Waitrose play the system from both ends though - they promote themselves as a higher class of food retailler, use quality displays etc, but then spend a lot of money on their shelf tickets telling you how in a price comparison certain products were cheaper than the major supermarkets that they pretend they aren't cometing against.

Mmm, that really was a big bite to take when they were already having trouble competing with Tesco and ASDA, I thought it was biting off more than they could chew that did them in, that and Kwiksave being a bit of a financial black hole.

I always found Somerfield to have lost their way, they didn't want to be an "Express" type store but they were too small and didn't have the estate to fight it out with the big boys, CO-OP have proved that the sites and store size works as long as you concentrate on the service and have the stock to sell, trying to match the big boys on price will get you nowhere very fast.

Back in 1998, Somerfield's view was that the stores were in similar locations and of similar size. Clearly they were very wrong in terms of location. Their business model didn't seem right anyway, being neither cheap nor quality.

Hey as long as they pay my bill to do the comparison work they can do what they want



Waitrose are very good at higher end niche products, the bio organic yoghurt and Icelandic mineral water type stuff, they do it well too.

Depends on what scale I suppose. There are a lot of affluent areas without a JL (Leeds and York being two areas that JL have publically claimed they're targeting). The York store will be based on the development that will, amongst other things, be home to the new York Community Stadium whilst Leeds is something of a 'pie in the sky' development of Eastgate that, IMO, probably won't happen for some time yet.

HMV next. That one has been on the cards for some time.

It has but I was keeping everything crossed that it would find a way out of its difficulties. I love shopping there. Bought all my Christmas CDs and DVDs from there just a few weeks ago. They are very reasonably priced nowadays, at least in the St Helens store they are anyway. And I love the atmosphere as I wander around and see what is available before I buy something.

I'm as gutted to see HMV go as I was when Woolies went, and in part for the same reason: they both played a massive part in my yoof. But I also still valued and used them as an adult. The branch in St Helens was always pretty busy. Not as packed as in their heyday but still usefully busy. Most people still buy DVDs and CDs according to recent figures but buy online instead of instore. Pity that. One day people will wake up and wonder why there aren't any shops left when they actually need them, and that's because they didn't bother going to them when they didn't.

I do like them also. They are overpriced however and cannot compete with the online sector.

Will struggle to find anywhere now where I can find buy games / CD's etc on the high street.

Still, they will only be in administration. Could come out of it and survive yet. Would take a very brave investor however to swim against the tide.

I've seen that claim a lot on Twitter tonight but here in Sintellins they are cheap as chips. Most of their CDs are under a tenner. Well under in some cases and there are always two for one deals. DVDs cheap too. Box sets vary in price but some are exceptionally good value.


We have one option here but I've never been in there and so don't know what it offers. I guess I may find out soon enough. But I doubt they will offer the range of DVDs and CDs that HMV offers here. They have been around in Sintellins for ever.


I suppose if the investor was rich enough and creative enough it would be possible. After all, according to latest stats, most people still buy CDs and DVDs rather than download them, it's just that a large chunk of those people buy them online. HMV might have survived had they not been bogged down with other lines, like Waterstones, their live music side, Canadian purchase, etc. Although I think they took too long to lower their prices. Mind you, having rent to pay (especially rents as high as they have been) that was bound to limit how low they could go with their prices.

Levi jeans is a specific thing that Charles Fishman talks about in [iThe Wal-Mart Effect[/i. He says that, via marketing in Wal-Mart stores, and then being driven down in price over a sustained period, the quality of Levi jeans has declined.

Over 4,000 jobs to go at HMV ...

Over priced compared to what? No high street retailer can compete on price with a warehouse in the middle of nowhere with half a dozen staff.

Where does it end? If it were 4000 workers losing their factory jobs HM Gov would be all over it, over 5000 retail jobs in less than a week is a disaster.

Will WHSmiths be next? Boots maybe?

Probably a whole shopping mall at this rate.

Argos. Perhaps Homebase along with them, or HRG may split the two.

Compared to operators who were long exploiting a tax loophole that has recently been closed.

It's amazing how people lament the likes of Starbucks and Vodafone for "immoral" exploitation of tax loopholes and yet let those same morals go out of the window if it means a few cheap DVDs.

Which begs BG's question again.

Given the amount that we depend on retail for the sake of the national economy as a whole, the game of never-ending cutting of prices will actually continue to lose jobs.

How are these going to be replaced? After all, it was the retail sector that wrote an open letter to Gideon in the autumn of 2010 begging him to cut and cut again, promising that they'd make up the jobs.

To repeat: if anyone is interested, Charles Fishman's [iThe Wal-Mart Effect[/i is an excellent illustration of how constant price cutting loses jobs and reduced quality.

It's short-sighted in the extreme.

Apparently the directors of HMV visited the offices of PWC yesterday but then found a cheaper administrator online...

Then again, Wal-Mart are the worlds second biggest employer, after the Chinese army and ahead of the NHS. (Or at least that's what one of the NHS IT providers told me)

And if Wal-Mart wasn't around there would still be stores selling the same goods to the same people.

Wal-Mart and stores like them syphon money out of local areas where local businesses they have put out of business put money into the local area.

About the only thing to laugh about as it is very sad news. This failure though is due more to the public buying on price than anything the Directors or government can do. The public should not complain when jobs are lost as local services are forced to close through lack of support and then prices eventually rise through lack of competition.

Which means what?
It doesn't tell us how good an employer they are, whether they are good for the economy or anything other than the fact that Wal- Mart are enormous.

Would you rather deny the public the choice?

The public have doubtless been attracted by price, i.e. cheaper at the likes of Amazon ... the so-called "perfect market" requires that that the purchaser is in possession of the relevant facts, and I would suggest that the only economic fact that most people knew was the price and not that Amazon were a law unto themselves regarding the tax they pay.

It probably tells us more about the NHS than anything else.