Changes on the High Street

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by nomadking

I've tended to see manned Sky promotional stands, inside shopping centres and out on the "high street".

Yes the Cats Protection League are usually on the other side the street, and Save the Children and their clipboards blockading the centre.

Wonder why no one goes to town centres any longer ?

[heero_yuy]

Quote from The Sun Money:

Gap is considering closing all 70 shops in the UK as well as 59 others across Europe. This would put hundreds of jobs at risk.

In the latest casualty of the UK high street, the company has said it wants to operate in Europe through “partnerships”. This could potentially be both online and for bricks and mortar sites.

The high street staple currently has 158 franchise shops in Europe as well as company-owned outlets, having opened in 1987.

The future of its distribution centre in Warwickshire is also in doubt.

It has already closed some of its UK sites, as well as its Banana Republic chain and had said earlier this year that it plans to close 225 unprofitable outlets.

Who’d have thunk it. There apparently aren’t enough idiots to buy everyday casual clothes that come from the same eastern factories as everything else in the world, at stupid premium prices. Not enough to keep the likes of Gap afloat anyway.

[pip08456]

This is going to help in Westminster area.

Westminster Council to charge thousands for outdoor seating licences this winter.
The Council is set to charge businesses £7 per square metre of outside space, per day, once the existing ‘al fresco’ scheme comes to an end on October 31.

One small coffee shop and deli, ScandiKitchen, say they will be hit with a bill of £2,000 a month for a space that can only house six people according to the firm’s twitter account.

https://www.cityam.com/exclusive-wes...s-this-winter/

[Sephiroth]

Legalised scam. Bustards.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by pip08456

This is going to help in Westminster area.

https://www.cityam.com/exclusive-wes...s-this-winter/

What could possibly go wrong with this fine idea?

[heero_yuy]

Quote from The Sun Money:

Pizza Express has said it is cutting around 1,300 jobs across its UK restaurants as the impact of coronavirus continues to hit business.

The restaurant chain is not closing any more restaurants but instead slimming down its existing team.

The job losses are on top of the 1,100 that are already at risk after the chain announced in September that it would be closing 73 restaurants.

Pizza Express said that despite sales improving over the summer, the latest round of Covid restrictions has caused a drop in the number of diners eating out.

The industry has been hit by a national 10pm curfew for pubs and restaurants and a ban on households mixing indoors in Tiers 2 and 3 coronavirus lockdown areas.

The job cuts are expected to hit all 370 Pizza Express branches across the UK, through a round of voluntary and compulsory redundancies.

[heero_yuy]

Quote from The Sun Money:

Sainsbury's has confirmed it will cut around 3,500 jobs as the second lockdown begins.

The majority of jobs will be axed from Argos stores, which Sainsbury's bought in 2016, as part of plans to immediately close 120 stores.

It is the first stages of a strategy that will see 420 standalone Argos shops permanently shut over the next three-and-a-half years.

Instead, it hopes to open 150 branches inside Sainsbury's supermarkets by March 2024, leaving just 100 separate Argos stores.

Roles will also be cut in Sainsbury’s stores, with the closure of its delicatessens and fresh fish and meat counters.

Simon Roberts, chief executive of Sainsbury's, said: "We are talking to colleagues today about where the changes we are announcing in Argos standalone stores and food counters impact their roles.

Not really a surprise. The Argos in the town has already closed and the one near me is on the same trading estate as the Sainsbury's. Talk locally is that the deli and fish counters will be converted into the Argos collection point and the separate Argos store closed or possibly used as warehousing.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

Talk locally is that the deli and fish counters will be converted into the Argos collection point and the separate Argos store closed or possibly used as warehousing.

That would certainly make it easier to do.

All the Sainsbury's I've been to so far that now have an Argos have had to take space from the shop floor or cafe space to fit it in.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

That would certainly make it easier to do.

All the Sainsbury's I've been to so far that now have an Argos have had to take space from the shop floor or cafe space to fit it in.

They used the far corner of our Sainsbury's to put a Argos in although our Sainsbury's is a big one so it did not not make much difference as it still has a big cafe , pharmacy , a Specsavers and several other retail outlets in the store.

[denphone]

Fashion chains Peacocks and Jaeger have fallen into administration.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55004019

It comes after owner Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group failed to find a buyer for both businesses.

"We are in advanced discussions with a number of parties and working hard to secure a future for both businesses."

[Stephen]

My local Peacocks closed for good yesterday.

[Sephiroth]

I went to ALDI Wokingham earlier today (obviously hoping to bump into OB). Compared with Waitrose, it's dead tacky. The good points were reasonable meat, excellent wine, some good veg, cheese and some excellent pot noodle type Singapore Curry Noodles; there will be others but not in terms of what I was looking for. Grapes were naff. We'll go back there for wine and noodle pots. For Christmas Eve we have their Beef Rib in mind if it looks exactly like the brochure.

The £53 bill would prolly have approached/topped £70 at Waitrose, mainly due to winbe price differential for the several bottle we bought.

OB must have been somewhere else on the High Street - obviously buying the Torygraph which ALDI doesn't sell.

It’s amazing the difference between different Aldi stores - the one in Meanwood is an older established Aldi, and it matches your description.

The two newer stores (Chapel Allerton and Regent Street) are much more ‘up market’ - brighter, shinier, better laid out.

They are doing lovely wooden toys for young children, and whilst I was there I got a couple of bottles of their Gigondas (very nice it was, too).

[cimt]

I'd have to agree with that, when I lived in that area I would always go to Aldi and it was certainly the best Aldi I had been in. It didn't seem cheap or tacky at all. The one in Bramley is a good one too. Good to see them improving their image.