Debenhams look likely to go under with 14000 jobs at risk

Michael_Vronsky said:
What a strange response!
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how is it? Society has moved on and people sitting at home doesn’t mean they will be working from a dining table and fish pasty faced. Miraculously, people worked from home before Covid. Just because you work from home also doesn’t mean you have a poor skill set other than a laptop. Such an incredibly negative viewpoint that reeks of looking inward rather than out.
 
I have to try shoes on, so many don't fit me that I have ordered online and you often have to pay to send them back. I like feeling clothes and seeing the colours close up and against me. I would hate having to order everything online.
 
TheFair86 said:
how is it? Society has moved on and people sitting at home doesn’t mean they will be working from a dining table and fish pasty faced. Miraculously, people worked from home before Covid. Just because you work from home also doesn’t mean you have a poor skill set other than a laptop. Such an incredibly negative viewpoint that reeks of looking inward rather than out.
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People have said how much they like visiting book and record stores, interacting, as opposed to sitting at a computer. Not inward at all. We can do both you know! What on earth has going down the mines got to with anything?!! Bizarre!
 
Michael_Vronsky said:
People have said how much they like visiting book and record stores, interacting, as opposed to sitting at a computer. Not inward at all. We can do both you know! Bizarre!
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Are you confused or something? My post was in response to ticker tapes post, which had little to do with people wanting to go to book shops and record stores.
 
Redwurzel said:
I have to try shoes on, so many don't fit me that I have ordered online and you often have to pay to send them back. I like feeling clothes and seeing the colours close up and against me. I would hate having to order everything online.
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lots of places do free returns now. I do prefer trying things on, but that said the shoes I buy might be a set price in store but I can get them online for 20-50 less, sometimes more, and then cashback on top of that so in the unlikely event my shoe size has changed or manufacturer mid-sizes them, it’s not the end of the world if I pay £3.70 to send a pair back. By the time I get to town, park and spend time in town itself I’ll probably spend a lot more than that anyway.
 
Record stores went the journey yonks ago, book stores or even sections are numbered. Replaced by Kindle. Even the musics carp.
 
Book stores are making good profits. Waterstones increased their profits 30% this year.

the digital market for books is tiny compared to print. As an example the biggest market in USA, which fuelled a lot of the ebook market;

Publishers of books in all formats made almost $26 billion in revenue last year in the U.S., with print making up $22.6 billion and e-books taking $2.04 billion, according to the Association of American Publishers' annual report 2019
 
As soon as the shops are closed we're going to be absolutely walloped by postage and packaging charges.

It already happens in some cases where face to face contact isn't an option.
 
I think the decline in print books is slowing.

I get excited in a book shop, but never with online books, even flicking through Amazon is a bit of a chore. I can understand going on holiday with a suitcase and not wanting to pack a physical book or even on a train a Kindle can be easier to carry than books. I still like print magazines, they engage more of your senses and I find I can jump around more easily and you control what you read.

Vinyl record sales are increasing, the sound to me is richer and warmer and I like LP covers and I know I am not unique.

CD is pretty dead as downloading music is so much more convenient and streaming is so cheap.

DVD is declining quite fast, so much video film is streamed nowadays and there are so many channels. I still like cinema because of the big screen, big sound and community feel. It also get you out of the house its an event.

Clothes as said I like to touch, feel try on - I tends to buy a few at a time and may go to an outlet like Clark's village where prices are the same as the internet and there are no delivery charges. You can make a day of it. Isn't it free to park at Teesside Park and free for 2 hours in the Boro? I could imagine shopping for a say a sofa online when I had the chance to go to say Barker & Stonehouse and try everything and discuss with real people.

I am not convinced the internet should be automatically cheaper. It is inefficient to delivery single parcels door to door. Rents will decline on the high street and go up for warehouses with time. A lot of the supermarkets are currently subsidising internet shopping and I noticed their minimum spends are increasing to try and recover costs. LIDL and ALDI are both doing well on profit margins and sales and don't do deliveries.
 
I’ve not really known what Debenhams was about for years, the brands they sell aren’t great and when I was in my 20’s would have shopped at HoF/John Lewis over them every time.
They have been slowed with adapting to change in the digital world, don’t know who their target market are and are paying the price for it.
Similar to the glut of mid range restaurants that are struggling, without a point of differentiation, you’re going to struggle.

I hate shopping with a passion so the quicker I can buy something online the better.
Where we live, we have prime now so right through the pandemic we’ve been getting same day food shops whilst slots everywhere else have been booked out. I now expect that level of service, or to be able to pay with one click on a site wherever I shop.

incidentally, like others, two of the only shops I’m happy browsing in are record and book shops, though I’ll be honest a lot of my books are second hand from eBay
 
Redwurzel said:
I am not convinced the internet should be automatically cheaper. It is inefficient to delivery single parcels door to door. Rents will decline on the high street and go up for warehouses with time. A lot of the supermarkets are currently subsidising internet shopping and I noticed their minimum spends are increasing to try and recover costs. LIDL and ALDI are both doing well on profit margins and sales and don't do deliveries.
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Warehouses cost virtually nothing compared to high street space, and the amount of staff required for the space is far lower and no sales bonuses to pay to staff. The price difference between online stores and retail stores can be significant. A shirt in store might be £50 but available £25 online. Loake or barker shoes that are £250 in stores are often sub £200 online. You rarely get retail store “discount codes” or cashback whereas it’s common place online. I make between 100-200 amazon orders a year and almost all of it free delivery via prime which costs me £39 a year.
 
Will the digital and Covid age also spell the end of tourism as we know it? I mean one of the highlights with tourism was browsing shops etc — after you’ve beached yourself of course. It’ll be interesting how things look in a few years time — I suspect the golfing trip will still exist but the idea of shopping on the high street of Milan or Paris might be consigned to memory.
 
Expat Smoggie said:
Will the digital and Covid age also spell the end of tourism as we know it? I mean one of the highlights with tourism was browsing shops etc — after you’ve beached yourself of course. It’ll be interesting how things look in a few years time — I suspect the golfing trip will still exist but the idea of shopping on the high street of Milan or Paris might be consigned to memory.
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For sure - As an example, Eid and Ramadan would have the very wealthy Middle Eastern Muslims hitting London for expensive fashion spending millions. That will stop
 
TheFair86 said:
Warehouses cost virtually nothing compared to high street space, and the amount of staff required for the space is far lower and no sales bonuses to pay to staff. The price difference between online stores and retail stores can be significant. A shirt in store might be £50 but available £25 online. Loake or barker shoes that are £250 in stores are often sub £200 online. You rarely get retail store “discount codes” or cashback whereas it’s common place online. I make between 100-200 amazon orders a year and almost all of it free delivery via prime which costs me £39 a year.
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If you look at the ground floor of HOF,Debenhams and John Lewis they are more or less identical with tons of cosmetics and other similar stuff.
How on earth was that ever sustainable.
 
The problem for Debenhams is the fact, the vast majority of the brands in the store "rented" the space from them - these brands were simply out of date
 
Until online sellers are charged the equivalent rent and council tax bills that high street retailers have to pay, there will be continued structural decline in on-street retail.
Equally: building hugh shopping centres for the benefit of drivers on the edge of towns is strangling our toewn centres.
Change of miondset required.
Starts at the top.
Over to you Boris......
 
Juninho10 said:
The problem for Debenhams is the fact, the vast majority of the brands in the store "rented" the space from them - these brands were simply out of date
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Fred Perry?
Levis?
Ben sherman?

Nah.
John Lewis and Debenhams have sold those delicious items for years.
(y)
 
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