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British High Street Death List 2020

Started by Blue Jam, January 10, 2020, 01:36:38 PM

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imitationleather

Ooh I would expect so. She used to be at Next and they definitely did...

Sebastian Cobb

I've not been to a Next since I got my suit for sixth form. The arse became see-through before I was out of the lower sixth, from having an over shoulder bag and presumably sitting on walls occasionally.

17 years ago then.

Blue Jam

I have just bought two really nice Scottish lambswool scarves from charity shops. £4.99 and £4.50 respectively. I may be a tiny bit responsible for EWM going under.

dissolute ocelot

According to the Guardian, Wetherspoons is a bit fucked. Seems largely guesswork, but lots of other pub chains (e.g. Greene King) are closing pubs (permanently) and sacking people, and Wetherspoons doesn't even have a spare E on the end. I did hear that Spoons at Edinburgh Airport is closing, and there must be a lot of others they're thinking hard about.

beanheadmcginty

Wetherspoons is primarily a property company, much like the Royal family. It'll take more than an economic downturn to hurt them.
The other big pubcos deserve to fucking die though. Good riddance.

Danger Man

Wetherspoons needs as many poor people as possible to sell £1 beers to. That's why it supports Brexit.

The future is Wetherspoons and Brewdog in every town and city. You are either a £5 beer person or a £1 beer person and that's it.



beanheadmcginty

Anybody who self identifies as a £5 pint person is clearly a cunt.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Danger Man on October 11, 2020, 11:47:01 PM
Wetherspoons needs as many poor people as possible to sell £1 beers to. That's why it supports Brexit.

The future is Wetherspoons and Brewdog in every town and city. You are either a £5 beer person or a £1 beer person and that's it.

The homogenisation of cities arrives at its end-game. identikit high-streets and identikit nightlife. Should of course be resisted. Happily pay 5 quid for a pint in Quirky Harry's Odd Bar rather than a brewdog.

Blue Jam

Revolution in trouble too, according to that Guardian article. I remember when they were vodka bars selling about three billion different varieties, plus a load of different flavours of vodka shots. I was surprised that they survived into this era of craft beer and artisanal gin.

The one in Embra was alright, it did surprisingly decent steaks. Then they stopped doing steaks. Got no reason to go back now.

thr0b

We once had a catered party at a branch of (Vodka) Revolution. Around 20 of us.

At no point did they ask us to pay for anything. The food, the drinks - nobody at any point asked for money. It wasn't my "do", but I was one of the last there, the organiser long-gone. It was free.

I assume someone got a bollocking and no mistake.

Blue Jam

^Hahahahaha... maybe it was someone's last day.

One pubco here bought a thriving craft beer/pulled pork type place and reopened it as a tequila bar which closed after six months. That was a Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares level of daft. Also while gin may be the fashionable spirit right now I do have to wonder how long that will last and how long the twee flowery places serving artisanal gin in goldfish bowl glasses have got left.

If I was opening a bar it'd be a generic tourist trap whisky place on the Royal Mile. No chance of those places going out of fashion up here.

Blue Jam

Marstons effed:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54551477

My local one is currently closed due to the Scotch circuit breaker but it's a hugely popular pub and it just got a new landlord so I'm confident that it will be safe.

evilcommiedictator

Graun today:
QuoteA record number of shops disappeared from high streets across the country in the first half of 2020 as the Covid-19 lockdowns hammered the retail sector.

A total of 11,120 chain store outlets closed between January and June, while 5,119 opened. The 6,001 net store closures was a record high and compared with 3,509 in the first half of last year.
QuoteDuring the period, Carphone Warehouse closed all 531 standalone branches, and fashion chains including Oasis, Warehouse, Laura Ashley and Cath Kidston all closed down. Big names including Marks & Spencer, Debenhams and House of Fraseralso closed stores.

BlodwynPig

Death of capitalism, sadly at the wrong end of the food chain for now.

dissolute ocelot

400 Argos stores to close. There will still be home delivery and services via Sainsbury's stores, but no more pens to steal.

robhug

Theres a branch of WH Smith in Rhyl that only had 4 paying customers in 2019

Blue Jam

With Argos gone there will be nothing left on Embra's North Bridge by 2021.

As someone whose first jobs was in the long-defunct Argos rival/rip-off Index ("The Catalogue Shop!") I'm amazed Argos lasted so long.

Icehaven

I will miss Argos as nearly every time I went in there when I went to pay it always seemed to be cheaper than the price in the catalogue. It happened so often I became disappointed and indignant when it didn't, and felt I'd been overcharged.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

I will miss Argos as that was where I used to sneak in after hours and do violent ejaculations over the conveyers.

Sebastian Cobb

I knew their days would be numbered when they longed off the catalogue, which was a lot quicker and easier to navigate than their shitty website.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

I will also miss stealing entire pallets of their free catalogues in order to fill full of coded messages and sick.

Blumf

Does this mean we'll never get to see the stockroom?


petril

I will miss proper Argos in about 17 years time when some hipster post-Diana prick sets up a twee shop whose gimmick is getting you to come along and pick what you want out of a big book and they go and get it from behind the counter.

and while you wait, you browse the internet and are relieved that information is so accessible you never Didn't Know the entire life story of that bit part player from that programme you used to watch already, so there's none of the shite clickbait articles. Just pictures crudely edited with the text "VIRTUE SIGNALLING"

Blue Jam

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on November 05, 2020, 03:12:58 PM
I knew their days would be numbered when they longed off the catalogue, which was a lot quicker and easier to navigate than their shitty website.

The Book Of Dreams™

I was actually about to buy a laptop from Argos last night after finding a surprisingly good deal there, only to find they won't deliver to my postcode and the item wasn't available for collection at any collection point (ie, the bajillion branches of Sainsbury's) nearby. I live in Edinburgh, not exactly the back of beyond. Ah, fuck 'em then.

pigamus

Quote from: Blue Jam on November 06, 2020, 06:27:11 AM
The Book Of Dreams™

I was actually about to buy a laptop from Argos last night after finding a surprisingly good deal there, only to find they won't deliver to my postcode and the item wasn't available for collection at any collection point (ie, the bajillion branches of Sainsbury's) nearby. I live in Edinburgh, not exactly the back of beyond. Ah, fuck 'em then.

I did that last year, and it was a good deal, but the laptop had so little memory on it that it can't update Windows now, so.

Blue Jam

I got a laptop from BHS once. A Google search told me that's where the model I wanted was the cheapest. I hadn't even known they'd sold laptops until then.

Crap marketing from BHS, crap delivery options from Argos. No wonder they didn't survive.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Some businesses, and I count the one I work for among them, when they are making plenty of money they stop paying attention to the major flaws in their model, even down to relatively simple, affordable changes they can make. The party will keep going on because why would it not?


Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Blue Jam on November 06, 2020, 07:21:06 AM
I got a laptop from BHS once. A Google search told me that's where the model I wanted was the cheapest. I hadn't even known they'd sold laptops until then.

Crap marketing from BHS, crap delivery options from Argos. No wonder they didn't survive.

I bought one from Lidl. Odd experience, someone had to fetch it from the back as they weren't daft enough to just stack them up in the middle aisle.


Ah, Argos in Sainsburys. The stock rooms are dramatically smaller so if you're not ordering a popular item, you have to wait a day to get your item as it gets shipped from a central warehouse or another store. All the cost and hassle of Argos, with none of the convenience, at which point you might as well use Amazon and get the same item cheaper, sent straight to your door.

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on November 06, 2020, 09:32:28 AM
Ah, Argos in Sainsburys. The stock rooms are dramatically smaller so if you're not ordering a popular item, you have to wait a day to get your item as it gets shipped from a central warehouse or another store. All the cost and hassle of Argos, with none of the convenience, at which point you might as well use Amazon and get the same item cheaper, sent straight to your door.

I had this a couple of months ago, I needed a Apple USB camera dongle for an ipad and checking online the local standalone major Argos (on a retail park) didn't have it but could get one in store in the next 2-3 working days.

Pointless.