Companies That You Expect to Disappear Soon

[308165]

I'll be very surprised if WHSmith manage to sell the high st stores as a singe entity. I think the best case is they might shift more than half to a single buyer with the worst performing stores being closed.

Is there a feeling for whether the high st stores are actually profitable, to what extent are they being cross subsided by the travel operation for things like overhead costs, purchasing power etc??

The ideal outcome, though it seems unlikely, would be a Waterstones Lite format. This would be more books of a higher quality, plus newspaper and magazines and high quality stationary. It wouldn't work everywhere but might pick up quite a lot of smaller and medium sized towns that currently lack a Waterstones. Problem would be that it would require big investment in the stores which would seem risky.

 

[Benters]

I'll be very surprised if WHSmith manage to sell the high st stores as a singe entity. I think the best case is they might shift more than half to a single buyer with the worst performing stores being closed.

Is there a feeling for whether the high st stores are actually profitable, to what extent are they being cross subsided by the travel operation for things like overhead costs, purchasing power etc??

The ideal outcome, though it seems unlikely, would be a Waterstones Lite format. This would be more books of a higher quality, plus newspaper and magazines and high quality stationary. It wouldn't work everywhere but might pick up quite a lot of smaller and medium sized towns that currently lack a Waterstones. Problem would be that it would require big investment in the stores which would seem risky.

Here in Stafford there is a Waterstones located directly opposite WH Smith on the high street. The Waterstones is doing quite well and the WH Smith isn't exactly on its knees (yet). It also includes a Post Office upstairs. It'll be interesting to see how the WH Smith fares if they move more to a Waterstones format .

 

[Mcr Warrior]

It'll be interesting to see how the WH Smith fares if they move more to a Waterstones format .

Just to clarify, what do you mean by that? My understanding of what'll likely be happening at WH Smith, is that their High Street presence will largely be almost completely shut down, either by selling it on, or closing it down, and they'll instead be focussing primarily on airports, railway stations and hospitals and just that.

 

[Bishopstone]

Just to clarify, what do you mean by that? My understanding of what'll likely be happening at WH Smith, is that their High Street presence will largely be almost completely shut down, either by selling it on, or closing it down, and they'll instead be focussing primarily on airports, railway stations and hospitals and just that.

Selling the high street stores doesn't mean they'll close, though I expect many will. This is being positioned as a solvent trade sale and not an insolvency (of the high street business) from what I've read. If a purchaser thought there was value in the brand, I expect WHS (ongoing) would be willing to licence use of the name and brand back to that purchaser for a period of years. In this scenario, there may be little noticeable change in store operations in the short term.

Apparently, the average lease length of WHS stores is only two years, so in any circumstances there's likely to be many closures - or move to smaller premises in the same town -by 2027. This gives a purchaser some flexibility - M&S have some 50-year store leases running down!

Coverage in the business pages states the high street stores have been a cash cow which has funded expansion of the 'travel' business. I suppose this may have been true historically, but only achieved through brutal cost management (ie underinvestment), hence the stained carpets and leaking ceilings etc.

We'll see whether they get a £1 trade sale away. I expect Mike Ashley's name (Sports Direct/Frasers) will start to do the rounds before long - he usually sniffs around distressed retailers. If nobody is interested - this must be a distinct possibility - then it could become an insolvency, but much will depend upon how well the successful part of the business - travel - is financially and legally ring-fenced from the bit they'd like to dump (high street).

The Post Office counters presence adds an intriguing angle, and brings the Government into the mix.

 

[Peter Sarf]

I'll be very surprised if WHSmith manage to sell the high st stores as a singe entity. I think the best case is they might shift more than half to a single buyer with the worst performing stores being closed.

Is there a feeling for whether the high st stores are actually profitable, to what extent are they being cross subsided by the travel operation for things like overhead costs, purchasing power etc??

The ideal outcome, though it seems unlikely, would be a Waterstones Lite format. This would be more books of a higher quality, plus newspaper and magazines and high quality stationary. It wouldn't work everywhere but might pick up quite a lot of smaller and medium sized towns that currently lack a Waterstones. Problem would be that it would require big investment in the stores which would seem risky.

My guess is they will sell the whole lot of the WH Smith High Street stores as a going concern and it is up to potential the new owners to decide how many they will close and when. The price the new owners will pay will depend on how much chaff they feel they will have to throw away.

Will be interesting to see how strong WH Smith's purchasing power will be as a result of shedding what must be the majority of the stores / square feet thereof. Depends how much more custom the fewer travel located stores have - a great deal more custom I suspect.

I do not know if the result will be along the lines of Waterstones at all. Better for a business to find their own niche rather than trying to compete in a dwindling market place.

Personally I do not really know why I do not need to go into WH Smith anymore all year round - what did I used to buy ?.
That is despite there being no alternative stationers in Croydon.
But then during the festive season I suppose the last time I bought my diaries on the cheap from "Poundstretcher", my Calenders from "Card Factory" and my Christmas cards from "Sports Direct" (usually "Card Factory") - and I always buy those three items AFTER Christmas and new year so already cheap ones reduced further. But for the rest of the year it is a mystery !.

Same with Boots really. OK toiletries unless Superdrug but I now never visit the basement.

 

[jon0844]

The issue for the specialist magazine trade, if WHS disappear from the high street, will be in letting people know their product exists. The breadth of titles stocked by WHS, and the ability to browse, will be how many of us were introduced to our favourite magazines and then became regular purchasers, if not subscribers.

Of course, some people have always taken advantage of WSH’s tolerant approach to browsing, to read most of a magazine in-store: small newsagents, understandably, tend to be less forgiving of this behaviour. With budgetary pressures, few public libraries now hold hobby magazines, either.

I wouldn’t subscribe postally to a magazine I hadn’t ‘test-driven’, and this will become a distribution problem for the publishers, with knock-on impacts for their advertisers, who are mostly small businesses within the trade. All of this in a market that’s declining year on year anyway, as the sub-50s don’t buy magazines in volume.

This said, I don’t know whether news and magazines make money for WHS, once a bit of cross-selling is factored in. If store footprints could be right-sized, it’s possible a purchaser might continue this line of business, but I suspect the book trade will be stopped – loads of cash tied-up in floor space on slow turnover stock.

WH Smith used to charge us a lot to put magazines in all their stores. In fact, it was unaffordable to us and so we had only a selected set of stores. Bigger magazines that need circulation for advertisers will pay and shift magazines in some locations at a loss (unsold copies are pulped). WH Smith can do sale or return for some publishers, but want more money and most publishers don't want potentially ragged/damaged magazines back anyway. There was a time when unsold magazines would turn up at car boot sales but I have no idea if that still happens as car boot sales have massively changed over the years.

I totally agree that if you can't see these magazines, they won't sell. Then they'll fold. It is already having a massive effect on publications that would have lots of interesting stories, such as car magazines, with interviews and rumours of new cars and reviews of things relating to automotive. Now the mags sell less, there's less money for them to do a lot of this stuff and they instead concentrate on producing YouTube video content that's paid for through online advertising - which must be a tiny fraction of what they used to get. So many reviewers are laid off and you end up with a team of video journalists that have to product content that's good for video.

So many news stories and features are just not good for video, and while they might make it onto a podcast (which are often very niche) it's more about drive tests of cars - and given your future is being given access to cars to film, you aren't so likely to risk being critical of any car you're given.

As there are now loads of other content creators wanting in on things, your content becomes much of a muchness after a while and what happens then?

People are going to miss newspapers and magazines when they're gone. Picking up something and flicking through to read something you may not have purposely gone looking for before, and no algorithm on social media is going to show you - if it exists anyway.

But, back to the topic, it sadly isn't the job of WH Smith to help magazines and newspapers survive. That would come down to educating people about what they're missing, and why it helps to pay for quality journalism and not allow a race to the bottom to a point where it's all funded by advertisers (i.e. businesses) who will naturally do everything they can to control the narrative.

 

[Peter Sarf]

WH Smith used to charge us a lot to put magazines in all their stores. In fact, it was unaffordable to us and so we had only a selected set of stores. Bigger magazines that need circulation for advertisers will pay and shift magazines in some locations at a loss (unsold copies are pulped). WH Smith can do sale or return for some publishers, but want more money and most publishers don't want potentially ragged/damaged magazines back anyway. There was a time when unsold magazines would turn up at car boot sales but I have no idea if that still happens as car boot sales have massively changed over the years.

I totally agree that if you can't see these magazines, they won't sell. Then they'll fold. It is already having a massive effect on publications that would have lots of interesting stories, such as car magazines, with interviews and rumours of new cars and reviews of things relating to automotive. Now the mags sell less, there's less money for them to do a lot of this stuff and they instead concentrate on producing YouTube video content that's paid for through online advertising - which must be a tiny fraction of what they used to get. So many reviewers are laid off and you end up with a team of video journalists that have to product content that's good for video.

So many news stories and features are just not good for video, and while they might make it onto a podcast (which are often very niche) it's more about drive tests of cars - and given your future is being given access to cars to film, you aren't so likely to risk being critical of any car you're given.

As there are now loads of other content creators wanting in on things, your content becomes much of a muchness after a while and what happens then?

People are going to miss newspapers and magazines when they're gone. Picking up something and flicking through to read something you may not have purposely gone looking for before, and no algorithm on social media is going to show you - if it exists anyway.

But, back to the topic, it sadly isn't the job of WH Smith to help magazines and newspapers survive. That would come down to educating people about what they're missing, and why it helps to pay for quality journalism and not allow a race to the bottom to a point where it's all funded by advertisers (i.e. businesses) who will naturally do everything they can to control the narrative.

Perhaps - long shot - the magazine industry as a whole needs to buy up WH Smith ?.

Really it is yet another example of the internet wiping out older alternatives.

Nowadays we want to talk back to the publication we are reading. I am doing it right now on this thread.

The advantage of a magazine is that it usually publishes carefully considered facts (in the case of the railways).
The disadvantage of a magazine is that we cannot, as readers, ask questions or add our own knowledge, or opinions. It is also out of date by the time it reaches the shelves.
Which instead does lead to a lot of chaff in amongst the timely facts on the internet.

So WH Smith is a place you have to leave the comfort of your own home to get to. Maybe the internet gives more social interaction for many - but not face to face. People need to get out more while places like WH Smith still exist.

 

[jon0844]

Many magazines created their own forums for readers to communicate with staff and other readers, and this often used to work very well.. plus forums could be paid for through online advertising sold by the publisher.

The web could work very well with magazines and newspapers, and of course some of the bigger ones have done very well. Now with papers, you have the likes of the Daily Mail creating content that is generating a fortune through sharing and engagement, with an incentive to rile people up to argue and share both in support, or hate, of the article. Any click is good enough.

Sadly many forums are no longer doing well, and many have closed. It's fantastic that this forum is thriving and many industries have one big forum that's the go-to for anyone in that profession, but as a general rule most forums are now replaced with comments on social media through the posting of links, or perhaps Reddit. The publisher can't monetise this, and it still leads to only certain content being seen by most people.

As you say, in print there's a necessity to get things right. Anyone can post a story online full of mistakes and edit it later, or just delete it if it turned out to be totally wrong. Few people are going to look up internet archives or hold anyone to account.

Finally, there is no magazine industry as such. Lots of big publishers that are now acting more in the online space and spending money on sponsored content and partnerships with brands to bring in money (again, that leads to conflicts of interest), alongside independents that have carved out a niche but are probably struggling along.

Every now and then you get some fantastic content online, often from people who are in a fortunate enough position to do it not for the money but their passion, but they will come and go because nobody will make a lifelong career for charity.

 

[Andyh82]

I can’t honestly see who would buy the WHSmith business, when it is known it has about half the stores but only 15% of the profits (or something like that)

Surely the WHSmith format but without the well known established brand name would end up as a worse proposition? Without the WHSmith supply chain you might end up with some strange stock changes

I would have thought closing the worst performing stores would be the best first move. There must be some that do well, the ones that look half decent and have had refurbishments such as the one in York

It might also be the case that the best stores are in secondary towns. The biggest cities will have too high rents such as why there is no longer a branch in the Manchester Arndale and then there are some third rate towns that have basically died a death generally such as the one in Accrington that is closing

 

[Dai Corner]

I read more newspapers and magazines now than ever before. Partly because I have the time since I retired but mainly because they're free online courtesy of the public library. I do pay £1 a month for the local paper and £30 a year for Modern Railways though. I presume this counts towards the readership figures and therefore how much the publishers can charge advertisers. It also addresses the 'discovery' problem mentioned by previous posters.

One thing I noticed is what must be the smallest Marks & Spencer; a couple of aisles of food items within WH Smith in Cwmbran. The rest of the store is a Post Office plus the usual newspapers, magazines, stationery and books. I'm sure those on the clearance shelves have been there for years, marked down in price now and again.

 

[Peter Sarf]

I read more newspapers and magazines now than ever before. Partly because I have the time since I retired but mainly because they're free online courtesy of the public library. I do pay £1 a month for the local paper and £30 a year for Modern Railways though. I presume this counts towards the readership figures and therefore how much the publishers can charge advertisers. It also addresses the 'discovery' problem mentioned by previous posters.

One thing I noticed is what must be the smallest Marks & Spencer; a couple of aisles of food items within WH Smith in Cwmbran. The rest of the store is a Post Office plus the usual newspapers, magazines, stationery and books. I'm sure those on the clearance shelves have been there for years, marked down in price now and again.

Ah ha. Maybe WH Smith could become Marks and Spencer "locals" ?.

 

[jon0844]

Ah ha. Maybe WH Smith could become Marks and Spencer "locals" ?.

People might even see price cuts, given how much WH Smith charge for things (albeit way more in their travel sites, hence why they're profitable enough to keep).

 

[GoneSouth]

The Post Office counters presence adds an intriguing angle, and brings the Government into the mix.

Even more pertinent now, given the stories that the remaining crown post offices are likely to disappear. Previously they’ve been snapped up and stuck in the corner upstairs by WHS hoping somebody walking through the store to send a large letter would buy some of their overpriced stationery or chocolate on the way. The natural assumption was that the remaining POs would follow suit and relocate to WHS. I never liked the fact that WHS were trusted to host the POs.

But, if there’s no WHS, where do they go? Intriguing.

 

[DelW]

Even more pertinent now, given the stories that the remaining crown post offices are likely to disappear. Previously they’ve been snapped up and stuck in the corner upstairs by WHS hoping somebody walking through the store to send a large letter would buy some of their overpriced stationery or chocolate on the way. The natural assumption was that the remaining POs would follow suit and relocate to WHS. I never liked the fact that WHS were trusted to host the POs.

But, if there’s no WHS, where do they go? Intriguing.

They don't have to be inside another shop.

When our crown post office was closed about thirty years ago, it was replaced by a counter at the back of Martin's newsagents (a chain similar to WHS). Then in turn Martin's closed (I think the whole chain disappeared) and the shop became Waterstones, still with the PO counter at the back. Eventually either the lease expired, or one of the parties wanted to end the arrangement, as it was removed and Waterstones used the space for an expanded children's section.

At the same time a new sub post office opened in a separate shop unit nearby, which remains where it is today. It seems quite busy, usually with two counter positions open, though I don't think I've ever seen anyone buy anything from the curious selection of other goods that they have for sale.

 

[Dai Corner]

But, if there’s no WHS, where do they go? Intriguing.

Newport's city centre Post Office was once in an imposing Edwardian building of its own dominating the top of the High Street but is now a counter at the back of a convenience store in a back street amongst the charity and vape shops. Unusually, perhaps, it's never been in WH Smith.

 

[ChrisC]

I would have thought closing the worst performing stores would be the best first move. There must be some that do well, the ones that look half decent and have had refurbishments such as the one in York

It might also be the case that the best stores are in secondary towns. The biggest cities will have too high rents such as why there is no longer a branch in the Manchester Arndale and then there are some third rate towns that have basically died a death generally such as the one in Accrington that is closing

My experience of the W H Smith stores here in Nottinghamshire very much is like that. The large store in Nottingham is very dated and is never very busy. It just seem unattractive, not very well lit and just generally dull and uncared for. In complete contrast the small W H Smith shop in Newark Market Place appears modern, bright and well stocked. The small Newark shop is always busy and seems to be the main newsagent, stationery and bookshop for this market town. If the shop in Newark closed I think people would really miss it, whereas the one in Nottingham probably wouldn’t be missed very much. Theres also a large store in Mansfield which is dated and unattractive like the Nottingham store but it is fairly well used because there are few alternatives in Mansfield these days. The main problem with all of these shops is the high prices of even basic items like birthday cards.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Newport's city centre Post Office was once in an imposing Edwardian building of its own dominating the top of the High Street but is now a counter at the back of a convenience store in a back street amongst the charity and vape shops. Unusually, perhaps, it's never been in WH Smith.

The Epsom one has never been in WHS either; it's a standalone branch although not in the original premises - bit of a convuluted story here; the original large premises was a Crown Post Office but lost the Crown status and it became part of a mini supermarket on the same premises with the original counters in place. That closed down suddenly after being raided by the immigration teams investigating some of the employees... some months later it re-opened in a smaller shop a short distance away from the original, but purely as a Post Office.

 

[Dai Corner]

WH Smith says post offices to remain if sale goes ahead

The potential sale of the retailer's High Street stores prompted questions over the fate of the post offices housed within them.

www.bbc.co.uk

WH Smith has told the BBC the post offices within its shops will remain should the sale of its High Street business go ahead.

The retailer issued the statement following questions over the future of the 195 post offices within its stores.

The company is in talks over a potential sale of its High Street stores as its business has become more focused on its shops in airports and train stations.

It said its "partnership" with the Post Office was an "important part" of the business and "will continue should a sale of our High Street business to new owners proceed".

 

[Backroom_boy]

No chance of Next ‘going under’, but every chance they continue store closures and end up with a large online business and a smaller number of large stores on retail parks, major shopping centres and the ‘high streets’ of the biggest cities. Basically they occupy a similar market segment as M&S, just without the food.

Yes if Next go under 50% of uk retail would go

, I expect WHS (ongoing) would be willing to licence use of the name and brand back to that purchaser for a period of years. In this scenario, there may be little noticeable change in store operations in the short term.

Yes it will be interesting how this develops; my 2c though - I'd be suprised if whs license the name for the high street stores for much more than the transition period as they would find it difficult to control the quality of them and are more likely to tarnish the brand looking more dowdy than the travel division shops (also be interesting if whs keep any of the high street stores and fold them into the travel division? Maybe at some touristy spots?) AFAIK high street stores make a decent profit but growth is flat and stores have had very little investment.

Edit: I'll change this to 'make a profit but a lot less than pre-covid and have been in a managed decline for 20 years.

 

[jfollows]

Yes if Next go under 50% of uk retail would go

Yes it will be interesting how this develops; my 2c though - I'd be suprised if whs license the name for the high street stores for much more than the transition period as they would find it difficult to control the quality of them and are more likely to tarnish the brand looking more dowdy than the travel division shops (also be interesting if whs keep any of the high street stores and fold them into the travel division? Maybe at some touristy spots?) AFAIK high street stores make a decent profit but growth is flat and stores have had very little investment.

£30m annual profit compared with double that prior to Covid, in round figures, according to https://www.theguardian.com/busines...y-catches-up-with-wh-smith-on-the-high-street

Nils Pratley on finance
WH Smith
Gravity finally catches up with WH Smith on the high street

Despite the retailer being a recent example of pragmatic management, the pandemic may have sealed its fate
WH Smith sale plan could turn some areas into ‘postal deserts’, says union
Mon 27 Jan 2025 18.56 GMT

In its small way, WH Smith is one of the most remarkable retailing stories of the past 20 years. In the early 2000s, a likely fate for a business built on books, stationery, newspapers, CDs and DVDs looked to be “death by Amazon”. What transpired was a textbook display of pragmatic management.

Under Kate Swann, chief executive from 2003 to 2013, WH Smith simply ensured that, however rapidly its sales fell on the high street, it always cut costs harder and replaced declining DVDs and so forth with higher-margin products such as greeting cards. Even as annual revenues dwindled from £1.1bn in 2005 to £600m in 2017, profits on the high street increased – never mind the occasional table-topping appearance in “worst retailer” polls.

Meanwhile, the group as a whole transformed itself by channelling its investment into its “travel” division, meaning shops with semi-captive customers in airports and railway stations at home and abroad; those now number 1,200 across 32 countries.

There is, though, a limit to how long it is possible to defy gravity on the high street. It looks as if WH Smith’s moment coincided with Covid. After the pandemic, high street profits came back at half the old level of £60m-ish. These days, the shiny-looking “travel” stores make 75% of the revenues and 85% of the group profits. The City now views the scruffy 500-strong high street operation as a drag rather than a miracle in retailing on a shoestring.

A disposal, which the company says it is exploring, “would remove a reason not to buy the shares”, commented RBC Capital Markets. Quite. The current share price of £11.47 is a long way from the pre-pandemic peak of £26, despite the travel side chalking up lots of expansion in airports in the US. The motivation for a sale is easy to understand. The stock market prefers simple stories.

Would anyone want to buy an under-invested operation that has already been through the cost-cutting wringer? Well, yes, if the price is right – and, note, RBC’s sum-of-the-parts model values the high street unit at only £109m.

The more interesting question is what a future owner would do. A semi-cheerful strategy would involve another couple of decades of keeping the plates spinning – Post Offices are already in 200 branches, for example. The key to doing so would be to strong-arm landlords into offering cheaper rents. The average length of a lease is less than two years, a testament to how much financial flexibility has already been injected.

The less uplifting vision is one of accelerated decline. WH Smith has been shutting shops at a rate of a dozen or so a year. An even harder-headed owner might be more ruthless.

The board is under no obligation to sell for anything other than the best price, of course, but one hopes this sale attracts more than the usual crew of firms who specialise in managed executions. When you have 500 stores, you’re sometimes among the last few national retailers on a high street. For the sake of those towns, it would be good if there’s someone out there with fresh ideas for reinvention.

 

[Backroom_boy]

£30m annual profit compared with double that prior to Covid, in round figures, according to https://www.theguardian.com/busines...y-catches-up-with-wh-smith-on-the-high-street

Yeah I'll delete 'decent'

 

[SuspectUsual]

my 2c though - I'd be suprised if whs license the name for the high street stores for much more than the transition period as they would find it difficult to control the quality of them and are more likely to tarnish the brand looking more dowdy than the travel division shops

WHS have been doing a great job of doing this for several years now all by themselves

 

[Harpo]

AFAIK high street stores make a decent profit but growth is flat and stores have had very little investment.

The only change I’ve noticed is branches where magazines have been moved to the back of the shop, forcing a walk through the corridor of sh**e.

They also seem to have inserted ‘bleeding miserable’ into the person spec for their shop staff.

 

[trebor79]

Yes if Next go under 50% of uk retail would go

Yes it will be interesting how this develops; my 2c though - I'd be suprised if whs license the name for the high street stores for much more than the transition period as they would find it difficult to control the quality of them and are more likely to tarnish the brand looking more dowdy than the travel division shops

the high street shops are in appalling condition already. Easily the shabbiest chain shop in town.
Flew out os Stansted today. Simply refused to pay £2.99 for a bottle of water at Smiths, ridiculous.

 

[GoneSouth]

The only change I’ve noticed is branches where magazines have been moved to the back of the shop, forcing a walk through the corridor of sh**e.

They also seem to have inserted ‘bleeding miserable’ into the person spec for their shop staff.

Fully agree here. And the constant upselling of overpriced rubbish I don’t need or want. If I wanted it I’d have bought it without you telling me to. Although, this obviously only happens if you can find the aloof member of staff to serve you, otherwise it’s the self checkout BS that uk retail is now forcing on everyone.

 

[Peter Sarf]

£30m annual profit compared with double that prior to Covid, in round figures, according to https://www.theguardian.com/busines...y-catches-up-with-wh-smith-on-the-high-street

That piece you quote neatly sums it up nicely.

I would add that WH Smith getting post offices into 200 odd of their 500 high street branches has probably made them more attractive to a buyer. Or even indispensable to someone interested in the er - post office.

 

[dorsetdesiro]

The owners of HMV and Hobbycraft are reported to be looking at acquiring WHS' High St stores.

Whether this will be bought as a whole, then to break up and sell on unwanted branches to other retailers. Some could become HMV, Poundland and Ryman, etc.

Or the stores could be run the same as WHS but under a new name, but I can't see this working out as "Office Outlet" did not last post-Staples.

The "flagship" locations in major towns & cities, shopping centres & retail parks will quickly get snapped up by likes of Zara etc.

As for the others, they will probably become charity shops, Greggs, Card Factory, Savers drugstores, Premier convenience stores if in low income areas whilst in affluent areas then probably White Stuff, M&S Food, Cornish Bakery etc.

 

[jon0844]

Fully agree here. And the constant upselling of overpriced rubbish I don’t need or want. If I wanted it I’d have bought it without you telling me to. Although, this obviously only happens if you can find the aloof member of staff to serve you, otherwise it’s the self checkout BS that uk retail is now forcing on everyone.

I wonder how much stock they lose from shoplifting compared to actual customer sales?

Given my branch can sometimes have zero staff on the floor, presumably in a back office monitoring on CCTV (coming out if you press the 'call for aid' button) and I've not seen security guards either, shoplifting must be ridiculously easy and tempting.

Or maybe the shop is so uninviting that they can't even get shoplifters wanting to go in.

 

[skyhigh]

The "flagship" locations in major towns & cities, shopping centres & retail parks will quickly get snapped up by likes of Zara etc.

Not sure I see that. The branches round here are not in particularly prime locations, most would be too small for a clothing brand and there's already plenty of vacant units nearby, so if Zara etc wanted a store in that town, they could already have one.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Next acquired Fat Face clothing early 2024 - announcement was made October 2023:

Redirect Notice

Fat Face's clothing had been sold through John Lewis stores since 2012; and through Next's stores and web since 2016.

With Next's acquisition of Fat Face's entity, I expect a phased reduction of the existing Fat Face stores, FF central teams & FF warehouse / distribution. I'm aware that some of those FF functions have already gone.