Firm closing

[2bees]

1 hour ago, Gladys said:

Retail is always evolving and online is another evolution.  The high street was the death of the corner shops.  As a child growing up in Brunswick Road, there was a chemist, grocery shop, post office and newsagent, greengrocery and a buchers at the top of the road, with another butchers around the corner on Alexander Drive and a small grocery shop in Albany Street Lane.  There was also a market garden selling veg in the allotments running parallel along the bottom half of Brunswick Road.  They are all gone now.  You could say the high street supermarket and wider car ownership was the death of them.  

Along came the out of town retail parks, something which largely passed the IOM by, but that stimulated the bijou retailers in town centres.  They are both now suffering from online. 

It is evolution, but people still have money to spend, and probably more disposable income than the 1960s.  It is a case of evolving with the market changes,but not all will survive. 

It is not that I have no sympathy, just that the changes in the market are too big to fight against and survival means adapting. 

 

I love this  I used to live by the York Road zebra crossing (which wasn’t there at the time) and remember going to various corner shops in the area for a ten pence mix. Romantic reminisces, were they better days? We didn’t have central heating, nor double glazing but I don’t remember ever being cold.

[Non-Believer]

6 minutes ago, 2bees said:

I love this  I used to live by the York Road zebra crossing (which wasn’t there at the time) and remember going to various corner shops in the area for a ten pence mix. Romantic reminisces, were they better days? We didn’t have central heating, nor double glazing but I don’t remember ever being cold.

That's 'cos you were young then Bees...young 'uns don't feel the cold. You'd be out round town on a Saturday night in the winter wearing a dress that would be like a couple of scraps of material tacked together at the corners and think nothing of the weather.

Then you hit 40.... 😂

[Annoymouse]

1 hour ago, Gladys said:

Is a business like Shaktiman able to move onto an online platform?   It already has the market presence, you would think, to be assured of customers moving to online with them. 

Ramsey is still quite old fashioned (quirky!?) in the sense people like physical shops, the interaction with the shopkeepers, other customers and to just have a browse, retail is collapsing fast because of all the increased overheads, but an online only presence is absolutely soulless. 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Annoymouse

[hissingsid]

Magpie is closing due to a bereavement, sometimes shops close because the owners have had enough and want to retire or for other reasons it isn’t always lack of trade or high overheads.

[Gladys]

14 minutes ago, Annoymouse said:

Ramsey is still quite old fashioned (quirky!?) in the sense people like physical shops, the interaction with the shopkeepers, other customers and to just have a browse, retail is collapsing fast because of all the increased overheads, but an online only presence is absolutely soulless. 

Yes, we would all prefer to have the physical presence, but is it realistic?  Other than the physical presence as a USP, does Shaktiman sell anything you cannot find online?   As I said, not without sympathy, but does the high street model still work and, if not, what can be done other than subsidies to save it and would the subsidy really be good VFM? 

[Annoymouse]

3 minutes ago, Gladys said:

Yes, we would all prefer to have the physical presence, but is it realistic?  Other than the physical presence as a USP, does Shaktiman sell anything you cannot find online?   As I said, not without sympathy, but does the high street model still work and, if not, what can be done other than subsidies to save it and would the subsidy really be good VFM? 

High street model definitely still works, especially where things like clothes and gifts are concerned, no it’s not as cheap as major online stores but equally you don’t have the issue of damages/returns, use it or lose it I suppose.

 

[2bees]

25 minutes ago, Roxanne said:

By Christ you’re brave. 

Ha, I don’t know that person… I can hunt you down fella 😂

[Annoymouse]

So say a local shop moves to online only, they would need still need a small unit/warehouse space, they’d still have to offer local delivery (not cheap with current fuel/business insurance costs), our postage rates aren’t competitive compared to the UK and would quickly eat into any profit trying to match UK prices, unless you’ve got a warehouse space in the UK (fulfilment centre?) you cannot match any UK store prices if your physical stock is held on the IOM. 

I think most people just don’t realise how much overheads for a shop really are, unless you own the store and don’t need to pay a mortgage/rent on it. We looked at opening a shop, our stock would carry on average 30% margin, we did all the sums and we’d need to take about 6k a month just to break even, 7k to pay ourselves a wage that would still be less than minimum wage, no holiday pay and working 6 days a week.

[mad_manx]

21 hours ago, Annoymouse said:

So say a local shop moves to online only, they would need still need a small unit/warehouse space, they’d still have to offer local delivery (not cheap with current fuel/business insurance costs), our postage rates aren’t competitive compared to the UK and would quickly eat into any profit trying to match UK prices, unless you’ve got a warehouse space in the UK (fulfilment centre?) you cannot match any UK store prices if your physical stock is held on the IOM. 

I think most people just don’t realise how much overheads for a shop really are, unless you own the store and don’t need to pay a mortgage/rent on it. We looked at opening a shop, our stock would carry on average 30% margin, we did all the sums and we’d need to take about 6k a month just to break even, 7k to pay ourselves a wage that would still be less than minimum wage, no holiday pay and working 6 days a week.

Yes...this is why I wonder how the  smaller shops are still in business ?

You hardly see one customer at a time in most of them and even then most are just browsing .

People also check things out in the shops and buy the same online for cheaper. 

I know that some of them do well during  TT ( like the ones selling   all the IOM Stuff )

But surely that wouldn't cover for the rest of the year with all the overheads.

Might work out if you own the premises ? 

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by mad_manx

[Annoymouse]

2 hours ago, mad_manx said:

Yes...this is why I wonder how the  smaller shops are still in business ?

Might work out if you own the premises ? 

 

Its certainly the only way to make it worthwhile, Is there any sort of benefit to running a business at a loss? 

[GD4ELI]

15 minutes ago, Annoymouse said:

It's certainly the only way to make it worthwhile, is there any sort of benefit to running a business at a loss? 

Money laundering is one.

[John Wright]

7 hours ago, mad_manx said:

Yes...this is why I wonder how the  smaller shops are still in business ?

You hardly see one customer at a time in most of them and even then most are just browsing .

People also check things out in the shops and buy the same online for cheaper. 

I know that some of them do well during  TT ( like the ones selling   all the IOM Stuff )

But surely that wouldn't cover for the rest of the year with all the overheads.

Might work out if you own the premises ? 

 

The phenomenon of inspecting,  and then buying elsewhere, isn’t new. My grandparents and parents used to check furniture at Kendal Milne & Co in Manchester, then go order it from Lanebottom Coop, near Milnrow in the Pennines, getting discount and divi. It was common practice. Kendals became House of Fraser, then closed. Lanebottom Industrial & Equitable Pioneers Coop clung  on, independent, not absorbed by Cooperative Retail Services, until 2012.

[doc.fixit]

I think one of the problems with a small jurisdiction is ability to carry large and varied stock.

For instance our old Vax cleaner's filter disintegrated and no one on the island had one , I got it within three days from off island. This happens time and time again with equipment repairs.

[Non-Believer]

38 minutes ago, doc.fixit said:

I think one of the problems with a small jurisdiction is ability to carry large and varied stock.

For instance our old Vax cleaner's filter disintegrated and no one on the island had one , I got it within three days from off island. This happens time and time again with equipment repairs.

And not just with old stuff, there's a "problem" with carrying spares for later stuff too, there's always a business cost for carrying and stocking parts, especially if they're slow moving (infrequent sale).

For the customer the problem is that when they do place an order locally, that will usually be placed on the slow-moving stock order to obtain discounts for the retailer. For the customer it's therefore quicker nowadays to order direct online and have it delivered to the door if they're not prepared to wait.

[Bandits]

On 4/15/2022 at 7:28 PM, Kopek said:

With regard the closing shops, it could be as much to do with changing consumer spending

You might find that the closing of RB is more to do with a contract which M & S recently canned which they can’t discuss because of an NDA in the contract.