Seems Bargain Booze is about to enter administration following Toys R Us and Maplin, another 2600 jobs at risk.....bad business model or mismanagement??

Mainly owned by asian men , usually of Pakistani origin, so I'm not too bothered.....

**Tongue firmly in cheek**

MACCA wrote:Mainly owned by asian men , usually of Pakistani origin, so I'm not too bothered.....

**Tongue firmly in cheek**

They'll just stop being "Bargain Booze" and carry on as a shop then I'm guessing?

bfccrazy wrote:They'll just stop being "Bargain Booze" and carry on as a shop then I'm guessing?

Don't have a clue, I was going to try and fill the keep net as I had a spare hour, but it had potential to go horribly wrong, so thought better of it.
There's a fine line these days

Bad management this one looks like.

First they said profits were going to be down 20% and then, couple of days later, said they had found a £30 million tax bill that they had forgotten to account for.

Easily done that!

Some things are a sad loss but I won't miss the "Bargain Booze" chain if it goes.

Never been in one. The name alone tells me enough about the place.

LBclaret wrote:Bad management this one looks like.

First they said profits were going to be down 20% and then, couple of days later, said they had found a £30 million tax bill that they had forgotten to account for.

Easily done that!

It is when you have all that booze at bargain prices.

Retail is changing and has been for a number of years now with no signs of slowing down.

You can look at the Amazon grocery store in Seattle as a good idea of where supermarkets are going. We have gone from people manned checkouts to unmanned checkouts to no checkouts.

Then you consider that voice controlled smart speakers from the likes of Amazon. You don't even need to go to a shop to buy things now. Say you know you are running out of dishwasher tablets, we are now in a place where you just simply need to say 'Alexa, order dishwasher tablets'. Once upon a time, it meant, getting in the car, off to the supermarket and then back. You could buy through logging onto a mobile or a computer and then getting your card out etc. but you don't get simpler than just asking your virtual assistant to buy it.

If you are a physical retailer, you are likely to have high cost overheads such as a lease to pay, business rates to pay, staff to keep the shop open as well as many other overheads. You are reliant on local people keeping you going.

It won't be too long in the future where technology makes it so frictionless to buy goods that I can only see this becoming more difficult for physical retailers to exist.

Done my bit to help them out over the years

It's the knock on effect that is the issue, they are suppliers to a large number of businesses, it's not just about their own branded stores

https://youtu.be/Irr3V9BZqjY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mark E Smith dies then a couple of months later Bargain Booze is in trouble.

Just saying....

clarethomer wrote:Retail is changing and has been for a number of years now with no signs of slowing down.

You can look at the Amazon grocery store in Seattle as a good idea of where supermarkets are going. We have gone from people manned checkouts to unmanned checkouts to no checkouts.

Then you consider that voice controlled smart speakers from the likes of Amazon. You don't even need to go to a shop to buy things now. Say you know you are running out of dishwasher tablets, we are now in a place where you just simply need to say 'Alexa, order dishwasher tablets'. Once upon a time, it meant, getting in the car, off to the supermarket and then back. You could buy through logging onto a mobile or a computer and then getting your card out etc. but you don't get simpler than just asking your virtual assistant to buy it.

If you are a physical retailer, you are likely to have high cost overheads such as a lease to pay, business rates to pay, staff to keep the shop open as well as many other overheads. You are reliant on local people keeping you going.

It won't be too long in the future where technology makes it so frictionless to buy goods that I can only see this becoming more difficult for physical retailers to exist.

This.

People will tend to ignore this and blame other things that aren't the issue.

There's a cracking one in Stockport which is far removed from your usual Bargain Booze. They even sell draught beer you can take home. Be a shame if that one goes.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... r-13658231" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'll miss this as much as i missed WineRack and Unwins... not a lot.

If Tesco goes tits up, it's would be a massive disaster for Padiham now.

Pstotto wrote:If Tesco goes tits up, it's would be a massive disaster for Padiham now.

Don't worry, you could still stock up via Spar or Londis.

20,000 shoppers every day for the next few years????????

I've noticed in town where I live that little by liddl the quality of food has edged ever closer to poor...

I attended a meeting one where a guy who was presenting turned out to be the new MD of the firm that publishes the Dandy. He had been asked to come in and save the Dandy comic.

He strategically took a risk by going public saying the comic may stop being published due to declining demand.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/ ... es-closure" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The result was that it prompted the response he thought would happen. The news of it closing actually prompted a resurgence in people who had grown up with it saving it by buying it again and introducing it to their kids..

Hopefully Bargain Booze aren't playing a similar play.....

Stopped going in bargain booze as it was no longer a bargain. Perhaps they could rebrand as "booze"?

There's a bloke round here who has 3, guessing they are franchises.

clarethomer wrote: It won't be too long in the future where technology makes it so frictionless to buy goods that I can only see this becoming more difficult for physical retailers to exist.

I was thinking that if this trend continues and retailers are more concerned with depots to deliver from could the rent on retail parks eventually cost more than that in a town centre?

Perhaps it's a slightly utopian view I hold but hopefully if major retailers vacate from a town centre we'd and let's say rent dropped, there could be a return of smaller independent stores or whatever....

CoolClaret wrote:I was thinking that if this trend continues and retailers are more concerned with depots to deliver from could the rent on retail parks eventually cost more than that in a town centre?

Perhaps it's a slightly utopian view I hold but hopefully if major retailers vacate from a town centre we'd and let's say rent dropped, there could be a return of smaller independent stores or whatever....

I think that needs government intervention with business rates. Unless they can lower them, you are always going to struggle selling things with low profit margins.

I think shops in town centre locations are heading more towards more like coffee shops, bars/pubs and hairdressers and beauty salon type establishments. All the things that Alexa cannot provide to you and you can make a decent profit on.

To me if you want a physical location store - you need to offer something that is difficult for the likes of Amazon to provide via the internet - although we have seen them moving into physical world with their supermarket, Its only taking what they offer online already.