 

[Typhoon]

BBC: "Paperchase, which has 127 stationery stores and some 1,500 employees, is on the brink of administration. It's filed a notice to appoint administrators as it tries to rescue the business."

Paperchase has secured a deal to rescue the majority of its high street stores, saving 1,000 jobs, but 37 shops are set to close following the sale.
The stationery retail chain announced it appointed administrators this morning and was bought by Aspen Phoenix Newco.
Funds managed by Permira Debt Managers are the majority stakeholders in the company.

Ref:https://www.cityam.com/paperchase-secures-future-of-90-high-street-stores-but-37-set-to-close/
Aspen Phoenix Newco have existed for precisely 15 days. I would be wary about hanging out the bunting just yet. Firstly, the Daily Mirror gives the number of saved jobs as 'approximately 1000' and 250 employees at risk. Figures don't seem to add up, I reckon that they are depending on quite a bit of natural wastage. I was surprised at the number of cities that have both shops and outlets in department stores. I guess they would want slim those down. Ref:https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/breaking-paperchase-saved-administration-37-23345345

Think many if not all of those have been incorporated into department stores nowadays.

And these will survive or fall depending on the future of the department store (group), quite a few seem 'vulnerable' - I suspect there will be a reluctance to move to a new location if the department store closed, even if there was one. I reckon they will end up with rather less than 90 stores).

I would think that, while this is good news, particularly for employees, Paperchase needs to remain on the endangered list.

 

[simonw]

Ref:https://www.cityam.com/paperchase-secures-future-of-90-high-street-stores-but-37-set-to-close/
Aspen Phoenix Newco have existed for precisely 15 days. I would be wary about hanging out the bunting just yet. Firstly, the Daily Mirror gives the number of saved jobs as 'approximately 1000' and 250 employees at risk. Figures don't seem to add up, I reckon that they are depending on quite a bit of natural wastage. I was surprised at the number of cities that have both shops and outlets in department stores. I guess they would want slim those down. Ref:https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/breaking-paperchase-saved-administration-37-23345345

And these will survive or fall depending on the future of the department store (group), quite a few seem 'vulnerable' - I suspect there will be a reluctance to move to a new location if the department store closed, even if there was one. I reckon they will end up with rather less than 90 stores).

I would think that, while this is good news, particularly for employees, Paperchase needs to remain on the endangered list.

Aspen Phoenicx Newco will be the vehicle created to acquire the assets of paperchase without taking on the onerous liabilities. Whether the remaining shops will thrive is difficult to judge.

 

[C J Snarzell]

Anyone from Wigan will be aware that Whsmiths on Standishgate is to finally close before the end of the year.

WHS have been mentioned a few times on this thread. The local branch in Wigan inherited the Post Office in 2019, when the independent main PO closed on Wallgate.

It would seem the PO tenancy isn't enough to save WHS and the Standishgate branch in Wigan sits in a prime location. It was previously John Menzies, and prior to that Woolworths.

This is very sad news for the town which has lost many businesses in the last two years. M&S, BHS, DW Sports & TK Maxx have already gone and Yorkshire Bank & Debenhams are to go imminently too.

I have a feeling WHS will probably disappear from most towns in the next couple of years, the impact of the lockdowns/restrictions and the loss of revenue from commuters at train stations and motorway services is only going to accelerate their closures.

CJ

 

[jon0844]

I have a feeling WHS will probably disappear from most towns in the next couple of years, the impact of the lockdowns/restrictions and the loss of revenue from commuters at train stations and motorway services is only going to accelerate their closures.

CJ

I can't see how they can continue when WH Smith Travel made the money, along with WH Smith News (distribution) which must have also been hit hard, not just from the pandemic reducing magazine and newspaper sales, but reduced sales that was happening beforehand.

The sleepy high street stores with the same carpet from the 1980s certainly isn't bringing in the money, with or without a post office.

 

[Techniquest]

I have to agree with regards to WHSmith. I popped in recently, for the first time in a long time, to my local store and since the Post Office went in all the travel stuff has moved upstairs. Which is what I was really wanted to look at, things like maps and guidebooks I still prefer in paper format, and it's just not the same ordering online.

So I really wanted to find these maps, if available, there and then not wait for them to arrive in the post. Frustratingly, all of the upstairs section is cordoned off due to the pandemic. So with basically nothing left of interest for me, I left having been shocked at the price of some of the other bits I saw going out.

The WHSmith part of the shop was almost like a ghost town, quite honestly apart from a little bit of nostalgia from my regular visits in the mid-2000s I'd not miss them at all. Well, until worldwide travel is a thing again, as I do find them useful at a railway station or airport. The days of popping in to pick up some pens, a new notebook or similar are long gone though!

I would hope there'd be a way to save the travel stores at airports etc, but the High Street ones might as well go.

 

[trebor79]

W H Smith's has been tired for years. I've avoided them when possible for a long time because I hate being badgered to buy a bag of sweets of bar chocolate at the till.