Shops you are surprised are still going

[fajitaaaa]

WHSMITHS - who is buying from them? Anything other than a emergency magazine for the train and maybe a bottle of water? But some of their stores are HUGE!

FAT FACE - always a massive sale on!

DuncanBiscuits - HMV were bought out in 2013 and then acquired by Canadians in 2019 so you are right to think that they were in trouble.

I'm more amazed people have actual branded shops on their high street! We have a Boots, barber shops, hairdressers, nail bars, bookies, massage parlours, a range of independent supermarkets and takeaways. In convinced our high Street is basically just a front for money laundering.

For their baggy grey tracksuit bottoms and hoodies? They sell the same stuff that could be bought elsewhere for less but yes it is all an "in" thing.

Agree. The one in preston was heaving at the beginning of December.

This is no big surprise - let's think what they sold - music and DVDs. Who buys these now?

I'm with the Peacocks fans. It is the last high street clothes shop left standing (apart from Seasalt - big fat NO) in my remote crappy town. I desperately needed new knickers and went in there and was pleasantly surprised at their stuff.

The pants were great too 😬

It's not that cool to sustain a whole chain of them though.

WHSmiths

They own FunkyPigeon and another online brand, Cult Pens I believe. They have some stores in American airports too. They have also probably singlehandedly kept a lot of post offices open in the UK by taken those over some years back. So despite the overpricing in their stores there are other revenues than probably keep the stores going.

Travel and High St are different divisions and both remain profitable as per their accounts (available online). Lots of the High St shops are owned by WHS so they're not paying ruinously high rents, and they've owned them for a long time, so current real estate values are higher than their purchase prices. Post office counters in stores has made a massive difference and help contribute towards premises costs such as power, rates, insurance, etc. WHS have a long term policy of closing loss making High St stores, so it's a gradual thing, a few every year, and loss making stores don't end up subsidising profitable ones, unlike chains like Woolworths who kept loss making stores which ended up bringing the whole chain down. WHS are often "last man standing" in town centres, i.e. the only newsagent, so take all the customers wanting magazines and newspapers (on which profit margins are high). They don't waste money on shop refurbs either, hence the dowdy look and threadbare carpets, which keeps costs low. Our town's WHS is often pretty busy, so they must be doing something right!

The sainsburys in our town is crap but the only other supermarkets are Waitrose or Co-op so its usually the cheapest option.(I try not to go very often but use for top up shops if needed) They run out of basics all the time but had a refit a few years ago, removed the fresh food counters (meat, fish, deli etc) and put a random aisle of giant jars of coffee and huge boxes of biscuits, in its place. Elsewhere in the store there's an aisle that's well stocked with candles, cushions, rugs, photo frames etc that I'm sure no one ever buys...but you can't buy a pint of milk or a French stick because they've sold out. 🙄

There's an Argos counter in the Sainsbury's 10 mins walk from me and it's a lifesaver for getting things the same day or first thing the next morning without having to go into town. Last minute presents, new bedsheets we realised we needed when the in-laws stayed, a lunchbox when my daughter lost hers etc.

I'm surprised at all the surprise for Shoezone...

They have a large range of styles at less than half the price of other high street shoe and clothes shops, and have a bigger range than the shoe sections in supermarkets. Why wouldn't you go there if you needed shoes quickly for less than £30?

This is a joke, right?

In case not, the answer is, “people who want to buy food and household items from a supermarket”.

"I'm surprised at all the surprise for Shoezone..."

A lot of MNers are rich.
Many of them also have a distaste for any kind of artificial materials in clothing.
I'm not surprised MNers don't like Shoezone, but slightly surprised that they can't imagine anyone would.

As illustrated by Terry Pratchett in his ‘Vimes theory of boots’

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

Drug dealing too!

In our town, we had a "questionable" sandwich/pie shop. The food quality was horrendous, people would use it once and never go back. Loads of comments on Facebook about it re grumpy staff who'd glare at you and get stroppy if you went in and asked for a sandwich, poor quality food, i.e. stale bread for the sandwich, etc. Funny thing was that it seemed to attract a "certain" type of person, usually wearing a hoody and with low strung pants showing their underwear! After a few years, it was raided by police and a few months later the owners were in court charged with drug dealing and ended up being sent to prison! Apparently, there were "codes" as to what a customer wanted, so going in and asking for, say a BLT with extra ketchup meant something completely different - you'd get your BLT with ketchup, but there'd be something else in the bag! Hence why they didn't care about stale bread etc!

Same happened with an Indian takeaway - the owner ended up in prison for drug dealing, money laundering and employing illegal immigrants (kept in squalid conditions above the shop) - they're the ones who prepared the dodgy food and did the deliveries (of food and drugs)!

Agreed. Owning their stores makes a massive difference. Although I am surprised they haven't been taken over and asset stripped as a firm.
I know on our high street there are some independents that have closed as although they are doing okay, they can't cope with the increasing rents.

Hayes and Jarvis were a tour operator, they never had any retail stores, but they are no more. You might mean Hays travel. Thomas cook did go bust in 2019.
speaking from experience travel agent are still fairly busy, and it’s not always just old People, they also sell foreign currency which obviously makes a lot of money

DuncanBiscuits · Today 10:38

Urban Outfitters.

Whaaaattt!? Their gear is sick! Trackies in every colour 💅 and jazzy fleeces

Our town is a university town and Sainsbury (with Argos) is the only decent sized supermarket within walking distance of the bus station (which is where most student accommodation is located, i.e. 5-10 mins walk from the bus station). It's always heaving with students and the Argos does a roaring trade for student's "living" needs such as cutlery/crockery, bedding, small electricals, etc.

Students aren't going to waste and afternoon to get a bus to take them to the next town or the infrequent bus to the out of town retail park when they have a superstore on their doorstep, even if a little more expensive than Tesco & Asda!

That's Habitat in store.

Also in terms of travel agents, I know a fair few well off people who use Trailfinders. They can organise a touring independent holiday themselves, but would rather pay someone else to do it for them.

I was just thinking of the time Pearl Lowe did a cool collab with Peacocks. Tea dresses, cardis that sort of thing (was late 90s / early 2000s). Maybe they’re still good at that sort of thing?

Our M&S locally is dire for clothes and I say that as what is often described as their core customer. The only thing I’ve got from there recently that’s good, is fleece lined tights.

Tapi carpets have the most appalling artificial air freshener in all of their stores. I have to hold my breath as I go past.

There’s very little in the high street now, except cafes and charity shops.

I never understand why people still take lots of foreign money on holiday.

Wherever we go, they accept cards. We got a few hundred pounds worth of Euros several years ago and still have most of it - all we ever seem to spend on holiday in cash are tips and small things such as postcards, etc. We use our cards when shopping, in cafes/restaurants, etc and also in attractions, bus and train tickets are usually bought from machines paid by card. We keep taking the Euros but bring most of them back to go back in the drawer until next time.