more store closures and job cuts ahead in uk?

Fern wrote:I doubt Currys/PC World, DFS and possibly Argos will last the year.

WHEN I WAS IN PC WORLD,THERE WERE A ONLY FEW PEOPLE LOOKING(WEDNESDAY MORNING/10AM-11AM,I WONDER WHOM I TURN TO IF PC WORLD COLLAPSED

I was in PC World late 2011 when I was searching for a laptop and couldn't get anyone to come and serve me while there were several, 'employees' standing talking in a group. Not wanting to disturb their little soiree, I went over to and asked the man at the information/pay counter if I could get some assistance. He looked over to and waved his arm at the discussion group then turned and walked away....

As did I, I went and bought this laptop from Argos complete with bag for less than similar ones were on offer in PC World without the bag.

malena stool wrote:I was in PC World late 2011 when I was searching for a laptop and couldn't get anyone to come and serve me while there were several, 'employees' standing talking in a group. Not wanting to disturb their little soiree, I went over to and asked the man at the information/pay counter if I could get some assistance. He looked over to and waved his arm at the discussion group then turned and walked away....

As did I, I went and bought this laptop from Argos complete with bag for less than similar ones were on offer in PC World without the bag.

I can't recall ever entering a PC World however the encounters I have had with Currys and Comet etc weren't that good.

When it came to purchasing a new TV last year, I chose to pay more and purchase directly from a Panasonic shop simply because the customer service was excellent.

malena stool wrote:I was in PC World late 2011 when I was searching for a laptop and couldn't get anyone to come and serve me while there were several, 'employees' standing talking in a group. Not wanting to disturb their little soiree, I went over to and asked the man at the information/pay counter if I could get some assistance. He looked over to and waved his arm at the discussion group then turned and walked away....

As did I, I went and bought this laptop from Argos complete with bag for less than similar ones were on offer in PC World without the bag.

I FOUND A SIMILIAR THING WHEN I VISITED PC WORLD WHEN I BROUGHT MY NEW PC,COULDN'T GET ANY HELP FOR ABOUT 30 MINUTES.
THE PERSON WHO EVENTUALLY SERVED SAID I AM ATTENDING TO SOMETHING/SOMEONE ELSE FOR THE MOMENT.
ONE THING THEY DIDN'T TELL ME IS I NEEDED A SOUND SYSYEM TO LISTEN TO SOUND ON MY COMPUTER.
MAYBE I SHOULD OFFER MY SERVICES TO THEM.

Fern wrote:

malena stool wrote:I was in PC World late 2011 when I was searching for a laptop and couldn't get anyone to come and serve me while there were several, 'employees' standing talking in a group. Not wanting to disturb their little soiree, I went over to and asked the man at the information/pay counter if I could get some assistance. He looked over to and waved his arm at the discussion group then turned and walked away....

As did I, I went and bought this laptop from Argos complete with bag for less than similar ones were on offer in PC World without the bag.

I can't recall ever entering a PC World however the encounters I have had with Currys and Comet etc weren't that good.

When it came to purchasing a new TV last year, I chose to pay more and purchase directly from a Panasonic shop simply because the customer service was excellent.

Hi Fern,
Lots of these 'Electrical Specialist' shops deserve to go downhill. They either ignore you as they did to me in PC World or multitudes of floor walkers harass you trying to boost their bonus payment like they do in Staples. As you say purchasing direct from source is good, but the old family run shops were best where you could get the information you needed, buy an item and they'd come and set up your tv and the after sales service came as part of the deal.

Badboy wrote:

malena stool wrote:I was in PC World late 2011 when I was searching for a laptop and couldn't get anyone to come and serve me while there were several, 'employees' standing talking in a group. Not wanting to disturb their little soiree, I went over to and asked the man at the information/pay counter if I could get some assistance. He looked over to and waved his arm at the discussion group then turned and walked away....

As did I, I went and bought this laptop from Argos complete with bag for less than similar ones were on offer in PC World without the bag.

I FOUND A SIMILIAR THING WHEN I VISITED PC WORLD WHEN I BROUGHT MY NEW PC,COULDN'T GET ANY HELP FOR ABOUT 30 MINUTES.
THE PERSON WHO EVENTUALLY SERVED SAID I AM ATTENDING TO SOMETHING/SOMEONE ELSE FOR THE MOMENT.
ONE THING THEY DIDN'T TELL ME IS I NEEDED A SOUND SYSYEM TO LISTEN TO SOUND ON MY COMPUTER.
MAYBE I SHOULD OFFER MY SERVICES TO THEM.

You are probably as well informed as they are Badboy, I've noticed that these concerns seem to have a huge turnover in staff, but the quality of service never appears to change.

I would say as a slight mitigating factor that the staff in Currys/PC World are probably on the lowest of the low pay and probably know they have no prospects and I suspect the managers have long since given up any training in customer care or anything else for that matter.Doesn't excuse them for being generally rude or unhelpful,to be fair that hasn't been my experience with them though i have found most of them to know very little about the products they are supposed to be selling.
I would also say that my experience of shopping in Comets and Currys is that a lot of their TV's always seemed to be old stock/maybe 'clearance' and you would get the more up to date model and cheaper on Amazon.

I agree they are probably doomed.

malena stool wrote:

Badboy wrote:

malena stool wrote:I was in PC World late 2011 when I was searching for a laptop and couldn't get anyone to come and serve me while there were several, 'employees' standing talking in a group. Not wanting to disturb their little soiree, I went over to and asked the man at the information/pay counter if I could get some assistance. He looked over to and waved his arm at the discussion group then turned and walked away....

As did I, I went and bought this laptop from Argos complete with bag for less than similar ones were on offer in PC World without the bag.

I FOUND A SIMILIAR THING WHEN I VISITED PC WORLD WHEN I BROUGHT MY NEW PC,COULDN'T GET ANY HELP FOR ABOUT 30 MINUTES.
THE PERSON WHO EVENTUALLY SERVED SAID I AM ATTENDING TO SOMETHING/SOMEONE ELSE FOR THE MOMENT.
ONE THING THEY DIDN'T TELL ME IS I NEEDED A SOUND SYSYEM TO LISTEN TO SOUND ON MY COMPUTER.
MAYBE I SHOULD OFFER MY SERVICES TO THEM.

You are probably as well informed as they are Badboy, I've noticed that these concerns seem to have a huge turnover in staff, but the quality of service never appears to change.

MY BROTHER I THINK,SAID THERE DID HAVE A HIGH TURNOVER OF STAFF,MAYBE BETTER TRAINED STAFF WOULD BE AN IDEA TO BOOST SALES.
AT THE RATE THINGS ARE GOING,ONLY JOHN LEWIS WILL BE SELLING THE RIGHT GOODS.

Badboy wrote:

malena stool wrote:

Badboy wrote:

malena stool wrote:I was in PC World late 2011 when I was searching for a laptop and couldn't get anyone to come and serve me while there were several, 'employees' standing talking in a group. Not wanting to disturb their little soiree, I went over to and asked the man at the information/pay counter if I could get some assistance. He looked over to and waved his arm at the discussion group then turned and walked away....

As did I, I went and bought this laptop from Argos complete with bag for less than similar ones were on offer in PC World without the bag.

I FOUND A SIMILIAR THING WHEN I VISITED PC WORLD WHEN I BROUGHT MY NEW PC,COULDN'T GET ANY HELP FOR ABOUT 30 MINUTES.
THE PERSON WHO EVENTUALLY SERVED SAID I AM ATTENDING TO SOMETHING/SOMEONE ELSE FOR THE MOMENT.
ONE THING THEY DIDN'T TELL ME IS I NEEDED A SOUND SYSYEM TO LISTEN TO SOUND ON MY COMPUTER.
MAYBE I SHOULD OFFER MY SERVICES TO THEM.

You are probably as well informed as they are Badboy, I've noticed that these concerns seem to have a huge turnover in staff, but the quality of service never appears to change.

MY BROTHER I THINK,SAID THERE DID HAVE A HIGH TURNOVER OF STAFF,MAYBE BETTER TRAINED STAFF WOULD BE AN IDEA TO BOOST SALES.
AT THE RATE THINGS ARE GOING,ONLY JOHN LEWIS WILL BE SELLING THE RIGHT GOODS.

I've never shopped in John Lewis since Lewis's moved out of their Humberstone Road store in Leicester. I believe they are very expensive places to shop nowadays.

Directors of HMV are this evening locked in talks about the retailer's future amid growing concern that it could become the latest big-name high street chain to succumb to the flat-lining British economy.

I have learned that the board of HMV has been meeting today to thrash out options for the company, which are said to include a possible plan to call in administrators.

People close to the situation said that a number of options remained under consideration and that any announcement about a board decision was unlikely until later on Monday or Tuesday. It remains conceivable that HMV's lenders or another party will ride to its rescue and avert the need to appoint administrators.

If HMV did concede defeat in its attempt to trade itself back to health by calling in administrators, it would deal a devastating symbolic blow to the future of the British high street.

It would also put more than 4,000 jobs at risk, just days after the camera retailer Jessops announced its demise, with the closure of nearly 200 shops and the loss of almost 2,000 jobs.

HMV is run by Trevor Moore, who recently took over having held the chief executive's post at Jessops.

If administrators are called in, the retailer's board would probably hire either Deloitte or KPMG, two of the big four accounting firms, to oversee the process, according to people close to the situation.

Some of HMV's 230 UK stores could yet be saved from closure if the company manages to attract a bidder. However, analysts have said for some time that a viable HMV is likely to involve a significantly smaller number of shops trading on UK high streets.

Apollo Management, the US-based investment firm, has been acquiring some of HMV's debt from its lenders and was reported last month to be keen on a takeover of the company. Reports today suggested that it was no longer interested in buying HMV.

HMV has been the subject of periodic speculation that it would fall into administration for several years as it faced increasingly intense competition from supermarkets as well as online retailers such as Amazon.

Its shares, already close to having negligible value, were further hit just before Christmas when the company warned that it risked breaching its banking covenants at the end of January, blaming poor sales in the run-up to Christmas.

The company has not yet disclosed its trading performance during the crucial festive period although a decision last week to launch a huge sale across its product range reignited fears – denied by HMV – that it was running short of cash.

HMV insiders said the company has been considering updating the market next week on Christmas trading.

HMV has raised tens of millions of pounds by selling assets including the Hammersmith Apollo music venue and the Waterstone's bookseller in an effort to buy itself more time to execute a turnaround strategy devised by Simon Fox, Mr Moore’s predecessor.

The music industry's biggest companies have also chipped in to help prolong HMV's future, participating in a new financing package last year.

The prospective administration of HMV is politically complicated by the fact that the company's two biggest lenders are Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, which both count the British taxpayer as their largest shareholder.

HMV traces its heritage back to 1921, when Sir Edward Elgar, the renowned composer and conductor, opened its first store on London's Oxford Street.

HMV declined to comment on Monday evening.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/hmv-board-pondering-retailers-future-192420858--finance.html

That bloke Trevor Moore looks like the kiss of death !

SHOULD I BE SURPRISED THAT HMV HAS CALLED IN ADMIN WHEN THERE SEEMS TO BE PROBLEMS FOR SOME TIME.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21021073

More sad news indeed, Badboy.

I used to work in the business rate department of a local council and the arrival of letters from administrators and receivers became increasingly and depressingly frequent.

We always knew when normally excellent payers suddenly cancelled their direct debits that they'd soon be gone.

malena stool wrote:

Fern wrote:

malena stool wrote:I was in PC World late 2011 when I was searching for a laptop and couldn't get anyone to come and serve me while there were several, 'employees' standing talking in a group. Not wanting to disturb their little soiree, I went over to and asked the man at the information/pay counter if I could get some assistance. He looked over to and waved his arm at the discussion group then turned and walked away....

As did I, I went and bought this laptop from Argos complete with bag for less than similar ones were on offer in PC World without the bag.

I can't recall ever entering a PC World however the encounters I have had with Currys and Comet etc weren't that good.

When it came to purchasing a new TV last year, I chose to pay more and purchase directly from a Panasonic shop simply because the customer service was excellent.

Hi Fern,
Lots of these 'Electrical Specialist' shops deserve to go downhill. They either ignore you as they did to me in PC World or multitudes of floor walkers harass you trying to boost their bonus payment like they do in Staples. As you say purchasing direct from source is good, but the old family run shops were best where you could get the information you needed, buy an item and they'd come and set up your tv and the after sales service came as part of the deal.

Hi Mel,

Yes I quite agree. The shop I purchased my TV from is a family business and although I paid a few hundred more for it, they came out and set it all up for me and explained in how to use it (on Christmas Eve too). Yes I could have obtained the same model for less elsewhere ie Comet, however the customer service was dreadful. This alone, regardless that it was cheaper, was enough to send me elsewhere.

Not Born Yesterday wrote:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21021073

More sad news indeed, Badboy.

I used to work in the business rate department of a local council and the arrival of letters from administrators and receivers became increasingly and depressingly frequent.

We always knew when normally excellent payers suddenly cancelled their direct debits that they'd soon be gone.

I SAW ON NEWS THAT YOU CAN'T USE VOUCHERS ETC YOU BROUGHT AT HMV,RATHER ANNOYED SOME PEOPLE WRRE AT THAT.
THEY ALSO HAVE A LARGE % OF THE DVD/BLU-RAY ETC MARKET,I WONDER WHO WILL STEP TO PICK UP THEIR MARKET SHARE.

Fern wrote:I doubt Currys/PC World, DFS and possibly Argos will last the year.

Don't say DFS please Fern.......my settee is still under guarantee....

I got a new washing machine from a small shop and they told me something I didn't know.


Comet buy the washing machines etc without the guarantees and that's why they do their own and it costs more or rather comet got more money doing it that way and that's why it cost me £150 for extended guarantee, I also also got my tumble dryer from them and payed £70 for extended guarantee.



I bought a dehumidifier a few months ago from comet and payed £50 for extended guarantee....there all worthless.


So my new washing machine was cheaper and it came with extended guarantee.

No surprise:

Mark Kleinman ‏@MarkKleinmanSky

EXCLUSIVE: Blockbuster UK to go into administration, another 4000 jobs at risk. Deloitte handling administration. More details soon.

chrissie wrote:No surprise:

Mark Kleinman ‏@MarkKleinmanSky

EXCLUSIVE: Blockbuster UK to go into administration, another 4000 jobs at risk. Deloitte handling administration. More details soon.

I've just picked that up.

Katycakes ‏@Katycakes1
BLOCKBUSTER UK going into administration, 4000 jobs at risk.

I READ IN GUARDIAN TODAY THAT THERE ARE ANOTHER 140 RETAILERS AT RISK,ALSO IT MAY BE THE VIDEO/DVD/BOOKS SECTOR MOST AT RISK BECAUSE YOU CAN NOW DWNLOAD AND/OR ORDER ONLINE.
I SAW ANOTHER SHOP UNIT EMPTY IN MY LOCAL SHOPPING CENTRE(OUT-OF-TOWN)

In case you know anyone who has HMV vouchers:

Martin Lewis ‏@MartinSLewis

Bravo! Tesco's joined Asda in exchanging #HMV vouchers bought there for store credit. WHSmiths & others pls copy - See http://bit.ly/VbcTIf

MY CARER WONDERED IF CINEMAS WOULD SURVIVE IN THIS AGE OF DOWNLOADS.

Cinemas will survive and prosper.

Building a great big new multiplex near me soon.

But they got to be good and comfortable,the old grubby ones may have to go.

Lioned wrote:Cinemas will survive and prosper.

Building a great big new multiplex near me soon.

But they got to be good and comfortable,the old grubby ones may have to go.

Can't say that I am convinced these multiplex cinemas will survive Lioned when you consider that we can obtain as good as graphics in our own home.