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ToysRUs going to the wall - avoidable?

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  • I work for a small Town Council. The borough Council takes the business rates and we do not receive a contribution. However we employ one member of staff whose role is to engage the local business community. We have managed to put on an event or two to increase footfall but most of the businesses are not interested. The chains, charity shops and some traders who are doing ok, do not want to take part and we rely on a few local businesses to help the town bring in new customers. Certainly a blame the Council attitude.

    Sometimes you have to look at the big picture, put something in to get something out.

    A common complaint is nowhere to park, but all I see is people driving round looking for off street parking, when cheap Council run car parks have plenty of empty bays.
  • Short of Toysrus closing all their shops and buying up a massive warehouse, trading online only, I'm not too sure what they could've done tbh

    Give it 25 years it'll be all online with Amazon and Tesco will provide the real shopping experience, with an Uber there and back. Everyone will save, on average, £94.72 a year, and it will be real value fpr money, so they'll be happy.

    At least we won't need to suffer Dom and Matt Alright no more
  • MrOneLung said:

    Have free parking in the council run car parks then.

    The borough Council provide the car parks free on weekends during December.

    My council does not own any car parks. If the borough council provided permanent free parking then the cost of that service would surely need to come out of another service? First things first the businesses need to work together to create a more appealing shopper experience. They obviously can't compete on price.
  • Gravesham used to do free parking on a weekend, then they done the "Heritage Quarter" up, then they charged top rates in the "Heritage Quarter" so only have a couple of units occupied, then they decided to display local artist works in the vacant units and that's how it's stayed as far as I know
  • Gravesham do 2 free hours parking on a Saturday and free all day on a Sunday. They've also done a recent job of filling a lot of the shops down the old high street and the market revamp has recently finished. So all in all, not too bad a job by the council.
  • Christ, I told the wife last weekend that they were in dire straights yet she queued up for about 20 mins at the Bromley store in the Glades to get about £300 of gift vouchers on behalf of about 4 different family members for the young kids on the remote side of the family.

    Just hope they get a chance to spend them before they go bust. I did try to tell her and said cash would probably be wiser but she knows best! Sigh.
  • JohnBoyUK said:

    Christ, I told the wife last weekend that they were in dire straights yet she queued up for about 20 mins at the Bromley store in the Glades to get about £300 of gift vouchers on behalf of about 4 different family members for the young kids on the remote side of the family.

    Just hope they get a chance to spend them before they go bust. I did try to tell her and said cash would probably be wiser but she knows best! Sigh.

    Always wiser to give cash. Gift vouchers are one of the biggest rip-offs going.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-wasted-as-people-dont-spend-gift-vouchers
  • Stig said:

    JohnBoyUK said:

    Christ, I told the wife last weekend that they were in dire straights yet she queued up for about 20 mins at the Bromley store in the Glades to get about £300 of gift vouchers on behalf of about 4 different family members for the young kids on the remote side of the family.

    Just hope they get a chance to spend them before they go bust. I did try to tell her and said cash would probably be wiser but she knows best! Sigh.

    Always wiser to give cash. Gift vouchers are one of the biggest rip-offs going.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-wasted-as-people-dont-spend-gift-vouchers
    It's not really a rip off is it? You get exactly what you pay for, its just people don't use them, which is not the sellers fault.
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  • Bought a loaf of bread

    Threw away last 5 slices that I didn’t use

    Hovis rip off wankers !!
  • Toy stores were ruined after Home Alone and BIG, unless they look like those then you may aswell use amazon
  • ToysRUs has gone into administration.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business

  • clive said:

    ToysRUs has gone into administration.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business

    Maplin as well...a real shame, picked up a lot of stuff in there over the years.
  • maplin sell a lot of bits and peices but ultimately are usually in pretty pony locations and sell stuff too dear for a constant custom.
  • Carter said:

    What with the intetnet, the "big 4" (but mainly Tesco) and out of town precincts like Bluewater, all that will be left on the high streets will be fast food outlets, betting shops and the odd haberdashery here and there

    and Turkish barbers.
    Bar a few exceptions every high street is the same victims of this corporate vandalism

    Councils aren't blameless, they should have made town centre parking cheaper if not free years ago to help local economies out.

    This.

    Shopping is a stressful experience at the best of times without the added worry and hassle of parking difficulties.

    If a place makes it difficult and unpleasant for me to visit I don't bother.
  • maplin sell a lot of bits and peices but ultimately are usually in pretty pony locations and sell stuff too dear for a constant custom.

    Amazon Basics > Maplin
  • clive said:

    ToysRUs has gone into administration.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business

    A real shame, I was in ToysRUs this morning buying some stuff for my friends new baby, literally one of the only places out here you can trust to sell 'safe' kids stuff. I really hope their Asian business is OK!
  • Awkward... Maplin has just opened a store in Strood in a part of town they're trying to improve
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  • Hope they both get some last minute good news
  • Awkward... Maplin has just opened a store in Strood in a part of town they're trying to improve

    They've recently opened a store in Sittingbourne as well. Another business, like a lot of the restaurants chains that are currently struggling, that seems to be have expanded too aggressively.
  • JohnBoyUK said:

    Christ, I told the wife last weekend that they were in dire straights yet she queued up for about 20 mins at the Bromley store in the Glades to get about £300 of gift vouchers on behalf of about 4 different family members for the young kids on the remote side of the family.

    Just hope they get a chance to spend them before they go bust. I did try to tell her and said cash would probably be wiser but she knows best! Sigh.

    I hope your relations haven't been slow in spending their vouchers.
  • I think a lot of retail and restaurant chains will go under this year. Hard times ahead....
  • Gillis said:

    Awkward... Maplin has just opened a store in Strood in a part of town they're trying to improve

    They've recently opened a store in Sittingbourne as well. Another business, like a lot of the restaurants chains that are currently struggling, that seems to be have expanded too aggressively.
    Back in 1997 I ordered a bunch of stuff from Maplin for my GCSE Electronics coursework project. I think they had one shop, which was basically a warehouse with a counter, in Birmingham, and a massive mail order catalogue full of relays, resistors, capacitors, diodes, LEDs etc. I never really saw the business model for a nationwide chain for those kinds of supplies and, ironically for a electronic supplies shop, they seem to have been severely under cut by online businesses.
  • One of the problems with Maplins is they aren't cheap which is fine because of the convenience but they hardly ever stock the best options for anything. They do a lot of stuff you will only see in Maplin as opposed to higher end branded stuff that would probably sell a lot better

    And their DJ stuff was shit

    the counter was ok but didn't sell anything you couldn't walk into any electrical wholesalers to get
  • edited February 2018
    Carter said:

    One of the problems with Maplins is they aren't cheap which is fine because of the convenience but they hardly ever stock the best options for anything. They do a lot of stuff you will only see in Maplin as opposed to higher end branded stuff that would probably sell a lot better

    And their DJ stuff was shit

    the counter was ok but didn't sell anything you couldn't walk into any electrical wholesalers to get

    Their Bluetooth keyboard was £14.99 I got.a better one on Amazon for £7.99.

    I bought their power bank £19.99
    I got a better one on Amazon for £9.99. (Theirs charge up to 60%, new one from Amazon goes to 75%).

    After those purchases I have given up on Maplin and have spent far more on Amazon Basics stuff.
  • edited March 2018
    I read in the paper tonight that Maplin has (had?) 200 stores and 2,500 staff. If these figures are correct it should have screamed out to management that something is wrong. That means that an average store is functioning with just 12.5 staff. Given the size of the buildings, I'd expect them to have more like 12.5 staff on duty at any one time, that number spread across the week is madness. But of course, anyone who's been in a Maplins, knows that there's only ever two staff on duty at a time: One standing behind the till who's dying of boredom and another circling the floor, frightening off any potential customers like a demented vulture whilst waiting to pick over the bones of their soon to be expired colleague.
  • Dazzler21 said:

    Carter said:

    One of the problems with Maplins is they aren't cheap which is fine because of the convenience but they hardly ever stock the best options for anything. They do a lot of stuff you will only see in Maplin as opposed to higher end branded stuff that would probably sell a lot better

    And their DJ stuff was shit

    the counter was ok but didn't sell anything you couldn't walk into any electrical wholesalers to get

    Their Bluetooth keyboard was £14.99 I got.a better one on Amazon for £7.99.

    I bought their power bank £19.99
    I got a better one on Amazon for £9.99. (Theirs charge up to 60%, new one from Amazon goes to 75%).

    After those purchases I have given up on Maplin and have spent far more on Amazon Basics stuff.
    I thought I'd forgotten my USB Charging Cable one morning so went into Maplin to get one

    £8.99 it cost for a cable the length of a pen, thankfully didnt need it as hadnt forgotten my original cable so just returned the one to Maplin

    You can easily get a cable like that for less than a fiver with good length, they really need to sort their pricing if they survive
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