Death of the department store

Fed up talking videogames? Why?
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Bunni
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Bunni » Mon Sep 17, 2018 7:10 pm

That and Tory austerity measures are ‘forcing’ people to shop there as Main Street offerings are too highly priced.

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Octoroc
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Octoroc » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:36 pm

I'm going to Debenhams this weekend to buy a hat.

Bucking that trend! 8-)

So far this year, I have eaten NO mince pies.
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Meep
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Meep » Mon Sep 17, 2018 11:25 pm

Stores at the moment are being hit with a double whammy of the growth in online retail and the decline of the middle-class. Either one of those trends would be bad on its own but put them together and it's no wonder so many places are going under.

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Green Gecko
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Green Gecko » Tue Sep 18, 2018 4:10 am

Some 90% of the clothes I buy and wear now are from annual gifts of fat face vouchers and tshirts I make myself at trade cost. I have a bunch of high quality dinner shirts I've worn for years. Both my coats are from charity shops but good brands (Henri something and Next, lasted years).

For games I pretty much only buy retro or second hand from a local indie store (just one).

I do still visit the high street for small things like business stationary (card, envelopes, blah) and the occasional art book but I struggle to remember what a department store even sells or looks like. I just have almost no interest in predetermined selections, staged "offers" and suchlike. It's pretty much always gooseberry fool and feels like it wasn't worth bothering to go in.

As for the decline in the high street yup very much so, however I'm a sign maker so I literally make money with the monthly turnover of commercial property or whenever businesses change hands, meanwhile my business sells almost entirely online. I installed a fascia last November or so, it's already been bought by the nearest competitor and worked over (badly, they didn't even bother to remove my work so it still has the old new sign underneath :lol: that would have been good for 7 years), both vape shops as it happens since that seems to be a common thing now :lol:

Shops feel they need to do everything they can to get punters noticing them, which works great for me. The ones that don't don't last very long, even the ones that do still struggle. There's loads of off (or even no) branding and bad investment in signage, some shops just look poor from the outside so I'm not surprised people aren't queuing up to purchase overpriced tat to make up for it. It's very hard and frequently premature to get a brick store up and running, and keep it running, business rates and rents are sky high. It's simply the wrong direction in so many cases to invest in premises, it's sad but it's often a stupid business decision, you get openings on the high street for people to try different things and they drop like flies. Never mind keeping up staff and payroll.

On the other hand you can get too much business online to cope with, competition is ridiculous, very unreasonable customer expectations even with the filter aspect. The logistics industry is barely functioning and the overheads there are possibly even comparable to a store. I spend a small fortune on shipping, but prices are quite good for that because there is so much competition there too.

I think smart businesses will operate on a small service area, local level with generous prices (by that I mean not too expensive too too cheap) and robust online infrastructure, things can actually be very good for new business provided your product isn't two a penny. Compete on quality and brand and unique options. trouble is a lot of high street stores just deal in the same gooseberry fool as everyone else so have no reason to exist. Then you can franchise out or open in other locations or just focus entirely online once brand is establish (should send commerce both ways). If that's the way things are going it doesn't make business sense to work against it. Obviously there are some industries like clothing and food etc that will always have a high street presence by they need to do a lot more for example have integrated online experiences with loyalty schemes and same day collections, online discounts etc and a very strong social media presence. The events industry is seeing a massive boom because shoppers want experiences not just doing the same thing they can do whenever they want but more expensive and more hassle.

Basically the way money and commerce works now the answer for most businesspeople as to whether you should need or want a shop the answer is "no". As a society we need more community centres and more accessible technology for the young and elderly with skills and plant decentralised to create a boom of community plus competitive service offerings from many individuals and small groups, not just how many shop windows you can cram into a road. The only function there is a till and (often poor) 121 service and displays. It really is archaic.

"It should be common sense to just accept the message Nintendo are sending out through their actions."
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Errkal
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Errkal » Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:02 am

A wild Gecko post appeared.

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Victor Mildew
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Victor Mildew » Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:53 am

4 department stores closed in the time it took to read that.

Hexx wrote:Ad7 is older and balder than I thought.
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Oblomov Boblomov
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Oblomov Boblomov » Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:00 am

I hadn't even heard of the place before but Millets is surely on the way out. I went there on my mum's advice to get a gift for my dad and I was the only person in store the entire time, except for the two people working there.

I remember feeling very sorry for the workers at the time, because they couldn't have been more polite or helpful. I just hope they've been seeking out other opportunities...

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Octoroc
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Octoroc » Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:17 am

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:I hadn't even heard of the place before but Millets is surely on the way out. I went there on my mum's advice to get a gift for my dad and I was the only person in store the entire time, except for the two people working there.

I remember feeling very sorry for the workers at the time, because they couldn't have been more polite or helpful. I just hope they've been seeking out other opportunities...


I thought Millets already were out of business TBH.

So far this year, I have eaten NO mince pies.
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Jenuall
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Jenuall » Tue Sep 18, 2018 10:37 am

Is Millets one of those "outdoor pursuits" type shops - selling walking boots, waterproofs, tents, camping gear etc?

There's a out of town shopping centre we go to fairly regularly that has one of those in, the trouble is that the centre isn't that big (certainly far less than 100 shops) and there are about 5 of these types of shops in there - how they all expect to survive when they're all right next to each other and selling the same things at basically the same prices!

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Return_of_the_STAR
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Return_of_the_STAR » Tue Sep 18, 2018 11:19 am

Millets were bought by Blacks who in turn were bought by JD Sports. Most of the stores have been turned into 'Ultimate Outdoors' combining both Blacks and Millets ranges.

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Green Gecko
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Green Gecko » Tue Sep 18, 2018 3:51 pm

Errkal wrote:A wild Gecko post appeared.

strawberry float me do I bounce around subjects at 4am, about 10% of that addresses the topic :lol:

"It should be common sense to just accept the message Nintendo are sending out through their actions."
_________________________________________

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pjbetman
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by pjbetman » Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:06 pm

Green Gecko wrote:Some 90% of the clothes I buy and wear now are from annual gifts of fat face vouchers and tshirts I make myself at trade cost. I have a bunch of high quality dinner shirts I've worn for years. Both my coats are from charity shops but good brands (Henri something and Next, lasted years).

For games I pretty much only buy retro or second hand from a local indie store (just one).

I do still visit the high street for small things like business stationary (card, envelopes, blah) and the occasional art book but I struggle to remember what a department store even sells or looks like. I just have almost no interest in predetermined selections, staged "offers" and suchlike. It's pretty much always gooseberry fool and feels like it wasn't worth bothering to go in.

As for the decline in the high street yup very much so, however I'm a sign maker so I literally make money with the monthly turnover of commercial property or whenever businesses change hands, meanwhile my business sells almost entirely online. I installed a fascia last November or so, it's already been bought by the nearest competitor and worked over (badly, they didn't even bother to remove my work so it still has the old new sign underneath :lol: that would have been good for 7 years), both vape shops as it happens since that seems to be a common thing now :lol:

Shops feel they need to do everything they can to get punters noticing them, which works great for me. The ones that don't don't last very long, even the ones that do still struggle. There's loads of off (or even no) branding and bad investment in signage, some shops just look poor from the outside so I'm not surprised people aren't queuing up to purchase overpriced tat to make up for it. It's very hard and frequently premature to get a brick store up and running, and keep it running, business rates and rents are sky high. It's simply the wrong direction in so many cases to invest in premises, it's sad but it's often a stupid business decision, you get openings on the high street for people to try different things and they drop like flies. Never mind keeping up staff and payroll.

On the other hand you can get too much business online to cope with, competition is ridiculous, very unreasonable customer expectations even with the filter aspect. The logistics industry is barely functioning and the overheads there are possibly even comparable to a store. I spend a small fortune on shipping, but prices are quite good for that because there is so much competition there too.

I think smart businesses will operate on a small service area, local level with generous prices (by that I mean not too expensive too too cheap) and robust online infrastructure, things can actually be very good for new business provided your product isn't two a penny. Compete on quality and brand and unique options. trouble is a lot of high street stores just deal in the same gooseberry fool as everyone else so have no reason to exist. Then you can franchise out or open in other locations or just focus entirely online once brand is establish (should send commerce both ways). If that's the way things are going it doesn't make business sense to work against it. Obviously there are some industries like clothing and food etc that will always have a high street presence by they need to do a lot more for example have integrated online experiences with loyalty schemes and same day collections, online discounts etc and a very strong social media presence. The events industry is seeing a massive boom because shoppers want experiences not just doing the same thing they can do whenever they want but more expensive and more hassle.

Basically the way money and commerce works now the answer for most businesspeople as to whether you should need or want a shop the answer is "no". As a society we need more community centres and more accessible technology for the young and elderly with skills and plant decentralised to create a boom of community plus competitive service offerings from many individuals and small groups, not just how many shop windows you can cram into a road. The only function there is a till and (often poor) 121 service and displays. It really is archaic.



Vape shops are the new money launderers.

Gemini73

PostRe: Death of the department store
by Gemini73 » Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:01 pm

Our local GAME has a To Let sign and has had for about a month now. Friend of mine who works in town did some digging and yep, the store is due to close permanently either before or just after Christmas.

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Vermilion
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Vermilion » Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:32 pm

Gemini73 wrote:Our local GAME has a To Let sign and has had for about a month now. Friend of mine who works in town did some digging and yep, the store is due to close permanently either before or just after Christmas.


Never had to worry about that problem here, as we never had a Game store to begin with.

Gemini73

PostRe: Death of the department store
by Gemini73 » Wed Sep 19, 2018 12:28 pm

Vermilion wrote:
Gemini73 wrote:Our local GAME has a To Let sign and has had for about a month now. Friend of mine who works in town did some digging and yep, the store is due to close permanently either before or just after Christmas.


Never had to worry about that problem here, as we never had a Game store to begin with.


I don't think it'll be missed. It's always empty, even at weekends.

Even the mums and grannys buying for junior that GAME have relied on for years don't seem to even go there any more.

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Vermilion
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Vermilion » Wed Sep 19, 2018 2:56 pm

I find Game handy for when i want to trade in some of my old games, i last did it in order to get my hands on Far Cry 3 for PS4.

Gemini73

PostRe: Death of the department store
by Gemini73 » Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:04 pm

We've a CEX who offer better trade-ins, so I tend to go there if I decide to get rid of a few titles.

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Vermilion
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Vermilion » Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:16 pm

Gemini73 wrote:We've a CEX who offer better trade-ins, so I tend to go there if I decide to get rid of a few titles.


CeX often has fleas though.

Corazon de Leon

PostRe: Death of the department store
by Corazon de Leon » Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:22 pm

Vermilion wrote:
Gemini73 wrote:We've a CEX who offer better trade-ins, so I tend to go there if I decide to get rid of a few titles.


CeX often has fleas though.


What? :lol:

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Preezy
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PostRe: Death of the department store
by Preezy » Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:23 pm

Vermilion wrote:
Gemini73 wrote:We've a CEX who offer better trade-ins, so I tend to go there if I decide to get rid of a few titles.


CeX often has fleas though.

Yeah but they'll give you a slightly better price for your plague victims than GAME.


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