Although this was not unexpected it is very bad news for the high street and jobs .I think a lot of this is the Internet but not forgetting greedy councils and landlords and also to an extent Traffic Wardens forcing people to park at out of town retail parks .
Yup and 4000 jobs as well .cant even trade on the stock market as the shares aren't worth anything.very sad indeed.
Another one bits the dust, no doubt aided by the Internet and digital downloads... shame, but I use play.com for music as well as films as its more convenient and cheaper. My daughter is upset, she spends ages in there. It will prob carry on as an Internet retailer, but who knows? There will be fek all in town centres, apart from pound shops, kebab houses and banks the way it's going....
The strange thing is I am not sure if Any town centre can recover from this woolworths and all the others had been established for a very long time and these sort of shops seem to have had there day but I can't really picture a future town centre with only half the shops operating it won't look good for tourist I wonder how the main streets of say Spain or France are looking? It's about time the PM got on the TV and explained what's going on before folk start kicking off.
For Spain, well certainly the port of Mazarron which we were at just before Christmas was dire, the shops and cafe bars were either deserted or closed. It is now IMO just like any street in the UK, full or €uro shops selling cheap tat, certainly winter time isn't a really good time similar to any sea side resort, but the locals are the ones that know, and the end result is, people in Europe are just as hard up as you and I and what little money they have, they are saving for that rainy day that is inevitably around the corner. A few on here have said that 2013 is going to be the year a lot more go to the wall, sadly, every day their words become more apparent. Perhaps another case, of the consumer wanting the best price and using the technology we all seem to have at our finger tips, the music industry has declined IMO owing to the fact anything anyone is wishing to listen to, is readily available on the Internet free gratis. Sign of the times
A true story this. there's a small village near me, it used to have a smallish shopping center inside it... Dry cleaners, DVD rental, Restraunt, take away, a small supermarket, grocers, bank, and a funeral directors, a few more too. over the last 3 years, ALL have closed, apart from the funeral directors. Windows where boarded up, and no one has taken them on.. The rents and rates are extortionate. The whole thing looked a sorry mess, and derelict. The locals got together with the local police and council, and offered artists from the schools to graffiti on the boards that are covering the windows... It was deemed to be better to have artwork on the boards,, and the artwork depicts open and trading shops! Although better than having plain ply on the windows, it looks like a throwback from the thatcher years..... Why doesn't the council rescind the rates for a new venture on these properties?? Or even offer a grant for new businesses? The whole thing is a sorry mess.
Its crazy . Names that have been around for decades are falling throu everywhere . If a retail company does not have a strong online presence it doesn't seem to have much chance of surviving
Essentially your town centre is now for your mum who pops into town on a privatised bus network due to not being able to park without paying a parking fine or £5 per day parking, she heads to the Co-op for a spot of overpriced supermarket shopping, then heads to Greggs for a breakfast, finds that most of the good shops are closed so pops into A Starbucks ripoff for a coffee and heads to Primark. That's the morning sorted so for lunch there's a flurry of bars that double up as low end restaurants for lunch, and then it's off to the job centre before catching the bus home as THERE ARE NO FVCKING JOBS ANYMORE..... unless you want to work for the council as a Traffic Warden of course.
it's a bloody shame but when every I went into HMV in Bristol always seemed to be on it's last legs for ages. Feel sorry for all the possible job losses
I think this is the way of the future. I personally never go shopping unless I absolutely have to. I find it an egregious experience at the best of times. The internet does it better and cheaper for my taste. The problem, of course, is the poor buggers who are going to lose their jobs
Don't forget the time she has to spend hanging around waiting for your gran to finish rummaging through the entire stock of every single charity shop, claiming loudly to the world that 'Your dad's got one of these somewhere. In the attic, I think. Brought it back from the desert in '46, he did. Or was it Tenerife?" Grans love sifting through other peoples crap. They just don't like to be seen going through their bins.
It's like hen woolys closed down its a but of heritage HMV is it'll be weird with them gone. Goes to show no one is safe!!!
I work in retail and I think you should all stop using the internet and go out and shop in your local town centre to keep me in a job!
It's a catch 22 Bardo. We are all feeling the pinch, bills are going up and we are taking a wage cut, losing our jobs or wages are staying static. Things inevitably are costing more. The cost of living is up, insurances are up, Vat is still at 20% instead of coming down and staying at 15%. We still buy goods and services, but use the high street as a browse. I admit i browse in a shop, see and feel the goods, but then go home and order off the internet...the savings to made by doing so are great...far cheaper. Especially the likes of Amazon, Ebay, Play etc... It's madness to pay full price for stuff when spare cash is in short supply, and you can get it cheaper. Yes, i know that the prices are higher on the high street because of rent, rates and staff to pay, the online retailers just use central warehouses, ghost staff etc. Also, it's easier to buy from Europe due to the internet, and what i cannot understand is that some things that are manufactured here are still cheaper abroad, even after shipping out from the manufacturers to the retailer abroad. People vote with their wallets now, more so than ever, and the knock on effect is that institutions like Woolies etc have been forced to close. Rip off Britain has reigned supreme for years, but now it's backfiring i'm afraid. A lot of the problems and closures can be simply blamed on the Governments and local councils that have been here in the last 10 years, greed and extortion and rising taxes and banks. Ultimately, it was good while it lasted for them, but good things never last forever, and the past has caught up with them. I simply cannot see it getting any better for years (if ever) and 2013 will be dire for trades and retailers... On another note, a mate and i went to hunts in Manchester yesterday...i want a new helmet and leathers, and Hunts told me they have a new clothing store 3 doors away. I went in, tried a helmet on, and wanted it in another size, and a new set of leathers.. It was a decent price and i was going to buy them there and then, but got told they only had the sizes on the shelfs, but they could order them in. I couldn`t get back there for at least another week, so declined. I got home, had a look online and the savings on the lid and leathers where nearly £200. This happens all the time, so they lose sales. if they had them in stock, they would have made a sale, so in effect, it's their fault.
You know whats brewing ? An internet Tax . Have you noticed that at the drop of a hat there is money available for two massive planes to fly to Africa to help the French out. Whilst i am always in favor of a safer world .WHY ALWAYS US?
I always feel irritated when 2nd world countries flick their Bicc's and burn the Union Flag in protest. Mainly because it's very difficult to film their own flag vaporising in a thermonuclear event as an accurate demonstration of the full capability of a British act of reciprocation. And as far as helping the French is concerned....Mon dieu! Can we please go back to the good old days (October 21st 1805), when we beat the shit out of them by half time, forcing us to have to lamp the Spaniards for a couple of hours so the lads didn't get cold while they were waiting for the whistle.
