Companies you can't see ever going under.

[PollyPepper]

Yesterday DH and I got a McDonald's. What an absolute treat.

And I started wondering if McDonald's will ever go bust.

It seems so unlikely, though of course it is possible as with any other business.

Mcdonalsa are in 120 countries around the world and serve 68 million customers each day!!

I honestly think it could be exposed that they use human meat and people would still go there.

I suppose Amazon as well?

All it takes though is a better and bigger competitor to take them down, but at this stage I just don't see it ever happening.

AIBU?

To be fair I actually thought Kodak had gone bust a few years ago! I didn't know they were still around.

They aren't on every high street any more though.

@MotherOfGodWeeFella

Some of the most enduring retailers have been owned by lots of different companies over the years - Halfords is good example of this. Smiths and Boots have both sold all sorts of things too. I hate the WH Smith shops now as they look really cluttered and are expensive. There was a time when they had record counters, travel agents, etc. They still own the wholesale newspaper and magazine business in the UK I think and I imagine those sales are well down. Boots' main competitor for cosmetics is Superdrug on the high street. I think without the pharmacies a lot of Boots stores wouldn't exist. Their online offering is good though.

It used to be the case that retail had seven year cycles so a niche retailer that was a market leader, e.g. the likes of Sock Shop in its day, would be a real money maker for seven years before competitors encroached on its market or it was taken over. I imagine it's a shorter time span now.

WHS sold their newspaper/magazine wholesale and distribution business many years ago.

They're a mere shadow of their former self having gone through bankruptcy and selling off major parts of their business. I believe they're now moving into pharmaceuticals.

Diageo.

I’m surprised at people saying Primark. I’d think they were actually quite vulnerable to changes in market conditions / consumer behaviour / increased H&S or workers’ rights regulations.

I’m not sure I can think of anything that is never going to go bust. Duracell, maybe?

I am still amazed that W H Smiths was allowed to stay open as an essential retailer when the only food/drink items are a fridge of cold drinks and then some sweets or chocolate.

However

During lockdown I've bought lots of cards from them, and craft things for my kids, bought some great discounted books and toys and puzzles and also bought some cookery and craft and interest magazines too and it's been great x

@tiredmum2468

I am still amazed that W H Smiths was allowed to stay open as an essential retailer when the only food/drink items are a fridge of cold drinks and then some sweets or chocolate.

However

During lockdown I've bought lots of cards from them, and craft things for my kids, bought some great discounted books and toys and puzzles and also bought some cookery and craft and interest magazines too and it's been great x

They stayed open because of the newspapers exemption.

And because many also had post office counters.

WHSmith was an essential retailer not because of food and drink but because it sells newspapers. And access to news is essential.

@Andante57

JCB diggers? They have a virtual monopoly in UK and substantial overseas sales and I can’t see property building slowing down in the future.

This thread would be interesting to look at in 20 years time.

Although they have great brand recognition with the British public they are dwarfed by companies like Komatsu and Caterpillar who are massively bigger and older and recognised in the industry They are bit like Hoover they have become a generic name everyone uses but often the diggers / equipment is by others.

Poundland.
Primark.
Boots & Superdrug.
Co-Op there is so bloody many of them.

I never understand how Mothercare went bust. People have babies everyday. Just how did they go bust.

Same for Mamas abs Papas closing most of their stores.. what? Crazy. I know online has kind of taken over but most pregnant woman would want to go look at a pram etc before they buy.

Just amazes me that two baby companies struggled.

I’m not sure I can think of anything that is never going to go bust. Duracell, maybe?

I actually think Duracell might be vulnerable- like Kodak - to changing technology. In a few years people might think it incredible that we used to have to go to a shop to buy little round tubes of stored electricity in order to make things work. Unless they are doing things behind the scenes.

and*

@Teapotsandtablecloths

I don't think ASDA would go bust either.

In news today it's being taken over by another company.

Wonkylegs ah, I didn’t know that about diggers.
Maybe it’s the JCBs which stand out more.

@SeaTurtles92

Poundland. Primark. Boots & Superdrug. Co-Op there is so bloody many of them.

I never understand how Mothercare went bust. People have babies everyday. Just how did they go bust.

Same for Mamas abs Papas closing most of their stores.. what? Crazy. I know online has kind of taken over but most pregnant woman would want to go look at a pram etc before they buy.

Just amazes me that two baby companies struggled.

I think the problem with Mothercare was that, while a lot of people went for proms, cots etc. - which as you say, parents tend to want to see rather than buying online - a lot of its other lines were overpriced. You can get baby clothes for a fraction of the price in the supermarkets, and while Mothercare used to be the unquestioned place to shop for maternity wear, dozens of other retailers upped their game on that years ago.

Between home bargains and b and M they have about 1100 stores , about the same as Lidl and Morrisons.

I live in the SE, but have only vaguely heard of B&M and HB. There's a Wilko on a small local high street though.

Perhaps because our two other nearest "high streets' are more branded shopping centres rather than high streets? I'm guessing they don't pop up in those so often as rents too high?

Morrison’s is another one that hasn’t survived near me. They opened one in the high street a few years ago, and it barely lasted a year or so.

@zukiecat

I'd be devastated if WH Smith went under.

I love this shop, and no shopping trip is complete without going into our closest store.

I'd be lost without it.

I don't know why this made me really chuckle .

To be fair when I was a kid my Dad would often get home about 7, not because he had been working late but because he had gone to Smiths to browse the magazines. Any trip into town we went on, he'd leave us to it and tell us he was just going to go to WHSmiths, where he could always be found browsing the magazines at any time later on.

@LeaveMyDamnJam
Diageo is surely vulnerable to the proliferation of niche brands and the trend to not drinking. Plus if cannabis is legalised recreationally (although I think Diageo is looking into cannabis drinks) booze will take a hit.

I agree about the Co-op. They went through a bad patch a few years ago when their big supermarkets couldn’t compete and their bank had to be bailed out and sold off, but they have got their act together since in a big way.

They are the unchallenged number one in the funeral industry, and people are not going to stop dying. Their convenience food stores are ubiquitous here in the East Midlands where there is a Co-op in literally every village & suburb. They have far more small stores than Tesco & Sainsbury’s put together.

@BertieBotts

I used to work at WHSmith when I was a teenager and I was shit hot at the half price chocolate sales :o I used to win prizes all the time for selling the most! I think my record was 54 in one day or something like that. It was quite a small store.

Haha this must be it, £1 chocolate bars That must have been quite motivating.

I always prided (sp?) myself on managing to say no, 'oh I'm trying to be good thanks', but I remember when they first came in and I could see it for the ploy it was.

I also think some of the stationary is quite specialised, a bit like Rymans, if you are into your ring binders and hole reinforcers and protractors and such like.

My god I am getting nostalgic for a WHSmiths now.

To add..Pizza Express.

They had their hey-days on the 90s/00s, I waitressed there and we made fortunes in tips, anything from £40-70 on a Saturday night on top of basic wage which was about £3.60 an hour, £90 in a double shift. One day I made £120. I was paying back my student overdraft and every day I went to the Post Office to pay it in. Probably rightfully the person serving me eventually asked where I was making all the money from!! I explained and they said their son should probably get a job there.

They used to give all their staff a massive Christmas hamper, the highlight was half a bottle of champagne and a bottle of Valpolicella, plus a massive Panettone.

There was the Pizza Express club that was all the thing with families as well. God we hated serving families when they let their kids run everywhere

Then they introduced the 241 offers and I think the tips went down after that and it wasn't quite the same.

I do hope they stick around as the food is good and their training and values were very good.

I loved WH Smith as a child. Regularly went in to buy new stationery, magazines, books and pencil cases. I only tend to go in now to use the post office, everything else is way too overpriced.

I can’t imagine Amazon, fast food chains (with the exception of Burger King because I don’t really know anyone who likes BK), IKEA, supermarkets, home bargains, B&M and primark going bust.