Is Burger King just a hunch @CAFCElite or has their been news on this?
Just a hunch, But they are never busy......The one down fiveways in New Eltham is empty all the time. Plus they are over priced and probaly use dog meat in thier burgers
Well Tango C&A are a dutch owned company you may recall they had an "upmarket" storte chain called Oakland for a while but both have gone from our highstreet. Have to agree with the hight street but I have to say the local authorities do themselves no favours. My nearest high street is Welling and all it consists of is charity shops, fast food outlets, banks and cash converters but the real problem is parking, which is limited, none the less Bexley council employ hoards of Traffic Wardens who are like the Taliban, one even tried to book me whilst I was buying a ticket. So the outcome is that everyone who can go to Bluewater where you can park all day free of charge do so.
The the council bemoan the fact that it's killing the high street! The answer is simple don't rip off the public with ridiculous parking charges and have a more lenient policy towards someone who's 5-10 minutes late back tothewir car, employ traffic wardens who speak English so you can talk to them and don't rip the piss out of business rates. If they are note prepared to do that then stop f*****g moaning. End of rant!
Good points Dave. How politicians appear to be to be surprised at the state of our high streets is beyond me.
c&a made its real breakthrough in the 1930s and 40s when the company gained huge contracts to make uniforms for the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe. The owners of the privately run, huge multinational, is the richest family in the Netherlands
WH Smiths have gotta be the next to go, they don't offer anything unique and what they do sell is fairly expensive. They're another retailer that is being superseded by the internet and supermarkets.
No chance. WH Smith's chief executive Kate Swan decided 7 years ago that there was little future in selling CD's and DVD's on the high street, concentrating on stationery & books.
WH Smiths have gotta be the next to go, they don't offer anything unique and what they do sell is fairly expensive. They're another retailer that is being superseded by the internet and supermarkets.
No chance. WH Smith's chief executive Kate Swan decided 7 years ago that there was little future in selling CD's and DVD's on the high street, concentrating on stationery & books.
It's shares hit a record high in December.
Agree completely, whenever I am back in the UK the WHS stores are packed selling magazines, papers, sweets, stationery etc, I can't see them going under not least because they have a lot of great locations.
Don't underestimate the black market for Ginsters, Werthers and Blue Rinse.
They may be manufactured in Cornwall (their factory is in Callington), but lots of folk around here reckon Ginsters ain't proper Cornish pasties, no more than pappy Mother's Pride is proper bread.
Who needs the heavily marketed industrial product, when you've plenty of bakers making their own using traditional recipes?
The the council bemoan the fact that it's killing the high street! The answer is simple don't rip off the public with ridiculous parking charges and have a more lenient policy towards someone who's 5-10 minutes late back tothewir car, employ traffic wardens who speak English so you can talk to them and don't rip the piss out of business rates. If they are note prepared to do that then stop f*****g moaning. End of rant!
Fair point about parking, I think that's helped kill off a lot of smaller high streets, but business rates aren't set by the council, they're the same all over the country and are effectively set by the government. The council can approve a discount on them if it is a non-profit outfit, so charity shops usually pay only a proportion, hence they can make a go of a shop that someone looking for a proper business can't. But as long as most people do most of their shopping in cars, and the rest on the internet, high streets will continue to whither away.
c&a made its real breakthrough in the 1930s and 40s when the company gained huge contracts to make uniforms for the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe. The owners of the privately run, huge multinational, is the richest family in the Netherlands
WH Smiths have gotta be the next to go, they don't offer anything unique and what they do sell is fairly expensive. They're another retailer that is being superseded by the internet and supermarkets.
I've thought this for years. The only thing that that store has got going for it is a big rack of magazines to keep bored office workers happy at lunchtime, but most of them seem to be browsing, not buying.
"...I can't see Burger King disappearing any time soon. People always want at least the illusion of choice, so there will always be a large competitor to McDonald's..."
McDonald's largest competitor is Subway, so might not be too much room for another competitor.
WH Smiths have gotta be the next to go, they don't offer anything unique and what they do sell is fairly expensive. They're another retailer that is being superseded by the internet and supermarkets.
No chance. WH Smith's chief executive Kate Swan decided 7 years ago that there was little future in selling CD's and DVD's on the high street, concentrating on stationery & books.
It's shares hit a record high in December.
But how much of a future is there in stationery and books? People can buy stationery in supermarkets or nick it from work! And books as we all know are a dying breed since e-readers came in.
I agree they probably won't go under though because of their store locations as people have already said, but i can see them reducing the number of stores. The absolutely huge one at bluewater for example is pretty pointless and never busy. But stations/service stations/airports will obviously do a great trade.
That whole Dixons group is surely up shit creek. The only thing that might save them is that there has to be at least one physical presence for electrical goods. Other than that, they're more expensive than online retailers anyway, and the only way they've been covering overheads on recent years is by mis-selling expensive and pointless extended warranties.
That whole Dixons group is surely up shit creek. The only thing that might save them is that there has to be at least one physical presence for electrical goods. Other than that, they're more expensive than online retailers anyway, and the only way they've been covering overheads on recent years is by mis-selling expensive and pointless extended warranties.
Very true and to the point. A firm called 'Tempo' (the electrical discount store that offers you more) went broke more than 10 years ago. Tempo had survived for months by flogging dodgy/non existent warranties and insurance cover. Somehow the owners managed to avoid being charged with fraud, and, as is the nature of the animal, are probably thriving in another sphere of activity.. It seems that in the magical world of finance/retailing, little changes. But what the f***, the world keeps turning even though more and more is it populated by 'unemployed' young people
The the council bemoan the fact that it's killing the high street! The answer is simple don't rip off the public with ridiculous parking charges and have a more lenient policy towards someone who's 5-10 minutes late back tothewir car, employ traffic wardens who speak English so you can talk to them and don't rip the piss out of business rates. If they are note prepared to do that then stop f*****g moaning. End of rant!
Fair point about parking, I think that's helped kill off a lot of smaller high streets, but business rates aren't set by the council, they're the same all over the country and are effectively set by the government. The council can approve a discount on them if it is a non-profit outfit, so charity shops usually pay only a proportion, hence they can make a go of a shop that someone looking for a proper business can't. But as long as most people do most of their shopping in cars, and the rest on the internet, high streets will continue to whither away.
Seems to be the case in most towns. I rarely venture into Gravesend these days, and when I do, It's full of the usual culprits along with boarded up shops.
As a kid growing up in the 70's/80's, it used to have decent shops stretching from one end of town to the other. Now they're all huddled up in the top end whilst the rest of it resembles a ghost town. Even the market is shit. Along with the indoor part, which is open 6 days a week, we used to have a fantastic outdoor market every saturday. The outdoor one is long gone and the inside one is mostly full of shit.
The local council make noises every now and then about trying to re-generate other parts of the town, but I noticed last week when I had to pop in that they've doubled the price on the car parks since xmas. Yeah, that's really encouraging me to shop there more often.........................
Suggestions about WH Smith are way off the mark. They make reasonable profits which have been steadily rising in recent years with broker consensus being a strong buy for their shares. They have a huge presence in travel, airports and the like, and those places make great money selling travel adaptors, books and magazines. They also have a good on-line presence through funkypigeon.
Mothercare is more interesting. Big loss for ye March '12 (probably mostly write-offs following restructuring). If another loss follows and trading has been weak in the UK, who knows. But they have 3 times the number of shops overseas that they have here and those have done well.
Comments
It's shares hit a record high in December.
I've still got that calculator and use most days. I'm sure I bought it early 1984.
Who needs the heavily marketed industrial product, when you've plenty of bakers making their own using traditional recipes?
;o)
But as long as most people do most of their shopping in cars, and the rest on the internet, high streets will continue to whither away.
McDonald's largest competitor is Subway, so might not be too much room for another competitor.
But how much of a future is there in stationery and books? People can buy stationery in supermarkets or nick it from work! And books as we all know are a dying breed since e-readers came in.
I agree they probably won't go under though because of their store locations as people have already said, but i can see them reducing the number of stores. The absolutely huge one at bluewater for example is pretty pointless and never busy. But stations/service stations/airports will obviously do a great trade.
Pets At Home are in trouble - they're sending in the retrievers!
Very true and to the point. A firm called 'Tempo' (the electrical discount store that offers you more) went broke more than 10 years ago. Tempo had survived for months by flogging dodgy/non existent warranties and insurance cover. Somehow the owners managed to avoid being charged with fraud, and, as is the nature of the animal, are probably thriving in another sphere of activity..
It seems that in the magical world of finance/retailing, little changes. But what the f***, the world keeps turning even though more and more is it populated by 'unemployed' young people
As a kid growing up in the 70's/80's, it used to have decent shops stretching from one end of town to the other. Now they're all huddled up in the top end whilst the rest of it resembles a ghost town. Even the market is shit. Along with the indoor part, which is open 6 days a week, we used to have a fantastic outdoor market every saturday. The outdoor one is long gone and the inside one is mostly full of shit.
The local council make noises every now and then about trying to re-generate other parts of the town, but I noticed last week when I had to pop in that they've doubled the price on the car parks since xmas. Yeah, that's really encouraging me to shop there more often.........................
Mothercare is more interesting. Big loss for ye March '12 (probably mostly write-offs following restructuring). If another loss follows and trading has been weak in the UK, who knows. But they have 3 times the number of shops overseas that they have here and those have done well.