To not give two hoots about the demise of BHS?

[LunaLoveg00d]

(Disclaimer: obviously very sad for anyone employed there who is now facing losing their jobs).

Couldn't really care less if BHS ceases to exist. They're not a patch on Debenhams or John Lewis, and are beaten by places like M&S in the market for knickers and school uniform. Haven't bought anything in there for about three years - and even then it was in a Wallis concession rather than in BHS itself.

All this harping on about 88 years of tradition on the UK high street is ridiculous - it's a company which has failed to move with the times, has no defined core shopper and which sells tat.

The thing is we have so much more choice and we all try to get the best quality for the least money.

Post credit crunch our shopping habits have changed so we aren't loyal to one shop as we were before.

Its just progress

"Woolworths has been effectively replaced by Wilkos ..."

Yes and no.

I loves a Wilko- don't get me wrong- but they don't have anywhere near the amount of shops that Woolies did, and the shops they do have tend to be in the the bigger shopping towns.

The thing Woolies did well was to have sensible shops selling things you'd actually need to buy in the tiny high streets and rows of shops. Now, I can walk round the corner and buy handcrafted chocolates and hen night costumes, but can I buy a pair of tights or a school lunchbox? Can I fuck.

I remember as a kid trying hats on in BHS. It was the only place that sold them on the high street. Lilac mother of the bride type jobs with netting. Happy days.

The high streets up and down the land will go one of two ways; up or down.

Up, with artisanal shops, galleries and organic cafes, or down with bargain basement shops, pie shops and betting shops.

There is no longer a wish to have everything in one place as the overall shopping experience is all too often unpleasant (drunks) for those looking for a 'nice afternoon's shopping' with an Italian style pavement cafe and designer boutiques.

The only time I venture into a town is when I want an experience I can't get on-line (a haircut for example). The hassle of the parking, payment meters, travel/traffic is too much - I want a nice, easy and pleasant experience.

I think that anyone who takes pleasure in seeing another business going to the wall doesn't sound like a very nice person. So, for that reason YABVVVVVU.

I have actually shopped there this year and bought one or two summer items that I like, fit me well and suit me. Even 15 year old DD liked this dress I bought recently. One of the reviews made me laugh because I am not a teenager, but I am slim and both OH and DD thought it suited me

Their lighting and homewares were excellent. It's a pity that they seemed to be stuck in a timewarp because I quite like BHS and will mourn their loss.

I quite enjoy clothes shopping and won't buy online as I am not a standard size, so one less clothes shop will be a loss, not that I bought a lot from BHS. I never dismissed them like some do on here because there often was a nice piece of clothing amongst all the dross.

I'm surprised it's kept going as long as it has TBH. The adult clothes are awful and as for their Christmas 'novelties'...Of course I feel sad for the staff. I stopped going to our local one when they shut the cafe, their breakfasts were awesome and dirt cheap.

our local BHS closed down last year and is now opening as a primark, even though we already have a large primark just around the corner. I have a love hate relationship with Primark. The snob in me say eww no, lets go to John Lewis, the skinflint in me says ooh £3 for a top, ooh look £1.90 for a t-shirt.

There's a huge BHS store bang in the middle of Edinburgh's iconic Princes Street. It's opposite the Scott Monument. It hasn't had a refit in my lifetime, and I remember the days when it had a food hall.

Yep, that Bhs branch is like the land that time forgot. It looks exactly like the used to when I was about six. On the odd urhe I've been there I've had an urge to tug on my mum's sleeve and ask if I can go and stand outside Rumbelows and watch the football results come up on the TV.

I feel very sad for the employees who face losing their jobs and possibly pensions (?).

But I can't get worked up about the demise of the company. They haven't moved with the times, their stores are tatty and there is no brand identity. I can't remember the last time I saw an ad campaign from them. They could have tried much harder, imo.

I read a while ago that one of the issues with Woolworths was that store managers had very little influence over stock, so they couldn't offer what their customers wanted.

I suppose that's the same for a lot of major retailers, but it seems bonkers not to be able to sell the items your customers want to buy.

The thing is, in my town it will probably be replaced with yet another fucking betting shop, fast food place, bargain basement shop or phone shop. Or just become yet another boarded up eyesore until it ends up being converted into "affordable" private flats that no one in my town who needs a house can actually afford at all.
But I can't shop somewhere just to keep it going, if I don't like their clothes/homeware or ethics (sorry BHS!)

I do try to shop at the few remaining indies in my town though (mainly Asian grocers!)

Plus the loss of that many jobs will be a blow for my community, and for the employees across the country.

But as Andrew said, it is a natural progression that as technology and habits change, so must the employment/retail/industrial landscape.
It is indeed "just life"

It's a tough one for me!

Agree completely about Philip Green.

He ripped money out of BHS and did absolutely nothing for the Co or it's staff.

11,000 jobs is a LOT. Very sad about that.

As for the stores - the lighting was good. Some of the homewares.
The Wedding Clothes were very good too (my flower girls and page boys had cream silk outfits for a very good price).

Agree it will leave a big 'hole' in Princes St, Edinburgh
(not an 'iconic' Street though - tatty - it's only merit being if you look Castle-wards).

Anyone remember Video Rental shops?

There's one near me, it only has about 5 vhs cassettes in the window.

Although it is a front for a knocking shop.

I bought some shoes in there a couple of years ago for a wedding. I use BHS for their toilet when shopping as my local town has very few and the other decent one is in Debenhams and up two floors whilst BHS is a ground floor one!

Used BHS all the time for bedding, lighting and bathroom stuff. Really good quality so I am sad for that reason and this year I got some decent school sportswear for DD. However I am a total capitalist and if a company cannot move with the times then bye bye. I still miss Woolies though. I shopped there all the time!

There's a huge BHS store bang in the middle of Edinburgh's iconic Princes Street. It's opposite the Scott Monument. It hasn't had a refit in my lifetime, and I remember the days when it had a food hall.

Mine either, and I was born in the early 70s! My granny used to come to Edinburgh on the train from Fife especially to go to British Home Stores as it was so "naice". I remember the food hall too - another attempt to compete with M&S which failed miserably.

Good point about what will go in instead. On my local high street, Littlewoods was replaced by Primark, so not sure what will fill the BHS void.

I wonder if a slimmed down "BHS homewares" could save at least some of the stores?

Primark took the old Littlewoods site in Edinburgh too. We have the added complication of the St James redevelopment too, some decent shops in there eg Tiger seeking new space.

Personally I'm more gutted by the loss of my beloved St James Poundshop, but if they put a Poundshop in the old BHS I'll eat my polyester hat.

They should have ditched the clothes a long time ago and concentrated on homewares and kids' clothes. Their linens are brilliant, especially the towels, I'll be stocking up.
The issue isn't regular trading though, as I understand it it's because they can't fill a massive hole in the pension fund that has been there for some time.
Philip Green should be hounded prosecuted for what he did to it before he offloaded it.

As much as others on here hated the Xmas tat, for me it was a god send to add to main presents for people who were difficult to but for - brother in his mid 20s woh bought stuff when he needed it as no mortgage / kids so had no ideas what you should get him etc.

The lighting range was good but struggled with the High Street locations - you can't easily drive near enough to pick up a standard lamp or something. We've bought bits and bobs from there when we've passed one, but not enough to keep them going.

I'd agree about the wedding shop, particularly if your bridesmais / page boys are spread around the country as they can try on locally to them but get the same outfit. Except that my DS is a page boy in about 8 weeks, and 70 miles away from the other page boys, but they all have trousers ordered online from M&S which we could collect from a local M&S food outlet so no need to go to the High Street.

I also liked looking at their Christmas tat, I really did (looks embarrassed). Their school uniform was the only stuff that fitted my short kids perfectly and for me no other brand compared.

However, I never bought anything else from there although I did think they had some reasonable wedding stuff for people on a budget.

Since my last child stopped wearing uniform 3 years ago, I guess I won't miss it.

our local BHS closed down last year and is now opening as a primark,

The problem is our local Primark took over (one floor of 3) of Alders when they went. So no idea who could be in line for that space .

In a mischievous mood, I once thought of calling the management agents for our local shopping mall, and pretend to be looking to start up a combined greetings card/shoe/mobile phone business ....

I've thought that the "shopping mall" as a concept has had it's day for a while -it's hard to imagine the future being like the past. Personally I suspect the future "in real life" will tail online life, and social interaction will form a big part of whatever people want to do in shared spaces like shopping malls. Obviously we've seen the first wave with "new" (only if you don't know the history of London) cafe culture (Starbucks, Cafe Nero, Costa et al). As with shops people will travel to and visit places where they can't get what is offered anywhere else (and the Dylan Moran line about decent coffee, sex and conversation springs to mind). So I would expect to see :- advanced multimedia offerings (cinemas, live gigs, special interactive shows), plus live performances ...

How was space used before "the High Street" (which is really an industrial artefact itself) ?

I struggle to see how Debenhams or M&S can continue in the long run. They'll have a brief upsurge from the BHS fall out (BHS had some customers and they have to go somewhere). But I would be surprised if either is with us in 2026. So having a super-fast HS2 rail link to whisk you from London to the Bullring 20 minutes quicker is really just shortening the time before you can return home, rather than incentivising shopping.