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…

This - equally, closing a store can mean a chain is doing badly (see Lakeland) but it can also be the sign that a profitable chain is well managed and a badly performing store isn’t allowed to be a drag on the others.

Boots is owned by Walgreens in the US. Think it's pretty safe for the moment anyway.

Boots is a huge pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution company, the retail bit is just the tip of a very big business (Walgreens Alliance Boots), a lot of other pharmacies, Tesco for example purchase their stocks through Alliance, which is part of the Boots company.

WHS too deal with the distribution of newspapers to many other retailers, which has long been their core business, although that is fading fast.

I find the fruit in asda not great for mould. My MIL (second mention in this thread lol) really rates Morrisons. She's an expert on supermarkets and notices whether the stores are nice or not. We haven't got one locally so a visit to a Morrisons is a treat. I like their nutmeg clothes for children.

Asda.

@YourAzureEagle I always find it ironic that WHSmith is the distributor for magazines yet in stores their displays are terrible.
So many branches have condensed the space for magazines which means they are cramped together and difficult to see what magazines they actually have. The displays are usually very messy. All shoved in together. The leaflets fall out and aren't cleaned up.
WHSmith should get rid of selling expensive cards/gifts, spread out the magazines and make the display of them so much better, tidy and maintained.
People think magazines are dying out (to be fair they are) but they could do so much better and not die out if they were just sold better.

My local (petrol station) Asda is dire. The large one in town is excellent.

Morrisons fruit and veg is pretty good, they had some lovely local strawberries in last summer. They also haven't replaced their cafes with Costa or Starbucks and they have little kids trolleys too!

It will just become Sainsburys, but I do think they will get rid of the Argos brand, especially with the hike in NI

Also, New Look are said to be closing 600 stores before NI hike in April

Sainsbury's bought Argos in 2016

I was thinking perfume shop or h Samuel's might also be for it. A Google of h Samuel shows they are doing reasonably though.

I think we'll see more stores going into supermarkets as habitat, paper chase and the entertainer (not entirely) have done. Asda have some decathlon concessions and I wonder if they will close stores.

Agree re WHS - how they keep going on the High Street is beyond me. Our local one is really poor - bad condition, old fashioned, miserable staff and ridiculously expensive.

The one in the next town over has the Post Office in it, so that will probably keep it going.

The pharmacy is probably what keeps Boots going. Some of the bigger stores are OK, but I popped into my local small Boots the other day to pick up some nail polish and their makeup section was almost empty! They have massive metal shutters on the windows that they never open so the place just looks like it's been robbed!

The pharmacist is our local Boots is useless too. I went in there to get advice on a wound I had and she practically threw an off the shelf cream at me to get rid of me without even looking at it properly. I bought it but wasn't happy, so went to another local independent pharmacist who took much more care with me and advised I went to the GP as he thought it was infected (it was). This was pre-pharmacists being able to prescribe unfortunately.

There's an HMV store in our local town still and I'm very surprised it's still going.

The new owner has said that he will honour the delivery to everywhere.

A certain type of over 75 buys all their clothes at EWM. The one in our local garden centre is busy. They did shut a lot of stores a few years back in small towns mostly.

Someone in my office accidentally posted something with a 2p stamp on it instead of a 2nd class stamp recently and RM delivered it without an underpaid postage charge being applied! I can see how they're losing money!

I don't think the government could (or would) stand by if the RM were to fail - there is a need for a national postal service.

Their shops do always seem busy with people buying stuff not just mooching.
I hope they do stick around they are a reliable brand and there’s fewer and fewer of them around.

It is so expensive though, m and s is cheaper. Granted you’ll struggle to do your entire shop in m and s but it’s still cheaper.

music last year made a record breaking amount, equal to cd sales in the 90’s. People have gone back to wanting to own physical music.

Asda have strong enough US backing to be able to perform a miracle U turn.
i know Walmart and the Issa brothers still have a share in Asda but I don’t think they are the majority US owned anymore.

I’ll be sad if George goes, but the rest of it I won’t miss as our nearest ones are utterly diabolical.
another one who is so expensive for their offering.

i do a lot of travelling for work so visit all the supermarkets! They are so area specific, it shouldn’t vary so much but it seems to.

Their high street stores are tired. There used to be a twitter account where people submitted photos of things in their local branches. Such as 12 year old pub guides, still selling Christmas wrapping paper in May

Next won't go, they are possibly one of the biggest retailers in the UK with over £5bn turnover and their online business is huge.

I haven't lived or visited the UK since 2016. I was looking forward to a browse in Boots. Just came back from London and surprised at the state of it. So... boots

Ann summers
We wanted to spice things up about 2 years ago,so drove for a few miles to our nearest store
Headed in,it was all penis pasta and sex dice
They need to go back to basics and sell toys and the pretty undies of yesteryear

Matalan-its a cheap new look
The shop is dark,nothing that caught my eye and dull homewear

Morrisons-bring back the homewear they started with
I used to love it all but it suddenly fell off a cliff
They used to have a great cafe but stopped doing the breakfast I liked (I hate beans and everything comes with them now) and the all day breakfasts taste like they have been there all day

Asda-enough said
It's crap-even the books that I used to pop in for a look and leave with at least two,have reduced to nothing

Is there a need for a national post service though? I sort of want to agree with you but the way things seem to get done in the UK nowadays, even if the way we deliver mail in the future is privatised, poor service and expensive I have a feeling the government will just expect us to get on with it. Like we do with dentistry, electricity, gas, water, housing and all the other stuff that doesn't really work here anymore.

I would have said this about my local one - usually rammed - but it’s been closed down nevertheless.