Whos next?

[Chilly]

Ocado is a dead cert. Their non-compete agreement with waitrose is due to expire at some point at which time waitrose will market directly to customers offering its own delivery service in the areas previously given to Ocado. Ocado are a class private equity fuckup, too: way too much debt not enough wiggle room to survive a bumpy couple of years.
Admiral? Really? How can it be hard to make money in that racket?

 

[old.user4556]

Told you Blockbuster would go, was obvious.

 

[Poag]

Told you Blockbuster would go, was obvious.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21047652


Bom bom bom...Another one bites the dust

 

[Gwadien]

I made a thread about this, forgot about this threat, sorry;(

 

[caLLous]

How dare you make a thread about something when there is a general, catch-all thread covering that subject.

*runs*

 

[soze]

My Uncle has had some rotten luck. For his 50th he got £500 of Jessop Vouchers, he tried to spend them and got told he may as well wipe his arse with them (he has sent a letter to head office). And for Christmas he got HMV vouchers which are also now worthless.

I can't imagine with the Jessops vouchers it is as simple as you have lost £500. His wife collected all his birthday money and got the vouchers on her credit card. Would she have any comeback there?

 

[Scouse]

I can't imagine with the Jessops vouchers it is as simple as you have lost £500. His wife collected all his birthday money and got the vouchers on her credit card. Would she have any comeback there?

She may have protection from the credit card company within 90 days.


Also: NEVER buy vouchers. Just give people cash instead.

 

[soze]

Also: NEVER buy vouchers. Just give people cash instead.

Yeah But she is one of these "cash is impersonal" types. Vouchers are just cash that you can only spend at one place but whatever.

 

[Gumbo]

He's just another creditor on the list of who Jessops owe money to. He'll likely get something back, but probably in the region of a few pence per £ of voucher. He'll need to apply to the administrators to be added to the list.

 

[Vae]

Yep best going the credit card reclaim direction.

 

[rynnor]

He's just another creditor on the list of who Jessops owe money to. He'll likely get something back, but probably in the region of a few pence per £ of voucher. He'll need to apply to the administrators to be added to the list.

Nah the credit card company will be the creditors - she should get her money back and they will combine all claims into one file.

 

[Embattle]

He's just another creditor on the list of who Jessops owe money to. He'll likely get something back, but probably in the region of a few pence per £ of voucher. He'll need to apply to the administrators to be added to the list.

In reality he'll get nothing.

 

[Scouse]

In reality he'll get nothing.

That's why credit cards can actually be useful...

 

[Wazzerphuk]

http://www.banquetrecords.com/HMVcards

Hah, indy shop near me will take 50% off for people with HMV cards.

 

[Job]

Download 500 quids worth of music off youtube and don't feel guilty about it.

 

[Ch3tan]

Download 500 quids worth of music off youtube and don't feel guilty about it.

Why would I want low quality shit?

 

[rynnor]

Interesting to see others think the same as me about WHSmith - despite recent decent results all of their product lines are in decline - this is not a survival strategy.

 

[MYstIC G]

All that keeps W H Smiths afloat is they have a monopoly on retail units on train stations. There are always plenty of folk about who will pay more for a soft drink than its worth.

 

[Litmus]

My Uncle has had some rotten luck. For his 50th he got £500 of Jessop Vouchers, he tried to spend them and got told he may as well wipe his arse with them (he has sent a letter to head office). And for Christmas he got HMV vouchers which are also now worthless.

I can't imagine with the Jessops vouchers it is as simple as you have lost £500. His wife collected all his birthday money and got the vouchers on her credit card. Would she have any comeback there?

That is disgusting, i cant believe something cant be done about these companies, who's fate was sealed long before Christmas were able to see out the Christmas period raking in as much as they could by selling vouchers and products with X amount of years warranty when they knew very well they would be worthless come January when they plan to get the administrators in.

 

[Ch3tan]

That is disgusting, i cant believe something cant be done about these companies, who's fate was sealed long before Christmas were able to see out the Christmas period raking in as much as they could by selling vouchers and products with X amount of years warranty when they knew very well they would be worthless come January when they plan to get the administrators in.

Buyer beware. Vouchers have terms and conditions, cash is always safer as a gift.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/15/why-did-hmv-fail?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

The day of the presentation came and we stood in the boardroom in front of the new MD, Steve Knott, and his directors. For some time we had felt the tides of change coming for HMV and here was our perfect opportunity to unambiguously say what we felt. The relevant chart went up and I said: "The three greatest threats to HMV are, online retailers, downloadable music and supermarkets discounting loss leader product."

Suddenly I realised the MD had stopped the meeting and was visibly angry. "I have never heard such rubbish", he said, "I accept that supermarkets are a thorn in our side but not for the serious music, games or film buyer and as for the other two, I don't ever see them being a real threat, downloadable music is just a fad and people will always want the atmosphere and experience of a music store rather than online shopping."

 

[Raven]

Sounds like the same story as Game. Out of touch/poor leadership.

 

[rynnor]

Sounds like much of British industry tbh

 

[DaGaffer]

Sounds like much of British industry tbh

Its not just "British" industry. Its retail. The likes of FNAC in France, Tower in the US etc. have been no better at making the leap to an online future, and speaking as someone who's been doing this shit for a while now, the reasons are entirely understandable. What's depressing is no-one seems to be learning the lesson; the default attitude is "well that's xxx business sector, my yyy sector won't be affected by the internet like that". Yes it fucking will.

*Edit* I know for a fact that there were voices in HMV just like mine at GAME telling the board what was going to happen ten years ago. My opposite number at HMV ended up going to Play.com, probably in frustration at the missed opportunity, like most online managers in retail.

 

[caLLous]

FNAC's sluggishness regarding online stuff is a strange one as the CEO of PPR (their parent company) is a bit of a web-nut.

 

[rynnor]

Its not just retail though - I work in the card payments industry and as a whole they have been very slow to realise things like paypal and mobile payments were a threat to their traditional business.

Human beings have this tendency to think that everything will just go on the same forever despite the constant evidence around them that it wont

 

[Wazzerphuk]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21051636

Turns out they've even left a charity unpaid...

 

[Aada]

Went into HMV today just to check prices of games nothing marked down even their huge ass pre owned shit was still the same as it was before Christmas, pre owned games more expensive than new games.

Can't even remember the last time I bought something from HMV.

 

[Raven]

About 12 years for me.

moribund

 

[sayward]

FNAC's sluggishness regarding online stuff is a strange one as the CEO of PPR (their parent company) is a bit of a web-nut.

Yet get all our tickets on internet thro FNAC.