It's a really tough one Bing and think you are right on the showroom thing.
I'm into my photography and worked in Chiswick until a few months back. The Chiswick Camera Centre is a local shop and I put everything I could through them and recommended them to others. They were more expensive than online but not by loads.
Little touches like when I wanted to buy a lens they didn't have in stock, the co-owner said she'd bring her own one in the next day so I could try it on my camera to see how it felt and then look at the images when I got home were brilliant. No hard sell and proper experts. I purchased the lens when in stock and lots of other stuff from them.
On the other side of the coin it's hard times for a lot of people and I can see why people go online to get fairly decent savings on stuff.
Would be sad to lose quality local shops like these and I always try to buy local for anything I can as really think we have to support the community.
I am not saying that I personally am a paragon of virtue. Many times I have seen things in shops and then purchased them on line.
As a nation we have embraced shopping on line perhaps greater than some other similar countries.
Some shops have got their on line v store presence right - John Lewis being a classic example. Dixons have now re-branded Currys and PC World together in the same store and taking a huge amount of properties out of circulation. Jessops, sadly as with Comet just had too many stores. They were not lean enough. The next casualty will be Argos in my view. Far too many stores even for a so called "catalogue" retailer.
Game is still going. They were looking a bit iffy for a while.
Game were roughly 2 days away from the chop not so long ago and probably still up the creek now
Yeah preordered something from Game a few days ago. I hope they stay in business, although apparently my card won't be charged until it's been dispatched. Still...
My mate owns a local photography shop. People come in, try the cameras, ask for all kinds of advice, then go off and buy the camera on line.
This is what happened at Jessops. High Street shops are becoming unpaid show rooms for internet sales.
He now has a website, also sells on Amazon and Ebay and is closing his high street shop.
We reap what we sow.
Spot on. I've done the same actually, without even meaning to. I go to the shops expecting/hoping to find something, don't find it/find it too expensive and go home and order.
On one hand it's terrible, on the other hand it's technological revolution. We can't have a growing IT workforce earning a lot of money for companies that make money on the Internet, all the while we keep hundreds of shop staff employed.
I, personally, can't see any good reason as to why anyone would buy anything from a more expensive retail store unless they are buying clothes and want to try them on.
Almost everything I buy these days comes from the Internet. Save for a few items (all clothes) in the sales all my Christmas presents were ordered on the Internet. It's easier, saves driving to Bluey, is delivered to my front door and it costs me less. It's a no brainer.
Sad for those employed in retail, but frankly they should have seen it coming and got an alternative job. I don't want to sound heartless, but anyone that thought a shop specialising in photo equipment and photographs was going to be around in five years time probably has to take a hard look a themselves!
Have to agree with KHA on this. We have changed the way we shop. It's cheaper for companies to sell us good from an online store than to keep high street shops open with all the associated costs. Argos were ahead of the game in realising that a "catalogue" store was going to be cheaper than the conventional high street store and in turn I expect to see them leaving the high street over the next few years. Whether their name is enough to allow them to thrive on their Internet sales is another thing. Where our high streets go from here is a different matter. Hopefully they will remain vibrant centres of independent sellers offering specialised products and services but I fear that whatever occurs we will lose the high street as we know it.
My mate owns a local photography shop. People come in, try the cameras, ask for all kinds of advice, then go off and buy the camera on line.
This is what happened at Jessops. High Street shops are becoming unpaid show rooms for internet sales.
He now has a website, also sells on Amazon and Ebay and is closing his high street shop.
We reap what we sow.
There's a lot of truth in this and it's certainly something I have done. Our Jessop's staff were keen photographers and really helpful. I would buy lenses from them but not cameras. Nikon have too many QC issues at the mo. and at least with Amazon you can return faulty goods without quibble for an immediate refund. Jessops were a total pain when it came to refunding money, they always wanted to send the cameras for repair even if they were just one week old as happened to me. I don't want to use Amazon but neither do I again want to be heavily out of pocket and fighting to get my money back.
Sad for those employed in retail, but frankly they should have seen it coming and got an alternative job. I don't want to sound heartless, but anyone that thought a shop specialising in photo equipment and photographs was going to be around in five years time probably has to take a hard look a themselves!
I wouldn't have thought it is anyone's ambition to work in a low paid job with little future even in the boom years. When its a job, most will take it in the hope it leads to better things or some take jobs like these because there is nothing else they can do. It is a horrible feeling seeing the end of job coming, it must a whole lot worse when you cant see an alternative other than the dole.
On the subject of being sold a filter that was not necessary, when I used to muck about with an SLR many years ago I had filters on every lens - cheaper to replace a scratched uv filter than a lens.
thing about ze interweb is you can't look at stuff in the flesh, and hold stuff and try it out, then there's all the problems with delivery, which isn't going to change soon - these shops and the high street (what's left of them) will just have to match the net, and being able to take it away with you seen as a bonus. Cut throat world out there in retail tho, and undoubtably things won't be the same.
Don't think high street shops have a hope in hell of matching the Internet. The overheads and staffing make it impossible. We just have to accept the change.
Interesting that Nikon has QC issues - now would that have anything to do with them switching production from Japan to China I wonder? I've currently got a Nikon which is getting a bit old and out of date in terms of digital cameras but I wouldn't replace it with a Chinese version.
As far as the high street is concerned I think we really need to think a bit differently now. For example in the States, where (outside of Orlando, anyway) it is common to see small independant shops and sometimes they appear to have very few customers but stay open. That's probably because retail rental in the US is often based upon a relatively low fixed rent plus a percentage of gross sales over a certain amount. This means that the landlord shares the pain of the bad times as well as the fruits of the good times. It helps the shops and long-term helps the landlords because it is better to have some money coming in rather than have a boarded up shop. Perhaps it's an idea we could try here?
Don't think high street shops have a hope in hell of matching the Internet. The overheads and staffing make it impossible. We just have to accept the change.
I was at Borders head office for the last 10 months of their existence. There were other problems with the running of the business, but the killer for them was the massive property costs combined with the inability to compete with Amazon and supermarkets on price. They could not drive the same deals with publishers as the volume wasn't there, and so could not generate the margin to cover overheads when there was a small sales downturn.
I got a decent staff discount, but most stuff was still cheaper on Amazon. Very sad for their store staff who were unbelievably passionate about books, but the economics just didn't add up in the end.
Don't think high street shops have a hope in hell of matching the Internet. The overheads and staffing make it impossible. We just have to accept the change.
I was at Borders head office for the last 10 months of their existence. There were other problems with the running of the business, but the killer for them was the massive property costs combined with the inability to compete with Amazon and supermarkets on price. They could not drive the same deals with publishers as the volume wasn't there, and so could not generate the margin to cover overheads when there was a small sales downturn.
I got a decent staff discount, but most stuff was still cheaper on Amazon. Very sad for their store staff who were unbelievably passionate about books, but the economics just didn't add up in the end.
Amazon have the advantage that they only need to stock the number of books etc that they want to sell - effectively they have one branch so if you are looking for a certain book and if they have it you buy it and they ship it out. Borders and other High Street bookshops have to over-order to ensure that they have enough copies at every branch, meaning there's a lot of stock which they don't sell but costs them to buy in the first place.
It's cheaper to buy booze at the supermarket than the pub... and cheaper to watch Sky than live football every week... So pubs, live footy and shops have to be a better experience to survive... and it helps if they are treated in the same way in terms of tax... Amazons real advantage over the local bookshop is that they aren't paying tax and now with ereaders there is no print and distribution. I happen to prefer the pub, the Valley and browsing in shops for cameras and books... but will always do the groceries online as an hour in the supermarket is one I will never get back! The only time I bought online after this was when a shop refused to go anywhere near price matching on a fridge freezer and we were talking a £100 difference... Maybe going forwards, our libraries, bookshops and coffee shops all merge into a sociable browsing experience with guides, terminals and advice about consumer and legal rights because if we all sit at home it's going to get very quiet out there?
Maybe going forwards, our libraries, bookshops and coffee shops all merge into a sociable browsing experience with guides, terminals and advice about consumer and legal rights because if we all sit at home it's going to get very quiet out there?
Comments
The Sainsburys will be the same size as Crayford. Several other stores too
This is what happened at Jessops. High Street shops are becoming unpaid show rooms for internet sales.
He now has a website, also sells on Amazon and Ebay and is closing his high street shop.
We reap what we sow.
I'm into my photography and worked in Chiswick until a few months back. The Chiswick Camera Centre is a local shop and I put everything I could through them and recommended them to others. They were more expensive than online but not by loads.
Little touches like when I wanted to buy a lens they didn't have in stock, the co-owner said she'd bring her own one in the next day so I could try it on my camera to see how it felt and then look at the images when I got home were brilliant. No hard sell and proper experts. I purchased the lens when in stock and lots of other stuff from them.
On the other side of the coin it's hard times for a lot of people and I can see why people go online to get fairly decent savings on stuff.
Would be sad to lose quality local shops like these and I always try to buy local for anything I can as really think we have to support the community.
As a nation we have embraced shopping on line perhaps greater than some other similar countries.
Some shops have got their on line v store presence right - John Lewis being a classic example. Dixons have now re-branded Currys and PC World together in the same store and taking a huge amount of properties out of circulation. Jessops, sadly as with Comet just had too many stores. They were not lean enough. The next casualty will be Argos in my view. Far too many stores even for a so called "catalogue" retailer.
I, personally, can't see any good reason as to why anyone would buy anything from a more expensive retail store unless they are buying clothes and want to try them on.
Almost everything I buy these days comes from the Internet. Save for a few items (all clothes) in the sales all my Christmas presents were ordered on the Internet. It's easier, saves driving to Bluey, is delivered to my front door and it costs me less. It's a no brainer.
Sad for those employed in retail, but frankly they should have seen it coming and got an alternative job. I don't want to sound heartless, but anyone that thought a shop specialising in photo equipment and photographs was going to be around in five years time probably has to take a hard look a themselves!
When its a job, most will take it in the hope it leads to better things or some take jobs like these because there is nothing else they can do.
It is a horrible feeling seeing the end of job coming, it must a whole lot worse when you cant see an alternative other than the dole.
As far as the high street is concerned I think we really need to think a bit differently now. For example in the States, where (outside of Orlando, anyway) it is common to see small independant shops and sometimes they appear to have very few customers but stay open. That's probably because retail rental in the US is often based upon a relatively low fixed rent plus a percentage of gross sales over a certain amount. This means that the landlord shares the pain of the bad times as well as the fruits of the good times. It helps the shops and long-term helps the landlords because it is better to have some money coming in rather than have a boarded up shop. Perhaps it's an idea we could try here?
I got a decent staff discount, but most stuff was still cheaper on Amazon. Very sad for their store staff who were unbelievably passionate about books, but the economics just didn't add up in the end.
So pubs, live footy and shops have to be a better experience to survive... and it helps if they are treated in the same way in terms of tax... Amazons real advantage over the local bookshop is that they aren't paying tax and now with ereaders there is no print and distribution.
I happen to prefer the pub, the Valley and browsing in shops for cameras and books... but will always do the groceries online as an hour in the supermarket is one I will never get back!
The only time I bought online after this was when a shop refused to go anywhere near price matching on a fridge freezer and we were talking a £100 difference...
Maybe going forwards, our libraries, bookshops and coffee shops all merge into a sociable browsing experience with guides, terminals and advice about consumer and legal rights because if we all sit at home it's going to get very quiet out there?