Is the High Street doomed

[chilango]

The reason for hope (and of course it's the hope that kills us) to take from all this is that it's yet another blatant signal that capitalism is giving up the pretence of meeting society's needs and wants...even manufactured ones.

Even my free-market true believer parents (one an ex-Tory member the other a former Liberal candidate) can no longer find ways to claim that the market is working and are increasingly calling for state intervention.

We're no closer to people contemplating any sort of socialism or communism as an alternative. But I do genuinely believe we've entered the end game of free market, neoliberal capitalism as a functioning, sustainable ideology. They're cashing in their chips and leaving the table.

Fuck knows what follows.

 

[Red Cat]

Also I was never sure what Evans brought to the table, apart from a few discounts on last year's bike models. They rarely employ knowledgeable people. At least Halfords (who also don't) has come up with a semi-decent brand of bikes that people like, and stores tend to be located away from other bike shops.

Didn't know Evans was started in Kennington though, or that it was so old. Praps they should have stuck to Kennington.

I have a Pinnacle bike and my kids too, their kids bikes are good lightweight bikes about £100 quid cheaper than Frog bikes, which are great and we now have one of those for the eldest, but their Pinnacles were very good I thought.

 

[ska invita]

Interesting point...historical buildings and town centres have been demolished to make way for those awful centres. You will never get that history or character back

knock these centres down and replace them with hundreds of stacked shipping containers >progress

 

[ska invita]

But I do genuinely believe we've entered the end game of free market, neoliberal capitalism as a functioning, sustainable ideology. They're cashing in their chips and leaving the table.

Fuck knows what follows.

agree with your post but for the last bit - i wish they were leaving the table - looks more like the opposite to me in that theyre digging deeper, doubling down, making larger profits than ever, and happy to let dictators, neofascists and other authoritarians thrive so as to hold down the unrest arising from this next stage.

 

[BristolEcho]

agree with your post but for the last bit - i wish they were leaving the table - looks more like the opposite to me in that theyre digging deeper, doubling down, making larger profits than ever, and happy to let dictators, neofascists and other authoritarians thrive so as to hold down the unrest arising from this next stage.

Yep like both of the posts as I want to believe the former, but I fear the latter.

 

[Dogsauce]

Wasn’t there a time when a lot of shopping centres were owned by pension funds, owners that could work with a long term steady but not particularly massive return? Ownership by hedge funds is fairly recent, and seems to have coincided with higher rents, a case of screw the tenants for whatever you can get. Noted that with quite a few of these recent bankruptcies there has been an attempt to renegotiate rents to make things viable.

 

[Poi E]

Pension funds invest in hedge funds all the time.

 

[hash tag]

50 year old company, 13 UK shops gone
BBC News - Berketex Bride in administration
Berketex Bride in administration

 

[skyscraper101]

Every day I drive down Oxford Street and see once well known stores turned into tacky souvenir tat shops. The economics of high footfalls justifying ridiculous rents just aren't working.

 

[hash tag]

The eastern end of Oxford street has always been the tacky end. I imagine the rates are extortionate.

 

[weepiper]

 

[Nine Bob Note]

I've no interest in the products offered by Evans Cycles, but Sports Direct charged me seven quid for a 48hr delivery of a pair of jeans earlier this year

 

[hash tag]

If you will buy stuff from Mike Ashley

I hear there are 4 more House of Frasers now earmarked for closure

 

[mojo pixy]

Local bakery, wholemeal loaf 1.69
Co-op mini-super around the corner, wholemeal loaf 75p

 

[weepiper]

Red Dog Music in administration. The Edinburgh store closed doors a couple of days ago

Red Dog Music goes into administration

 

[cybershot]

Not sure Laura Ashley qualifies as 'high street' but quarter of it's stores to close, hundreds of jobs at risk

Laura Ashley to close 40 stores, putting hundreds of jobs at risk

In non high street news, online retailer ASOS issues a shock profit warning showing the high street famine is potentially spreading to online. People really are tightning the purses this year, which is no surprise with rising fuel and food bills and that little thing called Brexit.

Asos issues shock profit warning after November downturn

 

[DotCommunist]

more job losses on the high street then, town centre seems dead these days

I'm only buying two gifts, dog and mum. The rest is going on a big sack of peng ting so the money won't show up in retail balance sheets. Merry fucking christmas.

 

[hash tag]

BUT, I understand Laura Ashley is expanding in China.
poor bloody staff

 

[Riklet]

Shit news about Laura Ashley. ASOS is well down in online sales too. Could that point to less money being spent in general, not just on the high street?

Only bought wine so far and in no desire to spend loads on presents on my credit card like last year. Apparently i'm not alone.

 

[hash tag]

You are not alone.

 

[andysays]

Can 'Super Saturday' save Christmas?

Retailers hoping for a last-minute rush of Christmas shoppers on "Super Saturday" may be disappointed as trade looked set to peak before the weekend. Springboard said footfall rose by 10.4% between Thursday and Friday. Based on historical data when Christmas Day fell earlier in the week, Friday is the busiest day as people tend to use Saturday to travel.

But there's a ray of hope among the gloom

Nevertheless, firms like Hammerson expect two million people to visit its shopping centres this weekend. "There's always an uptick in footfall at this time of the year, as shoppers start to worry about whether online orders will be delivered in time for the big day," said Mark Bourgeois, UK & Ireland managing director at Hammerson, whose shopping centres include the Bullring in Birmingham and London's Brent Cross.

 

[pesh]

'yeah, we're operating all these shopping malls to fill in the gaps when Amazon forget to deliver something 2 days before Christmas' said Mr Bourgeois hopelessly.

 

[Poi E]

Tend to agree with this article in that things are looking bad across retail generally. Britain’s Christmas closing down sale

 

[cupid_stunt]

Looks like HMV is going down the pan for the second time.

Music retailer HMV is on the verge of collapsing into administration, putting 2,200 jobs at risk, according to a report.The company is in last-ditch talks with suppliers and has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, Sky News reported.

It would mark the second time the company has collapsed, having gone into administration in 2013 amid rising competition from music streaming services. The one-time high street stalwart was bought by Hilco in a £50m deal, which saved 140 of its 230 stores. However, those remaining branches now face closure as HMV is once again in need of urgent financial support to keep going.

HMV on brink of collapse with thousands of jobs at risk, report says

 

[cybershot]

Gutted if you’ve been given a gift voucher for Christmas.

 

[brogdale]

Gutted if you’ve been given a gift voucher for Christmas.

All about cash-flow with these spivs, innit? Timing no coincidence.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Most working class towns and city high streets are unable now to support either a book shop or record shop. The cultural desert of neo liberalism promises Poundland or fast food shops instead, shops that were once on the outskirts of the main action and cultural and social life of our centres.

 

[hash tag]

HMV are back in the frame. Again. 120 shops, 2200 staff. No surprise as CD's etc are easily bought in line.
will save me a fortune I suppose if they do close

 

[Poi E]

November was the worst footfall decline since 2009. UK retail suffers worst November footfall decline in 9 years - Retail Gazette

Boxing day sales footfall down for the third year in a row.

Shopping centres are down 6% year-on-year. Thank fuck-will stop the monstrosity going ahead in Croydon.

 

[skyscraper101]

Re: HMV. I’m amazed they were saved last time. The new owners didn’t seem to actually do anything new though. Just more of the same. They shoulda maybe turned it into a more vinyl heavy outlet as that’s the only thing which seems to be growing now.