There is much in the news about how the High Street will struggle to recover from the pandemic and that shopping will switch to online. That may or may not be true and much will depend on location. Oxford street for example will likely continue to flourish.
I have had two recent examples that suggest that neither model is beyond reproach and some high street experiences have nothing to do with the pandemic and more to do owners taking the public for granted.
I have long been less than enamoured with WH Smith but had a recent experience that surpassed all others in terms of how bad it was. Their branch in Lichfield is quite a large one. I went in their 3 weeks ago to get the latest edition of Record Collector magazine. As is usual with this store there was no-none on the counter and the gentleman in front of me had to use the only one of three electronic checkout tills that was working. It asked him to wait for assistance but there was no-one to be seen. He remarked to me that ‘he could just walk out with this stuff” I called out ‘hello, anyone here?’. This middle aged shop assistant from the back of the store replied that she was coming. She quickly resolved his issue and sorted him out and then went to serve me. I remarked that she was under pressure and that should be more than one person in the shop. She told me she was at her wits end and was visibly shaking and close to tears. If it wasnt for social distancing I would have hugged her. I left the shop angry with WH Smith that they can treat their staff so shabbily and no doubt for minimum wage.
Then I ordered a washer dryer from Curry’s. The delivery day came and the driver after not turning up said he had called at our house and there was no-one in. Not true as we were in all day. Itried to re-arrange online but you have to speak to a robot who only understands basic questions. I then managed to speak to a real human who it would appear only understood the same number of questions as the robot. I asked to speak to a manager and she said she would put me through. This next part is unbelievable but I swear is true: after waiting 5 minutes or more the assistant came back on the line and said the manager didn’t want to speak to me. I abruptly cancelled the order and went to AO who were superb. They got the same washer dryer delivered and fitted within 48 hours. There was a fault with it and within 2 days the had sent a repair man out ot fix it and credit the installation cost even though the fault was a blockage in the waste pipe caused by a button.
So it is clear whether online or high street retailers have a responsibility to deliver a product a consumer wants and to make the experience pleasurable. Curry’s and WH Smith didn’t do that. AO got it right in spade loads.
Smiths have been dreadful for years: I can’t fathom how they have yet to go under. Airport and other monopolies likely the cause. They sell an ever dwindling range of anything they are historically responsible for selling. If I didn’t go in to use the post office…… Ah, that’s how they keep going.
Agreed, the one in down town Hitchin is appalling, badly organised, cramped, tired looking and well over priced. I’m amazed it’s still there.
Having worked for them twice (IT consultancy role) I can tell you from experience that the head office staff (Swindon and London) are a dedicated and very decent bunch, the distribution team are the same, and the store staff are some of the most long-suffering and resilient folk on the high street. As with all retail, there are a fair few lazy spottys out there, but for the most part the stores have really good hard-working staff (who don’t get paid enough).
Their problem is the business model, simple as that. It’s no longer got enough legs. They have been crushed by online competition, they also over-stretched – to Olympian levels – their reliance upon physical footfall years back when they pissed away a huge chunk of capital buying up a DIY chain to compete with Bodge-it and Quit, and for far too long they have relied upon the ‘Travel’ stores as their cash-cow. They got a new CEO at one point who promptly decided to go back to their basics (i.e. everything you saw in WH Smiths in the sixties and seventies), just as everyone was discovering that they could slump on their sofa, logo on and get their pens and pencils from Jeff and even get them delivered to the door.
Hence the high street stores have for years been full of Chinese tat in ever-growing piles – especially at Christmas, and for the core stuff – stationery etc. – customers largely go online or to Staples/OfficeWorld – or whatever they are called these days, out in the ‘Retail Parks’ on a Sunday, ‘destination shopping’ before they stuff their faces with a Big Mac and Coke.
I don’t know what their future holds, but the real-estate they own is incredibly well placed and extremely valuable so they must be in the cross hairs of more vulture capitalists than most businesses. They haven’t been able to figure out how best to make their assets profitable, and in the online shopping future, it’s hard to see how they can.
If they own the estate then they will be able to survive in some form.
Surely Smiths has only kept going by swallowing up central post offices. It’s the only reason anyone would go in their dark, overpriced shops. There can’t be that many people wanting those Red and Black notebooks… Are they a front shop for the mafia? Is the staff room of WHS full of husky Italian guys playing poker?
PS. “The manager didn’t want to speak to me”. Classic. I’ll try that next time I’m at work and am asked to do something I don’t want to do. “I don’t want to do it – I expect that to be the end of this matter”. “It is – here’s your P45, knobhead”
I’m now imagining the manager of Curry’s as reclining languorously on a chaise-lounge, wearing a smoking jacket in the manner of someone in an Oscar Wilde comedy. “Oh really darling, these little people and their petty concerns, I shall simply die”
I heard he keeps a portrait of himself in the attic. It’s hidden behind some boxes of unsold Matsui C90s.
I`d previously informed that Curry`s manager that you were an uncivilised twat @SteveT, that`s the reason why he didn`t come to the phone.
Smiths are weird. I’ve thought for years they would the next big chain to collapse but it never happened. I read some time back, and I don’t know if it’s true, that they own most of their estate which saves on annual running costs (when I was a manager for Waterstone’s the rent in our shopping centre was roughly equal to the staffing bill). Now they only seem to sell stuff that not many people want at higher prices than everyone else with indifferent service which peaks at asking if you want to buy some chocolate.
Funny you mention Curry’s too. I’m getting a new cooker delivered in a couple of weeks, and it is most definitely not coming from Curry’s who eventually delivered my last one. Everything was fine until the delivery day, when the guys told me there was a problem with my electrics and I would have to get a sparks in and rearrange delivery. Another day off, the sparks I had paid for said their was nothing wrong with my electrics and left me a report to say as much.
After calling Curry’s to get another delivery slot, and taking another day off for it, I was told I would get a call the night before to confirm the slot. It won’t surprise you by now to hear that no call came and when I phoned the next morning I had great difficulty not shouting at the entirely innocent party in the end of the line who told me she had no record of the call. A final day off and it was eventually installed.
I kept the draft of my complaint letter on my desktop until I had calmed down enough to make it a targeted complaint rather than an unfocused rant. I gave it the file name ‘Curry’s are C*nts’.
What is it with companies delivering cookers that requires them to screw it up at least twice? I won’t go into detail but suffice to say I’m redrafting my old ‘Curry’s are C*nts’ letter in a new version called ‘Argos are Arseholes’.
Jesus @Gatz I had exactly the same problem with Currys. An electrical fault prevented their fitters from fitting an electric oven. Lo and behold an electrician friend came out – told me there was nothing wrong with the electrics and promptly fitted it.
That should have bee the time when I drew the line under ever buying anything else from them. It has been drawn now.
I don’t think I’ve been into a WHSmiths (except a Railway Station outlet) for many years.
I don’t think there’s anything in their product range to entice anyone in.
OK – maybe copies of just about every magazine available. But stationery is available for many places, often at better prices, Books are often over-priced, and who needs that much choice of Birthday cards.
And their CD and DVD selection falls somewhere between a small supermarket and a petrol station.
I have bought on-line, but only because I had a Gift Card, and I knew (because I checked) that what I was buying was 10% cheaper in Waterstones.
I like a bit of a mooch round the High Street but find the experience often anodyne and indentikit, and am often aware that shopping on-line will give a better deal.
But … although few and far between there are some great little independant shops in my town which I really want to continue to go to (record shop, beer shop, and bakery/pie shop being 3 main ones)
I frequent large newsagents as the music mags I buy are niche, but I don’t want to buy every issue. Back in the day (pauses to puff on pipe) there were some great independent newsagents near my work, but they’re nearly all gone, as is that job. All I have in the days of Covid are two WHSmiths. Both outlets are dark, scruffy and understaffed. The staff there are are usually to be heard loudly bitching about management, though tbf they’re helpful enough to punters, even the nutters in Forest Hill. I feel for them, their powers that be don’t give a crap about staff or customer, but right now, thanks to their Post Offices, they’re the only show in town, gaffer taped carpet and all.
Give it 5 years, and we’ll be compiling our own version of
http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/19th-october-1985/9/sod-the-public-a-consumers-guide
I visited BHS for some reason (last resort probably) once and inside it was weird, like something out of Twin Peaks: dark, empty, aisles strangely closed. Frankly it freaked me out. Just like all these descriptions of Smiths.
BHS went tits up within a year of that visit
I think we’re living through a Twilight of the Department Stores (or Shopperdammerung, if you’re reading this on a Mac) at the moment. In Singapore, we’ve just lost Robinsons which had been around over 100 years, while over in Edinburgh, Jenners, which has been around for almost 200 years, seems to be closing as well. I think other cities are also losing their iconic stores too.
As usual with these things, there are lots of people on social media saying how sad this all is and how much they used to love visiting these stores in the past even thought they hadn’t been in them for ages.
Currys were shit 30 years ago when I bought my first new washing machine. Have sort of avoided them since then (although I have bought a couple of things during lockdown).
I find that retail that has good service in store generally has good online service. Most online stores are very good at online service. Basically, Amazon set the standard and others try to match.
One thing I do think works well is the Sainsburys/Argos tie up. Going into Argos used to be soul destroyingly grim – from where they were located in town centres and having to work out how to pay 50p to park. Now I order, drive to the local Sainsburys, park outside for free, pick up the item and grab a few groceries.
High street retail is largely doomed. You have to be great to survive. They’re aren’t that many that even get to good.
I’ve got a dirty lens where Amazon are concerned but generally they are good. I like the locker pick up but still get annoyed by wildly varying delivery dates, depending on where it comes from. They definitely aren’t the cheapest these days either. I agree that the high street is pretty much finished though. We’ve become used to being able to buy more or less what we want and get it within a day or two, rather than a fruitless trawl around different shops, ending with having to make do with something that isn’t quite right.
My view on Amazon may be improved by the fact I think Prime is great value. It means most things get delivered next day (and I get to watch some decent TV). I have learned to be careful on checking where things are sent from (but still get it wrong occasionally) .
The thing I like about online is that I can research products, read some independent reviews and find a good price from a good supplier. This is so much better than driving 15 mins to a shop, paying to park only to find the thing you want isn’t in stock.
Amazon Prime is excellent value for money.
I know I might sound like the Not The Nine O’Clock News sketch where I would truly sell my house for the BBC but it is good value if you get lots of stuff delivered weekly and watch TV like my family does.
In the used to be world existence, I did question (tight git that I am) the 80 quid a year for Prime.
But over these last 12 months it has been an insensible thing. Last minute Christmas pressies, bottles of whisky, extension leads, a small number (or at least that’s what I tell Mrs D) of CDs, on demand TV and films. Just need to stock false teeth and its a total winner. Massive help to sanity and for 80 quid a year … bargain.
Not sure I’d sell my house for it, but I might sell a time-share in one or two of my dogs
I had my jab in the bizarre setting of an empty unit in a shopping centre in Cambridge. Naturally, all the shops – bar Boots – were closed but it was dispiriting wandering through the building to see so many retailers that would never reopen including a Debenhams still full of stuff.
Likewise, was in Bedford before the latest lockdown where three major stores – M&S, Debenhams and a Beales department store – had all closed in the preceding few months – leaving massive holes in the High Street that it’s hard to see will ever be filled.
Sad thing is that independents then suffer the knock-on effect as people simply don’t bother “going to town” anymore.
As for WH Smith – can’t recall the last time I went into a store – but have bought some bits from their website which has an oddly eclectic selection of vinyl at the lower end of the price range. Not much there at the moment – Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” for £5.99? – but in the unlikely event you can find £30’s worth you get a fiver off and free shipping.
https://www.whsmith.co.uk/music-film-and-television/music-cds-and-vinyl-records/mft00001/vinyl/
You’ll all be sad when WH Smiths goes away, replaced by a betting shop or phone shop or something. High St must be saved.
I won’t be sad for WH Smith disappearing. Sad for the staff definitely. But WH Smith is a terrible retail experience and they seem incapable of doing anything other than milking the travel monopoly they enjoy.
If you don’t like them you don’t have to go in. If there is an alternative use them. But you know they won’t be replaced by anything useful, so let them survive for those who do still want to shop there. And every CD etc you have bought online in the last 20 years has been a nail in the coffin for such retailers. That’s why they are no longer good shopping experiences
The stores tend to be large enough that they’ll be replaced by nothing. No one has a clue what will happen to the Debenhams site in Chelmsford, and the BHS plot is still empty after years, though it was what looked like a fly-by-night furniture store for. A short time.
There was a proposal for BHS to become a bowling alley, an idea which I liked because it would have connected the Odeon to a square full of bars to create an entertainment zone, as well as potentially opening up a stretch of the river which is currently just a brick wall. That idea was kiboshed even before Covid happened.
Well, there won’t be an candle lit vigil from me if they finally sink. They’ve been shafting the public for years – shops in hospitals charging £7.99 for an 80p tube of toothpaste, still to this day demanding boarding passes at airports so they can get VAT back whilst charging full price,.
They are now hoovering up post offices which are horribly under staffed and provide dismal service, but benefit from having a range of customers who have no alternative available. Another victory for the privatisation of state services. They’ve been highly active buyers of other businesses – Our Price, Waterstones, Menzies, Do It All, Past Times, Model Zone – and pretty much driven them all into the ground.
What hurt their business more than anything else was the expansion of supermarkets into areas that had previously been high margin for them. That and the end of the net book agreement. Given how the supermarkets have decimated things like pharmacy services, I’m amazed they didn’t get the post offices too.
Supermarkets have not decimated pharmacy services in any way whatsoever.
I am a pharmacist and worked in a supermarket pharmacy as manager for three years a few years ago.
They are a relatively small part of the total market. Sainsburys sold their in- store pharmacies to Lloyds a few years ago. If anything they are divesting as the margins reduce due to decreasing margins and a five year deal with the NHS that gives no annual increase in funding and in real terms a net 9% decrease in income up until 2024.
Anything Matt Hancock says about valuing community pharmacy is total bollocks.
Everything Matt Hancock says…is bollocks.
@Uncle_Wheaty – I was working for Nottingham’s finest when the supermarkets moved in, and to be fair, I may have been over stating the “decimated” bit, but I recall seeing a presentation from some highly expensive consulting group that said the supermarkets had grabbed 20% of the market in pretty short order. That was a take away from the business that both the pharmacy chains previously had, as well as the independents. It was also suggested that with pharmacy numbers controlled by local authorities (I can’t recall exactly who by) their view was the grocers were much more likely to approvals for new pharmacies.
Maybe that wasn’t how it played out over time – as you say Lloyd’s getting the Sainsbury business would have reversed some of this, but there was plenty of concern at Boots, and they lost a fair few pharmacists too.
Have you, like, actually been in a WH Smith’s recently, Dai? Because I can’t imagine anyone who has would give a tuppenny shit about them going to the wall. They’re not the shop they were in the 80s and 90s and haven’t been in a long time.
The closest thing to former Smiths on the high street is a cross between Waterstones and Ryman’s, if Waterstones or Ryman’s sold mags and chocolate. It’s not that. It’s a scruffy, often dirty hodgepodge of confused crap, like a badly-run corner shop, and as others have said, it scalps travellers something scandalous and in so doing stays somehow afloat. Fuck em. I’d rather have a phone shop.
I don’t live in the UK any more, but I went in the one in Bristol Broadmead about 2 years ago. I needed 3 things, a magazine, some greetings cards and a few stamps. they had all of these things and I got them within about 2 minutes. John Menzies and Woolworths appeared to not be open …
The hatred expressed here is bewildering, also on a previous thread about them. Just don’t go there if you don’t like them, no need to wish complete failure on them with thousands of lost jobs.
And I guess otherwise I do use airport locations. Prices may be high for some things, but that is the case for anything in an airport. And the things I might buy from there for a flight, a magazine or a book have fixed prices.
Oh come on. “Hatred”? I don’t think anyone’s wished failure on them, and I certainly didn’t. I just wouldn’t be sad if they folded. Businesses fold every day, badly-run ones all the more so. The bewildering part to me is expecting anyone other than those directly involved to feel anything other than “so what, not surprised, it was a rubbish business” about WH Smith, of all things, closing down.
Badly-run businesses deserve to go out of business. I’m sure it’s not easy if you work for one, but that’s life. We’ve all been through it. It’s weird that anyone would get sentimental about a high street brand, especially one that’s been shite for 2+ decades.
I miss Woolworths ….
Fortunately we have something fairly similar in Canada called Giant Tiger selling clothes, toys, limited food selections, household items, DVDs etc. they seem to thrive.
If you’re an expat, is it possible your feelings about Smiths and Woolworths (I assume you mean the UK purveyor of tat, cheap toasters and pick-n-mix rather than the US version) is related to nostalgia rather than actually valuing the business? I can’t imagine anyone who lives here has given Woolies a second thought in years, but maybe I’m unusually unsentimental about these things.
(I do get sad if a local or independent business I support and like goes to the wall, well-run or not. But the high street behemoths? Nah. Totally indifferent.)
Of course I miss Woolies, large parts of my record collection were bought there (most at excellent prices) Pick n Mix was great, and I had family who worked there.
Can’t seem to edit.
And it was one of the main reasons to get people into my home town centre, the other being Tescos. That store moved out of town and was replaced by a Wetherspoons (which caused many other town centre pubs to close), Can’t remember what Woolies was replaced with, but it isn’t anything you would go into the town centre for, which apart from market day (Friday) is these days a ghost town.
We didn’t have a WH Smiths, just about 5 newsagents, I think 1 remains.
Nothing bewildering about disliking (not hating) a business that screws people over every chance it gets. I can mostly avoid them but some can’t (they have a monopoly over some post office services, and close to monopoly in some hospitals) so the “just don’t use them” line is little help to them.
I think you’re probably right Dai. My preference would be that they get their act together. Ours is right down the road from Wilco who have a big stationery section and clean up, but Smiths still have similar stuff at 50% more.
We tried Currys online for a new Tumble dryer last year . Good online price and convenient delivery date and time promised. Then came my Moscow appointment and we had to cancel as we won’t need it for a few years. Nowhere could we do this, the Customer Service phone line put us on hold for literally hours , with a premium service cost of £39 to my mobile bill. Never got to speak to anyone at all. The we visited a store to see if they could help with the cancellation, not a chance, ‘nothing to do with us at all’ . In the end though, a quick DM on Twitter to their Twitter ‘helpline’ got an instant response, and a promise to get it sorted. Which they did within an hour and refunded within 2 days. Since then Twitter has been the only place to get things done, I’ve also been able to get (fully justified) speedy refunds from Airlines and Hotels that were taking forever.
My Moscow Appointment – TMFTL
Soon to be a major motion picture…
Ted’s Red Square Affair.
In the late-90s, when we moved to the mid-sized Sussex market town where I still live, there was a pleasing mix of national. regional and local shops, spread around an attractive town centre with lots of space, light and trees. Sadly the local independent department store quickly fell and eventually became a Waterstones – not a bad swap, to be fair. Over the years the proportion of local, independent shops has fluctuated but tended to decline, but has always even a varied and interesting shopping experience.
Throughout, there was always a close contest for the coveted “Worst Shopping Experience” award. Most years the main protagonists were WHS and The Post Office. Then the Post Office closed down three sub-post offices – including one 200 yards from my door. The inevitable consequence was that the main Post Office became much busier and their dominance of the WSE became total, despite WHS’s best efforts to betray their heritage and become purveyors of over-priced, unwanted tat.
So, imagine my delight when the Post Office announced it was closing and moving into WHS!
Thankfully, simultaneously, my local Londis succeeded in acquiring a sub-post office franchise. These happy, helpful, friendly people provide an excellent service – with plenty of parking at the door – and have been innovative in all kinds of ways. Neither WHS nor the Post Office see much of me these days.
I’m sure I am not alone in remembering the theory of mushroom management – “leave people on the dark and shovel s**t over them on a regular basis”. I never expected that to catch on as a customer service model!
Bye bye Thorntons
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/15/thorntons-to-close-all-its-uk-high-street-stores-putting-600-jobs-at-risk
Being closed in the run up to Easter was the final straw. 365 shops just ten years ago.
To my very limited knowledge of commercial practice, they really messed up on their business model by expanding to hawk their goods in supermarkets. Thornton’s was originally regarded as a relatively upmarket specialist confectioner, and a visit to their stores was the only way you could buy their unique-at-the-time top quality products such as Special Toffee or Continental Chocolates. It was a rare treat to shop and/or receive such delights as presents. The perception of them changed to be ‘nothing special’ when they arrived in the supermarkets, and Hotel Chocolat has up to now filled their former niche (although I think they are in danger of having the same trajectory as they become more ubiquitous on the High Street). People are more aware of premium quality now, and are more willing to research and purchase specialist goods online.
I received a pack of expensive individually-wrapped choc squares (about the size of After Eights) for my birthday. I haven’t dared tell Mrs F that I prefer the Tesco own-brand 85% stuff, which is about 50p a bar.
Aldi own brand chocolate is brilliant.
But not enough punters with the money to spare were visiting Thornton’s shops to make it viable under the old model, with ever-increasing rents and tighter customer belts. The choice between having to close shops to stay exclusive or going wider and damaging the brand.
I suspect Hotel Chocolat may find themselves in a similar cleft stick.
Punters with tighter belts have been visiting Thornton’s too often, you might think…
Green and Black’s went to great lengths in order to certify all their organic suppliers before selling to Cadbury’s but didn’t foresee Kraft buying Cadbury’s. Kraft immediately changed the ingredients making it the overpriced waxy stuff it is today.
A lot of these changes were going to happen, but Covid has accelerated the process. Shops are going to be good for the experience, bespoke and distress purposes. A big cultural change.
If cities are mainly shops and offices, what are they when there are no shops?
And vastly fewer offices due to greatly increased wfh (the ones still left after the introduction of presumption of permission to Change of Use planning applications) whose workers would shop because they were already in town.
To be honest if W H Smith reverted to the store it was in the 90’s I would be well happy but it wont.
Not everything in the High Street is shite – Waterstones are very good and Primark is not a shop I would frequent but is a rip roaring success and doesnt sell anything online. The high street will remain but those who want to succeed will have to innovate and meet customers needs. I think there will also need to be ‘shopping experience’ and an online tax to level the playing field.
And then people move out of town, train stations close, pubs close, restaurants close etc. Apartment buildings become vacant or white elephants ….
Squatters?
What is the law on that now?
1970 here we come…
I would imagine there would be enough people in the 20-30s to go there again given the current property market.
Trespass is now a criminal offence rather than a civil one, which it was back at the height of the squatting boom. Thank you Maggie.
If you’re talking about that bloody NWOBHM song that always appears on here, I’m not sorry.
We’re doing well here, we’ve had Vardis and Silverwing mentioned in a thread about Glam, and now we’ve got Trespass mentioned in a thread about retail. I think our next mission should be to get Rock Goddess or Split Beaver mentioned in a thread about Brexit.
@hawkfall
Whither Tygers of Pan Tang?
@dai just to be clear I am with you on that – I dont want to see the decline of shopping centres in actual fact I want the reverse. However I think W H Smiiths and their like if they are to survive need to modernise. I am sure there are retail gurus out there who could assist them if they had the enthusiasm to rebrand.
I get that. I would want to see WH Smiths on most UK high streets, if they need to change to do that then they should. Some of the comments here seem to suggest that Smiths stole their girlfriends and then stamped on their spectacles. Very strange.
I struggle to be anything beyond ambivalent about them. Like a girl I knew from infant school but have no idea what she looks like now.
Whereas your posts suggest you are metaphorically sitting by the window gazing forlornly as she carries her suitcase to the waiting taxi
People are angry at poor service and choice, nothing strange about that.
Well then that means people must be angry about the majority of the sorry identikit establishments that are cluttering up the swathe of ‘malls’ our hedge funds and pension funds have poured our cash into building these last few decades.
Yeah, they probably are, hence the thread we’re reading now
Smiths can fuck off, simply because of its insistence that its poor staff offer you a bar of chocolate for a quid when you’re trying to buy a pencil. It’s dirty and dispiriting for both sides. “Hand job for a fiver, Sir?” “No I’m good thanks mate, just this pencil please.”
There is a future for the high street but it’ll be Greggs and Wetherspoons, both of which are widely sneered at but do a fantastic job. There will be showroom shops. Shopping is so ingrained in our culture – for a lot of people, it’s their main hobby – that we will still want to go in and touch stuff and try it on, we just won’t put it in a bag and carry it home, because that’s so 20th Century. Your purchase will be home before you are.
It’s not really chocolate though; it’s just cheap sugar and cheap fat with added brown.
When I was doing some work for them I asked a product manager exactly how they could offer big fat slabs of the vile stuff at a quid and still make a profit. He laughed and said, we could put it out at 25p and still make a profit. So they carry on selling the stuff; every little helps.
Added brown? Flaming heck, no wonder people are addicted!
“Shot of scag with that pencil, Sir?” Throw in a 50p can of Coke, call it the Smith’s Speedball
I so rarely need to actually go to a big town or city high street, main street or town centre that I actually can’t remember the last time I did. Admittedly this is partially due to the lockdowns of the last year but they really don’t have anything I want or need. The last time I went to a shopping street of any description at all was the Old Town in Hastings last October, which was very nice, mainly because none of the usual retailers seemed to be present. We didnt go anywhere near the main shopping area at all. But as nice as the Old Town area is, I can’t think you’d need to go there that much if you actually lived there. Maybe I’m just out of date. I didn’t buy anything but my wife did, from a vintage clothes shop, where I looked at some leather jackets but didn’t take the plunge as I needed to lose a few pounds at that time!
I can’t see how the run of the mill high street can survive in it’s current form. Living in the outer South-West London suburbs as I do, quite frankly I don’t think I’ll ever again feel the need to pay to park in order to access the same bland crap I can easily buy online, should I want to. If there was just some variety it might be a bit different…
Re: Smith’s… our local one has a ‘music section’ right by the Post Office, it consists of about 8 CDs… no, really, and that’s on a good day… the nearest record shop is one hour away… erm, wouldn’t they sell some if they stocked some?
Probably not.
Well, the answer’s actually ‘yes,’ but you were close!
Well they didn’t sell very well when they did used to stock a wide range of CDs. Which is why, during the ‘back to basics’ years, they stopped buying from the labels/distributors and signed up with some chart stocking conglomerate of clueless cloth eared capitalists. And it’s also why my CD shelves are awash with promo copies of CDs that came out at that time; the various label’s A&R blerks, too lazy (or stoned) to spot that they were wasting their time, kept sending them in droves to the WH Smith buyers at head office, from whom I acquired them at 20p a pop. Hundreds of ’em. Kept their desks clear if nothing else.
It’s time to redress that situation because now there are “no” record shops on most high streets, and so there is absolutely “no” competition.
Stick the latest Van Morrison CDs and the latest Beatles’ reissue right next to the queue for the Post Office and you will sell CDs.
Any evidence for this assertion? “ Amid all the talk of music streaming and the renaissance of vinyl, the continued plummeting of CD sales hasn’t been getting a lot of attention in recent years. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), CD album sales in the United States have dropped by 97 percent since peaking in 2000 and are currently at their lowest level since 1986, when Whitney Houston’s self-titled debut album topped the Billboard charts.
Having been hit by the rise of filesharing and MP3 players in the early 2000s, CD sales nearly halved between 2000 and 2007, which is when smartphones and the first music streaming services emerged to put the final nail in the compact disc’s little round coffin.
In 2020, 31.6 million CD albums were sold in the United States, accounting for less than 4 percent if music industry revenues.”
https://www.statista.com/chart/12950/cd-sales-in-the-us/
Why would a high street business want to stock a product almost nobody buys?
Correct. No one is buying records, no one under 45 at least. And why would they, really? This place is by definition a statistical anomaly.
Incorrect.
Evidence? Me.
Dylan Bootleg Series, Sgt. Pepper’s, White Album – all bought at the inconvenient Sainsbury’s on the edge of town.
If W.H. Smiths had stocked them, they’d have got the sales.
I don’t do this shite era, but selling stuff is what retail is about, yeah?
You are on this site and I’ll take a wild guess you won’t see fifty again.
QED
And what do you think the average age is of a person queueing up in a W.H. Smiths’ Post Office?
There’s your market.
You wouldn’t be selling to under 45s.
This isn’t difficult.
The demographic for Post Office Counters (in the back of W H Smiths) customers are not solely file-streaming types. Quite a lot of people sending packages to other people, from my observation. They are not very Online in their shopping habits or they’d just be ordering stuff from Amazon or Ebay and leaving it to them to send the stuff off.
People like that might stream a bit of music and have Netflix subscriptions, but they’ll buy CDs and DVDs on a whim or as gifts too.
… is the correct answer.
If it isn’t there, they can’t buy the product. Stick it on the shelf and see if they bite.
The intersection on a Venn diagram of “People in Post Offices” and “music buyers” is a tiny tiny, TINY slice of the popular music market. If you can’t see that there’s nothing more to say.