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?

I think the retail market is going to see a continued trend of divergence into 'cheap and cheerful, full of bargains' and 'high quality, expensive but artisan'.

Basically a lot of consumer are either moving towards being motivated by the best bargains: Lidl/Aldi, B&M, Homesense, Primark, etc so would go there rather than 'mid market'. Also the market that tends not to invest for the long term as following trends like Zara, etc.

OR

They are looking for more 'artisan' or better quality goods like high thread count cotton, artisan/deli style food, high welfare meats, long lasting classic clothes.

Anything mid-market is in trouble in the longer term. M&S food does well as it clearly markets itself in the second category. M&S clothes don't do well because they haven't worked out that they need to do the same and go back to classic clothes in great quality (rather than try to capture the trend market and fail so badly).

M&S foods has competition from Cook, so needs to keep ensuring it develops and innovates.
I want WholeFoods to open where I am.
LIDL and ALDI also have some very high quality food.

yes, it just makes life easier going to a big place ( such as lakeside) as you know your not on the clock to get back before a fine. i understand that someone has to pay for it etc. it puts me off going into town that much as have to pay to park - can walk up but then i cant lug heavy bags back that easily and the bus is more than the cost of parking.
i think it does put people off, but the council need the revenue i understand that too!

I like New Look and Dorothy Perkins, to me they're a good balance of 'trendy' clothes that aren't too edgy if that makes sense? I find NEXT boring for adult clothes but shops like Topshop are a bit too on-trend and not great for anyone over a size 12 like myself.
I get most stuff from H&M though, they're the best for basics.

I have no idea how or why but we still have a Staples! The carpark is always empty. It has been bumbling along for years.

Our busiest stores are Waterstones, Primark, Superdrug, Boots and Wilko. Our Primark is really good and I recently went to New Look which had similar clothes but much more expensive.

We struggle to find boys clothes. Well we have a Next but the kids department is mostly girls.

Ifailed Where I live, roads are maintained by the county and not borough council. Car parking charges are therefore nothing to do with maintaining the roads. If shops are closing in the high street because of parking charges, then the councils make less in business rates so to cover the shortfall they.... increasing parking charges.... which puts off customers, which closes shops in the high street....

It's a nonsense argument.

I'd object to your notion less if councils DID do more to reduce car usage by improving public transport. But they don't. And it's not great anyway. I live in a village 5 miles away. Bus???? What's one of those?

i always found boys clothes hard to find ( pre internet) for babies.
Adams was good, but they all shut down.
George in Asda was okay. most big chains seemed to only cater for girls. so supermarkets had to do or primark.
our staples has moved away - not that anyone went in there much.
again, most of that could be found on line or wilkos or poundland for stationery.

Our local delicatessen has just suddenly closed. They had fabulous cheeses and salami/prosciutto, the best bread in town, and supported the local small-scale Gin producers by stocking their products. They also had a lovely cafe. If what one of their suppliers on a local FB page says is correct, they paid £1600 per month in business rates alone. If this is true it seems crazy much for a small shop in a small West coast Scotland town. There are also strong rumours that M&S is taking over the old Lidl-site which means more pressure on the independent cafes as well.
There are barely any shops left for the tourists this summer.

Buses are fine if you are getting a few bits. I will always get the car if I am buying a lot because struggling on the bus with masses of shopping is tough.

If what one of their suppliers on a local FB page says is correct, they paid £1600 per month in business rates alone.

Going back 25 years, when I was helping DF run his business (motor repairs), in 1994 in London.

Rates: £4,500 per annum (rising to £10,000 over 5 years)
Insurance: £4,000 per annum
Water meter: £500 per annum
Standing charges: £400

So daily:

365 days/year - £25
313 days/year - £29 (i.e. no Sundays)
251 days/year - £35 (5 day week)

You'll notice there's no adjustments for holidays. That's because we never had any.

You'll also notice there's no rent. That's because my DF bought the land outright.

Also notice nothing for cleaning, supplies, sundries, electricity, phone (which was £150 a quarter).

God only knows how much it would be now.

I overheard someone in a shop, in my rather crappy town, saying that business rates for a small premises was 46k per annum. No wonder shops open and close down within the year.

Laura Ashley had a shop in Bedford that was pretty busy. They closed down about 3/4 years ago. When I enquiries why they said that landlord had increased the rent massively and they refused to pay it. I know the shop then stayed empty for quite a while but I think there’s another shop in it’s place there now.

DGRosetti
Thanks for that breakdown.
I'm not surprised they closed, I'm just really sad about it. They are not the only interesting small shop that has closed over the last few years either.
We have more and more large cruise ships coming into the bay and I always wonder what they actually do when they are here. They are not here long enough to go out of town to hike up a hill or something like it and now there really aren't any good shops to go to either.

I overheard someone in a shop, in my rather crappy town, saying that business rates for a small premises was 46k per annum.

Going back to the 90s when council tax replaced the poll tax, one of the wheezes to hide the shortfalls from voters, was to whack business rates up to "commercially realistic" rates. The revaluation was pretty brutal - 300% rises were common (as we found out). There was such a stink that the rises had to be phased in over 5 years.

I wonder if empty units are still liable for business rates ? If so, the landlords must be hemorrhaging money. Which then increases the upwards pressure on existing rents.

I once wondered if there might be a hobby in ringing up retail unit landlords, and enquiring about rents for my new business venture, which was a combined mobile phone/greeting card/discount shoe shop with a cafe. But after the first agent took me a little too seriously, I took up macrame instead.

DGRosetti Thanks for that breakdown.

Bear in mind it's older than some posters here .

But next time you wonder how a small coffee can cost £2.50, imagine how many you have to sell to cover overheads. Before we start talking about wages, stock and equipment. (A decent coffee machine can be £5K).

I reckon more and more people buy from suoermarket ranges for their kids, somewhere where you are already, cheap clothes, easy parking and the quality in my experience is pretty good, better than h&m for sure.

retail rents are shocking. I think that’s one of the reasons food outlets do better. Particularly the recent trend for restaurants that are no reservations, cutlery & crockery free as there overheads are so much lower.

I pick up a few boys bits in Sainsbury’s & then mix with independent brands.

I just ordered a few things on-line from Dorothy Perkins on the back of this thread! Only white t-shirts though, the rest was god awful.

I don't really go shopping but do love John Lewis. Agree that you get all the discounts on-line though, say Fat Face and it seems bonkers to pay full price in the store.

Its a number of factors that are behind the struggle for the high street:

1. Cheaper competitors such as Amazon squeezing the stores that have high overheads.
2. Minimum wage that is increasing the cost base for many shops.
3. Councils also play a part, they make it more difficult for the stores to entice customers, i.e. parking issues when popping to the local high street.
4. Larger supermarkets are more like you multi cash and carry outlets where you can pretty much buy anything you want, so specialist stores like are having to compete and often diversify into other product areas.
5. Dare I say it, but Brexit has also had an impact what with the strength of the GBP taking a hit making goods a lot more expensive.

Its a number of factors that are behind the struggle for the high street

Can't speak for anyone else but the biggest single factor is simply not selling what we (DW and I) want to buy. So much so that apart from regular grocery shopping (which I suspect we do as much to say we get out once a week ) anything else is "check Google" first.

It's entirely possible a specialist niche shop might have what we are looking for, but as people have noted upthread ... they are far and few anyway.

Last time we looked in Debenhams for a coat for DW (because she wanted to try it on, obviously) there were gaps in range and sizes. When we asked if that had "this in that size" we were told we should have "gone to a bigger Debenhams", or "have you tried our website ?".

Eventually we got a lovely roebuck coat from a website that we'd never heard of. Quality is superb (even to my incredibly fussy standards) price wasn't bad (we don't mind if the quality matches). It was a gamble with the sizing. However even if we had returned it, it would have been cheaper than the drive and park to the bigger Debenhams.

I have just returned from an extremely pleasant morning in Meadowhall.

It was fairly busy - not bad for a weekday outside the school holidays. Most of the shoppers were retired, part time workers like me (I assume) and mothers with babies in prams.

The positives:

Excellent customer service in Debenhams when I went to return an article of clothing. The salesman was very helpful in trying to find a replacement, sadly unsuccessfully. They were pleasant and polite at the cash desk when I went to get a refund

Actually saw something I wanted to buy in White Stuff, but decided not to as I thought it was too expensive

Tried some gorgeous stuff in Neal's Yard Remedies, but they were out of stock of the item I wanted, but she will contact me when it comes in

Had what I consider the best coffee in Meadowhall in M & S, then had a really good mooch. Bought this cotton jumper, the Korres sleep mask that was in last year's advent calendar, some socks and some food.

Had my eyebrows done at Superdrug and bought some fake tan there

The negatives:

A sea of polyester in Dorothy Perkins, M & S, Wallis and most other low to mid range shops that I didn't bother going into.

Everywhere was clean and bright, and all the sales staff were polite and friendly. Oh, and parking was free.

ShatnersWig
To answer your points, it doesn't really matter whether your roads are looked after by the Borough or County Council; parking charges etc. are hypothecated and can only be spent on parking, road repairs etc. Either the money comes from charges to users, or from Council Tax.

As to funding bus routes - as you know, these have to be run by private operators in most of England, whose primary aim is to make a profit. Some journeys are subsidies by the Local Council(s), but it all comes out of the same pot.

You and your neighbours could decide to elect Councillors who stand on a ticket of "Provide Free Parking for all", Likewise a promise to improve bus services, but how would they fund it?

What services are you proposing should be cut to make it easier for you to go into town & park for free to spend money in private businesses, who seem more and more likely not to pay any corporation tax on their profits - just how important are these £40 coffee table books you buy?

whose primary aim is to make a profit.

One might argue, their only aim .

Surely Thomas Cook shops will shut at some point. Surely the vast majority of younger people book holidays online now don’t they!m?

Surely Thomas Cook shops will shut at some point. Surely the vast majority of younger people book holidays online now don’t they!?

Actually, that's one area I would expect to continue in some form. Maybe as a more specialist come-to-your-home service ? Online is probably OK for run of the mill one week on the costa sort of holidays. But more complex journeys (multistop, many countries, visas arranged, sites booked) might be better arranged with an advisor ?????

One thing the internet has done, is highlight the areas where people were skimming money without adding value (looks at a few mobile phone business "services"). But also enable access to services and goods that were either completely unknown, or unavailable to the man on the street.

It also calls out situations where shops are simply not providing anything unique ...