To feel sad Debenhams is going?

[CrotchBurn]

Don't know why but it just makes me feel nostalgic
www.bbc.com/news/business-55793411

@Pinkcanoftan not sure about Coast; Debenhams have lots of concessional stock which Boohoo didn’t acquire in this sale, perhaps it was out of choice so they could rebrand - or perhaps they weren’t allowed to and the remaining inventory is being liquidated elsewhere.

It is funny that Debenhams customers tend to be older and not internet savvy, but the brand is now being pushed online so theoretically outside of their target market. Suggests that they’re aiming for a massive rebrand and a slightly younger audience.

I live in the North West, and have very happy memories of Debenhams in Chester. I was last there 18 months ago, looking for an occasion dress. A quirky store, the structural layout was a bit cramped and higgledy-piggledy due to the design of the building, but to me that was a big part of its charm. The womens' clothing floor was great, with concessions such as Karen Millen, Coast, Jaeger, etc. Friendly staff, nice atmosphere. I'm no retail expert but I think it's a real shame and it will be missed. Up to 12,000 jobs could go - more redundancies - where are all these people going to find jobs? Feel so sorry for them.

Yes l feel sad too OP - could always find something in there usually at a good price

@MoveAsideCherry

I used to like the jewellery sales at Christmas time etc and could always find some bargains... I will miss having a stroll through. I wonder what the stores will become now? I would have said probably Next but they already have so many large premises!

The one in Guildford has already been sold and will be flattened and replaced with a mix of residential flats and mixed use commercial on the ground floor.

It could actually be very nice as it's on the river and I'm hoping will have a mix of shops, cafes,
Maybe a nice restaurant with waterfront seating.

Not sure it will be that missed in Guildford as there is a House of Fraser there and it wasn't particularly busy since it started going downhill about 10 years ago.

However my home town is Stoke. Debenhams is the only department store there and takes up a huge area of the town centre shopping mall. I can't see what they will replace it with given that the city centre struggles as it is. It's not exactly desirable development land like Guildford. Will be a huge blow to them.

Sad for the 12,000 people who may lose their jobs

Mostly women, I assume.

I will miss debenhams. I can't imagine what my town centre will look like. Debenhams is such a huge part of it

@ChocolateSantaisthebestkind

I feel sad about the redundancies However, I think retailers really need to up their game post covid to get people back. They need to make the shops appealing to compete with online. I always remember going to department stores when I was in my teens and 20's and it felt like you were going to a place with atmosphere, with a sense of theatre. They we clean, bright and sufficiently staffed to not make you feel like you were running them ragged by asking if they had more 'out the back'. You could get extra services like alterations, fancy wrapping etc. I understand that we are all more environmentally conscious and that's great, but they could still wrap goods, in compostable tissue or something and fold garments nicely, rather than just flinging them at you, which many stores do now. Stores need to reclaim identities and focus on longevity and quality of products (which would help the environment), rather than all being stacked with cheap, poor quality, synthetic stuff, which works out to be more expensive in the long run, because it never lasts.

As old fashioned as it may be, I like an inside coffee shop and restaurant as two separate things, these places should be warm and inviting and sell quality products too. Nowadays they often feel like Soviet era feeding stations and you feel robbed for the price! The coffee shop should serve tea (as in a light meal) morning and afternoon coffee and the restaurant should serve more substantial meals. I would like people to say 'thank you for shopping at...' when they check out. I would like background music, not deafening pop, warm lighting and a proper lingerie department with experienced fitters. Clean bathrooms and fitting rooms big enough to move around in. Decent parking in city centres. Who wouldn't prefer to shop in places like that than online?

The only place that I think retains a slight vestige of shopping as theatre is Fortnum and Mason in London, but that is wavering, if you ring their customer services, there is a noticeable change compared to even a few years ago.

I agree with this. I'd really like to see somewhere like John Lewis go back to seriously good service, great quality, high quality cafes with an old fashioned feel.

Won't happen for House of Fraser since that's not exactly how whatshisname works. That will go the same way as Debenhams. The one in Guildford used to be lovely to shop at 10-15 years ago, now it's becoming very jumble sale.

We had a small shop in a large town with a new shopping centre where Debenhams was the anchor tenant. We were in the older shopping centre 200 yards away. In the 90s/ 00s 12.00 till 2.00 was the busiest time of day, except when Debs had a blue cross sale our centre was empty when all the lunchtime shoppers flocked to Debenhams to get a bargain. Then the sales became more and more frequent, until it got to the point that you would be daft or desperate to buy anything there at full price. Then the other chains copied the constant sales, then Black Friday took all the profit out of Christmas sales too. No wonder so many shops are in trouble.

SCALPHELP

I was surprised too that Boohoo was interested in Debenhams, seems a really odd fit to me, def for older folk.

@DenisetheMenace

SCALPHELP

I wonder what the stores will become now? I would have said probably Next but they already have so many large premises!“

Housing, hopefully. Some of the old 20/30s buildings would make fantastic apartments.

The Manchester building is gorgeous. I worked there as a student.

The top floor was never converted and was still the original 1950s dance hall!

[quote SCALPHELP]@Pinkcanoftan not sure about Coast; Debenhams have lots of concessional stock which Boohoo didn’t acquire in this sale, perhaps it was out of choice so they could rebrand - or perhaps they weren’t allowed to and the remaining inventory is being liquidated elsewhere.

It is funny that Debenhams customers tend to be older and not internet savvy, but the brand is now being pushed online so theoretically outside of their target market. Suggests that they’re aiming for a massive rebrand and a slightly younger audience.[/quote]

The Debenhams website got something like 30m(?) visits last year and was one of the top 10 UK websites visited apparently. Saw it in a news release about why BooHoo were making the investment

The Debenhams website got something like 30m(?) visits last year and was one of the top 10 UK websites visited apparently.

We used it a lot last year because we could see the writing was on the wall so stocked up on DHs trousers and shirts , bras for me and DD and also I got some mantaray tops and a few things in the sale I'd usually get elsewhere (craghoppers trousers, lands end pjs)

I've no idea where DH will get his clothes from now... though I'm not sure he'll need to get anything for about a decade.
I won't use the Debenhams site if it's not selling the same sort of stuff.. and a lot of it was their own labels.

Me too. It’s where I got the dress for my wedding reception, bridesmaids dresses and so many winter coats, wedding outfits, office clothes and nice home wares.

I’ll really miss it - always tasteful, good quality and not too expensive. It’s a real shame. And all those jobs and workers stories going with it.

I’m sad to see it go. My student job was in Debenhams- still have the badge.
Friends work there and feel sorry for all those losing their jobs.

@Howzaboutye

Oh fyi m&s have reversed the 'anyone can use any changing room' thing they had for a while there. Emma Nicholson had a quiet word with the chief exec. Back to male and female. In case anyone was boycotting for this reason.

That's not correct sadly. M & S have since said this:

'When open, they [changing rooms] consist of individual lockable cubicles; and are managed by a colleague to provide assistance and to ensure customers' privacy.'

'The fitting rooms are located within our womenswear and menswear departments and therefore are mainly used by customers of that gender.'

'However, in line with most other retailers we will generally allow people to use the fitting room which they prefer, with our colleagues exercising discretion and common sense.'

I never liked the layout of our city centre Debenhams. Once you'd gone up an escalator it took ages to find one to get back down again. As pp said the only reason I went in there was for the concessions that used to be shops in their own right.

I hope m&s and john Lewis stay open, theres not much left..

Yes not much left
These shops shutting down catered for a certain body type so where you supposed to shop now
It's worrying

Many of Debenhams’ problems were similar to those of BHS - too big an estate; too many stores in shopping destinations that had gone into decline (big suburbs/satellite towns of big cities); and the combination of those two factors, which meant that tired and dated older stores were dragging down the brand. Some stores were more than one rebrand behind the newer ones.

About 15 years ago I was living in a city with a very old fashioned Debenhams. I was in the process of moving back to Birmingham, which at the time had a brand new flagship branch. A friend in the other city admired a top I was wearing on a night out, purchased in said flagship store - she couldn’t believe it came from what she saw as a middle-aged people’s shop.

A quirky store, the structural layout was a bit cramped and higgledy-piggledy due to the design of the building, but to me that was a big part of its charm.

A lot of Debenhams stores are like this. I agree that it’s charming in a way - but it can be frustrating in equal measure. I went wedding dress shopping in the Canterbury store when I was going to be a bridesmaid and the place was like a maze; about four different entrances taking you out onto completely different streets, and one whole section of the shop on the other side of the road via a walkway. We kept trying to follow signs for the bridal department and were baffled. Eventually we found an assistant who told us it had shut down a few months earlier. She seemed as baffled as we had been when I suggested maybe taking down the signs, or that the website should have been updated.

I used Debenhams a lot in my 20s for buying work clothes and wedding outfits. Not so much need in my 30s over recent years. I just don't need to buy many clothes at this stage of life.

I want to buy clothes in person. I'm a short pear shape and need to try things on. Unless it's stretchy sportswear, I'm not willing to gamble on online purchases. I'm not sure where I'd buy clothes from now. Most of my clothes are obselete brands!

@BrightYellowDaffodil

I'm with you. Anything by that group. Absolutely vile.
It should be mandatory to retain a % of staff/stock/real estate in these deals for a period of time. All those clothes and hardware that will likely be destroyed. How wasteful and detrimental to the environment.

Debenhams didn't move with the times, but I'm sure they account for a significant % of employment in some communities, just as supermarkets and M&S do. Absolutely tragic it has come to this.

While I feel sorry for the workers, I certainly won’t miss Debenhams. I can remember when I was a teenager and thought Debenhams was the epitome of style but haven’t thought that way in about 5-6 years! I have always found their stores to be tired looking with miserable looking staff. A branch near me is so cold once you enter. No music, staff look depressed, incessant sales, little stock and some of the things in there were quite overpriced when you could pop into another store and get the same thing for cheaper . I can remember when I tried to return something in the past and it felt like the assistant was telling me off for returning it!

What I will miss is though: the restaurant. I used to love popping into Debenhams’ restaurant as a student and get myself a nice hot breakfast or brunch before heading to my lectures and I have never had a poor meal from there. Their beauty counters were always good albeit I never really bought anything from them. Hope the staff can find work quickly.

I feel very sad too. I used to love going there and was hoping I would be taking dd to their little cafe ( in Oxford circus)after a shopping trip when she is a teenager (she is only just 3). Ain't gonna happen. Looks like by then Amazon will probably have opened up a big Amazon Shopping mall and we'll be sat there, all the other shops having closed down ..That said, I thought their standards/quality of clothes had dropped these past few years and the place looked a bit of a mess, apart from their children's wear which i thought was lovely (lovely ted baker stuff)

I think it is sad. There's really been an erosion of the high street and British business'. I try to avoid amazon for this reason.

I feel sorry for all the job losses. Sadly the Debenhams stores have been going downhill for a long time.
I tended to order from them online, I like their stretchy trousers, I hope the new incarnation continues to stock them