|
I thought you meant the Vauxhall dealership - if they're still going, that is.
|
Its a shame, I remember aspiring to so much of what they had in their shops and wishing for the day that I could own some of it. Mind you, that was from days when I had to save up to get a film developed.
Equally I remember that their staff knew dauntingly more than I did, whereas when I went in a little while ago they had become as hopeless and disinterested as most high street staff seem to be these days.
However, its difficult to see how consumer camera manufacturers survive, never mind a high street retail outlet.
|
|
They seemed overpriced recently - I went to look at buying a Canon SLR from them back in 2008 - not only wouldn't they let me have a proper look at it at it when I visited their Chester branch - Amazon and Jesspos were poles apart on price.
|
>>Its a shame
Yes it is. Though I haven't used it much since they stopped doing used stuff, probably for very good reasons. I used to think it probably made very little profit for them but maybe it got a few people in there.
|
I would imagine that like me,many people now just rely on their phone cameras rather than carrying individual cameras. Having said that, am at a wedding in a fortnight so will dust down the camera for that.
But this is another example of the whole internet and high st issue. I guess many customers would go into Jessops, see and playabout with a camera that they want and then go online to see if they can get it a couple of quid cheaper.
At this rate, there will be few shops left, few retail jobs, but a pile of storage units with warehouse guys and their picking lists!
|
Their smarter shops are combining their high street and on line presence. John Lewis now seems to prioritise on line purchases which you can collect the day after ordering from the store.
I have been told several times by staff at JL that an item is not in stock but that it is avaiable online. The online store receives priority over the highs street shop for "in demand' items. For a lot of goods the store is effectively a show case.
|
The last time I went to Jessops loaded with £300 cash to buy a Lumix G2 they were extremely put out when I said I didn't need:-
-The extended warranty
-An over priced memory card
-An over priced bag
They went off to get my camera, I stood there like a loony for ten minutes, so I just walked out.
Went to Currys, bought the same camera there with a lot less hassle. I have bought all the other kit from Amazon, the 200mm lenses, the filters etc.
The last thing I bought from Jessops was a £45 point and shoot Nikon thing for night outs.
The problem is the general public are now wise to the high street stores tricks, they know that £25 for an 8GB SD card is a rip off etc.
|
|
Pity, i got my first SLR from Jessops, used lenses in very good condition meant the whole package didn't break the bank.
|
>> Pity, i got my first SLR from Jessops, used lenses in very good condition meant
>> the whole package didn't break the bank.
yeah how many years ago was that? They haven't moved on from then. Independent single outlet specialist camera shops survive and proposer due to the knowledge and experience of staff/owner. Jessups had know nothings serving. NO real loss by their current standards.
|
|
Shops and retail chains that are failing have no real compelling reason to buy from them, if you have, find or develop that differentiator, you will still get customers.
|
Camera sales in general has fallen due to smartphones.
Very people now buy high end cameras and Jessops often could not compete on price.
|
Sad - I bought my Practica 35mm from their Leicester branch about 40 years ago when I was a student; I believe Jessops originated in Leicester. They were renowned for their knowledge and service and I saw this a few years ago when they showed me how to clean dust from the sensor of my D80 (I had bought it from them). Just lately, however, their prices were way out of kilter with everyone else.
I quite like to support smaller local traders but sometimes, their prices are seriously over the top. A couple of years ago, I bought a helmet from a local cycle dealer. I think it was around £40, a ridiculous price for a bit of foam polystyrene and plastic but, at least I got to find one that fitted and didn't look quite as ridiculous as the other offerings. Two years later when my daughter needed one, she found that mine was a good fit so we ordered an identical one on-line - it was £17. Fool me once - shame on you; fool me twice ......... well, that dealer won't get the opportunity.
|
|
Closure would be a terrible shame (I believe it hasn't quite happend yet). I have always been amazed at the staff's product knowledge and appreciated their endless patience with aging technophobes like myself. An excellent independent local photoshop closed down for the reason suggested for Jessops, time wasted on explanations to people who then bought elsewhere. In addition, I imagine the casual snappers who made up the bulk of Jessops' customers prefer to use their mobile phone facility. Maybe Jessops should have diversified into mobiles, sold alongside cameras.
|
|
The point was made, during various news reports last night, that very many snappers find their camera phone more than adequate, with the added benefit that you can take a picture and e mail it at once. I have visited some photographic exhibitions recently and they have had a category for "Mobile Phone Photographs" - the results are surprisingly good
|
>> Closure would be a terrible shame
We'll just have to wait and see what develops ;)
(I'll get me coat)
|
|
Could you enlarge on that?
|
These jokes will soon seem as archaic as the Victorian ones in Punch that go on forever and then leave you cold. Make the most of them while we can I reckon.
Like, oh I don't know, the husband who would leap out of bed every time there was a thunderstorm shouting "I'll buy the negatives", or the old chestnut "Someday my prints will come", and so forth.
It'll be meaningless to most in ten years. Perhaps they should be curated. Actually, that gives me an idea for a website...
|
>> Make the most of them while we can I reckon.
Stop being so negative.
|
No shades of grey with him, he's so black and white.
Jessops has been on the slide for a while. Shame they'll have to put the shutters up.
|
|
That will give them more exposure.
|
|
Which aperture do you use?
|
When I bought my digital SLR, most of the on-line places that advertised a good price but didn't actually have stock. The one that did, had a shop I could get to for free (with a bit of walking) gave me good service, and I probably spent more than I would have on-line but the same afternoon I was taking pictures with my new toy.
Not Jessops though, only thing I've ever bought from them was a tripod bag.
|
|
I blame internet porn: there aren't so many flashers about now.
Last edited by: Roger on Thu 10 Jan 13 at 14:23
|
>>
>> It'll be meaningless to most in ten years. Perhaps they should be curated. Actually, that
>> gives me an idea for a website...
>>
Out of interest I tried googling for archives or museums of old jokes, thinking that probably someone has already done that.
Surprisingly the first page of hits was entirely about archives and performances of old jewish jokes. They seem to take jokes more seriously :)
Certainly for lovers of really dry humour jewish jokes are often very funny, with a strong strand of self-mockery.
|
with a>> strong strand of self-mockery.
>>
The best, in fact, are those told by jews about jews
|
>> These jokes will soon seem as archaic as the Victorian ones in Punch that go
>> on forever and then leave you cold. Make the most of them while we can
>> I reckon.
We'll just filter out the crap, every one here is so polarised. It will be over in a flash.
|
>> Perhaps they should be curated.
What, hung in the air to dry or pickled or sumfink?
|
|
The writing began to appear on the wall when the shop windows were full of boxes illustratiing cameras, rather than real cameras
|
Shame... another buying option closes.
By chance my three main digicams since I sold the 35mm SLR have all come from Jessops. Mainly as I could go in and see how they felt in the shop but also I did drop on some ring and reserve bargains having looked at the website.
|
Years ago Jessops financed the publication of a book written by a friend of mine which was, at that time, the world's definitive work on Chinese cameras.
All seems quite incredible now.
|
I got given a gift card from work colleagues for my birthday and haven't had the chance to spend it. When I rang their head office and local store, both stated I can't use the card even though they've already had the benefit of the money.
Not sure what my legal rights are on that but it's damn annoying.
|
|
I think unless they announce a concession you are regarded as a creditor.
|
>> I think unless they announce a concession you are regarded as a creditor.
A long way down the pecking order, creditor.
|
>> I got given a gift card from work colleagues for my birthday and haven't had
>> the chance to spend it. When I rang their head office and local store, both
>> stated I can't use the card even though they've already had the benefit of the
>> money.
>> Not sure what my legal rights are on that but it's damn annoying.
They've had your money but as businesses don't seem to 'ring fence' these funds and the business is not solvent; you're effectively an unsecured creditor.
|
>> When I rang their head office and local store, both stated I can't use the card
Comet tried the same thing, but changed their decision a couple of days later.
|
>> >> When I rang their head office and local store, both stated I can't use
>> the card
>>
>> Comet tried the same thing, but changed their decision a couple of days later.
Then changed it back again.
|
|
If this happened to me, I would initially stand in the shop and rant loudly, followed up by throwing a brick through the window!
|
|
I can't understand why anyone uses vouchers when you can get the equivalent that are accepted anywhere, but first I have to convince SWMBO!
|
Fair enough Haywain, sort of understandable, but if I were the manager of that shop and had just lost my job I might take your brick and shove it where the sun don't shine !
:-)
Customers aren't the only victims of these things.
|
Appears that there will be no fire sale - just a swift closure.
All stores to close at the end of today
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20992125
|
Customers aren't the only victims of these things.
Had a call from one of their workers today - sole breadwinner in a home already buckling under financial pressures....
|
>>Had a call from one of their workers today - sole breadwinner in a home already buckling under financial pressures....
That is the human side of these things and it is incredibly sad.
I know as a country we are spending more than we take in but sometimes it is necessary to boost the economy which is when the extra expense is paid off.
Of course there is no guarantee of good times around the corner, but I cannot help thinking that the current lot need to talk up the economy so people feel better and start spending and investing!
|
>> Of course there is no guarantee of good times around the corner, but I cannot
>> help thinking that the current lot need to talk up the economy so people feel
>> better and start spending and investing!
>>
Would have made no difference to Jessops or Comet.
Both had outdated business models with the wrong overhead structures and lots of new slick competition.
Think over the next few months we will see a few more high street casualties - several surprise me that they are still in existence.
|
>> Both had outdated business models with the wrong overhead structures and lots of new slick
>> competition.
Jessups has been run by the banks more or less as a charity since 2009, and was a dying patient for three years before that. They declined to pump any more money in, supplier credit insurance was called in some time ago, and suppliers wouldn't supply.
Like Comet, and Woolworths its not been a healthy business for a number of years. More to come yet, HMV will be the next to fold.
|
>> Would have made no difference to Jessops or Comet.
>>
>> Both had outdated business models with the wrong overhead structures and lots of new slick
>> competition.
>>
>> Think over the next few months we will see a few more high street casualties
>> - several surprise me that they are still in existence.
>>
The High Street/Retail Park retail chain store business model is virtually dead in the water.
I went into Jessops at Lakeside at the beginning of December in the middle of the Xmas shopping season. I was looking for a flash gun and was also interested in a mono pod, they had three flash guns available for me to look at and/or immediately purchase; I wanted a black mono pod, they only had silver. If I wanted any other flash gun or the black mono pod then they would have to order them in for me, meaning another trip back to pick them up. Obviously they couldn't afford either financially or space wise to hold sufficient stock to make their retail model work to this customers' satisfaction, hence no sale. I actually commented to my wife when I met up with her later that I would be surprised if Jessops were still here at Easter....... Sadly I was proved right.
Some stores are going down the hybrid line of having a High Street presence alongside online and using their High Street stores as pick up points however I believe this model can only really work if online and shelf prices are the same which puts them at a distinct disadvantage against online only stores due to their higher overheads.
Currys/PC World have tried a slightly modified model of this but with online prices different to those in store to try and compete online but still offer pick up from local store. There is however a flaw in this model in that they try to compete with online only seller prices but still have their store overheads. As an example they had a really good online price for memory cards a little while back and as I was in need of a card fairly urgently it made sense to buy and collect. I bought and paid online and was then given a code to take to their local store whereupon the sales guy promptly went to the display shelf and gave me the item, I'd paid 30ish% less than the price displayed in store but they'd still absorbed all the overheads of it being in store. Death by a thousand cuts comes to mind.
I am currently sitting here waiting for delivery of a fridge/freezer, ordered online Thursday evening from an online retailer whilst sitting in my armchair being delivered and installed on Sunday afternoon at no charge and my old one being taken away for £9.99. When my wife went to Currys on Thursday afternoon she was quoted 2-4 weeks delivery with a delivery charge on top.Total cost to me for having the item delivered and installed on a day of my choosing and being kept informed at every stage along the way, the delivery guy has just called to say he'll be here about 4 o'clock, is the same as Currys in store retail price and their online price but £250 cheaper than Argos!
Sorry but the High Street/ large store business model is doomed, no wonder all the High Streets are full of coffee shops and pound shops.
|
>> Sorry but the High Street/ large store business model is doomed, no wonder all the
>> High Streets are full of coffee shops and pound shops.
Ah, but its not. Look at John Lewis, still doing very well with a traditional presence. Wilko doing very well with the Woolworths model, BUT doing it properly with good management. Clothes shops dead? Look at Holister, they have to limit the number of youths entering at times due to overcrowding. Apple stores? nuff said.
There is still a place for the high street/shopping centre, but it needs to be done well. All the stores that have failed so far are the basket cases. Not one of them has had good financial foundations and nearly all of them were running large debts from leveraged buyouts.
|
>>All the stores that have failed so far are the basket cases
Absolutely.
There is no point trying to maintain a shop which is not providing what the punters want, be that the product, the expertise or the price or some combination of the three.
The ones that have tried that approach would be Woolworths, MFI, Comet, Jessops etc. etc.
Providing what the customers want and in the way they want it, in the other hand, works very well.
An analogy for you;
California had (has) huge forests. And periodically there was a forest fire. The fire caused a certain amount of damage but most of its fuel was lying around on the ground and was weak, dead or dying trees. Mind you, 12 months later the forest look healthy and ti was difficult to find out that the fire had even happened.
Then the Californians decided that forest fires were bad. And so they artificially stopped them. Excellent, except it meant that the dead trees, the rubbish lying around on the ground, dead leaves, bits of branches and the amount of weak trees grew.
Consequently, on the very rare occasions that there was a forest fire, then it was ferocious. And because of the amount of fuel around it took out a bunch of healthy trees as well. In fact, the fires became so big that it would take a forest years to recover, if in fact it ever did.
Now they have decided that limited forest fires to take out the weaker stuff, and clean up the dead stuff lying around, actually keeps the forest as a whole healthier and more viable.
Keeping stores, car manufacturers, steel works, coal mines or shops in business artificially when there business model doesn't justify it, fits that analogy rather well I feel. Not perfectly, but rather well.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sun 13 Jan 13 at 15:54
|
>>Now they have decided that limited forest fires to take out the weaker stuff, and clean up the dead stuff lying around, actually keeps the forest as a whole healthier and more viable<<
The Miwok, Yurok and Yokut could have told em that Shirley.
|
>>
>> The High Street/Retail Park retail chain store business model is virtually dead in the water.
>>
Way back in the days of CRT TVs I saw a Sony TV on the Comet website, went along to the local retail park Comet shed, where the price was £100ish more expensive. As the assistant could not answer the obvious question, the manager was consulted. The answer was "I can't match the online price, buy it online".
The demise of the high street / retail park set in years ago. Not helped by the aggressive adoption of parking restrictions.
|
>> Customers aren't the only victims of these things.
>>
First thoughts re customers are camera buyers, gift card holders etc but some of the customers affected have photos to collect.
|
>> >> Customers aren't the only victims of these things.
>> >>
>> First thoughts re customers are camera buyers, gift card holders etc but some of the
>> customers affected have photos to collect.
>>
Hardly life changing.
I find it odd that poverty these days seems to be not having the latest i gadget or a 40" TV and people on many tens of thousands of pounds a year are squealing because they are loosing benefits. I would put a roof and food as priorities. I have little sympathy for debt addicts. If you can't afford it, don't.............. And yes we have really struggled financially in the past to be comfortable now.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 12 Jan 13 at 11:41
|
|
Why is it that soup kitchens and food halls are returning?Working people visit these places there is something not right here in our rich nation.
|
|
Food-Banks are a growth industry..
|
>> Working people visit these places there is something not right here in our rich nation.
>>
Something not right? Yes. It is that we are not a rich nation anymore. The hard truth is that despite all the cuts to reduce the deficit, as a nation we are spending more than we can afford and we are borrowing to pay back the interest on money spent by Labour, and the nation is spending more on imports than earned from exports.
www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/12/30/
"SALISBURY, England — Trussell Trust was founded here more than a decade ago to help starving children in Bulgaria, but in recent years the nonprofit has expanded its mission dramatically in a once-unthinkable direction, opening more than 200 food banks across the United Kingdom.
This year alone, the centers have distributed free groceries to about 130,000 British families, more than double the number in 2011.
“The fact that people need food in 21st-century Britain is certainly shocking,” said Molly Hodson, a spokeswoman for the trust, as she sorted canned beans at the Trussell Trust clearinghouse recently. “This is a time of crisis in the UK.”
Earlier this month, George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer, the government’s top financial official, announced that austerity measures would need to be extended into 2018 because of a slower recovery than forecast, which he blamed on the broader economic slowdown in Europe. But Osborne asserted that the bitter economic medicine was beginning to show results, as evidenced by the flow of investment into British government bonds, a sign of increasing confidence in the UK economy.
“It’s a hard road, but we are getting there,” Osborne told the House of Commons. “Britain is on the right track — and turning back now would be a disaster.”
|
>> Something not right? Yes. It is that we are not a rich nation anymore. The
>> hard truth is that despite all the cuts to reduce the deficit, as a nation
>> we are spending more than we can afford and we are borrowing to pay back
>> the interest on money spent by Labour, and the nation is spending more on imports
>> than earned from exports.
We are, and remain a rich nation. Still well inside the top ten for GNP per capita. Our problem is one of distribution, though no doubt you'd label that perception as the politics of envy.
|
>> We are, and remain a rich nation. Still well inside the top ten for GNP
>> per capita. Our problem is one of distribution, though no doubt you'd label that perception
>> as the politics of envy.
>>
By your definition, a "rich" person is rich because his/her living is funded by a huge debt pile, and who then borrows to pay the interest on debts? It was that type of mindset which led to banking crisis in the last decade.
As GNP takes account of the ownership of the assets, I suggest that UK's GNP should be negative. We have borrowed from the world and therefore the assets that the Civil Servants who calculate GNP think belong to the "nation" are in fact owned by the foreigners who are lending us the money.
How do you account the for the likes of Honda, BMW, Nissan, Tata, Amazon, Starbucks, BHS, Londonistan (that province of Saudi and Gulf of Arabia located within SE England), which are all foreign owned.
|
...people on many tens of thousands of pounds a year are squealing because they are losing benefits ... I have little sympathy for debt addicts. If you can't afford it, don't... And yes we have really struggled financially in the past to be comfortable now.
I'm sure that last bit is true, ON, at least in part. But let's take another view: your comfort is also derived from the profits of that very unsustainability you condemn. You may not have done the borrowing and over-valuing yourself, but you invested money with which others inflated the bubbles of the Thatcher, Major and Blair years; you fortuitously - because you were of the right age - got out before the correction came. Increasing taxation on pensioners is - we hear - politically unthinkable, so those of us still working are left with the bill for those who've already taken the money and run. I think a bit of squealing is justified.
|
>> I think a bit of squealing is justified.
>>
I had a mortgage when interest rates hit 15%, and survived intact. Child benefit on child No 1 only, no other benefits at all. I bet that would make you squeal. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 13 Jan 13 at 14:56
|
>> >> I think a bit of squealing is justified.
>>
>> I had a mortgage when interest rates hit 15%, and survived intact.
>> Child benefit on child No 1 only, no other benefits at all.
>> I bet that would make you squeal. :-)
>>
By coincidence we were recently showing our offspring the deeds for our house and there it was in black and white 15.5% which caused a silence.
SWMBO stayed at home to give our two full attention. I was then only wage earner in the house and we soon learned to spend carefully. SWMBO did not return to wage earning but we survived.
|
So did I, ON. But I took my mortgage on in 1991, so didn't see the principal eroded by 1970s inflation and pay rises as I suspect many here of the it's-mine-I've-earned-it tendency did.
But this isn't specific to me; I'm in the 'squeezed middle' today, but I was fortunate to escape graduate debt, and to catch enough of the last years of final salary pensions to make a difference when I do eventually get to retire. There are many ten years younger than me finding it much tougher. And many twenty years older living the life of Riley and claiming it's all their own work. All the finger-pointing ignores the role luck has to play in our lives.
|
>> All the finger-pointing
>> ignores the role luck has to play in our lives.
>>
And not relying on debt to sustain a lifestyle.
|
I'm possibly somewhere in the same zone as Henry K and WdB. Boss gave up work for children, did some child minding when they were young, and has more recently done a couple of mornings a week as a classroom aide. She's a busy type, and has always done lots of craft stuff, chaired a couple of PTAs, treasurered for several organisations and still does, as well as being a school governor. As well as looking after the home front of course, from which I have benefitted.
We haven't had too many exotic holidays, or been generally extravagant. Fortunately I have managed to scrabble enough to keep the show on the road, pay the mortgage off and put a bit by; I'm cross that my pension prospects have been severely dented and very worried about inflation, but to me it seems that we have had a good life, and a more fulfilled one than might have been the case if we had both been on the hamster wheel full time. And as much as we have been hammered by recent events, our first two mortgages evaporated in the late 70s and 80s.
It's a great shame that my son can't realistically hope for the same. We may well rearrange our assets at some point to remove the need for us to snuff it to help him get some wool on his back.
Last edited by: Manatee on Sun 13 Jan 13 at 16:44
|
>> ignores the role luck has to play in our lives.
>>
The fact is your life is governed by luck from the moment of conception - the chance that you were the result of one of billions of sperm fertilising an egg in a particular part of the Earth at a particular time in the evolution of the Universe.
However, I think that's a cop out; after that people largely make their own luck.
|
I never know how my parents got into so much trouble really. My mother worked as a child mind, my dad had a senior level job at the council (not sure what he got paid, but the same job is 35k now) and he then worked part time in a pub in the evenings. They must have had a decent income coming in yet they never seemed to have much money.
I suspect their big mistake was remortaging the house but we needed work doing on the house and that was the best option they had of raising money. They then bought a Lada with some of the money. It turned out to be a complete money trap, and then stupidly traded it in for a newer Lada having not learnt their lesson that they were crap cars!
My dad then had health issues and had to leave his job at that point we came very close getting the house reprocessed and had the keys to council house but the disaster was reverted at the last minute.
We did go on holiday around twice a year to Pontins and later in a carravan we had free use of and we never starved but in the last ten years my parents situation got slowly worse and worse. Worse point was me having to buy them a car (the Fiesta Ghia X) but I did get the money for that.
Thankfully they are in a better position now, but my father really needs a new job, he is self employed and does other work inbetween but its patchy. It is very hard for a man in his 60's to find basic jobs these days.
I myself am still not sure what I am going to but I just take one day at a time. Got a few ideas up my sleeve though to make some money before going back to university.
So I guess my parents struggled but never starved. We certainly never had any holidays abroad or anything fancy like that, but my parents always had the money for school trips etc.
|
|
You are Chris Watson and I claim my £100
|
>> You are Chris Watson and I claim my £100
>>
Showing your age there, Mark.
|
|
I can't stop my age showing, although God knows I try. It just keeps bursting out.
|
>You are Chris Watson and I claim my £100
Was it Chris Watson who used to post on HJ or is the old grey matter misfiring again?
|
It was Chris Watson on HJ who was a geek with a fantasy Walter Mitty type life, always worried about everything and making a drama of it, but with great plans for life, business and his Lada.
He was pleasant enough, never mean about anything as far as I recall, but certainly from another planet.
|
>>
>> He was pleasant enough, never mean about anything as far as I recall, but certainly
>> from another planet.
>>
There were a few characters during the early days of HJ. Bogush was another, starting every post with Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
|
|
Even typing that name is a risk, he's still around and he still searches on his own name.
|
>> Even typing that name is a risk, he's still around and he still searches on
>> his own name.
Bogush? Whos he?
What happened to Toad of Toad Hall - PARP
|
>>Bogush? Whos he?
A historic figure, it seems.
www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bogush
|
>> >> I think a bit of squealing is justified.
>> >>
>>
>> I had a mortgage when interest rates hit 15%,
I bet my 15% mortgage was bigger than your 15% mortgage.
|
>> I bet my 15% mortgage was bigger than your 15% mortgage.
>>
Someone has to fund the bankers bonuses and pensions. :-)
|
|
Aye and I bet you enjoyed your MIRAS !
|
>> Aye and I bet you enjoyed your MIRAS !
>>
Now let me think, who put a stop to that, calling it a middle class perk, ah, yes, a certain Gordon Brown.
As I worked for a living I don't see how I was, or am, "middle class" whatever that is. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 14 Jan 13 at 07:53
|
>> >> Aye and I bet you enjoyed your MIRAS !
MMIRAS was better......
|
|
How about Mortgage Indemnity Premiums? Forerunner of the PPI scam.
|
|
Didnt have one of them, had a much maligned endowment mortgage, which for me worked out ok.
|
|
So did I. cant remember the justification for it at the time. May have been the amount of mortgage against property value.
|
My recollection of the mortgage protection was if you were borrowing something like 90% or more of the property's value, you had to get the Indemnity Protection. Something like that.
Never had to do this myself but a friend in the late 90s was buying a flat and didn't have enough deposit to avoid this.
|
>> Didnt have one of them, had a much maligned endowment mortgage, which for me worked
>> out ok.
Managed to avoid that but as late as 1991 they were still being sold very hard in spite of increasing doubt as to their efficacy as a savings vehicle. I was told more than once that my refusal might lead a selling agent to doubt the credibility of my offer. The porkies thay told about possible returns and the contempt for my proposition that I preferred to invest my spare money my own way was incredible.
My father took one out around 1968 when the premiums still qualified for tax releif. In spite of that boost (and he was paying well over basic rate on top slice of his income) and ther bull market of the late eighties/early nineties it only just paid out enough to cover the loan. The promised surplus might just have bumped him up one trim level on his next Accord.
on that basis I couldn't see the point.
|
>>>I was told more than once that my refusal might lead a selling agent to doubt the credibility of my offer. The porkies thay told about possible returns and the contempt for my proposition that I preferred to invest my spare money my own way was incredible.
>>>My father... it only just paid out enough to cover the loan. The promised surplus might just have bumped him up one trim level on his next Accord.... on that basis I couldn't see the point.
Ditto here... particularly with regard to the near insults dished out by mortgage brokers when we flat refused to discuss endowment types. We moved lots too and doing that with endowments seemed more complex. Made far more from the housing market than any endowment could ever have achieved anyway.
|
|
Took mine out in 85, it was the only way I could get a large multiple on joint salary for a 90% mortgage. I financed my next house on a straight repayment mortgage but kept up the endowment, which as it happens turned in a useful 6% annual return and paid out a welcome lump sum into the retirement fund (it would have been 500 quid shy of paying off the first mortgage sum had it been owing)
|
We have an endowment that matures this year - it was kept going as it had run for a while and then was no needed to buy another house so continued as a savings mechanism. It will pay out a reasonable bonus I think but not what was promised.
In the late 90s my bank put me in touch with someone in the bank selling endowments as a saving plan. I didn't take one out!
|
>> Fair enough Haywain, sort of understandable, but if I were the manager of that shop
>> and had just lost my job I might take your brick and shove it where
>> the sun don't shine !
>>
That's most of England then.
|
>> If this happened to me, I would initially stand in the shop and rant loudly,
>> followed up by throwing a brick through the window!
>>
I can supply said item Sir. A Staffordshire Blue usually does the trick.
Best regards,
Chuck.
|
Three days ago I went to Staples to buy some envelopes. I had heard they were closing down but thought little of it. True, they were almost bare and I, like the others made good.
Upon talking (listening) to the Manager he said that it is an American company who wish to take their business more On-Line. According to him the Barnstaple shop (I do hate the word...store) was "doing well" and they were well regarded. Our experience here was that they were collectively a 'Shower of you know what'. Quite frankly they were always overpriced backed up by incompetent (untrained) couldn't really be bothered..........staff.
As an aside he assured me that their rent was 250k PA. Site owned by Canada Life.
IMHO we are a long way from the end and change is going to turn what we know on it's head.
Even the smartest of folk may well be surprised.
Best regards, West Country News.
|
Thats a valid point.
When you see the rents that some high streets charge, and then the rates, before you have even taken a penny in sales, it is not suprising that they are crumbling.
Many landlords are offering empty shops to charities ona nil rent basis, purely to then relieve them of the rates liability of an empty shop. Maybe if they had reduced their rents then they might still have a paying tenant in place.
|
The business park I am at a loosing money. You would not believe some of the charges they have. Royal Mail charge them £750 a year to collect the mail despite the fact they sell £100,000s of stamps each year!.
A lot of the businesses of been moaning of the latest rent increase which equates to be about 2% rise! That said the manager has a very expensive car so they can't be doing that badly.
The prescient near me is to be taken over partly by Booths but atm its full of crappy short term shops which don't even have signs. Considering it is supposed to be one of the most desirable places in Manchester it is ironic how crappy the shopping area is. Outside the preceint there are lots of good high class shops especially down Beech Road but the main 1960's shopping area is a dive. Thankfuly much of it will be converted into a Booths and the crappy temp shops will move on.
It really winds me up not having signs, even my workshop in a B2B business park I have made sure it has proper signs on it. It is a matter of pride more than anything else.
But in the UK simply the problem is land is at a premium, so large retail spaces cost a fortune so it is simply getting to expensive to operate shops unless its over priced super markets or take aways.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Sun 13 Jan 13 at 04:16
|
It can't be all bad, our local (big) police station has recently been sold to the retail park owners next door for £4.1 million. It will increase their area by about 30% after it has been demolished and redeveloped.
tinyurl.com/b6v63qw
|
|
Nearly 5000 quid a week in Barnstaple? Strewth...
|
|
I see Peter Jones has bought Jessops and is opening stores over the next few weeks. Slightly different business model it seems. Hope it works out for him.
|
|
A Booths in Chorlton-cum-Hardy?!!!!!!!!!!!! It's obviously gone back to being what it was like in the 1920s.
|
All yupified and southernified these days. The Times recently named it the 17th coolest place to live in the UK. This is what thtey said:-
[quote]
17 Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Greater Manchester
Why is it so great? Four miles from the city centre (a few stops on the Metro), this leafy and smart suburb is an outpost for musicians, actors, writers and artists. Beech Road and Chorlton Cross are full of specialist shops and cafés, and there is a busy night-time bar scene.
Who lives here? The musician Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy, and Mark Collins of the Charlatans.
House prices These reflect the well-heeled locals. A detached family house will cost £650,000 to £800,000; pick up a two-bedroom flat for slightly less than £200,000.
[/quote]
|
Well the new website is up and I am in the market for a new memory card.
This one:
tinyurl.com/ccuamlc
Where it is £124.99.
On Amazon it is £59.69 (tinyurl.com/cujzb5o)
And to be fair at Currys it is £99.99.
And Ebuyer is £69.99.
If this price is indicative of how competitive they are going to be then I do not think that they are going to be around for very long!
|
|
Shame on Peter Jones... he should know better. I've just looked around at the site for cameras and they are well over price on many models. The stock is very restricted too... no Sony for example and just two Panasonics... wonder why?
|
I've just taken a look and there's lots of Sony cameras. Just no compact Sony cameras. Might be a reason.
As for that memory card - it's over priced. But I'd prefer two 32GB cards as a card could get corrupted or similar and you risk losing a lot of video/photos. When on holiday I swap cards before they are full.
|
Jessops go into administration - Robin O'Reliant
