What retailer do you think will go bust next?

[good96]

My money is on Poundstretcher. Went into my local one today. Shelves empty, looking old and dirty and prices aren’t really cheap for a discount retailer…

I work for Argos (til this week I'm being made redundant 🙁) sometimes its because the stock isn't in your local warehouse and may not be due in and a lot of the products now are coming direct from manufacturers.

The processes are changing so much atm, so much in the pipeline that even we don't know ourselves as staff anymore. Online tells you much more than our tills do.
Your local store may have the warehouse checker to see if it's due into the warehouse anytime soon but not every product can be tracked. It's a minefield.

One I wouldn’t miss anymore is Monsoon. Always my saviour as I’m tall and I found something that ticked the box. But now everything is made of recycled polyester and it’s a vile material. Itchy, weirdly smelly and looks and feels cheap. I miss the old stuff

I'm sure our local New Look is one of the stores closing soon. Not helped by the high prices and makeup stained clothes.

Saying that, Select (clothing) must be on it's way out surely. Regular sales yet rarely ever have anyone in there having a mooch let alone buying anything. And I mean rarely - that place is a waste of electricity.

I fear Radley might go.

Everyone on Style and Beauty loves to hate Radley. I like Radley a lot. I am hugely interested in clothes and shoes have but no interest in bags. Bags are just for carrying things so I have no need or desire for anything other than Longchamp Pliage for carrying stuff and Radley cross body bag for carrying stuff securely. I will miss Radley if it disappears.

Timpsons is the only place that repairs shoes, does dry cleaning, repairs and replaces watch batteries and cuts keys near where I live so I doubt they will go soon.

I hope that we don't lose Royal Mail.

You know all those companies that say in their small print that they won't deliver to the Highlands and Islands or Northern Ireland? They are using couriers who are not RM. RM are subject by law to a "universal delivery obligation". That means that if your house has an address registered with your local council, RM must deliver to it, with the only exception being for postie safety (e.g roaming dogs). Amazon, FedEx, Evri et al don't have to deliver to anywhere that they don't feel like delivering to, which will be a cost-benefit decision made with no regard to your need to recieve letters.

I'll be really sad if Asda goes. They're usually big, bright stores with the clothes rage and a cafe. I much prefer this shopping experience to the misery that is Aldi along the road.

I think Asda is having an identity crisis - its no longer the budget supermarket it used to be. I noticed some changes to packaging that suggests they are trying out a more 'up market' image. I wonder if they will find some loophole to merge with Sainsburys as was proposed a few years ago.

We've got one. There was one on the out of town shopping estate where I used to live, but that closed years ago (it was grim in there.) The one here is bright and clean and has lots of stuff. I bought all the lampshades for my new flat from there. 😊

No, there's also an exception to the USO for houses that are more than a certain distance off a road. I used to live in a house that really wasn't that remote, but the post had to be collected from the delivery office in town because it was too far off the road for the postie to deliver too.

They are - they posted losses last year and they are closing more shops this year. I hope they survive - I like them - but once my local shop is gone, I’m not sure I will go out of my way to shop there.

As you say, they are expensive. Also, I’ve always wondered how many £400 KitchenAid mixers they actually sold to justify the huge multi coloured display. Very attractive but maybe not the best use of space?

This is interesting. I used to always have a leather Radley bag for work (suit and smart handbag required) but these days there is nothing that I like. I assumed it was that my tastes had changed as I aged but maybe not.

Also, I use to like the fact their bags had multiple sections. These days they are all one big sack like most bags.

I still use one of their cloth bags for shopping - 10 years old and still going strong (and only cost £10 in the sales).

WH Smiths won't go as they also have a lot of Post Offices in them now, too.

I think the likes of Fat Face will go, the same way as Joules did, as they're owned by Next. You can tell the same effort isn't made with their clothes and designs these days. The classic hoodies and shorts, beach/surf/Cornwall vibe clothes are no more,it's all twee and pretending to be cool now.

New Look are closing stores soon apparently.

Still a large body shop in the big shopping Center in my county.

Will there be any sanctions on slow payers? If not, they'll keep doing it. Money in the bank is worth more than criticism in the press.

Don’t say that I bloody love Lakeland! My granny shopped from their catalogue when it was just a plastic bag supplier via catalogue.
i love getting their catalogue and sitting down with a cuppa to peruse. It brings me such joy!

Lakeland offer a 3 year guarantee so I try and buy larger items there if I can, also often have 20% off vouchers if you sign up to them. I buy everything online though as I have got a local store, I hope they don't go.

Boots aren't great, I've been to a few that looked like they were already closing down, so many bare shelves. I don't think they have a very good staff training programme, the customer service is routinely poor

Argos are part of Sainsbury's now.

I wonder if they will go back to ‘catalogue’ (obviously these days via a website) shopping. I don’t know how much they sell based on being able to walk into a shop.

Also, if you can’t pick stuff up on the day, most of the stuff they sell is cheaper elsewhere.

I doubt it will close if anything like my local one it's always busy in there

Hmm, I wonder why. I still don't think the Post Office management quite understand or acknowledge what they've done.

Maybe some time in prison for the high up people responsible - as opposed for the completely innocent ordinary people who were sent there instead - might help them to realise.

Asda or Morrisons will go unless they can perform a mega transformation.

You can't have Aldi and Lidl growing so much without a casualty elsewhere. In retail, it's all about displacement. The pool of shoppers and their spending power doesn't change much, so when new entrants come in, something/someone had to give.

Aldi and Lidl have captured the bottom end. Places like Iceland, B&M, HomeBargains have captured the "sell off" end of the brands.

Sainsbury and Tesco are going great guns for the upper middle end of the market. Booths, M&S and Waitrose have the top end.

That leaves Asda and Morrisons in limbo, as they used to be the cheaper end of the market.

They either need to adapt to compete with Lidl and Aldi or they need to improve their image/product range to compete with Sainsbury and then M&S/Waitrose, etc.

At the moment, both Asda and Morrisons don't seem to have a target market anymore, they don't know what they stand for. Morrisons especially lost out big time being slow to home deliveries, and they used to stand out with their fresh meat, fresh fish, bakery, etc., (i.e. their "marketplace") which they seem to be scrapping.

I'd put my money on it being Morrisons who go under. I think Asda have strong enough US backing to be able to perform a miracle U turn.

Morrisons has one of the few bakeries that don't 'bake from frozen' these days and you can tell as their offering is so much nicer and you get different things depending on who is baking that day. They also have fish monger, deli counter, pizza counter, and butchers. All the things Tesco and Sainsbury's stopped.

I can't see it going anywhere.

I never usually rated Morrisons - I went to one the other day and was quite pleasantly surprised at the quality of some of the fresh product compared to my Tesco, the use by dates on the fish & chicken was a lot better too! Often go into Tesco to find all the sell by dates on chicken is one or two days later, can’t do a “weekly shop” without freezing or very careful planning. Also lately at least one piece of fruit in a pack has quickly gone manky or rotten.

Zara has posted a 7.5% increase in profits. They have not gone under.

Next is as follows:
NEXT plc had revenue of 2.86B GBP in the half year ending July 27, 2024, with 20.19% growth. This brings the company's revenue in the last twelve months to 5.83B, up 12.83% year-over-year. In the fiscal year ending January 27, 2024, NEXT plc had annual revenue of 5.49B with 9.08% growth.

Waterstones, on the Companies House Register, are doing fine.

Just because a store in your town isn't doing well, it doesn't mean it's not doing well nationally.