A IBU to predict which shops will close next?

[muttimalzwei]

I am pretty sure I won't be allowed to name them on here but it seems to me that the places where customer service is poor or resting on its laurels are the shops that will be closing down before those where staff actually try to engage with their customers and find out how they can help them. In my town it seems to be well established high street stores (going since at least the 80s) who are just not doing what they could to offer good customer service. And they.ll be next to close....

Mothercare is already closing 100 shops I think. Quite a few of the shops mentioned on this thread have recently (as in the last year or so) opened new shops in our town, Next and Wilkinsons being 2 and boots have 3 shops in our town, 1 big on and 2 smaller ones all of which are busy whenever I go in, mainly for prescriptions.

3 early learning centres and 2 Dorothy Perkins near to us have closed recently.
Boots seem to be taking over small pharmacies attached to doctors surgeries around here too.

How about The Entertainer, seems to me like a shop destined to fail

They are doing really well and profits are up and opening new stores this year ( friend's dh works for them) people seem to be buying their kids more and more toys even during a recession.

why is mothercare still open?

also agree about body shop and hmv

but it never seems to be the logical ones, I would have thought that TJ Huges for example would have done MORE buisness in a recession as people switched to cheaper options, but it seems like the more expensive "pointless" luxury shops are staying and the bargain cheapos are going, which is strange?

I'm worried for Next. Their prices seem to go up and up and the quality down.

I can't see Boots going, it's always super busy. The make up department is getting better and has recently added more premium ranges like Shisedo in the Newcastle store. I love being able to get loads of points when I splash out on expensive brands of make up, it kind of justifies it! Perfume, make up - to me those are items that you need to see/smell in a store, I would only buy online if I was repeat buying something I knew I liked.
WH Smiths - I think it struggles through trying to do too much but I think it will always be around through the train station outlets where it has a monopoly. It's nice to have the option to buy a book as well as a magazine when embarking on a long journey. If it offered better sandwiches they would probably get my custom there as well.
It's always a shame when a retailer goes bust, terrible for the staff but we all suffer in the end when there is less choice on the high street.

bookymcbook that was an ace pep talk!

I am feeling the urge to nip down to (beloved) Waterstone's, but did that yesterday . Their children's dept is one of my favourite places, ever.

hate amazon, btw.

Does anyone elses local WH Smith not open on a Sunday?

I think next's home dept is keeping it afload, know of a few "next houses", its turning into the habitat of 2012!

Monkeymomo

I agree. In my nearest town all the high-end shops are thriving, and the middle of the road ones are closing. For example River Island went a few months back to be replaced by some awful all clothes-£10-or-less place.

The high street is a strange mix of extremes right now

Oh yes to W H Smith.

Am I alone in loathing Lush? Even walking past one on the other side of the street makes me gag from the awful excessive artificial fragrance pouring out. Their stuff never seems any different from the chemical cr*p you get anywhere else, just made to look prettier and four times the price. Ok, so it's not tested on animals but neither is all the real ethical stuff. Lush stuff is still full of all the nasties like sodium lauryl sulphate. It's not organic (or a lot of it isn't anyway, they made do some, I don't know). I buy proper organic, no-nasties stuff from the local health shop. Lush is all mouth and no trousers to me - all trendy and 'natural' with their bare floorboards and chalk signs and little labels telling me who made the stuff but the products themselves aren't special or different other than in looks.

Oh, and I don't want soap with glitter in, FFS!!!

Rant over :)

I also dont think its tasteless

People will always have money to spend (albeit maybe less)

and the companies that grow will hire, so someone that loses their role at Monsoon can go work at newly opended primark, or Waitrose

thats saids its bloody awful for some poor folk, I do have empathy

I do get very frustrated and sad when I see business that fail to do their research, and fail to adapt, examples being:

shit online delivery (Argos)
primark quality for mid market prices (NEXT)
hiring rude monosyballic teenagers (B&Q)
hiring moody shop assistants that ignore you (many many places)
Hiring DVDs for £3, (Blockbusters)
shit shit SHIT service (Mothercare)

Its management incompetence, and it fucks up their staff, and their shareholders

serene I would not even shit in a LUSH!! they make me gag

Budgens????? overpriced. But, convenient

Yes to Blockbusters. Dvd rental has had its day shurely.

sereneswan I don't get Lush either. It all looks like the sort of thing dc used to make at preschool and I'd quietly 'lose' when they weren't looking. Ie mud and play-do rolled in glitter. I've always suspected the founder of Lush used to make a lot of Rose Petal perfume as a kid and has branched out.

our blockbusters is always busy, there's always a que. We do streaming and lovefilm etc but sometimes there is something nice about the ritual of going into a dvd place and picking out something from the shelves and then impulse buying icecream I still go a couple of times a month, and its not just my generation there's always teens in there too

Thanks Bighairyflowers

I was hoping that Mary Portas, in her role as High Street Tsar, would ask the Government to address the huge tax discrepancy between what UK based retailers pay, and how the likes of Amazon get away with not paying at all. And don't get me started on the cost of rent and rates There are a lot of people burying their heads in the sand about the extortionate cost of business rents and rates atm.

Of course, when costs have to be cut, it's the staff who are made redundant, or not replaced; and those of us who are still fortunate to have a job are running around like headless chickens trying to provide the service that customers expect and listening to them talking about getting the product from Amazon as it's cheaper

Number 1 thing on my wishlist, however, is that supermarkets should be forced to only sell food. It won't happen, of course, but I can dream!

our local indi dvd hire shop is still going strong too

I think WHS will rebrand itself as a railway station store
Boots will focus more on baby and kids' clothes and also their meal deal - the queues at lunchtime are huge, but yes, no one goes in for the shampoo anymore!
Will be extremely sad if anything happens to waterstones

Judging by the 'fullness' of the shops in my local town centre, I'd say Thorntons, BHS, H Samuel and Waterstones.

All over priced with poor customer service.

but zukie, WHS used to sell books, nice stationery and videos and tapes. They have failed to keep up with advancements in any of these (other than maybe pens :o) and now just seem a jumble sale. I have to say even the bars of dairy milk they try to sell you for £1 at the till seem old and stale

I always thought Waterstones has excellent customer serrvice! Do feel that's reflected in the prices though

yes body shop no longer has anything left of what made it special. Like boots, you can now buy all the same sort of stuff they sell in the supermarkets for one third of the price