jabbawokkie
Grand Master
Ron said:
just when we are starting bathroom 8)
woolworths
- Thread starter jayjedi
- Start date
just when we are starting bathroom 8)
David Tree
Jedi Master
Ron said:
I do a lot of work within and as a suppiler to the retail sector so you get a lot of reverberations about what is happening before it's 'officially' announced. This is partly to minimise risks before deciding to do any work, or alerting to get paid if anything is left owing.
Everything is pretty much interlinked in some form or another and as suppliers rarely get anything back when something goes under, they are tighter on alerts more than unusal.
The alerts for these ones have come following difficulties in what should be their peak times of busniess. Land of Leather have admitted it's been their worst Christmas ever and applied to their landlords for monthly payment of rent - which is a big indicator of cash flow problems, when this should be their busiest time of year.
Clinton Cards have murmored that store closures and job cuts will be needed and their share price has dropped 80% since this time last year, despite, again, this being one of their key trading periods.
Word gets round pretty quick and does nothing to solve the problem as suppliers either call in debts or give shorter payment terms, which only make things harder. Getting paid for work done is like getting blood from a stone at best of times, but when you're delayed and delayed payments, alarm bells really start ringing.
There's only so many knocks you can take, Woolworth's accounted for about 20% of my design work, it's not cripplied the business, but one or two more like that would.
Dave.
jaymassive619
Sith Lord
burnsy said:
I agr
ee
David Tree
Jedi Master
David Tree said:
sadly enough, a few days later Land of Leather call in administrators
Here's a rather disturbing diary of collapses:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/29/high-street-retailers-administration
Bollux
Grand Master
Its a real shame for the people that lose their jobs and for their families it must be ****ing awful, but this type of thing happens in cycles, its no relief for the people being made redundant but strangely it will pick itself up sometime soon and we shall all be enjoying spending and shopping again!
Ron
Sith Lord
I hope land of leather are going to be selling off there stock cheap i need a new couch
Bollux
Grand Master
hardly mate, there is talk of us being made a "foundation school" where we are autonomous from the council!
its a lot easier to get rid of people that way!
thank **** our department does a good job (despite me working in it before any of you bastards say it).....others should be worried though! I mean how many kids choose to do Food tech or whatever its called now
its a lot easier to get rid of people that way!
thank **** our department does a good job (despite me working in it before any of you bastards say it).....others should be worried though! I mean how many kids choose to do Food tech or whatever its called now
Bollux
Grand Master
Ron said:
Zavvi's so called sale is absolute ****, someone told me that on friday they were starting a proper clearout, i went in to check out the xbox games and they had just lumped the prices up on them all to £50 and then were knocking off 20%....thats the same price that they were in the boxing day sales anyway!
I guess it depends on what's happening to the company. I assume Land of Leather and Zavi's administrators are still trying to keep the business going, hence the "sales" are less attractive than the Woolworth's one, where the company was clearly ****ed and beyond saving.
Bollux
Grand Master
I understand that mate, but surely it would be better to at least get some stock moving out of the shop rather than it just sitting there!
Other places are a lot cheaper than Zavvi and thats even when they are in sale.
Other places are a lot cheaper than Zavvi and thats even when they are in sale.
Bollux
Grand Master
If they need working capital, which they do, then they need to start shifting units out of the shops, and it wont happen if their prices are higher than other places, its simple logic! (which is why i understand it) :lol:
jayjedi
Sith Lord
true bollox but they are also trying to get the most profit out of the stock as possible. some peolpe are idiots, and if you tell them that something is cheap and that its a huge "SALE" they will buy regardless of the actual sale price. look at woolies, until the last day od sales when stock was reduced by 70, 80 and then 90 % there prices were about right on most products, even with 50% off. ok stuff like 360's and mobile phones were a good deal, but dvd'd and cd's and games at " half price" were no cheaper than in game and gamestation, but because of all the hype and flock mentallity people were buying things they could actually get cheaper elsewhere. i saw games ( fable 2) at £50 reduced by 50% so sold for £25, while in gamstation it was £19.99 anyway. i think alot of the retailers noticed this and have tried to follow suit.
retailers have been doing it for some time now, places like argos and woolies have been reducing prices more before christmas in an attempt to sell as much stock as possible and after christmas the same items have been more expensive, because they know we all like "sales shopping" and make the most of our stupidity. how many people on here got money or vouchers from a store, the shops know we need to spend them and just stick great big red advert " sale" boards in the windows; write an overpriced amount on a " sale tag", half it and watch us morons pile through the doors like a herd of bleating sheep, handing over our money and laugh their assess off at us .
retailers have been doing it for some time now, places like argos and woolies have been reducing prices more before christmas in an attempt to sell as much stock as possible and after christmas the same items have been more expensive, because they know we all like "sales shopping" and make the most of our stupidity. how many people on here got money or vouchers from a store, the shops know we need to spend them and just stick great big red advert " sale" boards in the windows; write an overpriced amount on a " sale tag", half it and watch us morons pile through the doors like a herd of bleating sheep, handing over our money and laugh their assess off at us .
Not sure of the exact "in's and out's" of it, but i know legally an item has to have been on sale at the higher price for a certain period of time before shops are allowed to advertise it is reduced by so much %.
Although god only knows how often these things are checked up on.
Although god only knows how often these things are checked up on.
jayjedi
Sith Lord
there was a star wars lego ship in argos, called the v 19 torrent. before christmas it was £19.99 now in the sale it is HALF PRICE.... at £24.99 :lol: :roll:
if you read a lot of the small print in the argos sale leaflets there are a lot of " previously on sale at the same price" which just makes a mockery of the whole sale thing for me .
if you read a lot of the small print in the argos sale leaflets there are a lot of " previously on sale at the same price" which just makes a mockery of the whole sale thing for me .
David Tree
Jedi Master
The law is you can have a sale on an item for the whole year, as long as for one day it is sold at the full reatil price. Which is what you see at a lot of furniture retailers.
In the case of Zavvi, it wasn't a case of just working capital, they were also stuffed for supply as Woolworths wholesale arm supplied them with goods. trying to set up new trading agreements at short notice from new suppliers usually means you end up paying way more for the same items you were previously able to buy for a lot less. This squeezes the available margin in an already competitive environment.
Partial blame for the amount of discounted goods also comes from the amount ordered, which at the time buyers were placing orders the climate was very different and over-ordered, which is great in the short term gain, but stuffs everything up down the line.
This has already happened to Star Wars toys, just over a year ago, everything was in abundance and the prices of goods to be picked up at wholesale was crazy, even for new items as there was a total over estimation of production for 2006 and 2007. Six months later, production was pretty much halted, no new product for over three months over the summer and when new product did come along, the wholeslae price went up beyond that of the retail price, forcing adjustment of product price by some 30 - 40% to pay for the earlier mistakes.
Knock on effect was that those buying were too used paying less for product, rejected the price hike as a rip off, even through the prices they had been buying at had remained static for some 5 years, which means the retailer struggles to get the money back for items, ends up discounting to clear and does not buy anymore of that product (which is where the UK retail is with Star Wars at this point in time).
ToyFair is at the end of the month and it will be interesting to see what product will be offered for the UK, and to see who will bother taking any of it. The availability of product for the UK this year will be a lot, lot less.
Apply this to the wider market and give it one, two years and the availabilty of the choice of goods we have will be very limited in comparison to now, and what is available will generally be at an inflated price to cover the cost of purchasing, discounting and loss of margin that is going on now.
Happy Days.
Dave.
In the case of Zavvi, it wasn't a case of just working capital, they were also stuffed for supply as Woolworths wholesale arm supplied them with goods. trying to set up new trading agreements at short notice from new suppliers usually means you end up paying way more for the same items you were previously able to buy for a lot less. This squeezes the available margin in an already competitive environment.
Partial blame for the amount of discounted goods also comes from the amount ordered, which at the time buyers were placing orders the climate was very different and over-ordered, which is great in the short term gain, but stuffs everything up down the line.
This has already happened to Star Wars toys, just over a year ago, everything was in abundance and the prices of goods to be picked up at wholesale was crazy, even for new items as there was a total over estimation of production for 2006 and 2007. Six months later, production was pretty much halted, no new product for over three months over the summer and when new product did come along, the wholeslae price went up beyond that of the retail price, forcing adjustment of product price by some 30 - 40% to pay for the earlier mistakes.
Knock on effect was that those buying were too used paying less for product, rejected the price hike as a rip off, even through the prices they had been buying at had remained static for some 5 years, which means the retailer struggles to get the money back for items, ends up discounting to clear and does not buy anymore of that product (which is where the UK retail is with Star Wars at this point in time).
ToyFair is at the end of the month and it will be interesting to see what product will be offered for the UK, and to see who will bother taking any of it. The availability of product for the UK this year will be a lot, lot less.
Apply this to the wider market and give it one, two years and the availabilty of the choice of goods we have will be very limited in comparison to now, and what is available will generally be at an inflated price to cover the cost of purchasing, discounting and loss of margin that is going on now.
Happy Days.
Dave.
