Businesses in financial trouble

[mavhc]

Imagine that, a shop training you in the classics

[SpuffMonkey]

Apart from stationery, all the stuff they used to major on is available online and/or digitally for far less than they can afford to sell it. I'm amazed that they've lasted this long

 

I believe they have a stranglehold on national newspaper and magazine distribution - which probably helped a lot until fairly recently

[Dos_Box]

THANK YOU! Someone else who understands!

 

It is beyond a joke that you have to start your search around the new age section, navigate via the crossword and puzzle area and then eventually find it tucked amongst the photography magazines*

 

*If all else fails try amongst the astronomy publications.

Edited October 12, 2018 by Dos_Box

[FishCustard]

It is beyond a joke that you have to start your search around the new age section, navigate via the crossword and puzzle area and then eventually find it tucked amongst the photography magazines*

 

*If all else fails try amongst the astronomy publications.

 

My local one tends to put it in the 'history' section.... unless they don't, at which point it could be anywhere. And good luck asking anyone about it...

 

I think I'm just gonna get us a subscription and be done with it!

[6Foot2]

...I think I'm just gonna get us a subscription and be done with it!

Thus adding to the woes of WH Smith: One less customer.

 

[Arthur]

Debenhams makes record annual loss and plans up to 50 store closures

 

Debenhams has posted record annual losses and said it will close up to 50 stores, putting 4,000 jobs at risk.

 

In the year to September the department store group lost £491.5m, against profits of £59m the year before.

 

Debenhams, which has 166 branches, previously said it planned to close 10 stores.

 

Boss Sergio Bucher said the company was "taking tough decisions" on stores where financial performance was likely to deteriorate over time.

 

Mr Bucher said the additional 40 stores earmarked for closure were "currently contributing positively" to the business, but added: "However, rolling forward current trends, we do not believe they will remain profitable in future years and therefore we intend to exit these stores over the next 3-5 years."

 

The BBC understands about 4,000 jobs could be affected by the changes, but Debenhams said it hoped there would be a "minimum" of compulsory redundancies and that some of the departures would be people who would have left the business anyway.

[Arthur]

Interesting about Evans Cycles - we've just been offered a ride to work scheme with them. I don't know why they chose Evans; there isn't a shop within cooee of the college but there is a Hawks Cycles nearby.

Evans Cycles in now owned by Sports Direct.

 

Nearly all Evans Cycles stores were profitable when chain entered administration

 

It has been revealed that nearly all of Evans Cycles’ 62 stores were trading profitably when the chain was sold to Sports Direct last month – despite the latter’s owner, Mike Ashley, at the time saying that around half the shops would need to be closed to save the business.

 

Sports Direct bought the business in a pre-pack administration deal for just £8 million, with the acquisition leaving the bicycle retailer’s 1,300 staff facing uncertainty over their future.

 

Telegraph.co.uk reports say that an administrators’ proposals document prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers said that “almost all the stores were profitable.”

 

However, the administrators said that Evans, founded in south London in 1921 and now based next to Gatwick Airport in Surrey, was “burdened” by fixed costs associated with its head office.

 

They added that debts totalled £85 million, mainly to secured creditors, with £28 million owed to the banks HSBC and AIB, and £33 million to private equity firms.

 

At the time Evans entered administration it was owned by ECI Partners, which had bought the business in 2015 from fellow private equity firm Active Capital.

 

The remaining £24 million is owed to unsecured creditors, including trade suppliers, who will receive just 2.5 pence in the pound.

 

All 62 Evans Cycles stores remain listed on the retailer’s website and we are not aware of any of its branches – around half of which are in its traditional heartland of London and the south-east – having closed to date.

[Achandler]

The problem is a store can trade profitable, as an individual store.

 

The debt repayments of the overall business (to fund expansion usually), weighs them down and wipes out any profits that stores make.

 

Closing stores might = selling the locations for a profit, which returns money to the business.

 

Most businesses these days seem to have huge amount of unsustainable debts, the type of thing consumers are told to avoid (but still often get into).

[mavhc]

Stores are mostly a crazy idea now we have internets, why are people paying to buy a space to advertise other people's products. If Sony want us to buy Sony stuff they should open a store. Don't need to hold inventory, just showcase the products.

 

Only useful shops are clothes and food.

[sted]

Stores are mostly a crazy idea now we have internets, why are people paying to buy a space to advertise other people's products. If Sony want us to buy Sony stuff they should open a store. Don't need to hold inventory, just showcase the products.

 

Only useful shops are clothes and food.

 

not really if you just have a sony store (and they do or did exist (theres one in leeds on google street view but i dont know how recent that is) and iirc were run by superfi) how would you ever compare an lg tv so a sony to a samsung? id agree to a degree about inventory you want a showroom not a shop so i want that one and it gets delivered ideally the same day

[mavhc]

Go to the LG shop and the Samsung shop, they're end up next to each other due Nash Equilibrium https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-competitors-open-their-stores-next-to-one-another-jac-de-haan

[jthompson]

I'm assuming that those Sony shops are franchised, and the proprietor needs to shift inventory in order to be viable.

 

I have not studied business. At all.

[Arthur]

HMV on brink of second collapse in six years

 

The music retailer HMV is poised to enter administration for the second time in six years, a move that would affect 2,200 staff at its 120 stores.

 

HMV's sales have been hit by competition from streaming services and online retailers.

 

The BBC understands the company could appoint administrators as soon as Friday.

 

In 2013, the chain was taken over by Hilco, who specialise in restructuring companies.

[mavhc]

There's ~0 reason for HMV to exist, they don't offer an advantage over online, at least with clothes you can try them on

[rich_tech]

I went in there over Christmas, wondered how it’s still going, it’s diversified to be fair with books, t shirts and hifi gear here but it still isn’t cheap compared to online

[matt40k]

Was any customers at the till?

[3s-gtech]

Some of their CD prices were fair when I went in a couple of weeks back, but the limited diversity of stock meant I didn’t find anything I wanted. Would still be very sad to see them go.

[Ronnie]

Gutted about HMV, I woke up to the news and rushed to the store as I had a £40 voucher which I managed to spend, the reward card site has however been taken offline for maintenance so my points are gone. I know a guy who works in one of the stores, likely he has lost a job once its bust.

 

I understand most people don't buy physical media anymore, or use Amazon to, but there is a small group of people that like to go to the store and browse before buying. The London store is always is full swing, I'm sure that store if profitable, wonder if they will keep it?

 

Shame.

[Ronnie]

There's ~0 reason for HMV to exist, they don't offer an advantage over online, at least with clothes you can try them on

 

I don't agree, for most people there isn't, which is obviously the problem. But for me, I walk into an HMV, and I re-discover movies I had forgotten about, being online I would have never found them, but in store, you can browse and browse and find lost gems.

 

I really do find it scary how in 10/20 years there will probably be no shops, Amazon will have a hold over us all and what will we do then?

[mikeprice]

I don't agree, for most people there isn't, which is obviously the problem. But for me, I walk into an HMV, and I re-discover movies I had forgotten about, being online I would have never found them, but in store, you can browse and browse and find lost gems.

 

I really do find it scary how in 10/20 years there will probably be no shops, Amazon will have a hold over us all and what will we do then?

 

The government really needs to totally review the way 'bricks and mortar' businesses are taxed compared to online versions - the old fashioned shop and really penalised in an environment where they are pushed to compete on price anyway.

 

I have no idea how to do it - but something needs to be done

[mavhc]

Why does something need to be done?, better to replace those buildings with something more useful, apartments so people can live nearer work and reduce congestion perhaps.

 

If you're assuming Amazon will raise prices on marketplace sellers then just need to create an alternative distribution system, open source warehouses owned by a cooperative of 2nd party sellers.

[mikeprice]

Because I think that we would be losing a lot (including jobs) if all the town centres closed down totally and we bought everything online

 

I know a lot of people like to 'feel' the food they buy - but if if became cheaper to get it online this may change - then we say byebye to all the supermarkets

 

and then clothes shops will go the same way

 

personally I love Widnes town centre - which only still exists because some genius decided to build the out-of-town shopping centre at the back of the high street - with all the parking it brings with it

Hence we can still get meat (including proper sausages - ymmmmm) from a butcher who has been there so long they probably sold dinosaur meat fresh

and we have a proper market - with greengrocers etc etc

and it goes on

 

The town where I grew up is now almost totally full of charity shops, estate agents (can't see them lasting long either), solicitors etc - and there are very few people who go 'shopping' there anymore

 

I like online shopping - but much prefer real shops

 

but them I'm old - so maybe it's just what I grew up with

[mavhc]

Yeah, not sure how estate agents exist at all really, some kind of scam probably.

 

If my smart cupboard would talk to amazon and get them to replace whatever I used whenever the next delivery is passing that'd be great. Now that things are cheaper it seems there's way more restaurants around, better places for social gathering in general. Plus with food delivery companies maybe you don't need to shop for food any more, or have a kitchen, that'll save you 10k, so assuming price of delivery drops to £1 that's 10000 meals, about 30 years of 1 meal a day (apparently people skip breakfast and buy premade sandwiches now)

[FN-GM]

Some of their CD prices were fair

 

This is the problem really. Myself and many others do not have a CD player.

[3s-gtech]

Shame for you though - with a nice system, physical media still produces the best SQ. Vinyl has an appeal too if you want to enjoy the warmth and crackle of it. I know most people just want a Bluetooth speaker and stream from their phone, but plenty of enthusiasts for SQ still. I’m an odd one - I like owning CDs, but I *ahem* rip them so I can listen in-car etc so once bought they sit on a shelf. Streaming doesn’t suit at all.