Is This The End Of Retail?

[Canardly]

This ^^^ is the second reduction this year. The last one was announced in Jan.

[chrisbainbridge]

Breaking: Vauxhall announces 240 jobs to be cut at Ellesmere Port.

I recall saying when PSA took over GM in Europe that the British plants would be the first to suffer if there was a contraction. As anyone from Coventry knows, they've got form.

And so it begins...

And Brexit.  Why would you choose to build in britain now?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Interesting on the economics of supermarket deliveries in the Grauniad:

“We’re still in the early stages of online food, and it’s all about market share,” said Richard Lim of analyst Retail Economics. “Retailers are really investing in the long-term potential of online. But their margins are wafer- thin: a typical £80 food order costs £5 to pick and £5 to deliver. Retailers are working on about 4% to 5% margins so they’re not making any discernible profit from this.”

[hellymedic]

Interesting on the economics of supermarket deliveries in the Grauniad:

“We’re still in the early stages of online food, and it’s all about market share,” said Richard Lim of analyst Retail Economics. “Retailers are really investing in the long-term potential of online. But their margins are wafer- thin: a typical £80 food order costs £5 to pick and £5 to deliver. Retailers are working on about 4% to 5% margins so they’re not making any discernible profit from this.”

Can't say I'm surprised!

I have a Delivery Pass so a weekly shop's delivery hardly costs more than £1.

I surf between Special offers, mostly fo non-perishables and make few impulse purchases.

I can't see Mr Sainsbury retained much of the £62 I spent today. I suppose I stopped him wasting some seasonal veg...

[andrewc]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/business/clas-ohlson-closing-liverpool-city-15511342



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-05/clas-ohlson-throws-in-towel-in-u-k-germany-by-closing-stores


Clas Ohlson closing all their UK & German shops.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've never seen a Clas Ohlson shop. In fact, I didn't realize they had any.

[ian]

I've never seen a Clas Ohlson shop. In fact, I didn't realize they had any.

There's one in Croydon. I bought a multiplug in here once, on the grounds that Maplin didn't have a suitable one and pointed me there. It's probably telling these days that rather than traipse around town in hope of finding one with the requisite number of sockets and cable length, I'd just buy one online.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Well yes, I thought Clas Ohlson were strictly an online outfit. Not that I've ever bought anything from them online either – perhaps because they're not in my consciousness, never having seen a shop, but probably because I've never bought a whatever it is they sell. And if I did want a multiplug until a year or two ago I would have gone to the Maplins down the road. Now I daresay I'd go to Wilko's, which is equally near and probably cheaper.

[Jurek]

I've shopped at the Croydon one.
It's a shame that they're checking out as they seemed to sell the sort of stuff that nobody else did - particularly now that Maplin have gone.

[hubner]

The Clas Ohlson in Croydon closed down several months ago. The other London stores are in Ealing and Kingston.

Funnily enough a couple of days ago I was thinking whether to spend several hours travelling by bus from one side of London to the other side to save £8, and to make it a day out. They sell a Swedish wood carving knife for £12 but has to bought in-store (no delivery on bladed products I presume) but the knife is £20 elsewhere.

[ian]

I'm just not up on the Croydon retail zeitgeist, I guess. I cycle through mostly, occasionally stopping off for beer supplies or maybe a crafty pint. I assume retailers are gradually closing things down anyway before the CP orders kick in as they make room to drop a giant Westfield on the place to create another 'retail destination.'

Actually, my wife used to go there to get random items for our annual street party. I remember being told off for calling it was Chas rather than Clas. We have the most exciting conversations in my house.

I will be having a 'retail experience' of my own later this week, as I have to an Apple Store.

[andrewc]

HMV on the brink again.  https://twitter.com/skynewsbreak/status/1078570731460591617?s=21

[ian]

I'd assumed HMV had gone bust years ago.

There may be hope for my Our Price gift token yet.

[hellymedic]

They were 'baled out' by some vultures...

David wanted shoe horns, didn't tell me, tried in a supermarket and failed to find.

I told him I'd got the last lot from Timpson's and found they had some outlets nearby but he wasn't going out again.

I ordered some from Amazon. (Or was it ebay - I can't remember!). The merchant is less than three miles away and trading from a suburban semi.
My Council won't get the Business Rates and the business probably generates more motor traffic than the street's design.

I 'win'.
Brent Council loses.
Ebrington Road HA3 gets choked.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've found someone actually forecasting a generational end of, or at least decline in, retail itself, as opposed to physical shopping. And not just retail but consumerism as a whole. Which would mean the end of Western civilization as we know it.

Consumerism is arguably in terminal decline, with millennials leading the change, not only in the UK but in many other leading economies around the world.

The omens
Consumer studies academics have been picking up on changing habits for a number of years. This includes an increased ambivalence towards consumption itself: people are buying less often and less overall. This is particularly true in the clothing industry, where research shows that millenials are especially unforthcoming – even after you factor in the shift to online retail. A lack of bricks and mortar did not, for instance, prevent online fashion retailer Asos from shocking the City with a profit warning shortly before Christmas.

Whether such initiatives can sustain economic growth is another question, however. Consumerism has been the beating heart of Western economies for generations; if it can’t be resuscitated, it raises profound questions about how society will function in future.

https://theconversation.com/consumerism-in-crisis-as-millennials-stay-away-from-shops-109827

(of course it could be just another excuse to bleat about millennials)

[Kim]

A decline in retail seems like a logical effect of wealth inequality.

Perhaps those pesky millennials are shopping less because they've got less money...

[Cudzoziemiec]

Could be they've spent all their money on freezers for their snowflakes. (Aren't those a sort of coconut sweet?)

Anyways, I'm a bit unsure about the often quoted shift from selling things to selling experiences. I mean, if someone's selling it, it's another form of retail, surely?

[sg37409]

Bids for Scottish shopping centre to start at £1

"A shopping centre in Kirkcaldy, Fife, is to be auctioned off with a reserve price of just £1 after it failed to attract enough tenants."

[pumpkin]

Didn't Preston Guild hall arcade get sold for a £1 a couple of years ago?

Google is my friend so I suppose a similar deal.

https://www.blogpreston.co.uk/2014/11/preston-guild-hall-deal-revealed-why-it-went-for-1-the-preston-city-council-clawback-option-and-no-sex-shops-allowed/

[Exit Stage Left]

Didn't Preston Guild hall arcade get sold for a £1 a couple of years ago?

I went ten-pin bowling in what used to be the branch of Morrisons in the Guild Hall arcade a while ago. I won convincingly, and celebrated with a drink at the Black Horse.

[hatler]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/nov/14/debenhams-shares-fall-by-21
Debenhams as a chain now worth just £65m

Their buildings must be worth more than that! If they actually own them.

They don't own their buildings. Former CEO Rob Templeman pulled the standard trick of sucking cash out of the business by flogging the stores they owned (which was most of them) and then leased them back.

Asset stripping of the first order. It buoyed the share price for long enough for him to earn himself a mint and flog the whole thing for a lot more than it was worth.

[spesh]

Buggrit, Knight & Lee in Southsea is closing in July. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46970877

Looks like it's going to be a toss-up between Southsea and the Commercial Rd retail zone in Portsmouth for which one gets the heart ripped out of it, given the position that Debenhams is in - they have a branch opposite Knight & Lee in Southsea, and what used to be Allders at the bottom of the Commercial road pedestrianised zone.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Buggrit, Knight & Lee – are they estate agents or solicitors? 

[Kim]

Buggrit, Knight & Lee – are they estate agents or solicitors? 

That's nearly as good as the "Womble, Bond & Dickenson" barakta has been receiving nasty lawyers' letters from.  I reckoned they were so BRITISH-sounding they might be a fake company invented by a USAnian.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I have to pity anyone sending nasty lawyers' letters to Barakta! Well, almost.