Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

The Natural Philosopher wrote

Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...


Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I use the London shops mainly to buy box set DVD's which are too
lumpy to get
through the letter-box, happily paying a bit extra. Otherwise I use
Amazon
Amazon Marketplace etc. Except that a lot of them are out of stock
even in
the Oxford Street store.

They've also fallen victim to the pareto principle 80% of sales both
in music
and DVD/Blue ray probably come from the top 20% of titles. All of
which
can be found in one or two aisles in the larger Tesco and Asda stores.

Their queuing sytem is also like something out of the stone age.
In Primark and larger post offices etc they have an electronic
indicator board and a automated voice "go to till number two
please." In HMV they have to shout and wave. Before Christmas
they pushed to boat out and issued them with HMV pink aircraft carrier
style paddles.


michael adams

....












I wonder who is next? Next?


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable
to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed,
are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated
wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
The Natural Philosopher wrote
Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

It certainly looks like an unfortunate brand name right now.

W.H.Smith, I was forced to go into a Smiths for the first time in
years
as they moved a Post Office into the back of one of their stores.
Its still like a magazine reading room, just like the old days.
A long wall of magazines plenty reading but nobody buying.
So who pays for all that ?
Stock littered everywhere everything "themed". Want
to buy a biro - go to the "leisure musings" section
something lie that anyway.

BHS. Just out of interest to check out their winter
gloves. Pensioners and others wandering around
staff bored out of their minds nobody buying anything
Far pricier than Primark which is busy all the time
Gloves display hidden right at the back facing the
wall. Same as they hide their umbrella display when
its raining outside
Green may be making packets out of Topshop
etc but BHS looks doomed and is often sited on High
Streets already loaded with charity shops.

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.


Right answer wrong reason. New books are cheaper on Amazon, there's a
much bigger
inventory - potentially every book in print or currently available
S/H somewhere
in the world through Amazon Marketplace, or Abebooks, and equally
important
IMO, most books as with DVD's even when stoutly packed will go through
most letterboxes.


michael adams

....

In article , michael
adams writes

Far pricier than Primark which is busy all the time

Popped into Primark just before Christmas. Empty, stuff on offer was
****e and the place had a depressed air about it - lots of the light
fittings needed replacement tubes. When they neglect the small stuff
like that, you know things aren't good.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

In article ,
Mike Tomlinson wrote:
In article , michael
adams writes

Far pricier than Primark which is busy all the time

Popped into Primark just before Christmas. Empty, stuff on offer was
****e and the place had a depressed air about it - lots of the light
fittings needed replacement tubes. When they neglect the small stuff
like that, you know things aren't good.

In our local hospital there's a sign stating that light bulbs are only
replaced on Mondays. (what a dreadful maintenance contract they must have)

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

"Mike Tomlinson" wrote in message
...
In article ,
michael
adams writes

Far pricier than Primark which is busy all the time

Popped into Primark just before Christmas. Empty, stuff on offer
was
****e and the place had a depressed air about it - lots of the light
fittings needed replacement tubes. When they neglect the small
stuff
like that, you know things aren't good.

Are you sure this was a Primark store you're talking about ?
And not Peacock ?

As to their stock being ****e in mens they seem to offer identical
lines to everyone else else socks, shirts, jeans, tee shirts,
hooped swaters cheap suits etc in the same range of colours
but cheaper. The women seem to like them as well as they don't
want stuff to last ages to begin with, as it gives them an
excuse to go shopping again to buy replacements.

Most of Primarks stores are only one or two years old
and are all fairly brightly lit, and busy IME . In the
London area anyway.


michael adams

....

--
(\_/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:21:59 -0000, michael adams wrote:

Their queuing sytem is also like something out of the stone age.
In Primark and larger post offices etc they have an electronic
indicator board and a automated voice "go to till number two
please." In HMV they have to shout and wave. Before Christmas
they pushed to boat out and issued them with HMV pink aircraft carrier
style paddles.

Well PO's and the like are normally fairly busy most of the time. A
complex, technology based, expensive queing system is worth it. In HMV
the friendly wave over works most of the time and low tech pink paddles
work well enough on the few occasions it was busy.

Who will be next? Next? Not so sure, they have a strong mailorder side
with a good try and return practice/policy. The clothes are also priced
well and reasonable quality. The clothes chains that have recently gone
have been the higher priced boutiquey ones.

I think HMV failed by not shifting from entertainment media content to
entertainment media devices fast enough, not including gameing in any
great form and not having a competative mailorder side.

I still like physical media but I can't remember the last time I actually
went to shop to get it. Mailorder from Amazon normally (due to price) but
I have used HMV mailorder when Amazon didn't have stock or the HMV price
was better (rare).

--
Cheers
Dave.

In article ,
"michael adams" writes:

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
The Natural Philosopher wrote
Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

It certainly looks like an unfortunate brand name right now.

W.H.Smith, I was forced to go into a Smiths for the first time in
years
as they moved a Post Office into the back of one of their stores.
Its still like a magazine reading room, just like the old days.
A long wall of magazines plenty reading but nobody buying.
So who pays for all that ?
Stock littered everywhere everything "themed". Want
to buy a biro - go to the "leisure musings" section
something lie that anyway.

The other side of WHSmith is that they do pretty much all the
newspaper and magazine distribution to all shops, not that that's
necessarily a growing business either, but just to say there's a
large part of the business besides the shopfronts.

BHS. Just out of interest to check out their winter
gloves. Pensioners and others wandering around
staff bored out of their minds nobody buying anything
Far pricier than Primark which is busy all the time
Gloves display hidden right at the back facing the
wall. Same as they hide their umbrella display when
its raining outside
Green may be making packets out of Topshop
etc but BHS looks doomed and is often sited on High
Streets already loaded with charity shops.

When BHS was British Home Stores (a name which now seems to be
owned by a completely different retail outlet), it had an excellent
lighting section, with lots of innovative designs, which attracted
me in-store and I bought many products. The lighting section gradually
shrunk to a tiny proportion of what it was, and although I take a new
look every few years in hope, I haven't bought anything there for 10
years now.

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.


Right answer wrong reason. New books are cheaper on Amazon, there's a
much bigger
inventory - potentially every book in print or currently available
S/H somewhere
in the world through Amazon Marketplace, or Abebooks, and equally
important
IMO, most books as with DVD's even when stoutly packed will go through
most letterboxes.

I do use a couple of local bookstores for children's books, because
I need to search for something suitable for the required age range.
The two bookstores in town are mainly all bargin books - the real
bookshop we had folded a few years ago.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
The Natural Philosopher wrote
Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.

That seems to be the pattern; anything that can be downloaded either for
convenience, a cheaper price or pirated. Films, books, music, games.
Followed (possibly) by typical High St shops that supply intangible services
which could easily be replaced by a website and a few phone lines such as
travel agents and banks.

I think the safest shops are coffee shops, fast food, opticians etc, shops
that you have to physically go into if you want that particular service. You
can't by a latte or a Big Mac online... yet.

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...

When BHS was British Home Stores (a name which now seems
to be owned by a completely different retail outlet), it
had an excellent lighting section, with lots of innovative
designs,

Indeed. They consistently got good write ups among design
journalists. I often wondered how that came about - whether
lighting was an obsession with one particular director
or his wife.

which attracted me in-store and I bought many
products. The lighting section gradually shrunk to a tiny
proportion of what it was, and although I take a new
look every few years in hope, I haven't bought anything
there for 10 years now.


Nowadays their lighting along with their general homewares
kitchenware crockery saucepans etc is totally nondescript
and totally hammered by the likes of Tesco on price.
As if they're simply going through the motions.


I bought my first ever 78 "Singing the Blues" by Tommy Steele
in a British Home Stores. Bought out of my 2/6 pocket
money on a saturday shopping trip. Then had the regular cup
of tea and bun or whatever in the cafeteria at the back of
the store.
And a Lonnie Donegan only I can't rember which one.
At the time ISTR Woolies only sold their own label
knockoff records.

In those days BHS, Woolies, and Marks sat side by side on
many a High Street. The big three.



Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.


Right answer wrong reason. New books are cheaper on Amazon, there's
a
much bigger
inventory - potentially every book in print or currently available
S/H somewhere
in the world through Amazon Marketplace, or Abebooks, and equally
important
IMO, most books as with DVD's even when stoutly packed will go
through
most letterboxes.

I do use a couple of local bookstores for children's books, because
I need to search for something suitable for the required age range.
The two bookstores in town are mainly all bargin books - the real
bookshop we had folded a few years ago.

It can stil be preferable to actually handle a book
before buying, as some books have always been badly
produced - some pages over-inked, type too small
or ugly. Especially with some papaerback reprints.
But then that was always the case when ordering
books through the likes of Smiths. I do still ocassionaly
pay extra and buy a few books from Foyles out of conscience
for that very reason. Especially when I see how much I've
saved on all the others.


michael adams

....





--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 15/01/2013 12:43, michael adams wrote:
"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...

When BHS was British Home Stores (a name which now seems
to be owned by a completely different retail outlet), it
had an excellent lighting section, with lots of innovative
designs,

Indeed. They consistently got good write ups among design
journalists. I often wondered how that came about - whether
lighting was an obsession with one particular director
or his wife.


I've got three BHS lamps - purely coincidental - found/given them. All
seem very well built and quite innovative designs.

Mind, the one I use at this desk has a composite glass/plastic shade,
and the 20W halogen melted the surround so the glass bit fell out. No
markings to indicate bulb. Glued it back and use a 3W LED - does the job.

Rob

On 15/01/2013 09:55, Rod Speed wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote
Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.

My local bookshop can usually beat my e-book on price for any recent books.

Colin Bignell

On Tuesday, January 15, 2013 12:29:36 PM UTC, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
"Rod Speed" wrote in message

...

The Natural Philosopher wrote

Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.



I wonder who is next? Next?



Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.



That seems to be the pattern; anything that can be downloaded either for

convenience, a cheaper price or pirated. Films, books, music, games.

Followed (possibly) by typical High St shops that supply intangible services

which could easily be replaced by a website and a few phone lines such as

travel agents and banks.



I think the safest shops are coffee shops, fast food, opticians etc, shops

that you have to physically go into if you want that particular service. You

can't by a latte or a Big Mac online... yet.

Can't you %-o

http://www.mcdelivery.com.ph/

anyway how else are the obesse going to get fed you going to supply them with mobility scooters aka fat bikes ? ;-)

"Mentalguy2k8" wrote in message
...

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
The Natural Philosopher wrote
Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.

That seems to be the pattern; anything that can be downloaded either
for convenience, a cheaper price or pirated. Films, books, music,
games. Followed (possibly) by typical High St shops that supply
intangible services which could easily be replaced by a website and
a few phone lines such as travel agents and banks.

I think the safest shops are coffee shops, fast food, opticians etc,
shops that you have to physically go into if you want that
particular service. You can't by a latte or a Big Mac online... yet.

Online undertakers.

Get that one cracked and you've got it made.

They send you the coffin via courier, you stick the body
inside and it goes back in the same van.


michael adams

....

In article , Mentalguy2k8
wrote:

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
The Natural Philosopher wrote
Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.

That seems to be the pattern; anything that can be downloaded either for
convenience, a cheaper price or pirated. Films, books, music, games.
Followed (possibly) by typical High St shops that supply intangible
services which could easily be replaced by a website and a few phone
lines such as travel agents and banks.

I think the safest shops are coffee shops, fast food, opticians etc,
shops that you have to physically go into if you want that particular
service. You can't buy a latte or a Big Mac online... yet.

or get your hair cut/styled

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

On Tue, 15 Jan 2013 12:29:36 +0000, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:

I think the safest shops are coffee shops, fast food, opticians etc,
shops that you have to physically go into if you want that particular
service. You can't by a latte or a Big Mac online... yet.

Discussing this earlier, I had a sudden vision of Tescos building even
bigger stores, and creating an indoor "market" for localised specialist
shops (like home brew, for example). The point being that you are still
going to Tescos. They've already started it, by effectively getting Costa
to run their cafes.

In article , michael
adams writes

Are you sure this was a Primark store you're talking about ?

Quite sure. I haven't lost it (yet).

--
(\_/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 15/01/13 13:41, charles wrote:
In article , Mentalguy2k8
wrote:

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
The Natural Philosopher wrote
Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.

That seems to be the pattern; anything that can be downloaded either for
convenience, a cheaper price or pirated. Films, books, music, games.
Followed (possibly) by typical High St shops that supply intangible
services which could easily be replaced by a website and a few phone
lines such as travel agents and banks.

I think the safest shops are coffee shops, fast food, opticians etc,
shops that you have to physically go into if you want that particular
service. You can't buy a latte or a Big Mac online... yet.

or get your hair cut/styled

the hairdresser is due to come and do that any minute now. She's not
online, but she is at the end of a mobile phone.

And she can offset the car costs againts income, which I cant.


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

On Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:53:52 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:



Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I just bought a CD from them today.

--
Frank Erskine

On Tuesday, January 15, 2013 1:45:37 PM UTC, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 15 Jan 2013 12:29:36 +0000, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:



I think the safest shops are coffee shops, fast food, opticians etc,

shops that you have to physically go into if you want that particular

service. You can't by a latte or a Big Mac online... yet.



Discussing this earlier, I had a sudden vision of Tescos building even

bigger stores, and creating an indoor "market" for localised specialist

shops (like home brew, for example). The point being that you are still

going to Tescos. They've already started it, by effectively getting Costa

to run their cafes.

Morrisons is set up like a row of market stalls or little shops, there's the butchers (with a real butcher), the bakers, etc.
A barrow of apples near the door.
I quite like it bit it looks a bit cluttered.
But I think Morrisons profits are suffering a bit due to their lack of online presence.
Simon.

On Tuesday, January 15, 2013 4:18:08 PM UTC, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:10:04 -0800, sm_jamieson wrote:



On Tuesday, January 15, 2013 1:45:37 PM UTC, Jethro_uk wrote:

On Tue, 15 Jan 2013 12:29:36 +0000, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:







I think the safest shops are coffee shops, fast food, opticians etc,



shops that you have to physically go into if you want that particular



service. You can't by a latte or a Big Mac online... yet.







Discussing this earlier, I had a sudden vision of Tescos building even



bigger stores, and creating an indoor "market" for localised specialist



shops (like home brew, for example). The point being that you are still



going to Tescos. They've already started it, by effectively getting

Costa



to run their cafes.



Morrisons is set up like a row of market stalls or little shops, there's

the butchers (with a real butcher), the bakers, etc. A barrow of apples

near the door.

I quite like it bit it looks a bit cluttered. But I think Morrisons

profits are suffering a bit due to their lack of online presence. Simon.



True, but they are all run by Morrisons. I was thinking more that you'd

get a bricks'n'mortar version of Amazon marketplace ...



As for Morrisons, unless they can *quickly* setup an online service, I

suspect they'll be next. Our nearest decent supermarket is a Morrisons,

but once SWMBO finally tried online grocery shopping, back in 2011 (it

took me 10 years to persuade her) we use Tescos instead. Why would we go

back to Morrisons ? (Except their cafe is the best of all supermarkets).

We go to iceland / lidl for most things and they are round the corner. As far as the big supermarkets, we go to the nearest, which is Asda or Tesco depending on where we are driving.
At Tesco we avoid anything with their "silly" prices, and their thick white bread for toast is pretty cheap. The reduced section can provide some bargains that go straight in the freezer.
We ordered the Christmas turkey from tesco online and they are now informing me that a second purchase is easy !
Asda are OK but some of their food (like ham, etc) is very poor.
But we got loads of pasta from Asda yesterday as they have it on offer.
Simon.

On Tuesday, January 15, 2013 12:04:44 PM UTC, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
snip

The other side of WHSmith is that they do pretty much all the
newspaper and magazine distribution to all shops, not that that's
necessarily a growing business either, but just to say there's a
large part of the business besides the shopfronts.

IIRC Woolworths (remember them?) had a similar kind of distribution subsidiary, though possibly not such universal coverage. It was the most profitable part of the business and they were trying unsuccessfully to keep it going when the rest of the company went down. As I recall it was that failure that took out Zavvi, which was unable to source stock from elsewhere. If it hadn't I suppose we might have seen the demise of HMV earlier, though clearly Zavvi weren't in a good position either.

Well Nipper would turn in his grave if he had not been stuffed and put on
display in a Lloyds bank.


You say nobody uses any more but its nearly always heaving in ours. I
suspect people used it to browse, then went home and ordered the same thing
on Amazon
Its just like the old days of hi fi shops and when the likes of Comet box
shifted the same gear at a discount, people wnt had a demo and a cup of tea
in the specialist shop then went round the corner to comet.
Not that many specialist hi fi shops around.
I suspect there will always be niche openings for specialist shops, selling
the more obscure stuff, but then the sort of people who go there are not
short of money.
I'm not so sure about the downloading and streaming markets. Lots of people
are very distrustful of the big companies gtting into this no hard product
market, as drm and other nasty devices stop you using what you bought.

Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...


Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members
of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded
with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

On 15/01/13 12:29, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
The Natural Philosopher wrote
Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.

That seems to be the pattern; anything that can be downloaded either for
convenience, a cheaper price or pirated. Films, books, music, games.
Followed (possibly) by typical High St shops that supply intangible
services which could easily be replaced by a website and a few phone
lines such as travel agents and banks.

Certainly agree about travel agents. Why not sit comfortably at home
researching all the alternative routes and places; the alternative is to
watch someone key in a mangled version of your requirements who probably
has far less knowledge of the possibilities that you do.
Same with banks, went into Barclays once because I wanted to speak to
someone who understood what was going on; directed to a phone booth to
speak to a call centre.



I think the safest shops are coffee shops, fast food, opticians etc,
shops that you have to physically go into if you want that particular
service. You can't by a latte or a Big Mac online... yet.


--
djc

On 15/01/2013 16:18, Jethro_uk wrote:


True, but they are all run by Morrisons. I was thinking more that you'd
get a bricks'n'mortar version of Amazon marketplace ...

As for Morrisons, unless they can *quickly* setup an online service, I
suspect they'll be next. Our nearest decent supermarket is a Morrisons,
but once SWMBO finally tried online grocery shopping, back in 2011 (it
took me 10 years to persuade her) we use Tescos instead. Why would we go
back to Morrisons ? (Except their cafe is the best of all supermarkets).

Trouble with Morrisons is that they really have very little that makes
us want to go there rather than JS, Lidl, Waitrose, even Tesco. They are
the only one that regularly has decent sized fresh fennel (and best
price), their Spianata Calabrese Salami is pretty good, then I am
struggling for a reason to go. Oh yes - car park is OK.

We have tried online from Tesco and JS - very disappointing. Waitrose
and Ocado - pretty good but (except when they offer us handsome
discounts for some odd reason) more expensive.

--
Rod

On 15/01/2013 17:04, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:53:52 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

I think the days of bricks and mortar shops are seriously numbered -
forever. Unless you can ask "would you pay £2 to browse in every shop you
go into" and get the answer "yes".

HMV going is another blow to the local shopping centre ... here's the
list as of last Wednesday:

Our nearest shopping centre has lost Alders (one floor of 3 re-let to
Primark). TJ Huges. Peacocks. Millets. Officers Club. Past Times.
JJB Sports and Birthdays.

If we re-order that into floor area, we get:

Alders, TJ Hughes, JJB Sports, HMV, Peacocks, Officers Club, Birthdays,
Jessops, Past Times, Millets

If I were a shop there, I would be very nervous. The loss of Jessops and
HMV - neither of which has an alternative - are two less reasons to
actually visit the place.

One mystery is how the mobile phone shops can survive. The same shopping
centre has an EE, O2, CPW, Phones4U, 3, Vodafone and Orange.

What? Only one of each? I lose count of them all, but we have two EE
shops - right next door to each other.

--
Rod

On 15/01/13 14:56, Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:53:52 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:



Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I just bought a CD from them today.

Does that make you a nobody?

....I'll get my coat...

--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

Brian Gaff wrote:
Well Nipper would turn in his grave if he had not been stuffed and put on
display in a Lloyds bank.

He would, not least because he'd not be sure exactly who his master is now.

I'm not so sure about the downloading and streaming markets. Lots of people
are very distrustful of the big companies gtting into this no hard product
market, as drm and other nasty devices stop you using what you bought.

HMV actually stopped using DRM on their music downloads long ago. For a
limited period, if you had a protected download, they would let you
download the .mp3 version for free, if it had been released that way by
the record company.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

polygonum wrote:
On 15/01/2013 17:04, Jethro_uk wrote:

One mystery is how the mobile phone shops can survive. The same shopping
centre has an EE, O2, CPW, Phones4U, 3, Vodafone and Orange.

What? Only one of each? I lose count of them all, but we have two EE
shops - right next door to each other.

That's because you had an Orange and a T-Mobile shop there. One of them
will close shortly, following the merger that formed EE.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

On Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:07:37 +0000, polygonum wrote:

We have tried online from Tesco and JS - very disappointing. Waitrose
and Ocado - pretty good but (except when they offer us handsome
discounts for some odd reason) more expensive.

I'd like the chance to try online grocery shopping from more than one
store... Asda deliver here and JS might but that is all.

Another thing that HMV might have missed on is that at home you can
audition music for free from Spotify then hop across to Amazon to buy it
(or even buy via Spotify I think). No means of auditioning stuff in the
shop, all in sealed packages. Wouldn't be that hard for them to have a
centralised "spotify" service of their own or even come to a deal with a
service provider and add their own front end to it.

--
Cheers
Dave.

michael adams wrote
Rod Speed wrote
The Natural Philosopher wrote

Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

It certainly looks like an unfortunate brand name right now.

W.H.Smith, I was forced to go into a Smiths for the first time in years
as they moved a Post Office into the back of one of their stores. Its
still like a magazine reading room, just like the old days.
A long wall of magazines plenty reading but nobody buying.

Because few bother with paper magazines anymore.

So who pays for all that ?

Those silly enough to use their stores.

Stock littered everywhere everything "themed". Want to buy a biro - go to
the "leisure musings" section something lie that anyway.

BHS. Just out of interest to check out their winter
gloves. Pensioners and others wandering around
staff bored out of their minds nobody buying anything
Far pricier than Primark which is busy all the time
Gloves display hidden right at the back facing the
wall. Same as they hide their umbrella display when
its raining outside

Green may be making packets out of Topshop
etc but BHS looks doomed and is often sited on High Streets already loaded
with charity shops.

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.

Right answer wrong reason.

Nope.

New books are cheaper on Amazon,

And ebooks are usually cheaper again.

Its actually the used books which can be much cheaper than the ebooks.

there's a much bigger inventory - potentially every book in print or
currently available S/H somewhere in the world through Amazon Marketplace,
or Abebooks, and equally important IMO, most books as with DVD's even
when stoutly packed will go through most letterboxes.

Sure, but the ebook effect is a much more important driver of the demise of
bookshops.

SO much more convenient to find it on amazon and have it in seconds and
ebooks
are a hell of a lot easier to handle than great piles of physical books too.

Mentalguy2k8 wrote
Rod Speed wrote
The Natural Philosopher wrote

Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.

That seems to be the pattern; anything that can be downloaded either for
convenience, a cheaper price or pirated. Films, books, music, games.

Yep.

Followed (possibly) by typical High St shops that supply intangible
services which could easily be replaced by a website and a few phone lines
such as travel agents and banks.

Yeah, I haven't bothered with a physical bank well over a decade now.

And I didnt bother with them even when getting a couple of mortgages
when building the house 40 years ago either, did it all by phone and post.

I think the safest shops are coffee shops,

Yeah, likely.

fast food,

Yep, pizzas can be a tad cold coming from India or China.

opticians etc,

Dunno. I've stopped using those for glasses now. We get the
prescription for free as part of the health care service and so
I still go in there to get that free service, demand the prescription,
which they legally have to give me, and then buy the glasses
from HongKong or China online. Vastly cheaper that way and
just as good too.

Mate of mine managed to **** more than $1K against the wall
with the local optician chain trying to get glasses that worked
and he doesnt have a particularly difficult prescription either.

shops that you have to physically go into if you want that particular
service. You can't by a latte or a Big Mac online... yet.

It will be interesting to watch what happens with normal
grocery purchases. Most including me still use the supermarkets.

I buy almost everything else online now except clothes.

One of the neighbours kids who is only just old enough
to have his own ebay account has been buying clothes
online using my ebay account but he is into those
stupid expensive shoes all the kids have to have.

I wear bare feet or what we call thongs and you call
flip flops in summer, spring and autumn and elastic
sided boots in winter and when out walking for exercise
and still buy those in physical stores, only buying the
best priced specials, $20 for the boots, made in china.
Cant find them as good value online tho I haven't tried
amazon for those since I noticed they have a much better
range than ebay with most stuff. Pain the arse to use tho
because its much harder to see the shipping cost since
we dont have an amazon in my country.

The other obvious thing that is unlikely to be replaced
by online any time soon is medical services, GPs etc.
I dont even do the scripts online, its no cheaper given
that I only buy the stuff thats on prescription.

"michael adams" wrote in message
o.uk...

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...

When BHS was British Home Stores (a name which now seems
to be owned by a completely different retail outlet), it
had an excellent lighting section, with lots of innovative
designs,

Indeed. They consistently got good write ups among design
journalists. I often wondered how that came about - whether
lighting was an obsession with one particular director
or his wife.

which attracted me in-store and I bought many
products. The lighting section gradually shrunk to a tiny
proportion of what it was, and although I take a new
look every few years in hope, I haven't bought anything
there for 10 years now.


Nowadays their lighting along with their general homewares
kitchenware crockery saucepans etc is totally nondescript
and totally hammered by the likes of Tesco on price.
As if they're simply going through the motions.


I bought my first ever 78 "Singing the Blues" by Tommy Steele
in a British Home Stores. Bought out of my 2/6 pocket
money on a saturday shopping trip. Then had the regular cup
of tea and bun or whatever in the cafeteria at the back of
the store.
And a Lonnie Donegan only I can't rember which one.
At the time ISTR Woolies only sold their own label
knockoff records.

In those days BHS, Woolies, and Marks sat side by side on
many a High Street. The big three.



Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.


Right answer wrong reason. New books are cheaper on Amazon, there's a
much bigger
inventory - potentially every book in print or currently available
S/H somewhere
in the world through Amazon Marketplace, or Abebooks, and equally
important
IMO, most books as with DVD's even when stoutly packed will go through
most letterboxes.

I do use a couple of local bookstores for children's books, because
I need to search for something suitable for the required age range.
The two bookstores in town are mainly all bargin books - the real
bookshop we had folded a few years ago.

It can stil be preferable to actually handle a book before buying, as some
books have always been badly produced - some pages over-inked, type too
small or ugly.

But you can normally check that with an ebook before buying.

Or just check the reviews on that.

Especially with some papaerback reprints.

Cant say I ever don’t buy something for that reason.

But then that was always the case when ordering
books through the likes of Smiths. I do still ocassionaly
pay extra and buy a few books from Foyles out of conscience for that very
reason. Especially when I see how much I've saved on all the others.

Cant say I ever do that, and I still get a hell of a lot
of books from garage/yard sales. Haven't bought a
new one in quite a while now and it has to be
something pretty special before I don’t wait for
the used book if it isnt available as an ebook
and I steal the best ebooks using torrents too.

Nightjar wrote
Rod Speed wrote
The Natural Philosopher wrote

Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.

My local bookshop can usually beat my e-book on price for any recent
books.

I just dont buy new books much at all, get most of them
used from garage/yard sales and from abebooks etc.

Those are certainly much cheaper than all except the free
ebooks from amazon but they wont keep the high street
shops going.

I doubt too many that prefer ebooks for their convenience
and easy storage etc will go for the physical book from a
the local bookshop because of the small saving on price
so that wont stop them dying in the arse like the others.

"charles" wrote in message
...
In article , Mentalguy2k8
wrote:

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
The Natural Philosopher wrote
Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

Bookshops. Essentially because so many use ebooks now.

That seems to be the pattern; anything that can be downloaded either for
convenience, a cheaper price or pirated. Films, books, music, games.
Followed (possibly) by typical High St shops that supply intangible
services which could easily be replaced by a website and a few phone
lines such as travel agents and banks.

I think the safest shops are coffee shops, fast food, opticians etc,
shops that you have to physically go into if you want that particular
service. You can't buy a latte or a Big Mac online... yet.

or get your hair cut/styled

I don’t bother with the shops anymore, do it myself.

VERY easy to do if you like super short.

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...


Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?


Going by observed footfall in our area I would say HomeBase and B&Q are not
long for this world.
Any shop which has a large footprint, masses of stock, staff wandering
around with nothing to do and only one till in operation isn't making an
in-store fortune.
Unless the margins are so huge they only need a few customers per hour.

Cheers

Dave R
--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 15/01/2013 19:11, Tim Streater wrote:
In article ,
polygonum wrote:

On 15/01/2013 16:18, Jethro_uk wrote:


True, but they are all run by Morrisons. I was thinking more that you'd
get a bricks'n'mortar version of Amazon marketplace ...

As for Morrisons, unless they can *quickly* setup an online service, I
suspect they'll be next. Our nearest decent supermarket is a Morrisons,
but once SWMBO finally tried online grocery shopping, back in 2011 (it
took me 10 years to persuade her) we use Tescos instead. Why would
we go
back to Morrisons ? (Except their cafe is the best of all
supermarkets).

Trouble with Morrisons is that they really have very little that makes
us want to go there rather than JS, Lidl, Waitrose, even Tesco. They
are the only one that regularly has decent sized fresh fennel (and
best price), their Spianata Calabrese Salami is pretty good, then I am
struggling for a reason to go. Oh yes - car park is OK.

Morrisons:

Decent pain au chocolat
Celeriac

Celeriac easily available at Lidl and Asda.

Have not tried their pain au chocolat!

--
Rod

On 15/01/2013 19:12, David WE Roberts wrote:

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...


Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?


Going by observed footfall in our area I would say HomeBase and B&Q are
not long for this world.
Any shop which has a large footprint, masses of stock, staff wandering
around with nothing to do and only one till in operation isn't making an
in-store fortune.
Unless the margins are so huge they only need a few customers per hour.

Cheers

Dave R

Homebase should simply lock up and go home except when they have a 10%
day (or whatever they do these days). Feels like the policy is "you were
stupid enough to come on a non-special day so we'll rook you 11.1% extra".

But I really cannot believe that we need TWO Homebase stores...

And they feel ever so like the late and largely unlamented Focus.

--
Rod

On 15/01/13 19:12, David WE Roberts wrote:

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...


Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?


Going by observed footfall in our area I would say HomeBase and B&Q are
not long for this world.
yes. agreed.

Any shop which has a large footprint, masses of stock, staff wandering
around with nothing to do and only one till in operation isn't making an
in-store fortune.
Unless the margins are so huge they only need a few customers per hour.


:-0)

I'd not be sorry to see the back of both.

Cheers

Dave R


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.