Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

Another company in trouble?

https://www.theguardian.com/business...ending-squeeze

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

Yes, retail is facing many challenges, with consumer expenditure being squeezed following the devaluation of the pound resulting in increased purchase prices plus increases in rates, minimum wages and fuel. Online is a key challenge. The slow down in the housing market is a real issue for companies like Homebase and Carpetright.

The weaker players are the ones that are being wiped but as we're seeing with restaurant chains like Jamie's, Prezzo, and Byron all shedding outlets, there's a real squeeze across the board occurring, not just old-fashioned stores that face online competition, it's people trading down from nights out to nights in.

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

Debenhams in trouble too.

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

Department stores are dying out sadly.

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

Seems to be the case that 6,000 have lost their jobs in the two months of 2018 compared to 12,000 in all of 2017, 26,000 in all of 2016 and 7,000 in all of 2015.
So, yes, 2018 is shaping up to be a bad year for retail but there have been worse years in the past.
Big list here for those interested http://www.retailresearch.org/whosegonebust.php

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

Sadly the list still has a fair way to go yet Andrew according to retail experts as there are quite a few big retail chains who are pretty deeply entrenched in the brown sauce.

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

A massive and alarming list indeed . . and not finished yet.

Regarding clothing (fashion) I think the impact of 'value' shops like Primark have had a massive influence. The large supermarket chains also do an increasing range of clothing - not top quality stuff, but who cares when you can buy a suit for £50 and throw it away after a few months.
Casual wear, shoes, jeans, tops etc are now cheap as chips (which is a silly saying considering the price of a bag of sliced fried potato), and it's the price general consumers are looking at instead of quality.

With electronics, anything you buy today is probably superseded by a 'fantastic upgraded bells & whistles must have' version by next week, buy it online now for £££££ cheaper than instore :rolleyes:

Personally I think we import far too much dross from abroad, in all areas not just clothing, but while people are willing to buy it nothing will change.

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

This country used to be a true world manufacturing great a long long time ago but sadly l don't think those days will ever return Carth.

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

Yep, we're past our sell by date indeed :D

oh, and I've just returned from a trip to the retail park - where I went round in circles in the queue for 5 minutes trying to get parked - then decided not to bother after all.

Yesterday I accompanied the wife into town, something I rarely do (I must be ill) and although it was free parking we had a choice of about 200 free parking bays.

My observation was that there is nothing left on the high street to tempt shoppers in any volume, and if retailers want to survive they need to move to where the footfall is. However, this in turn leads to a revenue loss for the landlords and local council . . and a financial loss to the council won't bode well for the supply (and cost) of services they provide.

It's a game eh, and we're all just playing it the best way we can

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

Those days only disappeared for a short while, in the 1970s. Don’t believe the hype; the UK’s manufacturing output may be relatively smaller than other sectors of the economy now than 50 years ago but that’s for a variety of reasons, most of them quite positive. Go have a quick read of this:

https://www.themanufacturer.com/uk-m...ng-statistics/

The UK is one of the top 10 manufacturing economies of the world. I think that still fits the definition of ‘a true world manufacturing great’.

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

Great link - the UK is still a great manufacturing country, but because a lot of it is business to business, consumers don't see it. They just see the clothes made in Bangladesh and the phone made in China. Not the lorries made in Lancashire or the steel from South Wales.

Meanwhile, back to House of Fraser with the news that its main shareholder has sold its controlling stake to a tourism development company named Wuji Wenhua. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...-a8241931.html

And at Debenhams, it's now renting out space to hot deskers! https://www.theguardian.com/business...to-hot-deskers

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

Full story on link above.

Affected stores list

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

Sadly it was inevitable given the current retail environment.

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

It's not inevitable imo, I went in the Swatch shop in Brussels the other day and the level of service was incredible, I sat there watching for a while and noticed that whilst the shop was packed no one bought anything, the other half wanted to buy one but when she looked on line they were half the price but then if it weren't for the store how many people would have remembered them let alone found them online, when you compare that with most shops with their sullen, unhelpful staff it's no wonder they're struggling, to survive you've got to offer something different, toys r us went under but the entertainer is thriving due to its innovative approach and it's ability to evolve. One of the things that grates me in shops is when they've got one person on the till with a queue and three others stacking shelves, makes me want to walk out empty handed tbh

Re: House of Fraser in trouble...
 

More high street misery:

Must be tough when you can't make money out of booze. :(