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Retailers Gone Into Administration
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RockitRon



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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

JJB Sports is next on the chopping board
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19697949

Awful shops - rival Sports Direct's are no better.

I notice that a previous casualty, Past Times, has been reborn as an online retailer, peddling its stuff around Facebook.
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mark occomore



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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

RockitRon wrote:
JJB Sports is next on the chopping board
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19697949

Awful shops - rival Sports Direct's are no better.

I notice that a previous casualty, Past Times, has been reborn as an online retailer, peddling its stuff around Facebook.


Too many of these shops which look like your walking into a jumble sale. Especially Sports and Soccer. That was the downfall of Woolworths.
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Ian Robinson
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

RockitRon wrote:
JJB Sports is next on the chopping board
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19697949

Awful shops - rival Sports Direct's are no better.

Not sure what went wrong there - I used to design stuff for JJB (and their other shops which weren't called JJB) and it was a tight ship. I guess they got slack without Whelan bollocking the execs every day... or he ditched it because he could see the way it was heading anyway.
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 10:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mark occomore wrote:
That was the downfall of Woolworths.


No it wasn't. Bad executive management was Woolies' downfall - as is always the case.
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mark occomore



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PostPosted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

JJB Sports rival Sports Direct have agreed to buy 20 stores, but there will be a loss of 2,000 jobs.
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 8:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes Mark, it said so on the radio this morning.
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mark occomore



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PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Manganese Bronze who makes Black Cabs have gone into administration. They only sold 1000 cabs last year and some models had to be returned for recall. 15 Year old age limit restriction on black cabs was given to Taxi firms by the Mayor.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/oct/22/london-black-cab-manganese-bronze-administration
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mark occomore



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 6:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Comet one of the largest electrical retailer is on the edge of Administration. The retailer has more than 6,000 workers and over 200 hundred shops.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/01/comet-electrical-goods-jobs-risk
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RockitRon



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 9:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not good news for all those employees, but hardly surprising.
Comet has struggled for years - it has always run a distant second to Currys/Dixons/PC World competing for the same market.

Dreams the bed retailer is also on the endangered list, in talks with RBS about refinancing £32m of debt. Its CE has just stepped down - he's the chap who was CE of Woolies and before that Focus DIY. Shop workers everywhere biting their nails to see where he goes next - there's a vacancy at WH Smith Laughing
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mark occomore



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 2:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's these big Supermarkets and Amazon etc which are killing off electrical retailers. You can't continue when your struggling with debts paying staff, over heads and trying to flog the stock off the shelves when the suppliers want their money.
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Helen May



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The recession as well Mark, you don't replace things as often as you used to.

H
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mark occomore



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 3:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Even the recession hit coach companies. Bowen Travel Group went bust last week. They had to lay off nearly 400 staff. The group is made up of Bowen Travel Limited, LF Bowen Limited - trading under Bowens, Applebys, and Yorks & Jeffs Coaches Limited, York (Bros) Northampton Limited, Bowen Travel Transport Limited and Woottens Luxury Travel Limited.

So it just doesn't hit the retailers.
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R2Icon



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 3:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The problem with most of the big chainstores is they cannot even compete with their own websites on price or delivery, let alone other retailers. There needs to be a good reason to go into a shop: service, advice, after-sales service etc but in Comet, like Currys and other big chains, when you ask a question about a product- what does this do? A Saturday worker with no experience or knowledge of the product just reads out the bullet-points on the box...... Doh! I can read, I want to know what it all means! On the interweb you can find out most things and read reviews before making a choice.

Bathstore is a good example.... We needed three complete bathroom suites and two shower enclosures, taps, wastes and valves etc, ( about £8,000 worth of stuff in the Bath Sore Catalogue) I popped into our local store to discuss a discount for buying such a large amount from them.... the best they could do was to match their website price but I would have to pay for delivery which is £35 in store but free on the web. I said to the chap, how is charging £35 for delivery matching your free delivery website price and why would I pay for delivery here when I can go home and order this stuff and get free delivery? He said.. ah yes but we'll arrange it all for you free. No it will cost me £35, I said, and anyway, I have a list- how hard can it be, and will it be the same delivery people? Yes it will be the same people. And so I ordered it on the interweb - found an on-line only 25% off voucher from one of those voucher code websites and bingo, got the whole lot for £6000 with free delivery. The same stuff from the same company, delivered by the same people and saved £2035 because of the internet. That is why big stores are failing.
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ruddlescat



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 6:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Of course the expansion of internet shopping is not necessarily bad for all traditional businesses

I gather that most of the major courier companies simply can't recruit enough staff to deal with the vastly increased volumes of business created by internet shopping Smile
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SantaFefan



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 9:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well I hate the whole thing.. and I'm soooo glad I experienced the age of buying things from shops - big or small.
When I want something, I want to see it, pick it up, shake it or plug it in before I buy it.
I find it so depressing to squint at a tiny picture of a product on line or trying to read the micro print in an Argos catalogue... it's rubbish.
Of course sometimes, the sad and unfair thing about online shopping is that people can call in to the brightly lit stores to browse, touch and compare the items then nip home and order the thing online from some faceless warehouse! that's really fair on the store isn't it?
We deserve all we get sometimes.. and this will mean there'll be hardly any stores left soon, just empty retail units.. heck we're two thirds the way there now!
Light fittings are always a sore point for me.. once we had three good lighting shops on our high street selling a heck of an array of fittings. There all gone, thanks to B&Q, Homebase etc... initially carrying a reasonable stock but now? utter garbage items and maybe one or two of the same in stock - if you're lucky. Now, we've even lost our Homebase, so our wonderful "choice" is from B&Q!
But the thought of buying light fittings online from a tiny picture?? no thanks!
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Toggy



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 9:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mark occomore wrote:
Even the recession hit coach companies. Bowen Travel Group went bust last week. They had to lay off nearly 400 staff. The group is made up of Bowen Travel Limited, LF Bowen Limited - trading under Bowens, Applebys, and Yorks & Jeffs Coaches Limited, York (Bros) Northampton Limited, Bowen Travel Transport Limited and Woottens Luxury Travel Limited.

So it just doesn't hit the retailers.


I think a lot more people like to arrange their own holidays now rather than going for the full package deal which can be expensive.
With the internet at your disposal it is actually quite easy to arrange a trip abroad, this can often save vast amounts of money as tour companies obviously bump up the prices due to commission and so on.
I'm not really surprised coach companies and tour operators are going bust as well, sad though it is for those that lose their jobs.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 8:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SantaFefan wrote:
Well I hate the whole thing.. and I'm soooo glad I experienced the age of buying things from shops - big or small.
When I want something, I want to see it, pick it up, shake it or plug it in before I buy it.
I find it so depressing to squint at a tiny picture of a product on line or trying to read the micro print in an Argos catalogue... it's rubbish.
Of course sometimes, the sad and unfair thing about online shopping is that people can call in to the brightly lit stores to browse, touch and compare the items then nip home and order the thing online from some faceless warehouse! that's really fair on the store isn't it?
We deserve all we get sometimes.. and this will mean there'll be hardly any stores left soon, just empty retail units.. heck we're two thirds the way there now!
Light fittings are always a sore point for me.. once we had three good lighting shops on our high street selling a heck of an array of fittings. There all gone, thanks to B&Q, Homebase etc... initially carrying a reasonable stock but now? utter garbage items and maybe one or two of the same in stock - if you're lucky. Now, we've even lost our Homebase, so our wonderful "choice" is from B&Q!
But the thought of buying light fittings online from a tiny picture?? no thanks!


No one is more pro local shop/business than I am Santa but when you’re buying an item made in China or Spain or wherever and it’s a local chainstore selling it at an overly inflated price to pay for their bright lights and useless staff then the internet is the best place. In the old days I can remember when Comet didn’t have showrooms or shops, just faceless warehouses with a serving hatch. No browsing, you had to know exactly what you wanted. In those days it made a profit. For sausages, it’s a different matter. I like to watch them being made in the butchers before buying them. Argos’ profits are down because they’ve opened lots of superstores/shops with bright lights and useless staff, if they went back to how they used to do it, ( a pretty hatch) they’d no doubt go back into proper profit.

Local independent shops are the best place to shop but they've all been trashed by the big chain-stores , perhaps now the big chain-stores are going south we might get a few more proper shops... history tells us things have a time, and when it's up , it's up.
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SantaFefan



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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 3:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think I heard Comet was founded in the 1930s as an electrical item supplier, which surprised me! But I'm sure I remember our first Comet high street "shop" opened in our town in the 70s.. I don't recall a warehouse with a hatch, but maybe it was different area to area.

I suppose it's a case of, are people prepared to pay a little ( hopefully ) more to purchase the item from a store in their town for convenience and of course, supporting their local economy. I would be happy to do so and, being in business myself, I fully appreciate that rents, staff and services don't come cheap.
Our town centre is a sad old sight now and the thought of deserted retail parks depresses me no end.. and of course it has a knock on effect on everything else.

I liked the days when cameras came from photographic shops and records came from music shops etc.. and usually they specialised in what they sold and knew all the answers.. ( all obvious ramblings really but you know what I'm saying ) The choice wasn't so great but did it, or does it really matter? I'm just glad I can remember those days.

As I mentioned before, I hate the idea of buying a radio for example, over the net without seeing it for real, turning the switches etc.. Plus of course the hassle of sending it back if not "delighted" Laughing
Mrs SFF does this all the time, buys shoes and stuff over the net only to send it back again because it doesn't fit.. Rolling Eyes
I'm not a family man but I'd have thought a shopping trip with the kids was nice too?
When I think, my old mum "wouldn't go up the town" unless she was wearing her long white gloves.. Laughing will we be getting dressed up to "point and click" in the future? Wink

Tesco and Asda have a lot to answer for...
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mark occomore



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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 6:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Toggy wrote:
mark occomore wrote:
Even the recession hit coach companies. Bowen Travel Group went bust last week. They had to lay off nearly 400 staff. The group is made up of Bowen Travel Limited, LF Bowen Limited - trading under Bowens, Applebys, and Yorks & Jeffs Coaches Limited, York (Bros) Northampton Limited, Bowen Travel Transport Limited and Woottens Luxury Travel Limited.

So it just doesn't hit the retailers.


I think a lot more people like to arrange their own holidays now rather than going for the full package deal which can be expensive.
With the internet at your disposal it is actually quite easy to arrange a trip abroad, this can often save vast amounts of money as tour companies obviously bump up the prices due to commission and so on.
I'm not really surprised coach companies and tour operators are going bust as well, sad though it is for those that lose their jobs.


They just can't fill the coaches and if so they need 25 + to make it worth while to run. The over heads are costly too. Drivers, Cost of hiring coaches in, and paying the hotels. It really tough out there for everyone.
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mark occomore



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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 6:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Comet website is still down at present as Deloitte bought them into administration a week early. They have there work cut out again. Maplin or Dixons could be interested it'll still mean shops and staff will go. If it does go then it will be a big high profile loss since since Woolworths.
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ruddlescat



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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 9:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's interesting what you say Santa and fundamentally I agree

I was quite convinced that Comet began around 1965 because I remember my uncle buying a portable radio from their premises in St Helens which were as you say very basic and although I was only ten at the time I distinctly got the impression that it was a brand new concept

I assume he must have been saying that it was new to the area but to me it seemed like a whole new world of cheap electrical items had opened up

It's sad to see Comet in its current sorry state - but not really surprising Sad
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Helen May



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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 9:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I can't recall them as a warehouse either. They mustn't have been in the North East.

H
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Angela W



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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 9:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mark occomore wrote:
Toggy wrote:
mark occomore wrote:
Even the recession hit coach companies. Bowen Travel Group went bust last week. They had to lay off nearly 400 staff. The group is made up of Bowen Travel Limited, LF Bowen Limited - trading under Bowens, Applebys, and Yorks & Jeffs Coaches Limited, York (Bros) Northampton Limited, Bowen Travel Transport Limited and Woottens Luxury Travel Limited.

So it just doesn't hit the retailers.


I think a lot more people like to arrange their own holidays now rather than going for the full package deal which can be expensive.
With the internet at your disposal it is actually quite easy to arrange a trip abroad, this can often save vast amounts of money as tour companies obviously bump up the prices due to commission and so on.
I'm not really surprised coach companies and tour operators are going bust as well, sad though it is for those that lose their jobs.


They just can't fill the coaches and if so they need 25 + to make it worth while to run. The over heads are costly too. Drivers, Cost of hiring coaches in, and paying the hotels. It really tough out there for everyone.


Yes it is a real shame and it is tough for the people that they owe money to as well.
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Toggy



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 11:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

mark occomore wrote:


They just can't fill the coaches and if so they need 25 + to make it worth while to run. The over heads are costly too. Drivers, Cost of hiring coaches in, and paying the hotels. It really tough out there for everyone.


Some of them do charge silly prices though, I'm not saying the paricular company you mentioned did (or do whatever the case may be) but certainly some I've noticed around Cambridge are really expensive. I see 'offers' in the local paper where some firms charge over £300 for 2 days in Scotland, it cost us less than that to fly to and stay in Belfast for the weekend.
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mark occomore



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 1:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The website for Comet has gone live again with a legal notice. No sale as yet. The firesale was little misleading I think. My local comet store hasn't got one yet and still selling at normal prices. The shops were full, but people only going along for the bargain which isn't happening yet. I saw the staff taking the Vacuums off the shelves to the back store room and some empty shelves too. I hearing people are getting upset as they can't use Vouchers. I don't blame them as it's legal tender.

PC World and Currys merged recently, but I can't see Comet lasting..
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Helen May



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 2:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

PC World (Dixon's) and Currys have been one for yonks Mark.

I can't see the point of gift cards to be honest. I'd rather send a cheque or if seeing the person a card with cash inside.

H
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RockitRon



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Helen May wrote:
PC World (Dixon's) and Currys have been one for yonks Mark.

I can't see the point of gift cards to be honest. I'd rather send a cheque or if seeing the person a card with cash inside.

H


The first PC World opened in 1992. Dixons bought the company one year later.

Gift vouchers/cards are not legal tender. Holders are technically unsecured creditors - effectively they are worthless as soon as the company ceases trading, ie, at the moment the administrators are appointed. They will only be able to honour the vouchers with the agreement of other creditors, and I can't see that happening.

Obviously the public senses that bargains are to be had in any closing-down sale, but the administrators are obliged to obtain fair value for the company's assets (those that remain - suppliers have apparently repossessed the best stock which has not been paid for).

Comet's demise is good news for Dixons Retail, which itself has suffered losses for three of the last four years and is currently divesting itself of its expensive high street shops and rebranding/refurbishing the remaining ones as Currys PC World.

It's fair to say that both chains had a very poor reputation for customer and after-sales service. Dixons is the much larger and, apart from the department stores, is now the last-man-standing as a major retailer of computer and entertainment hardware and white and small electrical appliances. As is the case with HMV and the music industry, the manufacturers will probably wish to continue to support Dixons for as long as possible, as a valuable "shop window" for their wares, even if people then go and purchase online.
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 5:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Helen May wrote:
PC World (Dixon's) and Currys have been one for yonks Mark.

I can't see the point of gift cards to be honest. I'd rather send a cheque or if seeing the person a card with cash inside.

H
I agree but don't forget that some people acquire these kind of vouchers by doing deals through websites when buying things like car or home insurance so it hasn't always actually cost them hard cash

It's got to be better to go for the vouchers rather than a useless furry meerkat currently being offered by a well known price comparison outfit Laughing
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RockitRon



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 10:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ruddlescat wrote:
Helen May wrote:
PC World (Dixon's) and Currys have been one for yonks Mark.

I can't see the point of gift cards to be honest. I'd rather send a cheque or if seeing the person a card with cash inside.

H
I agree but don't forget that some people acquire these kind of vouchers by doing deals through websites when buying things like car or home insurance so it hasn't always actually cost them hard cash

It's got to be better to go for the vouchers rather than a useless furry meerkat currently being offered by a swell known price comparison outfit Laughing


True, although if they're as good as they look on TV they could, like the original Andrex puppies, look quite cute, and if you have a full set they could, like some of those little Lledro model cars and vans which used to be given away with crisps, cornflakes etc. acquire some value in time.

The golden rule with gift vouchers and cards is to spend them as soon as possible.
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 5:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Toggy wrote:
mark occomore wrote:


They just can't fill the coaches and if so they need 25 + to make it worth while to run. The over heads are costly too. Drivers, Cost of hiring coaches in, and paying the hotels. It really tough out there for everyone.


Some of them do charge silly prices though, I'm not saying the paricular company you mentioned did (or do whatever the case may be) but certainly some I've noticed around Cambridge are really expensive. I see 'offers' in the local paper where some firms charge over £300 for 2 days in Scotland, it cost us less than that to fly to and stay in Belfast for the weekend.

I've just been to Disneyland Paris by coach and although it wasn't the most brilliant of journeys there and back the whole stay (travel, 3 nights bed and breakfast, 2 days in the parks) was at least £100 cheaper per person than any other way of getting there.
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 10:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SantaFefan wrote:
I think I heard Comet was founded in the 1930s as an electrical item supplier, which surprised me! But I'm sure I remember our first Comet high street "shop" opened in our town in the 70s.. I don't recall a warehouse with a hatch, but maybe it was different area to area.

..


I would have been only about six or seven, Santa, when my dad took me in his van to Comet at, well, some distance from home in North East Northumberland... it was probably Newcastle or around there. Maybe Killingworth- we went there a lot. ( it must have been Stockton on Tees twas a long way) It was just a small office type room with a hatch- there was a big pile of Comet Newspapers listing all the stuff they sold with prices. It was like a really low budget Argos. Smile Then later when I was 16 and moved to Weymouth , they had one ( A Comet) there in the high street but it wasn't a shop , it was more like a Chinese takeaway - although the counter was lower and no TV up in the corner ( even though they sold TVs) they had a hatch through to the back, you went in the front, asked for what you wanted from their newspaper thing, and bingo, if it was small it came out the front hatch, if it was large, you had to collect it around the back. Later in the mid- late 80s, they opened it all up into a shop with a showroom, just before closing it down and moving to an out of town superstore... I say super, it wasn't that big.. but it was a new style glitzy shop. Does no one remember the Comet Newspaper style price list?

Reading about them on Wiki explains it all- they had both High Street Shops and Warehouse style out of town places in the 70s. Smile
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RockitRon



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 1:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, perhaps those 25 original "warehouses", opened in the late 1960s, of which Jarrow and Stockton would have been nearest to you, were of the office-with-a-hatch type.

Currys has always operated from high street shops - I remember dad buying a Westminster radiogram from them. (For some obscure reason our Philips tape recorder he got from the Singer sewing machine shop)

I imagine the Comet Newspaper price list was similar to the ones used in the early days by places like Maplins and Wickes. They could be coming back into fashion - Wetherspoon's pubs food and cocktails menu is currently an A2 size card in retro black and white print, no photos or pictures.

There are rumblings and suspicions that the investors and "consultants" in the complex chain of companies and funds behind Comet will come out of the failure in profit
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9654595/Investors-behind-Comet-sitting-on-50m-cash-pile.html
although the only winners are usually the accountants.
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Helen May



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 2:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Killingworth only appeared on the map after 1970 when the got a Woolco, I remember going as there was nothing like it around there. I certainly don't remember a Comet. I very much doubt you would have gone as far as Stocton Rachel from NE Northumberland. I know we wouldn't have gone from Newcastle. Jarrow maybe.

I remember going to and MFI on the outskirts of Sunderland, Pallion, in the late 70s to by a desk for my O/H. That was a weird place!

H
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 7:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes I remember the original newspaper style price lists Rach

It was quite a revolutionary thing in those days when flyers were relatively rare and certainly newspapers didn't carry pull out middle advertising sections or assorted junk leaflets which we are used to today

From what I remember of our local depot which I think was in Haydock fairly near to the race course there were a couple of blokes sat behind a small counter and to me as a child it never seemed all that busy there even despite rock bottom prices but there again we're talking about a time when landline phones were by no means universal in every home and less than one in two families had a car - makes me sound positively prehistoric doesn't it - but we're only talking around 1965 Smile
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mark occomore



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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 7:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It looks very bleak for HMV as they say " It's in talks with banks as they will not be able to meet its commitments"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20708295
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ruddlescat



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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 8:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very sad for a company which opened its first shop in London in 1921 with my favourite composer Sir Edward Elgar as guest celebrity - yes apparently they even had them in those days Smile
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

mark occomore wrote:
It looks very bleak for HMV as they say " It's in talks with banks as they will not be able to meet its commitments"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20708295


HMV sells mainly CDs:- no one under 30 ( the main customers for music)buys CDs anymore. It follows that a shop trying to sell CDs to people whom don't want to buy them is likely to have difficulty making any dosh, especially as folk whom do want a CD can get from the interweb for half the cost of one in HMV, and you don't have to worry about parking. They should have pulled down the shutters years ago.
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RockitRon



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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

HMV always seems to bring out bad news at a bad time of year - just when it should be making the most of selling through the Christmas period.

Apart from the new releases and top forty albums, CDs have been pretty much relegated to the back of the store. The attraction we old codgers had of browsing through stacks of record sleeves and CD boxes is much diminished, and anyone not content to buy their music online is more likely to do it at their local Tesco, where it is cheaper.

Most of the space instore is taken up by DVDs, including Blu Ray, of which you could say similar, of course - my son has stopped buying them and has thrown out (given away to charity shops) a huge boxful, as he can now view films and tv series on his set via the net through things like Netflix and iPlayer at a fraction of the cost of the tangible article.

They do have a brightly lit section devoted to hardware, including the ubiquitous ipods, but there again they have never been able to compete on price.

Going in today, the place was busy enough, but not as much as in previous years (although you could say that about all the city's stores). There is plenty of stock on the shelves and piled up underneath and in corners - the suppliers have demonstrated their continued support of the chain as a sort of "last man standing" for sales of entertainment product on the high street, by putting in £40million worth of stock on a "sale or retun" basis, rather than requiring payment pdq.

The Telegraph comment - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/damianreece/9742107/Why-HMV-is-a-dodo-company.html - probably has it right, and it's hard to imagine that HMV, in its current form, will be around this time next year.
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mark occomore



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PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Tax payer has to foot the bill for the collapse of Comet. Another retailer gone down the drain as big as Woolworths. That brand just stayed with only online shopping.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20754466
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 8:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ultimately the taxpayer pays for everything. That's what life is, a series of taxes followed by a lonely death. The stuff we do inbetween is just to take our mind off it. Smile
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