The Retail Apocalypse (Incorporating Casual Dining Closures)

Last edited by Winckle on Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

Following Toys R Us, House of Fraser, and Maplin:

Debenhams 'seeks to close 50 stores' in radical overhaul

Debenhams is understood to be seeking to close 50 of its 166 stores in a radical overhaul as it prepares to reveal a record £500m loss.

The struggling department store chain has previously said 10 stores were earmarked for closure over the next five years but has raised that target.

The retailer's survival plan, which was first reported by Sky News, will affect about 4,000 jobs.

Debenhams, which declined to comment, reports annual results on Thursday.

About 25 store leases are due to expire over the next five years, although the company will not necessarily want to close all of those outlets.

Debenhams will have to negotiate ending other leases with landlords, many of which may be reluctant to do so given the headwinds facing retailers.

The chain has been under increased scrutiny since rival House of Fraser collapsed in August.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45972428

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Hexx** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:07 am

Good thread! Nice to have an all encompassing Retail thread!

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Gemini73** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:09 am

I was in Debenhams recently buying some shoes for the winter. It was a Sunday and the place was practically empty with a skeleton crew of staff. Got some nice Skechers shoes though.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Winckle** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:11 am

I heard on the radio an executive from Debenhams saying "we need to focus more on our online sales". Come on, you've lost that area to Amazon. Everyone has.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Gemini73** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:20 am

Winckle wrote:I heard on the radio an executive from Debenhams saying "we need to focus more on our online sales". Come on, you've lost that area to Amazon. Everyone has.

That's half the problem with a lot if these big chains. They thought they were invincible and could just trundle along as normal even though the rise of online shopping saw consumers buying and spending habits changing dramatically.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Winckle** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:21 am

Gemini73 wrote:
Winckle wrote:I heard on the radio an executive from Debenhams saying "we need to focus more on our online sales". Come on, you've lost that area to Amazon. Everyone has.

That's half the problem with a lot if these big chains. They thought they were invincible and could just trundle along as normal even though the rise of online shopping saw consumers buying and spending a it's changing dramatically.

I wonder if a lot of it was masked by older people not moving to online in the 2000s and now those people have either died or become economically inactive, the newer generations have no intention of stepping foot in a department store.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Albear** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:22 am

Was sat in Exeter couple months back and said to the GF I reckon Debenhams would be next. Saturday afternoon a d hardly anybody went in.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **RichardUK** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:25 am

Winckle wrote:I heard on the radio an executive from Debenhams saying "we need to focus more on our online sales". Come on, you've lost that area to Amazon. Everyone has.

I think shops like Debenhams can still survive but probably with less stores and improving the remaining stores to give the customer a better experience, I use Amazon mainly for things like games, I don’t and wouldn’t imagine many people buy clothing from Amazon so that’s a large sector they can focus on, also try to get people to be more brand loyal again by offering more incentives, most of my electrical items I buy from John Lewis because I feel quite loyal to the brand, they deliver quickly, they have a good selection, they price match and they have a loyalty card, I think it would be very sad if we completely lost the physical shopping experience completely.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **NickSCFC** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:27 am

Is anyone seeing growth in this area?

My city centre has seen quite a few British national retailers (Woolworths, BHS, Comet, JJB, Courts, GameStation) disappear over the past decade.

There's been an increasing amount of American fast food places though (McDonalds, KFC, Subway, Starbucks, TGI Fridays, Coast2Coast, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Papa John's)

It seems that eating out is replacing retail and British companies seem entirely oblivious to this.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Winckle** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:29 am

RichardUK wrote:
Winckle wrote:I heard on the radio an executive from Debenhams saying "we need to focus more on our online sales". Come on, you've lost that area to Amazon. Everyone has.

I think shops like Debenhams can still survive but probably with less stores and improving the remaining stores to give the customer a better experience, I use Amazon mainly for things like games, I don’t and wouldn’t imagine many people buy clothing from Amazon so that’s a large sector they can focus on, also try to get people to be more brand loyal again by offering more incentives, most of my electrical items I buy from John Lewis because I feel quite loyal to the brand, they deliver quickly, they have a good selection, they price match and they have a loyalty card, I think it would be very sad if we completely lost the physical shopping experience completely.

Brand loyalty is dead. People don't have the income to be loyal. Millennial shopping trends seem to show that they shop where is cheapest in terms of supermarket.

Also physical shopping as "an experience" can get strawberry floated. Nothing sad about consumerism dying out.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **NickSCFC** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:31 am

Gemini73 wrote:That's half the problem with a lot if these big chains. They thought they were invincible and could just trundle along as normal even though the rise of online shopping saw consumers buying and spending habits changing dramatically.

The same thing happened to pubs, especially in my area. The more upmarket family friendly ones survived, the dingy local pubs shut down and were either demolished or turned into homes, coffee shops, Papa John's etc.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Garth** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:31 am

It's been pretty grim for Belfast city centre retailers since the big Primark fire:

Footfall in Belfast city centre drops by third after Primark blaze

A total of 14 shops have been shut since the fire as they remain within a safety cordon around the store. But stores just outside the cordon in locations like Castle Street have reported a fall in trade of 90%.

And Springboard's research found that even shopping areas far removed from the cordon were reporting a fall of around 10% or 15%.

The Springboard report said footfall was down 4.6% across Northern Ireland - worse than an average 1.7% decline over the last three months and the 12-month average of 1.9%. Retail park and high street footfall was down 6%, although the drop in shopping centre footfall slowed to 0.2% from 2.4% in August.

https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/busine ... 18324.html

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Preezy** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:32 am

Hexx wrote:Good thread! Nice to have an all encompassing Retail thread!

About time, I say :toot:

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Frank** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:34 am

Winckle wrote:I heard on the radio an executive from Debenhams saying "we need to focus more on our online sales". Come on, you've lost that area to Amazon. Everyone has.

Amazon is utterly dreadful for just browsing clothes, though. There's far too much stuff on there to justify anyone sorting through 196,000 results to find a decent jumper or something. I don't think I know anyone who'd use Amazon for clothes shopping.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **NickSCFC** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:37 am

Garth wrote:It's been pretty grim for Belfast city centre retailers since the big Primark fire:
Footfall in Belfast city centre drops by third after Primark blaze

If your city centre's retail experience is centred on Primark then it's already pretty grim.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Gemini73** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:37 am

NickSCFC wrote:Is anyone seeing growth in this area?

My city centre has seen quite a few British national retailers (Woolworths, BHS, Comet, JJB, Courts, GameStation) disappear over the past decade.

There's been an increasing amount of American fast food places though (McDonalds, KFC, Subway, Starbucks, TGI Fridays, Coast2Coast, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Papa John's)

It seems that eating out is replacing retail and British companies seem entirely oblivious to this.

Cheltenham high street is dominated by coffee shops, patisseries and fast food joints with more on the way (including a Burger King by the cinema). Gloucester has a shocking amount of empty retail units on the high street. The Quays is a tad busier, but still lots of empty units.

New 'regular' shops appearing is a rarity and those that do quickly disappear again.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Moggy** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:39 am

I don’t think shops will die out completely, there are items that people are always going to want to actually see and there are people that enjoy going to the shops.

But a lot of the big name stores are going to disappear. Electrical and entertainment shops are utterly doomed, places like HMV, Game and Currys just can’t compete with streaming, downloading and good being delivered. Clothing stores have a better chance imo as people do like to feel the clothes and try them on.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Vermilion** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:39 am

Albear wrote:Was sat in Exeter couple months back and said to the GF I reckon Debenhams would be next. Saturday afternoon a d hardly anybody went in.

I still remember the old Exeter Debenhams, on the last weekend of opening in 2007, i headed up to the cafe to check out the view one final time.

The building of course, is now John Lewis, but they don't use the upper floors in the way that Debenhams did (the latter also had a branch of Game in the basement).

Moggy wrote:But a lot of the big name stores are going to disappear. Electrical and entertainment shops are utterly doomed, places like HMV, Game and Currys just can’t compete with streaming, downloading and good being delivered.

HMV is often quite busy when i visit, also, i pre-order all my new releases from their online store.

Since the business was rescued, the shops themselves have improved, the purehmv card offers up some great rewards from time to time, and with the demise of their main high st competition (Woolworths/Zavvi etc), they are one of the only places where you can find a decent range of physical media.

Currys still have a place in the market too, especially when it comes to large goods such as fridges or washing machines.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Corazon de Leon** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:40 am

Winckle wrote:
RichardUK wrote:
Winckle wrote:I heard on the radio an executive from Debenhams saying "we need to focus more on our online sales". Come on, you've lost that area to Amazon. Everyone has.

I think shops like Debenhams can still survive but probably with less stores and improving the remaining stores to give the customer a better experience, I use Amazon mainly for things like games, I don’t and wouldn’t imagine many people buy clothing from Amazon so that’s a large sector they can focus on, also try to get people to be more brand loyal again by offering more incentives, most of my electrical items I buy from John Lewis because I feel quite loyal to the brand, they deliver quickly, they have a good selection, they price match and they have a loyalty card, I think it would be very sad if we completely lost the physical shopping experience completely.

Brand loyalty is dead. People don't have the income to be loyal. Millennial shopping trends seem to show that they shop where is cheapest in terms of supermarket.

Also physical shopping as "an experience" can get strawberry floated. Nothing sad about consumerism dying out.

Consumerism isn’t, and won’t, die out - it’s just moving online. Physical shopping is much better than online for clothes buying, but big shops don’t seem to be adapting to the trend. If I must go online, I tend to use ASOS or a shop’s website like Next or River Island than Amazon too, because they’re shite for searching clothes.

I do wonder what will happen to the UK’s service workers if and when the high street does fully die though.

PostRe: The Retail Apocalypse by **Tsunade** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:41 am

I think they should downgrade the size of their shops. Debenhams and House of Fraser are huge, there's no point having such large shops when they aren't getting the footfall. The HoF in Birmingham is hardly ever bustling, I myself only going in there to use the loo.

Online is really killing the high street, but when's the last time you could get round a Primark without having to avoid clumps of people everywhere? They play it carefully, you can't buy any of their stuff online, you have to go in if you want anything from them.

I miss independent shops, there's none left in brum now, they're all big chains and cafe's.

As for brand loyalty I can't be arsed with it. The only brand I'm loyal to is Heinz for their baked beans and tomato soup.

The Retail Apocalypse (Incorporating Casual Dining Closures)

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