To ask which shops are on the verge of failure

[curiousbeak]

I'm so depressed with the uk high street. Specifically British companies. The likes of Arcadia group, new look (already on its way out), next, oasis , Debenhams etc etc

The clothes are just terrible quality and most stores and staff and just tired, uninspiring and lacking any kind of chicness.

The wave of European brands seem to be killing our home grown business with their beautiful stores and chic offerings.

Who do you think is on the way out?

Shops from overseas, Uniqlo for instance, seem to be going well. Maybe it will just all go global. Weren’t Walmart or Kmart coming to the U.K.?

Whittards. I never see anyone in there

Ryman's. Overpriced individual pens.

Boots - I think it's the M&S of the chemist/health world. There's pretty much nothing you can get there that you can't get with your weekly supermarket shop. My nearest branch doesn't have a pharmacy or offer any kind of pharmacy service.

YY to Debenhams.

Doesn't Walmart own Boots now ?

I love Superdrug - it's always clean and bright and I can get my eyebrows threaded.
By contrast Boots make up counters are often filthy! Why would I buy cosmetics from a place that looks like it's harbouring MRSA?

The high st has cut production costs to the point where clothing quality is utter shite, but they have still maintained quite high prices (NL, River Island, Next etc) Primark often sells better stuff for less money. And there is always something new to see.

Also love Matalan - their kids clothes do not shrink in the wash and are lovely and reaspnably priced. Next otoh are very overpriced and quality has really declined.

People who think Boots will fold don’t understand their business model. They are entirely vertically integrated ( Alliance)

Someone mentioned WH Smith allowing chuggers into their store. I was going to go to WH Smith last week ( I find it a very useful shop for school supplies), but I didn't go in, because there were three charity collectors in the doorway. I assumed they were collecting money, but they were blocking the doorway and it annoyed me so I didn't go in. It didn't occur to me that they'd be chasing direct debits. That's even worse.

I wonder also whether it is regional. I’m in the south and the Boots are always packed, have Benefit brow bars in some, lots of demos with free gifts... but they have to, they are competing with big independent chemists.

Sevendown I may just have to emigrate if Waterstones goes. I'm a voracious reader and read at least 2 books a week. Supermarkets are great for bestsellers at bargain prices (I'm not a literary snob, I love a good thriller) but I don't know of an independent bookshop within about 40 miles.

Online book-buying just doesn't work for me. I have to hold them smell them, like the layout, font etc, then they have to pass the test I apply: read the blurb on the back, open at random and read a page or two, then read the first couple of pages. If I still think I like them after that, I buy them.

I suppose I could always move to Hay-on-Wye, but god knows what we'd do for work (unless we got jobs in a bookshop lol).

Surely ann summers isn't doing well? Shit, tacky underwear and poor quality sex toys which most people browse on-line anyway?

If a big supermarket is going to fail, it'll be Sainsburys.

Following the Maplin collapse, quite a few tech heads noted that the one thing Argos had right was their logistics, and if that's the bit that Sainsburys are going to merge with their own, then they are doomed.

Meanwhile, since last year, a visit to Sainsburys has become like Aldi or Lidl. Not only do you have to try and keep up with their ever-shifting (generally shrinking) range it can be a wild goose chase as to what they actually have in stock.

Got a free cake yesterday, as they hadn't got the first 4 items I had on my patisserie shopping list (for Mothers day treat ...)

I also notice Sainsburys are really trying to encourage click'n'collect over deliveries, which makes me suspect they might be moving away from deliveries.

The only reason we shop there is .... no better not say. They'll stop selling it, and that'll be that .

Doesn't Walmart own Boots now ?

Walgreens

Gosh I hope H&M don't close. I buy 90% of my kids clothes there (online). I find it really hard to find reasonably priced but nice kids clothes.

DGRossetti it’s not (whispers) Numberetti is it?! Horrible stuff but my nephew loves it and my sister asks me to get it for her as she doesn’t have a Sainsbury’s. Apparently no one else sells it.

youmadethatup Walmart owns Asda. If you've ever been in a Walmart in the Us there's not much difference.

But if people stop shopping in Boots, Alliance will stop funding it because it eon't be profitable. I think that is a long way off but Boots really do need to up their game for their small stores, because they are often grubby and inefficient.
My local one closes at lunchtime (the whole shop) because the pharmacist is on lunch!(I though lunchtime closures stopped in about 1986) So tough shit if you need your prescription or want to shop in your own lunch hour. Easier to drive to nearest supermarket and get prescription and shopping there.

I love Sainsbury’s & for a long time we didn’t have a Tesco anywhere near. Never have a problem with getting what I want but it’s near a Waitrose so they have to be competitive.

I stand corrected on the Bodyshop - thank you to the pp who posted about Natura owning them now. However, they clearly aren't doing enough to make it more widely known! The L'Oreal period has damaged the Bodyshop brand.

Boots turns over good profit in Ireland and UK, growing steadily in Ireland. Their parent company reported a loss due to some investment in a different company, Chinese pharmaceutical I think.
Their usp was their own brand products, not just no7, they manufactured everything from vitamins, to makeup at huge profit.
BUT they've sold off that and have reached a cushy deal with a French manufacturer. But in ten years what will happen?
www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/26/boots-alliance-fareva-manufacturing-beeston-d10-factory

Their own skin care no7 is not current nor is a lot of the makeup ranges they stock in smaller stores.
The pharmacy seems good though with a wide selection.
I find it as cheap as any of the euro shops we have in Ireland for toiletries. You just need not to care about brands. Those bottles/tubes you get for €1/£1 are often tiny. The ones in Boots are often twice as big if not more for less than twice the price for nicer products.
You couldn't pay me to use Radox, it's like washing up liquid and goes so fast!

Body shop products are nice but so expensive. I also hate how pushy the sales assistants are. Can't stand Lush though, the very smell of the place makes me heave.

M&S should stick to basics. Their leggings are fab - last for ages, good quality and never go baggy at the knee.

DGRossetti it’s not (whispers) Numberetti is it?

No, it's something only they make. Years of visiting every other supermarket (and "specialist" shop) has revealed it's something you won't get anywhere else ... well certainly not outside London (which is where we find ourselves). Although a few visits to Selfridges food hall on Oxford St. suggests even they don't do it .

Slightly OT, but when was St. Patricks day extended to a **ing week ?!?!

www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/selfridges-turn-green-week-mark-12704432

I love Sainsbury’s & for a long time we didn’t have a Tesco anywhere near. Never have a problem with getting what I want but it’s near a Waitrose so they have to be competitive.

I always imagined that being competitive had an element of carrying something no one else did...

I think they need to include more titles in there 3 for 2 offers though as I'd happily take advantage and buy even less from Amazon if they did.

If you have several branches within a reasonable distance (there are 4 within 20 miles of where I live), it's worth trying different ones. My local one has a very limited range of 3 for 2, and many are titles you can get at 2 for £7 in Tesco. The other 3 stores often have a bigger and more varied range on special, and the books on 3 for 2 in the 2 biggest towns don't tend to be the sort of thing you can buy in supermarkets.

I often drive 12 miles to shop, because there's a mid-sized town that has M&S (my town is too small for M&S), Waterstones and a lovely big Sainsburys. The town is never ramped and parking is cheap. Traffic and parking are so dreadful where I live, it's often quicker to shop 12 miles away too.