Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be worried about House of Fraser

366 replies

Viviennemary · 06/01/2018 23:20

Seems this is the next chain to be in trouble. And Debenhams hasn't been doing to well either lately according to the news tonight. I don't buy a great deal in either of these but would be really sad to see them go. Woolworths gone and then BHS. Sad at the thought they might disappear

OP posts:
Dontsweathesmallstuff · 07/01/2018 23:24

We have a HoF, debenhams, M&s and John Lewis near us.

Never go in HoF unless desperate - too expensive and chaotically organised.
Debenhams isn't too bad, got a few things there recently that I couldn't find anywhere else.
M&s has seriously gone down hill. 10-11 years ago I had loads of lovely per una stuff. Now it's a granny's paradise.
I love our local John Lewis. Could spend all down in their just drooling browsing.
Our local WhSmith has had a revamp recently is always busy. I could spend all day in there too (stationary addict alert)

LoniceraJaponica · 07/01/2018 23:25

Where do you buy clothes from Tippz, and don't you care if several thousand people lose their jobs if they close?

Tippz · 07/01/2018 23:31

Well not those 2 over-rated dumps,

Tippz · 07/01/2018 23:32

And no I don't care.

Tapandgo · 07/01/2018 23:35

Shatners The Debenhams was tiny in Cheltenham - too small to carry enough ranges. House of Fraser is very very dead in Cheltenham - I’ve never queued at any till point (and the store seriously smacks of Grace Brothers). It will collapse soon - sad for its workforce.
I love department stores - and have store cards for both. However - I’m surrendering my Hof F now, and touch and go if I keep my Debenhams card. They both have to keep up with market trends or take a lead by being super dynamic or innovative. They are neither now. (But, as I said - there are exceptions in some bigger cities)

FundayMorning · 07/01/2018 23:46

Well this thread has inspired me to place an order today. A dress and some wine glasses. I had both in my John Lewis basket out of habit but switched them to HofF as I remember shopping there in my youth, way before online shopping - when every purchase meant a bus ride into town!

HelenaDove · 08/01/2018 01:06

Ive never been in HOF Ive never been in Primark either but the reason a lot of ppl do is because they cant afford much else. Someone on JSA in the UK probably cant afford to have or excersise the principles that others can so have to buy as cheap as they can even though that does mean poorer ppl in other countries continue to be exploited . Its called the cycle of poverty. When Dispatches covered this there were a stream of ignorant tweets making derogatory remarks about working class women who shop in Primark and New Look etc Quite apart from the fact that a lot of the people tweeting were obviously ignorant about the cycle of poverty and how it works ,i also couldnt help wondering about the disdain there seems to be for the poorer ppl in this country compared to elsewhere.

Our town lost a department store........Townrows which closed last year. It opened in 1871.

They wernt getting the footfall anymore.

ShatnersWig · 08/01/2018 08:33

Tap I can't speak for the ranges of women's clothes, but for men in Cheltenham, Debenhams was very popular and their shutting down (not of their making or choice) has really reduced the places for men to buy clothes, whereas there are loads and loads of places for women. And I know from people involved in the company that it did better trading than the much larger Gloucester store which is still going.

HoF depends which dept you're in I think. I went in with a friend to look at shoes in September (not a sale) and that department was really busy, both male and female.

IWannaSeeHowItEnds · 08/01/2018 08:54

You can pay more money and not shop in primark etc and still have no guarantee that clothes are ethically produced.
Very few people could afford to buy everything from People Tree etc.

LakieLady · 08/01/2018 08:54

*Does anyone remember the days when you could only buy an item in the department it came from?

Net curtains couldn't be paid for in printed furnishing fabrics, china ware couldn't be paid for in glassware and gents' clothing couldn't be paid for in ladies' shoes.*

Old-fashioned department stores (like Allders, mentioned upthread, and the even older Grants department store, which I swear Grace Brothers was based on) used to have a "shopping card" system, whereby you could choose your stuff and an assistant on each section would pack it and take it up to the store's office (for younger readers, this was the forerunner of the "customer service" desk Wink).

Then, when you'd finished your shopping, you went to the office and paid for it all together.

JL still did something similar not that long ago (maybe 20 years?). I bought loads of stuff at their Kingston store, and paid for it all when I collected it from somewhere on the edge of the basement car park. And a nice man carried it all to my car and loaded it for me!

popcorntime1 · 08/01/2018 09:33

HelenaDove

Your right about the poverty aspect but that’s not the only reason people shop in Primark. I used to work in retail (head office) & the opening of a large store would affect a lot of high street brands. Some people simple want 3 tops instead of 1 & to wear different clothes when they go out.

Whilst all stores could do more to audit their factories some brands really do put more effort in. I think people value having a new dress more than whether a child made it or not.

FundayMorning · 08/01/2018 10:00

A lot of people shop in places like Primark to have a huge disposable wardrobe of cheap clothes that they don't feel bad about only wearing once - the sort of women who need a new top every Saturday.

Flyingflipflop · 08/01/2018 10:08

Quick question whilst we are talking about old department stores. About 15 years ago I went into a shop in Reading. It was genuinely like Are a you Being Served. I suspect the staff were used to jokes about Mrs Slocombs pussy!

When you went to pay you gave your money over, the assistant put it in a capsule and sent it via a vacuum system to the cash office who returned the change the same way. Does anyone remember it and what was it called?

Andrewofgg · 08/01/2018 11:16

The best, or worst, was the Foyles system, said to have been based on the GUM department store in Soviet-era Moscow - which is ironic considering that Christina Foyle was a notorious union-hater.

You queued once to get a bill; then you queued at a cash-desk to pay it; then back to the desk where you queued up again to get your books.

BikeRunSki · 08/01/2018 11:18

Oh yes. Foyles used to drive me nuts!

Andrewofgg · 08/01/2018 11:23

The local branch of Waterstones once ran adverts at the Tube station nearby with the caption "FOYLED AGAIN?"

I remember finding one of Richmal Crompton's Just William series called "William the Conqueror" shelved in English History!

FloControl · 08/01/2018 11:44

I remember when HoF in Leeds was Schofield's, a somewhat quaint but classy store over several floors on the corner of The Headrow and Land's Lane. At least three restaurants, a small food hall, posh clothes, toy department, sports department, jewellery, stationery, gift ware and china and glass. And a lot of lifts with coloured buttons. Lovely place ☺.

I hope HoF survives.

ReelingLush18 · 08/01/2018 11:55

HoF in Leeds was Schofield's - I remember that - wasn't it quite close to some wasteland area? I famously had an expensive but very itchy (it was made of 100% wool) coat as a tween from there...

FloControl · 08/01/2018 12:00

Schofield's main frontage was on The Headrow, facing Dortmund Square. I don't remember any wasteland, as such, but I can't remember what was on the site now occupied by St. John's Centre. Perhaps that was it. Schofield's in Sheffield was a little away from the city centre.

Scabbersley · 08/01/2018 12:01

"I really don't care about HOF or Debs as I never ever ever shop in either one of the over-rated over-priced shit-tips"

yes tippz

Rebeccaslicker · 08/01/2018 12:09

Wow, what a treat you are, Tippz. Don't care if people lose their jobs; don't care if landlords, including charities and pension funds, lose their income stream... must be nice to be such a self centred ostrich!

ReelingLush18 · 08/01/2018 12:11

FloControl it's quite some decades years since I was last there (as a child) so don't have any recall of road names unfortunately. Indeed Schofield's is the only shop in Leeds that I recall TBQH!

I really wouldn't put HoF in the same league as Debenhams. The latter is shoddy whereas any HoF stores I've been into in the past few years have had a certain (albeit slightly faded) gentility that Debenhams is totally devoid of (or has ever had, faded or otherwise).

All the 'Designers by Debenhams' clothes ranges are now really lacking in any true style. They were much more interesting when they were first a thing (probably about 20 years ago).

ReelingLush18 · 08/01/2018 12:12

has (rather than have)

Rebeccaslicker · 08/01/2018 12:13

We went into multiyork just after Christmas. The poor man in there looked utterly beaten. What a shit Christmas for him, losing his job and then having to flog everything for the administrators whilst never knowing which day will be his last day of employment. And posters like Tippz wouldn't give a shit. Urgh!

NameChanger22 · 08/01/2018 12:15

A lot of people have a lot less money to spend now. That's the main problem.

If I were going to buy something from a department store I'd go to John Lewis or M&S as they are the best department stores where I live. However I have almost no money to spend, so I'm part of the problem.