The Retail Apocalypse (Incorporating Casual Dining Closures)

rinks wrote:
Godzilla wrote:Finally some good news

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52066303

Rent-to-own giant Brighthouse close to collapse

Subhuman scum, hopefully all the people who bought/rented from them will get to keep their stuff.

I expect the customers’ debts will be sold on.

To be fair they're probably be able to argue down the debts pretty heavily.

Lotus wrote:Shame about Carluccio's going into administration, always seemed like one of the better chains. So many damn Italian restaurant chains though, the competition must be insane.

Its a shame, never ate there but their online shop sold jars of their sauces , the wld boar ragu was literally the single best pre-prepared pasta sauce I've ever eaten. the venison and rabbit ones were equally as tasty.

Must have cost them a lot to make though as it was packed full of meat ( :shock:

).

Lotus wrote:Great to see Brighthouse collapse, such a scummy company.

Shame about Carluccio's going into administration, always seemed like one of the better chains. So many damn Italian restaurant chains though, the competition must be insane.

Even worse when they went into Poundland. Not to stereotype but you have to reckon that 80% of their customer base is probably low income & easy targets

Ironhide wrote:
Lotus wrote:Shame about Carluccio's going into administration, always seemed like one of the better chains. So many damn Italian restaurant chains though, the competition must be insane.

Its a shame, never ate there but their online shop sold jars of their sauces , the wld boar ragu was literally the single best pre-prepared pasta sauce I've ever eaten. the venison and rabbit ones were equally as tasty.

Must have cost them a lot to make though as it was packed full of meat ( ).

Yeah the in-store deli was a nice little differentiator, I never used the online store but I'm guessing it's a similar range. Would rather see Carluccio's survive than some of the other chains, but given the timing of it, it doesn't seem that likely.

Always thought Carluccios was one of the better Italian chains.

Unfortunately anyone who was struggling a little before the pandemic is probably going to be finished off.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/03/debenhams-prepares-to-file-for-bankruptcy-coronavirus

Debenhams is preparing to call in administrators after the struggling department store was forced to close all its outlets under the coronavirus lockdown.
The company, which has 22,000 staff and was rescued by its lenders after collapsing into administration only a year ago, is understood to be considering filing a formal notice of intention to appoint administrators next week. The legal process provides protection from creditors for 10 working days while a company tries to secure a rescue deal.
Potential administrators lined up this time include KPMG, which handled the Debenhams restructure last May

I know it’s been circling the drain for quite a while but it seems like a huge company to go from the high street/shopping centres - with nothing in mind to replace it.

I cant see House of Fraser doing much better in this climate, this could be the death of the department store in the U.K.

22,000 staff. Damn.

That's a shame. I always pop in to browse when I'm in town.

Debenhams, Next, John Lewis, House of Fraser - all shall perish.

My mum and grandma will be gutted about Debenhams going under.

You stay away from John Lewis you hear me.

I would imagine John Lewis would be the last of those to perish, but nobody is immune to the current pressures

Preezy wrote:Debenhams, Next, John Lewis, House of Fraser - all shall perish.

It's hard to imagine John Lewis going, but these places arent that efficient, profits are probably a lowish percentage, and they survive on massive volumes. Could easily be running at a loss for a few months...how long they can last shouldering those losses is anyone's guess.

Got Waitrose to prop 'em up and adapt (much like Sainsbury's closed many stand-alone Argos stores and moved them in store). No doubt John Lewis will shrink much of its floor space as the years pass.

I can't see next going if they can reopen later in the year. Yes they issued a profit warning which made big news but they are in very good shape compared to most retailers.

House of Fraser deserves to die though. If anyone has been inside one since Ashley took over you should be able to see why. Some sections are literally Sports Direct overspill to fill the spaces left my concessions that have left over disagreements with Ashley.

Return_of_the_STAR wrote:I can't see next going if they can reopen later in the year. Yes they issued a profit warning which made big news but they are in very good shape compared to most retailers.

House of Fraser deserves to die though. If anyone has been inside one since Ashley took over you should be able to see why. Some sections are literally Sports Direct overspill to fill the spaces left my concessions that have left over disagreements with Ashley.

From what I remember from when I worked for Next, it was clear that the Online shopping was where a huge amount of their focus was heading. Having the Next Directory as this very well established, long running catalog ordering service put them in a quite unique position compared to a lot of other high street retailers in that they already had a huge amount of the infrastructure needed to transition to an online model. The network of retail stores allowing free next day collection on stuff made them so much money.

I was fortunate/cursed enough, to manage the Menswear department in my local store (Hamilton) at the time and it was decided that my department was the designated Directory order pick up point, so we did ALL of them and it took up 75-80% of our time, often to the detriment of the rest of the floor. I never really understood why they seemed happy for that to be the case until I started seeing the figures for it. Our store was ranked 2nd in the entire company (Hundreds of stores) for the number of directory pick ups we handled and we were only a mid sized retail park store. That's not in comparison to our size, just in basic volume. We did more directory pickups than the massive mega stores they were opening up and I always put that down to our location. We were right in the heart of a massive group of commuter towns and two minutes from the motorway. So we had customers from 2/3 big towns all coming to us for their pick ups.

I think next will weather the storm (Online/Directory will see them through), but I think it's going to decimate the number of stores they have. Won't be a problem for that banana split Simon Wolfson though, just his staff.

Kath Kidston set to call in administrators

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52172005

Godzilla wrote:Kath Kidston set to call in administrators

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52172005

I buy my wife a diary every Christmas from there, now what the strawberry float am I supposed to do?

Preezy wrote:
Godzilla wrote:Kath Kidston set to call in administrators

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52172005

I buy my wife a diary every Christmas from there, now what the strawberry float am I supposed to do?

To me Kath Kitson should be a brand that stores sell, have an online site & maybe a flagship store. I can never understand why it has retail stores. Surely that’s why it’s calling them in

I hope Cath Kidston stays afloat, i find them useful for christmas/birthday gifts.

The Retail Apocalypse (Incorporating Casual Dining Closures)

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