View Full Version : Comet and Best Buy in trouble
Reading in the Observer today electrical outlets ar in trouble. Best buy lost £62 million in its first year of trading and comet are about to post £10 million losses this year.
Argos say tv sales are down 20% from last year and the costs of production are going up so much their is little margins left.
They will all be gone soon.
Tesco's and poundworld will be all that's left in 5 to 10 years.
City centres will be gone and the industrial estate/computer will be king.
The increase in streaming quality must be hitting them big time.
HMV are so skint they had to sell of Waterstones and GAME are said to be about to topple.
Reid Malenfant
19-06-2011, 16:42
I went to put some money into the bank the other day (odd i know :lol:) & i simply couldn't believe what i saw. Half of this shopping centre was boarded up, businesses are obviously going bust left right & centre :(
My shop could go in the next 6 months. Im having to rent some space for some guy to do his gourmet coffee. Im hoping it will help with overheads and get punters in the door.
As an exit strategy i was going to contact Richer Sounds but looks like i can forget about it now.
Reid Malenfant
19-06-2011, 17:04
Fingers crossed for you Colin ;) Things aren't looking good though, the more unemployed or those in damn near dire straights there are the less money will be spent & i can forsee some kind of viscious circle :mental:
what do you sell in your shop, Colin?
Ive worked in pharmacy and health supplements for the last 15 years. Fell into after Maggie decided to privatise the naval dockyards.
The shop i opened with a business partner is in the city and it has proved to be a bad move. I was doing well with protein powders for a while, big thing with the city workers to keep themselves slim, but lots of people are buying cheap crap pf the net blind to the fact it hasnt been tested or approved by food control boards.
Ive come to the conclusion no one wants or needs independent shops anymore.
The only stores doing well are the big department stores selling £3000 handbags to chinese kids. I know, ive observed it.
Is a real shame small shops are doomed.
I'am sick of going to the same few shops on the edge of any city that have zero character and no personal touch.
I can't see hi fi shops lasting 5 to 10 years either except richer sounds.
That's a shame but you never know what is round the corner, good or bad.
I was in the City last week I would have dropped in and said hello if I'd realised.
That would have been cool. You would have been greeted by a pair of mission 7 series powered by a Denon amp :eyebrows: Spend most of my time at work so have to have some kind of system to get me through the day.
That would have been cool. You would have been greeted by a pair of mission 7 series powered by a Denon amp :eyebrows: Spend most of my time at work so have to have some kind of system to get me through the day.
Right will drop in when I am next down there end of July:)
Nice one. Im in between richer and sevnoaks in Holborn.
The Black Adder
19-06-2011, 19:20
Actually... What I've found is the total opposite.. Small companies right now have a window of opportunity.
The big boys are feeling the pinch is because they had targets to reach dictated by the board of each company to stop the share holders getting cold feet.
The targets were therefore unrealistic but because of the loss in profit their marketing budget had actually been ear marked to go up.... so they pushed out new marketing strategies but unfortunately the campaigns were geard as such to show them in a cheapo/tight way... this was not good with consumers as we as consumers can see the change in style and read in to it more than anything.
This change in style/pace for such big companies comes across as desperate and so had the opposite effect on consumers. Everyone needs to see that times are just as they were in 07 even though they are not, it's a foolhardy method we all seem to take in but it works if the company is big enough to maintain it's stature.
If it was a small company that did this method it would be bad... very bad as they can't show confidence.
The advertisement campaigns for example by pcworld have not been the success they expected as they, for one consolidated comet in to the same store... This screams cost cutting and 'yes Mr. & Mrs. Public, things are really bad' it simply should have been re-branded or kept it pcworld or comet.
HMV have had one of the worse ad campaigns in the last 10 years... can you remember any??.. I can't, apart from seeing the Gramophone dog looking in to the dark abyss of the horn of no return.
SALE SALE SALE.. is probably the only thing I can remember of HMV... It went on too long and the chain was then seen as an almost 'Wilko' brand.
Next to fall in to that trap are the sofa and bed companies.
In all, if you own a small business then times can be very good, let the big boys waste millions of quids on desperate marketing, stick in there and offer people the alternative and with a marketing campaign that shows confidence for a fraction of the price... It is hard but now is the time when the bigger companies are really shitting themselves as they are vulnerable and are in panic mode.
Almost correct Joe, but the underlying problem is that businesses nowadays don't do any Marketing and those that do, hive the task off to people who know nothing about Marketing - I am of course talking about real Marketing now. The consequence of that fatal flaw is that these businesses have lost the vital connection with their consumers and I say the rot had already set in a long time ago, so the current recession means they have sown the wind in the past and now they are reaping the whirlwind.
The Black Adder
19-06-2011, 20:45
In my experience companies do marketing but the problem is that they have already been burned with marketing agencies not doing the job right in the first place... To this end they are very sensitive to take the plunge again simply because of past experience.
Many companies that we deal with have been to big agencies and those agencies have not looked after them. Regardless of how big an agency is they can still pull the rug from customers feet before they have stepped off.
Marketing can be a grey area in the best of times and now being not the best of times it's simply not on.
The rot has set in but it can be reversed in some cases... speaking from experience.
HMV are going the Carling rout and sponsoring any music venue they can find which must cost a lot but their web site is terrible. Not user friendly and takes ages to load a page due to adverts. Completely out of touch with the kids.
They dont have the time for that.
PC World is a store that I visit only for 'distress purchases' and emergencies. Admittedly I am perhaps more informed than most of their customers but I pity those who are reliant on the advice of those working there..
Comet add very little value above online discounters who significantly undercut them and compare badly to quality retailers such as John Lewis who have staff who actually know their products and are trained to work with customers.
In both cases, what I associate with their 'brands' is mostly negative. In the past I have always enjoyed visiting the larger HMV stores thanks to a good range of non-mainstream product and knowledgeable staff - for the last couple of years they have thrown away this differentiation in favour of selling the same rubbish as everyone else, but charging a lot more for it ;).
Generally speaking, I would always prefer to deal with a local independent where possible rather than most of the multiples as there is a much stronger incentive for them to win and retain my business.
Regards,
Alex
I don't know anyone who has a bad word to say about John Lewis - good products, service and no hassle if there's a problem of any kind. Perhaps the out-of-town warehouses could learn a thing or two from them?
As for specialist audio? It'll survive, but maybe not in the high street, as rent and rates will be so high?
PC World is a store that I visit only for 'distress purchases' and emergencies. Admittedly I am perhaps more informed than most of their customers but I pity those who are reliant on the advice of those working there..
Comet add very little value above online discounters who significantly undercut them and compare badly to quality retailers such as John Lewis who have staff who actually know their products and are trained to work with customers.
In both cases, what I associate with their 'brands' is mostly negative. In the past I have always enjoyed visiting the larger HMV stores thanks to a good range of non-mainstream product and knowledgeable staff - for the last couple of years they have thrown away this differentiation in favour of selling the same rubbish as everyone else, but charging a lot more for it ;).
Generally speaking, I would always prefer to deal with a local independent where possible rather than most of the multiples as there is a much stronger incentive for them to win and retain my business.
Regards,
Alex
Agree. If you are one of the big boys and you no longer innovative then you are going to fall.
The same rule appys if you are an independant. My business model worked very well in the 90s but its now dated and i have to accept its time to move on. The older i get, the harder that is
I don't know anyone who has a bad word to say about John Lewis - good products, service and no hassle if there's a problem of any kind. Perhaps the out-of-town warehouses could learn a thing or two from them?
As for specialist audio? It'll survive, but maybe not in the high street, as rent and rates will be so high?
Which is a real shame as we are probably the last generation of audiophiles.:(
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