Death of the department store

Gemini73 wrote:Debenhams' CEO has recently been playing down their inevitable demise. I think the chain is proper fooked.

Watching the news last night seems several House of Frasers are also to close, including Swindon and possibly Cheltenham.

The original plan was to close about half of the House Of Fraser stores so now only closing 3 is quite the life line. Might just be delaying the inevitable though.

Death's Head wrote:

Gemini73 wrote:Debenhams' CEO has recently been playing down their inevitable demise. I think the chain is proper fooked.

Watching the news last night seems several House of Frasers are also to close, including Swindon and possibly Cheltenham.

The original plan was to close about half of the House Of Fraser stores so now only closing 3 is quite the life line. Might just be delaying the inevitable though.

Interesting, I thought the Cheltenham one was supposed to be safe when the news of closures first came out. That will be a big blow if it does go because it's in such a prominent location.

Jenuall wrote:

Death's Head wrote:

Gemini73 wrote:Debenhams' CEO has recently been playing down their inevitable demise. I think the chain is proper fooked.

Watching the news last night seems several House of Frasers are also to close, including Swindon and possibly Cheltenham.

The original plan was to close about half of the House Of Fraser stores so now only closing 3 is quite the life line. Might just be delaying the inevitable though.

Interesting, I thought the Cheltenham one was supposed to be safe when the news of closures first came out. That will be a big blow if it does go because it's in such a prominent location.

So did I. Nothing confirmed for Cheltenham, but it's not looking good. Perhaps they feel they cannot compete with John Lewis once it opens here? Swindon branch is definitely for the chop.

The Swindon one was actually pretty decent due to it being an outlet (and so was quite a bit cheaper).

The retail apocalypse rolls on

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45824285

BBC News wrote:The owner of Patisserie Valerie has said the chain needs "an immediate injection of capital" to continue trading in its current form.

The stark statement to investors comes after the firm uncovered "significant, and potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities".

It also belatedly discovered HMRC filed a winding-up petition against one of its principal subsidiaries a month ago and is seeking £1.14m in taxes.

The firm has more than 2,500 staff.

The company announced earlier this week that finance director Chris Marsh had been suspended.

I walked past a closed-down Maplin store on my lunch break. It was being refitted as one of those temporary Christmas decoration shop. We've already got 4 of them in our town centre.

Winckle wrote:The retail apocalypse rolls on

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45824285

BBC News wrote:The owner of Patisserie Valerie has said the chain needs "an immediate injection of capital" to continue trading in its current form.

The stark statement to investors comes after the firm uncovered "significant, and potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities".

It also belatedly discovered HMRC filed a winding-up petition against one of its principal subsidiaries a month ago and is seeking £1.14m in taxes.

The firm has more than 2,500 staff.

The company announced earlier this week that finance director Chris Marsh had been suspended.

What the...



I love Patisserie Valerie.

Preezy wrote:I walked past a closed-down Maplin store on my lunch break. It was being refitted as one of those temporary Christmas decoration shop. We've already got 4 of them in our town centre.

A couple of Pound Worlds near me have become what I can only describe as "travel suitcases, carpets and ugly mirrors/furniture" shops - I don't understand their purpose, audience or profitability but they seem to be all over the place, at least in outer London.

Trelliz wrote:A couple of Pound Worlds near me have become what I can only describe as "travel suitcases, carpets and ugly mirrors/furniture" shops - I don't understand their purpose, audience or profitability but they seem to be all over the place, at least in outer London.

Pretty sure i saw one of those in Kingston Upon Thames, or at least i think it was there (i forget where i see stuff sometimes).

Can OP or a mod rename this thread to "The Retail Apocalypse" please?

Vermilion wrote:

Winckle wrote:The retail apocalypse rolls on

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45824285

BBC News wrote:The owner of Patisserie Valerie has said the chain needs "an immediate injection of capital" to continue trading in its current form.

The stark statement to investors comes after the firm uncovered "significant, and potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities".

It also belatedly discovered HMRC filed a winding-up petition against one of its principal subsidiaries a month ago and is seeking £1.14m in taxes.

The firm has more than 2,500 staff.

The company announced earlier this week that finance director Chris Marsh had been suspended.

What the...



I love Patisserie Valerie.

I don't understand how a chain like them can be failing when there's so many old people in the country. I used to nip in a Druckers every time I went shopping and it was always full of old women with coffees chatting the day away.

Frank wrote:

Vermilion wrote:

Winckle wrote:The retail apocalypse rolls on

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45824285

BBC News wrote:The owner of Patisserie Valerie has said the chain needs "an immediate injection of capital" to continue trading in its current form.

The stark statement to investors comes after the firm uncovered "significant, and potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities".

It also belatedly discovered HMRC filed a winding-up petition against one of its principal subsidiaries a month ago and is seeking £1.14m in taxes.

The firm has more than 2,500 staff.

The company announced earlier this week that finance director Chris Marsh had been suspended.

What the...



I love Patisserie Valerie.

I don't understand how a chain like them can be failing when there's so many old people in the country. I used to nip in a Druckers every time I went shopping and it was always full of old women with coffees chatting the day away.

Door hinges though aren't they? Probably drinking their own tea from their own flasks, and bring their own plain digestive biscuits and rob the free milk and sugar.

I was in Patisserie Valerie on Saturday in Durham city. I've never liked the cakes as they are pretty but bland. However I had eggs Benedict with bacon instead of ham and it was divine. But £12 for coffee and breakfast was a bit much. Considering Franky and Benny's allows a free second and third helping of breakfast for a cheaper price.

I think the issue with Pat n Val's is they don't seem to shift a ton of take away stuff but the shops are always full and if people are sitting for two hours nursing a coffee and a scwun then business is losing money.

Trelliz wrote:

Preezy wrote:I walked past a closed-down Maplin store on my lunch break. It was being refitted as one of those temporary Christmas decoration shop. We've already got 4 of them in our town centre.

A couple of Pound Worlds near me have become what I can only describe as "travel suitcases, carpets and ugly mirrors/furniture" shops - I don't understand their purpose, audience or profitability but they seem to be all over the place, at least in outer London.

Those kind of things tend to be run by the buildings owner. Basically they're moved around to empty shops to bring in some money rather than letting the building sit empty for prolonged amounts of time.

Winckle wrote:Can OP or a mod rename this thread to "The Retail Apocalypse" please?

This shouldn't have been done. I created the topic and didn't give permission, explicitly or implied for the title to be changed. Whoever changed the topic title needs to step down as they cannot control the power.

Death's Head wrote:

Winckle wrote:Can OP or a mod rename this thread to "The Retail Apocalypse" please?

This shouldn't have been done. I created the topic and didn't give permission, explicitly or implied for the title to be changed. Whoever changed the topic title needs to step down as they cannot control the power.

You were too slow granddad.

Winckle wrote:

Death's Head wrote:

Winckle wrote:Can OP or a mod rename this thread to "The Retail Apocalypse" please?

This shouldn't have been done. I created the topic and didn't give permission, explicitly or implied for the title to be changed. Whoever changed the topic title needs to step down as they cannot control the power.

You were too slow granddad.

Nothing to do with slow, it shouldn't have been done.

If there's one thing I am good at these days it's about creating huge disdain over the renaming of topics of conversation. Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience or harm caused.

Green Gecko wrote:If there's one thing I am good at these days it's about creating huge disdain over the renaming of topics of conversation. Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience or harm caused.

Or just change it back, or give me one free topic name change or renaming of another user's forum name that I can use as and when I want

Death's Head wrote:

Green Gecko wrote:If there's one thing I am good at these days it's about creating huge disdain over the renaming of topics of conversation. Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience or harm caused.

Or just change it back, or give me one free topic name change or renaming of another user's forum name that I can use as and when I want

Grr. You changed it back, apology begrudgingly accepted.