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…

@HeartandSeoul I love Lakeland's foil and clingfilm. A roll of their 90m lasts me about 6.5 years (live alone). Bought some foil from the supermarket and it went into holes very quickly.

Yes, once a small high street shop, Next seems to have absorbed other brands and become a department store.

Well, I know I'm male, and probably an outlier, but not one of your list of things you 'would have thought' 13/14 year olds do were ever things I did 45+ years ago - my sister might have done, but then she left home at 16 to live in a flat with two friends paid for by working 60 hour weeks, so if she did it was only for a couple of years

My nephews and niece never used to do them either 12-15 years ago either

Nowadays my great nephew (12) plays online games with his friends (of both sexes), or walks to their house to play board games (or more computer games), they do not go and mooch around shopping centres together

I can see an Addis one on Amazon for £3.50 (no delivery cost) or a George one from Asda for £1 which one could add to a delivery for no extra costs

Their deliveries and finance are what keeps them going with shops viewed as support hubs for that.

I definitely recognise the description, from my own teenage life in the late 90s/00s and as a teacher and Auntie to teenagers now.

The shops are always full of groups of teens and tweens here. Both sexes.

i know Christmas sales were down across all sectors this year. i can obviously only speak for me, I spent more on less. Everything cost more this year for a start, I’m also conscious of not buying tat for tats sake. But the offerings in the shops this year were pretty boring, there’s normally loads of Christmas lights, candles kitchenware I get suckered into buying. This year. Nothing. They just didn’t tempt the money from my purse,

Boxing Day sales were the same, there was nothing I needed and also nothing tempted me.

@snowmichael so Amazon is still more expensive.
My point is so many people dismiss shops like B+M for being full of "plastic crap" not realising they sell ordinary household items that are brand names (like Addis).
People say they have to order so much online because "all the decent shops have closed down and all we have are discount shops" (© all the moaners on my home town Facebook group 😂) but perhaps if they actually went into some of these shops they would see what they sell and wouldn't need to go to Amazon to buy basics like sellotape or batteries.
The comments on here about HMV prove that. The HMV of now is completely different to the one of a decade ago. They changed and evolved and are doing better.

I do agree with you. I literally have no other reasoning than it doesn't seem "right" to not have one!

(I confess my argument is piss poor!)

That said, it's a labour government and seeing a previously privatised service go to the wall would be an excellent political point to win if they had to save it!

Same here. Waterstones, HMV, independent record shops, boots, lush. All firm favourites.never decathlon as they are banned for being under 18 and very bitter
granted they don’t spend a lot but they each spend £10-£5 every couple of weeks

i try to avoid Amazon for tax, product safety and because it is more expensive. But I have more time in the day than many and can pop into a B&M when I’m passing. At the weekend these places can be the 7th circle of hell so I can see why people avoid them and getting them to your door is so much more convenient

Ahhh yes urban outfitters, how did I forget! I love urban outfitters. It’s the one shop I have to repeatedly remind me I’m not 17 anymore, that top would look fucking awful on dumpy middle aged me

Ann Summers used to have some of the best trained bra fitters on the high street

Always good to have a childfree man's opinion on the consumer activities of teens though, isn't it? To balance things out.

Morrisons seem to be in a spot of bother, sod all bread, fresh fruit, veg and salad stuff on the shelves at my local one. Chillers and freezers often leaking or broken down. Low staff morale, lack of staff, last week it took me 25 minutes to make a card payment, due to a system failure, on the express trolley checkouts.

I walked into an Urban Outfitters in Liverpool at the age of 30 and realised, for the first time, that I was old and these people did not want my money.

I then sat in the Costa opposite for a good half hour and thought..."What the fuck now? I'm old, chubby and irrelevant."

Much cooler, fashionista type friend spotted me, asked me why so glum. I began explaining and she held her hand up,
"Nah, that's just Urban Outfitters. They trade in insecurity and starvation. Just never go back in. We're still shit hot, babe."

True story.

@BourbonsAreOverated I love the fact B+M and similar are so busy - because it means they are making sales and money!
It does make me laugh (in an ironic way) when people get all sad/moany when a retailer goes bust or closes a branch down - but then follow up with "but I hardly ever go into town these days" or "I hate going to malls".
If people don't shop in them.....why would they keep trading 🤔😂
Both my hometown and my mother in laws town branches of M+S closed down (2 different towns). You'd think it was the end of civilization they way people talked about it. But ask them when the last time they actually shopped there...... tumbleweed 😂

To be fair, my friend's teenage son's cheapo Amazon phone charger burnt their little terraced house down last year and part of the house next door.
The fire brigade said it's a regular occurence.

A lot of the stuff available for purchase are cheap imports from China that aren't stringently tested.