Toys R Us UK goes into administration
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43225248
Maplin, the electronics retailer, may be also going the same way too.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43219651
(edited to include Maplin in the subject header, who have now also gone into administration)
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 28 Feb 18 at 13:05
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>> Maplin, the electronics retailer, may be also going the same way too.
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>> www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43219651
It just has.
Both TrU and Maplin have been ailing for a fair while, neither is a suprise. Both done in by the internet, both made a poor fist of utilising it.
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Never been into TrU, but do go into Maplins occasionally and I've always wondered what it was actually for. Yes, it has all sorts of useful electronic-type thingummies, but how does it justify the rent (and rates) just off Oxford St?
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Maplin is a hobby shop, would have been fantastic for anyone making electronics as they seemed to have loads of fairly obscure components in stock. I never understood how it competed on price with "online" esp China, though they generally had pretty knowledgeable staff compared to many shops. I browsed there often, rarely bought there.
I recall Toy's 'R Us coming to Reading, may have been one of the first UK shops. We went there a couple of times as I don't think there was another toy shop of such scale at the time (except maybe Hamleys). But the novelty wore off and I understand that they too have become somewhat expensive, and there are other retailers selling the same stuff cheaper (Argos for one), though that info is not up to date.
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>> but how does it justify the rent (and rates) just off Oxford St?
There's a big one right on the corner of the Strand and Lancaster Place in London which I walk past when I go into our London office. It's often struck me that the cost of trading from those premises must be astronomical. The couple of times I've called in for a wander round, the staff have outnumbered the customers.
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Not unusual for chains to have a "flagship" on Oxford Street even when it makes little sense.
As well as Strand, Maplins already has a shop on Tottenham Court Rd IIRC, the traditional area for electronics. Can't imagine what they got out of the other nearby ones, which also include Gt Portland St.
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>> >> Maplin, the electronics retailer, may be also going the same way too.
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>> It just has.
So I see.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43223175
I admit to not using them very much, other than for window shopping. That's probably the case for a lot of other people too, hence their demise.
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Reasons
1. Amazon
2. Councils making harder to park in town centres
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4 Reasons for Maplins going under
1) Amazon
2) Amazon
3) Amazon
4) Maplin Management thinking they could charge Premium Prices for tat or for goods at 1/2 the price delivered to the door.
2 retailers failing on 1 day at the end of February - How many more in 2018? 10-120% of the High Street? or more?
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>> Reasons
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>> 1. Amazon
>> 2. Councils making harder to park in town centres
>>
You can also add short sighted customers who haven't realised that the supply of windows to go shopping in and places to physically look at such products is getting smaller.
We buy loads from Amazon and the like but it does not work as a supplier of 100% of any market type, some things you want to touch and feel (careful BBD) before you buy.
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The Amazon phenomena is nothing new. Father in law and his brother ran two greengrocers shops which had been a family business for well over 100 years. Supermarkets pretty much did for them in the 1980s. Round here, other than "farm shops" (which mostly buy in produce to sell rather than grow their own), proper greengrocers and butchers are pretty thin on the ground, though are making a small comeback in places.
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some things you want to touch and feel before you buy.
Only thing that I wouldn't buy online are clothes* I do like to try them on and have a look first. Everything else I'd quite happily buy online and do.
*and food but i don't really think of it 'retail'
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>> 2. Councils making harder to park in town centres
Toys are Us is pretty much 100% out of centre on retail parks with extensive parking. Maplin mostly too although it also has high st shops including premium London locations such as High Holbornm
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Toys are Us is pretty much 100% out of centre on retail parks with extensive
>> parking.
Nearest one to us (Lincoln) is pay parking.
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>> Nearest one to us (Lincoln) is pay parking.
There's always one :-)
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Agree re Maplins and their prices - scarily high for basic things like HDMI cables and adaptors, extension cables etc.
I am obviously in retail and when you sit down and add things uo for some of the big chains its very easy to see where they fail. For a pretty standard shop in Glasgow you can be talking about 10k in costs per week before you have kicked a ball.
Was it House of Fraser that recently went to their landlords and basically said we need to renegotiate or we're out?
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Oh and don't underestimate the effect of the discounters - Poundlands etc who sell such a large variety of items. Though some of these chains are now in trouble as well!
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>> Agree re Maplins and their prices - scarily high for basic things like HDMI cables
>> and adaptors, extension cables etc.
I found myself in need of an HDMI to mini HDMI converter on a Sunday last year. Readily available online from Amazon and the like for around £2.50 delivered, I drove to Maplin expecting, and prepared to pay a reasonable uplift due to store overheads and convenience. £7-£8 perhaps. But no, that £2.50 item was £16.99!
I did without and had Amazon deliver one nexr day.
It's a shame for the staff though.
Last edited by: DP on Wed 28 Feb 18 at 16:51
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>> Was it House of Fraser that recently went to their landlords and basically said we
>> need to renegotiate or we're out?
Yes
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42581940
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The one near us has paid parking. It's just on the outskirts of the town centre so no doubt aimed at stopping you parking for free and walking into town. But there's no refund for parking if you purchase in any of the shops. I think minimum payment for parking is £1.
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Parking charges is not a factor in TrU failure. Its fell over due to basic errors in retailing. Kids dont want to go there, it has no draw, no USP, nothing to excite or draw the punters in. Every retailing rule lapsed at TrU - As a brand its bombed.
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I am surprised it survived as long as it has. I went into one maybe 2-3 times. It had the excitement of an Ikea warehouse. They had no USP as you say.
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And the most miserable, killjoy staff ever.
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I only ever went into the one store a couple of times. Really depressing really for kids... no fun whatsoever. No different from a Staples.
And to buy toys, it's not like you'd go there to look and buy on Amazon... you'd just buy on Amazon.
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It was a modern day Tandy !
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Tandy/Radio Shack... that's a blast from the past I'd forgotten about.
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"Kids dont want to go there, it has no draw, no USP, nothing to excite or draw the punters in."
Absolutely. Walk in Hamleys and you meet greeters, staff who act and dress like the characters in Rainbow, people who interact with their product - blowing bubbles, frisbees, helicopters, balls, drawing games. Kids love it. I don't, I want to punch them in the face but I don't want to go in TrU any more than I would go in the bank.
And Stockport - you pay to park. So again, I don't.
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>> Kids dont want to go there,
Err... I think kids did want to go there. It is the parents who avoided the place because same toys were cheaper elsewhere.
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>>I think kids did want to go there
Not my experience.
Mine enjoyed it in the US, the one in San Fran was always a good experience. But in the UK, and we used to occasionally go to the one just outside Oxford and the one on the outskirts of Reading, was a miserable experience full of "don't touch", unhelpful grumpy assistants and queuing and mine preferred not.
Ask the kids if they wanted to go to Hamley's or the happy and pleasant little, though limited, Toy Shop in Bicester and it was a whole other level of enthusiasm.
Toys R Us have gone out of business partly because of market issues and channel competition, and partly because they lost sight of their customers and were s*** at their business.
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"happy and pleasant"
Well, that's what a shopping experience should be for kids and TrU is bereft of any of that. Even MacDonalds seem to have totally nailed that. They opened one not far from us a couple of years ago, by the river and cycle paths. There are two rows of 'computers' that they can play on while we queue and pay. There's a big, round table that projects games that you interact with, a separate cafe for ice cream, coffee and apple pie. An area for toddlers to tumble around and a climbing frame with tunnel slide outside. We often go there in Summer when we're cycling for a drink and ice cream (and a free balloon). It's not just burgers they're selling.
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Sorry to see Maplin go, but it's not surprising - I could spend time in there browsing but rarely spent much.
The sort of shop that would always have been included in a trawl for components, connectors, cables etc but now it's much easier to find online rather than make a 15 mile round trip with the possibility that it won't be on stock anyway.
Use 'em or lose 'em, but I couldn't have spent enough in there to make a difference had I wanted to.
Rent day coming round was probably the final straw. But once the credit insurance cover is withdrawn the game is usually over.
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The only thing I ever remember setting foot in a maplins is for a couple of rechargeable batteries. I don't remember ever going in one apart from that.
Sad for the staff though.
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Link to the Daily Mash, with some rudeness: bit.ly/1ekNC5i
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Prezzo looking decidedly shaky as well...
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And CarpetRight (who they?)
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>> And CarpetRight
Is the rug being pulled from under them?
;)
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I'm surprised WH Smith still have high street stores. They sell nothing you can't get more cheaply from any number of places and their core product - books - have shrunk in range by a large amount over the years.
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>> I'm surprised WH Smith still have high street stores. They sell nothing you can't get
>> more cheaply from any number of places and their core product - books - have
>> shrunk in range by a large amount over the years.
Their High St presence seems to have reduced over the years, certainly branches around where I used to work in London have closed. They are though profitable albeit based more and more on their presence on stations airports etc - many of which are franchised.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39575493
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>> >> I'm surprised WH Smith still have high street stores. They sell nothing you can't
>> get
>> >> more cheaply from any number of places and their core product - books -
>> have
>> >> shrunk in range by a large amount over the years.
Taking the post office franchise into the store has been a good move, getting footfall and the post office revenue cut.
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WH Smith definitely evokes a lot of childhood memories for me. When I was a kid in the 80s, the annual pilgrimage to "Smiths" at the end of August to buy stationary for the new school year was a tradition.
I remember WH Smith used to sell home computers in those days as well. Spectrums, Commodore 64s, Amstrad CPC464s etc.
Last edited by: DP on Thu 1 Mar 18 at 14:00
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>> I remember WH Smith used to sell home computers in those days as well. Spectrums,
>> Commodore 64s, Amstrad CPC464s etc.
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That's where I got my ZX81 and later the Spectrum. Boots also used to sell computers.
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Smiths was in bother a few years ago and close to the edge.
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Share price has collapsed today.
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You cannot protect an nonviable business because of fond memories.
It is exactly that which got WH Smith into trouble last time. And Triumph, and Norton, etc. etc.
Why these people (Toys R Us etc.) cannot simply learn that they need to retain a connection to their audience is beyond me. With no connection then you either a) go online only and save on premises and staffing costs or b) go bust.
And these idiots keep choosing b).
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6 reasons behind the High Street Crisis
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43240996
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Oh those articles annoy me.
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>> 6 reasons behind the High Street Crisis
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>> www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43240996
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Never heard of Byron, some sort of posh burger company?
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Some 2-3 years ago the stationary chain Staples had an outlet in Barnstaple, N. Devon. They held a closing down sale andI bought @ few reams of copier paper and some envelopes. I said to this man (who turned out to be the manager, that I’ve nothing to carry this stuff in and he tried to sell me a storage box. I suggested that he throw that in which he did.. I felt quite sorry for him because he clearly liked his work. He also informed me that the rent was 5k (per week)
HTF Do you cover that?
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>> >> 6 reasons behind the High Street Crisis
>> >>
>> >> www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43240996
>> >>
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>> Never heard of Byron, some sort of posh burger company?
Basically, yes. Posh burger, as in a chain that only sold posh burgers, was a very short lived fad
Unsurprisingly.
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I suspect that over the years, hundreds if not thousands of small high street businesses have folded due in no small part to being out-competed by the likes of Maplins and Toys-r-Us.
The fact that many of the small internet businesses which have now caused the demise of those two, and other chains, are probably run by the successors to those high street shopkeepers, is proof that karma exists.
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All Toys R Us stores in the UK are expected to close in the next six weeks following the chain's collapse into administration.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43401674
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 14 Mar 18 at 12:37
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>> All Toys R Us stores in the UK are expected to close in the next
>> six weeks following the chain's collapse into administration.
Local Maplin is having closing down sale too.
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And many of the items in the closing down sale at Maplin can still be bought from elsewhere for less money. No wonder they have failed.
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We were in Chester on Monday, shame to see Maplin closing. But can't remember the last time I went into one.
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Maplin, who went into administration last year have come back from the dead to relaunch online.
www.metro.news/retail-victims-maplin-and-warren-evans-return-online/1468995/
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 11 Mar 19 at 13:39
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Toys R Us R in administration - Zero
