UK bankruptcies in the news

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 06 Jan 2009, 23:26

"Fecked" might be more meaningful....... the upmarket boutique a couple of doors from my business has just closed. There are more and more empty shop fronts and 'To Let' signs in prime retail land in Belfast....... I kid you not.

chrisc · Post by **chrisc** » 07 Jan 2009, 00:14

snow hope wrote:Loads of restaurants and the like are struggling.

Yeah, even the 2.5% cut in VAT which they failed to pass on to their customers doesn't appear to have helped much -- this is based on the one meal I have eaten out since the VAT cut -- the local curry house simply blacked out the "Prices include 17.5% VAT" from the menu...

pablo · Post by **pablo** » 07 Jan 2009, 00:17

Well; strolling round the mall at Cribbs Causeway I see about 60% of the shops are almost identical clothes emporiums selling poorly made crap from China. There's one bookshop (Waterstones), one music shop (HMV) and virtually nothing of use for sale.
I know I'm looking in the wrong place for useful stuff but places like the mall are the powerhouses of consumer spending - all they sell is shit destined for landfill in a years time.
I don't wan't to indulge in schadenfreude

but it really is hard to see how most of these businesses can survive in even a mild recession. I agree with snowhope; they will go to the wall.

Aurora · Post by **Aurora** » 07 Jan 2009, 06:22

oilslick wrote:I reckon the oh my god moment will be Boots...remember where you heard it first.
http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/forum/vie ... redictions

Got Woolies...just!

Does anyone else see W H Smith as the next high street failure? Their shops always seem to be devoid of customers.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 07 Jan 2009, 08:12

Funnily enough, W H Smith just opened a new store in my town, Louth, a few weeks ago.

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 07 Jan 2009, 08:30

I havent bought anything from WHSmith since I got a credit card and could buy from DODGY TAX AVOIDERS.

skeptik · Post by **skeptik** » 07 Jan 2009, 09:48

Aurora wrote: Does anyone else see W H Smith as the next high street failure? Their shops always seem to be devoid of customers.

They seem to me to have been suffering an identity crisis for years. They're doing too many things in a mediocre way rather than concentrating on doing one well. Bookshop? I wouldn't go there looking for a book - their range is too small and decidedly low/middlebrow. Stationers? There are other chains on the high street that do a better job. Ditto CD/DVD.

CountingDown · Post by **CountingDown** » 07 Jan 2009, 09:48

snow hope wrote:
IanG wrote:Just received a 50% off voucher via spam email for pizza hut.
Valid for all January and no time restricitions.......

Wonder if they are next to go?
One of my sons bought a Pizza there last night and it had gone up from £8 to £10 since he had last bought one (some time ago). Needless to say he said he wouldn't be going back again.

Interesting not on Pizza margins then - a Pizza Hut Family Size Pizza here can be had, any day of the week for under $6 - which is about 3 quid at today's exchange rate. So halving the price seems about right . . .

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 07 Jan 2009, 09:53

skeptik wrote:
Aurora wrote: Does anyone else see W H Smith as the next high street failure? Their shops always seem to be devoid of customers.
They seem to me to have been suffering an identity crisis for years. They're doing too many things in a mediocre way rather than concentrating on doing one well. Bookshop? I wouldn't go there looking for a book - their range is too small and decidedly low/middlebrow. Stationers? There are other chains on the high street that do a better job. Ditto CD/DVD.

A sort of up-market Woolies. Well, Woolies has been around for ever so WH Smiths will be safe too.

Oh, err, ummm ...

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 07 Jan 2009, 09:53

I haven't bought BOOK in WHSmith in years. However our local one was heaving with people just before christmas.

I'm not sure that all shops have done that badly. Far from being overflowing with unsold stock, the computer shops I looked in had sold out of their budget price laptops. Lots of new high end machines at sharply higher prices...

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 07 Jan 2009, 10:01

Dixons/Currys interest me ... their sales have been pathetic .. £20 discount on a £200 freezer etc.

So are they cash rich? Or preserving any cash they have?

I suspect that a £200 'retail value' freezer on the books can be more valuable than a £200 freezer sold at a silly low price.

There must be more than one way for a troubled chain to ride out the current economic crunch.

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 07 Jan 2009, 10:18

Stock is held at the lower of purchase price or net realisable value.
So unless they're selling it for below cost, no.

And, they could end up selling it for below cost if they're desperate for the cash.

skeptik · Post by **skeptik** » 07 Jan 2009, 10:18

Vortex wrote:Dixons/Currys interest me ... their sales have been pathetic .. £20 discount on a £200 freezer etc.

So are they cash rich? Or preserving any cash they have?

Er..no. Struggling

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008 ... -recession
"Shares in DSG [Currys/PC World holding company] have lost 90% of its value since the start of 2007,"

http://www.bitterwallet.com/life-for-te ... ssues/5540

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 07 Jan 2009, 10:31

Thanks for that.

If Currys/Dixons & PCW disappear the world will be a better place.

Their staff are SO awful ....

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 07 Jan 2009, 15:03

snow hope wrote:One of my sons bought a Pizza there last night and it had gone up from £8 to £10 since he had last bought one (some time ago). Needless to say he said he wouldn't be going back again.

Ten pounds for bread and cheese! Yikes and double yikes!