On 22/10/2014 20:25, Rod Speed wrote:


"Theo Markettos" wrote in message
...
sm_jamieson wrote:
On Wednesday, October 22, 2014 1:12:19 PM UTC+1, Theo Markettos wrote:

"a large estate with low sales densities that result in a challenged
financial model."

I wonder what they're on about there, and what else they're
planning to change?

Surely that's a buzzword-encoded statement that just means they have too
many stores for the number of customers, and it's costing too much !
Homebase is nobodies first choice for DIY or Homewares, and always quite
empty when I go there.

If stuff isn't selling well, what are they going to replace it with?

There isnt anything they can do that with,
otherwise they would have done that already.

I can't quite read which way they're going.

I doubt they even know themselves.

Bet they have just decided to pull the plug on the worst
performing quarter of homobases and try to wing it from
there, and will fail just as badly as they have already.

Does that mean 'our top seller is scatter cushions,

I doubt that is true.

let's get rid of all those pesky tools' or
'what we need is more angle grinders'?

I doubt they know on that.

Well, there's a bit of a steer on that question at our local one. They
were next door to a B&Q, which closed down. So they pretty much knocked
it down and replaced with a whole new Homebase, opened a couple of
months ago.
It's very definitely oriented toward the scatter cushion end of the
market, together with over-priced garden ornaments, and incorporates
some kind of Argos collection point.
Not a very useful place for 'the likes of us' but, in their defence,
it's quite an attractive shop and seems to be much more popular than
their old branch, with some kind of target market (people looking at
over-priced tiles, scatter cushions and garden ornaments, who might be
prepared to also pay over the odds for mediocre-quality tools).