Be Excellent To Each Other

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6386153.stm

I didn't even know who they were until Monday when I saw Virgin in Southampton had become one. IT'S THE CHINNY KISS OF DEATH I TELLS YA!

Yeah, Branson sold Virgin to senior managers but forced them to change the name. I reckon HIV will be next.

Crikey, it was Whittards yesterday. This is mad.

Forget Deadpool next year - we should do Bustpool.

Heh, that's not a bad idea.

Yeah, I never heard of Zavvi either. Is this a news?

Seeing as they're Virgin Megastore with a different name, I'd say yes.

I heard rumours that HMV were thinking of going online only.

Whittards are ok now though, they got bought immediately.

Zavvi's problem is simple, all their stock came from Woolies on sale or return. When Woolies went bust they suddenly owed woolies for all of it. Zavvi will be almost certainly bought minus existing debts really quite quickly, they're strong enough, it's just the £120m owed to EUK is crippling.

Is anyone really surprised by these high street chains going under?

I've had the misfortune of doing a bit of christmas shopping, and I'm flabbergasted at how much "shite" shops like HMV, Zavvi, Currys, Woolworths, Halfords etc all sell. Sure, shops like Currys in the past (when they were Dixons) had a bit of a reputation for employing brain dead idots (especially when in the days of the Speccy... Dixons were notorious for not having a clue about what they were selling), but at least they sold something that you couldn't really buy anywhere else.

Now all Currys seems to sell is PC consumables, digital cameras, mp3 players and any old shite that I can buy from either a) teh inrawebs or b) tesco. Both of those options will give me the same ill informed staff. However, it will be cheaper.

I honestly think these companies deserve to go out of business- you have to ask yourself the question "will I really miss high street company x"- and 9 times of of 10 the answer will be "nope... not really". I think it all started going wrong when most high street shops started selling on price, not service (probably why John Lewis is doing alright). The trouble with them was they were so focussed on the internet as being their major competition (and became solely focussed on price), when Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's came up from behind (fnarr) and took their customers.

There was a report saying that there are 10 major high street chains in threat of going under... if you want some hints as to who may be next- take a look at the Baugur group

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baugur

Woolworths- check. Whittards- check. Somerfields- check. Goldsmiths-???

Bollocks, the lot of 'em.

No. The only time I'd want to buy something from a high street shop would be if I was in a hurry, or particularly wanted to see an item before buying it - I'd be happy to pay a bit of a premium for that. But the shops are always closed, out of office hours. On purpose!

So, you know, screw them.

I noticed that the Southampton branch had expanded their TV section. The heat from the LCD's/Plasmas physically hit you as you went into the back of the store. Not to mention the brightness from the sets was so high I could see the bones in my arm.

But frankly if I want to buy electronics from a bunch of braindead idiots but at a good price, I'll use Ebuyer thanks.

They ought to do a pre-owned section on TVs in Currys. The pre-owned section is the only reason I visit Game and Gamestation.

Told you!

What we need in the UK is Walmart. Like, proper real 24 hour walmarts.

That's the only way any business here would be able to compete with online prices and availability.

Sadly most companies do not realise what's going on, it's actually very simple economics.

Online retailers have minimal overheads like staff and phonelines. They can buy a building 'where ever' usually in the remote cheap parts of the UK so don't have to pay silly rent prices. They buy in mass bulk and offer cheap shipping, making the product way cheaper. They are also 'there' 24 hours a day for us to browse and place orders.

Walmart take most of those philosophies (buying in bulk, being open all the time) and then add to them with fresh food being available 24/7 (subway now.. all the walmart restraunts are gone and replaced with mac d's and subway in the store) and cheap items via bulk buying. They have their own brand cola and root beer and orange, which in all honesty tastes just as good as any major brand. Nice part is that their soda is 25 cents a can from a chilled vending machine (40' baby yeah !) You can buy 6 cans in store (warm, packed) for $1. They have an enormous electronics section that I have visited many times @ 2 a.m because I needed a cable or what not and just couldn't sleep until my quest was done.

And some have supermarkets that make sainsburys look amateur. When working nights I used to cut out at 3 a.m on payday (money went in 2 a.m) and go get my food shopping. I'd get to Turnersville around 4 a.m and the place was PACKED.

If our government had any brains they would open their own walmart type brand of store, buy up all the closing stores and then put all the profit and tax made from such venture back into our pursery. They would create loads of jobs, and, even if they omitted any profit and just took the taxes it would do our country the world of good.

Oh, bit OT now.. Even though I totally can't stand the stuff I reakon legalizing weed right now would sort out our recession. They could tax fuck out of it, grow it here (creating buttloads of jobs) and still sell it for less than 'importers' (drug dealers kids).

Instead of borrowing money from itself our government really needs to look at new ways of making money.

Zavvi aswell!? Holy bleedin' hell! There will be no shops left in Shrewsbury soon

I hope you like Poundland (pronounced Poun-dlund to make it sound like a country).

It might be that Zavvi's salvageable though. It sounds like having to forge new supplier contracts in the heat of christmas made a temporary break in their mettle.

24-hour supermarkets in the UK are a joke:

• They're only 24 hour 4 days a week
• You can barely get to the shelves because of abandoned roll pallets
• Most of the useful stuff (hot food, electricals, etc) is actually closed after 10pm
• They only have one till open, even if there's 20 people queueing
• The staff competency index plummets once it gets dark outside

The 4 days a week thing is the fault of religious pressure groups not them of course, in Scotland they are 24hr.

I think the biggest problem with administration is apparently everyone seems to assume that's "Going bust" and means extinction.

Yeah, 'cos what we need is even more ghost towns, dictation on what we can buy on grounds that it could possibly cause offence and treating employees like shit.

TBH Asda is a poor impostor.

I'm talking about real Wal Marts, dubbed as super walmarts.

Kinda like this one.

Every supermarket treats employees like shit. I guess you've never worked at one. Every fast food place treats employees like shit, near on every commercial business treats employees like shit.

Been there, seen it, done it, got the Tshirt.

Yeah but I was referring to real 24 hour markets tbh. Ones that are ran well and staffed properly. Not ran by a bunch of lazy douchetards.

Before he retired a couple of years ago, my father in law ran the deli counter at one of the largest Tescos in the country. On and off, he worked for them for over 20 years. His partner currently works at the same Tescos as she has done for over a decade.

*shrugs*

Indeed - I think if you're a Saturday till person or shelf-stacker, or you work behind the counter in McDonalds you will get treated like shit - mainly because there's not a great deal of value to the company in cultivating you as an employee. They know you'll jump for something else for a few pence more an hour, or you're going to go off to university or whatever. Make working in a supermarket or fast food chain a career, on the other hand, and it's a very different story.

Then it must be a USA thing tbh.

I always worked in computers here, and have about 17 years experience (first machine I ever built was a SX25 286).

Sadly the US are obsessed with college degrees and stuff like that and generally stuff that doesn't actually matter IE - having a faint clue as to what you're doing. I purposely used to exploit weak points in the servers at my call center and move stuff around just to watch them all running around with no idea what had happened. Plums.

To that ends I had to do some shit jobs in the USA. But hey, money talks BS walks and Im not afraid of work.

When work was hard to find (in Ohio basically) I worked at a BK and a Steak and Shake. Both were jobs from fucking hell, both had store managers that didn't know their arse from their elbow but had that badge on that said "Store manager", you know, the Mall Cop type? "I have authoritaaah?"

Even the blockbuster store I worked at fucking sucked until I became the store manager.

The UK has alot more laws to protect people, but ones that can be exploited by lazy asses.. And in ways that's a good thing, but then in ways (believe it or not) the yanks don't hold up their thumb when they hit it with a hammer yelling about suing people. Infact, you cannot sue an employer over any kind of accident anymore.

Work out there is tough and hard and there's no such thing as an easy job.

I totally agree. In the USA their game is to hire and fire. Before you even reach a payrise of any sort they will fire you and bring in someone else who will do it for min wage. You can't make a career out of a job like that and that's just the way it is.

I don't totally agree with that, but I do agree with creating jobs of any sort.. Most of the people who worked at Wal Mart were either in college (an endless supply of employees) or old people who did it for a bit of pocket money. Not people who tried to make a living and ends meet.

So to that ends at least it has a niche for a certain type of employee, and it's usually just a temporary stop gap.

And to that ends, you are not valuable to them because the job doesn't involve any real skills. The art of employment is to make yourself (or at least on paper) irreplacable.

Ah, but irreplaceable is often also unpromoteable.

Yup. So let's face it, the best way to make money is to totally agree to what you're doing (even if it's nasty cut throat bullshit) and kiss ass. At which point you'll do well.

Thus, opening some super wal marts doesn't seem so bad.

All business sucks. From Doctors (99% of which wanted to be doctors for the paychecks, not to help people) to dentists (biggest con merchants on the planet).

The order of it all sucks too, those who do the least earn the most and those who bust their fucking asses earn shit.

What's gotten to me lately is this supposed 'property ladder' FFS all it is (as fucking usual) is rich people taking jobs and houses from the poor and making stupid ammounts of money.

That shouldn't even be legal in the same way as owning more than one property. They're not fucking properties and investments they're supposed to be HOMES so people have a place to live. Not ways for the rich to run a roller around and put down a new carpet and then make 30 grand.

Anyone, ANYONE who works 40 hours a week no matter what they do should have their very own house to live in. A home.

Mind you, I find it deliciously satisfying to see it all backfire and all the rich fuckers going bankrupt and house prices falling through the floor.

There is a god afterall.

Up yours Anthea Turner, ya greedy cunt !

The problems in this country and most of the world are so deep that it's going to take a serious financial collapse and alot of learned lessons.

I just went downstairs to find ANOTHER of those property programmes. They were showing people around barn conversions in the countryside costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Yet sadly there are council homes (in Liverpool as an example) that just sit boarded up because they're not worth doing anything to because there's no MONEY to be made.

I personally feel that anyone who works 40 hours a week, no matter WHAT they do (supermarket, shitty low end jobs paying shit money) should have a home, that's theirs.

In the USA they have what they call HUD homes. Houses that are built (kinda like Levitt town) that are built by the government and then sold to people based on their 40 hour a week income. Some money is made of course, but the important part is it creates jobs (those who build them) and gives poor people a house of their own.

Why on earth the Government can't take it's own properties and create a workforce to do them up and then sell them to people based on income is beyond me. I suppose because they wouldn't make thirty grand for adding a 300 quid bathroom and toilet and 500 quid kitchen.

The property 'market' has taken so much money out of the economy and put it where? into the pockets of rich people who then use it to make more money, becoming increasingly greedy all the while until the word 'home' is replaced with 'investment'.

What cracked me up about the show that's on the TV right now is them talking about budgets, and saving money and so on. FFS it's supposed to be a home you live in, not some kind of financial connundrum or mathmatical equation.

I should have been a politician. Certain things should be totally government controlled to stop greedy cunts turning them into a way to milk money and not put it back.
Poor old Anthea turner said she was trying to make a Billion pounds, but may have to sell about 20 of her properties.

Awwww, what a terrible terrible shame. Slag.

Also this.

It's the middle and lower middle/lower classes that keeps shops in business. Let me explain.

We are the ones who like fancy computers and game consoles, because we have to work really fuckin hard for them. We are the ones that like small luxury goods, we are the ones that spend our money and don't sit and look at it, glowing it's mint green self.

The problem is that when the money that we earn gets dragged away into an economy for the rich it stays there. Rich people who buy, fart in, and then sell houses at an extortionate profit seldom actually put that money back. They just keep it, or 'invest' it into making more. They don't spunk money on betting, games, toys and so on. Most rich people drive Kias and wank like that.

And once that begins to happen jobs are lost to save more money and people like us can't earn it to spend it.

That's why these stores are closing. People that get up in the morning, work hard and bust their asses are barely able to put food in their mouthes and dinner on the table and keep the loan sharks (banks, basically.. Greedy cunts number two, I won't rant about that now) off their backs.

I'm pretty sure they're closing because they sell shit that nobody wants, at a price no-one wants to pay (because they can get it cheaper elsewhere), and treat customers like shit while doing it.

A lot of the stuff that Ebuyer sells never even goes near their own warehouse. They ship direct from their own suppliers (which is why certain items always have huge quantities in stock). That saves costs as well as they have no warehousing to worry about and lower transport costs.

Exactly. You only have to look at those old Woolworths adverts I posted to realise that the reason they have gone down the pan is because they no longer sell anything that anybody wants. 25 years ago they had stores heaving with all sorts of exotic sexy goods from electronic calculators and Atari 2600 games consoles through to Hi-Fi's. These days it's just a load of old tat.

The law does allow Saturday. I suspect they don't open till 8am on Monday either like ours, which is where Craster is getting his "4 days" from.

Asda is not Wallmart if you've ever been in a Super Wallmart. It's like a baby version of the same concept from people who don't quite understand it.

Pretty much, yeah. That's quite accurate.

I boycott Asda on ethical grounds (their anti-union tactics), myself. Rather pay a slight bit extra or go without than give them a penny.

And yet, old tat retailers (pound shops) are doing pretty well..

I think the difference is that Woolworths tried to sell non-tat (video games, CDs, etc) at unreasonable prices (ie, full whack, when you can get them much cheaper elswhere) and often in an incompetant manner (40-odd cases for a game on the shelves, but out of stock when you eventually got to the front of the queue - the same was true of mobile phone handsets and most electrical items). Pound shops often have everyday items (sellotape, padded envlopes) at a pound, and it is stuff that you always need. Woolworths, though - well theie only decent stock was sold elsewhere, cheaper and better.

Yeah, but they sell consumables that people will always need, along with some incredible bargains. Pop into a pound shop for a packet of screws and half a dozen blank DVDs, and you see hot water bottles for a quid each...

Besides, with the stock at a quid a pop, these stores are a nice place just to pop into and see what they've got this week. Could you say that about Woolworths?

So not just in Cardiff and Manchester, then? That was enough too stop me even bothering to look in there, eventually.

To be honest now every one is replaceable.

Hence there are so many worries about redundancies..

They did that to me when I tried to get GTA 4 there too. What, do they think as they didn't have the game I went in for they'd sucker me in to buying something else because I'd queued? Gah.

No, they want you to order it, then go home, then come back another day, and collect it then. I always ask why this would be preferable to walking across the road and buying it for the same price in Blockbusters. It's "just what we got tuh ask" apparently. Good luck in your next jobs, slackjaws.

Looks basically like the ASDA in Moss Side, Manchester... only it says ASDA on it and not WalMart. (Unless it goes "back" more)

Went into one of the Woolies that was on its last day today, and it was 70% off everything.

Sadly, it was pretty empty. Mostly there were kids' wrestling toy figures, slippers for the under 3s, and eight hundred copies of all of Portishead's albums.