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Along with a load of Jamie oliver restaurants and and Prezzo shutting 100 restaurants, along with numerous bike shop closures,add in the bank and building society closures the city shopping centres are going to look even more barren and empty.
And thats just the begining for this year many more to follow probably,
I will miss Maplins and toys R us, but they where dated concepts, as most stuff was is available on the internet, also sad for the staff as retail constricts.
but it's alright because the government keeps telling us unemployment is going down....
Zero hour contracts for all!
I wonder what could possibly be contributing to all this?
Businesses with crap business model failing to adapt and going bust shocker
I wonder what could possibly be contributing to all this?
Probably the fact that they were a bit shit.
House of Fraser next by all accounts.
We’ve allowed eBay and Amazon to break the high street.
Modernity. No one buys toys or electric gizmos from a high Street shop anymore.
And no. It's not brexit
True they missed the boat on online but the consequence of this is massive to the economy. It's less jobs, more unemployment and benefits needed. It's probably less tax paid to the UK
I'm not saying keeping bad business going is a good thing but we need to look at how the competition pays it's share.
To paraphrase from elsewhere
When people tell you all government does is take your money and give it to people who don't try remember they built the roads your business needs, educated and looked after the workers, made the trade deals etc. They need to collect for businesses to grow
Don’t cry for Maplin or Toys R Us.
Its not indicative of a failing economy, just the natural selection of the weak and stupid for extinction - we won’t spend any less, we’ll just spend more elsewhere.
They failed to adapt to changing conditions - TRU were following a business model from the 80s. If they’d closed their massive stores 5 years ago and used their name for a great web store they would have survived.
Maplin were horribly over-priced but at the same time didn’t have that “it’s cheaper online but I need it NOW” market because they only seemed to have the same crap that even Currys sold cheaper. £160 for a common or garden 500GB SATA drive, erm no thanks.
we won’t spend any less, we’ll just spend more elsewhere.
And generate less vat, less corporation tax, less ni and less income tax.
Just remembered Maplins had a huge paid for catalogue for mail order, perhaps they should hav e closed all the shops and just gone on internet or mail order via a catalogue, probably Debenhams will be next or Wilko,s both seem dated and oldie world.
as much as i liked maplin for OH shit purchases.
it was an utter **** to get to area of town in a nasty place with a height restricted carpark......
it really was only used in oh shit electronics componant purchases.... as the time it took for me to drive from my house they had delivered it like . maplin should have been a screwfix style model along time ago.
Argos next
Can't remember what I went for but the last time I was in Maplins I was astounded at how expensive they were, & that was about 6 years ago.
I came away without buying anything & never bothered with them since.
Two more examples of how Government has failed to deal with the now unstoppable march of Amazon.
TRU & Maplin may have had outdated business models but that, in my view, is the lesser part of the problem.
No corporation tax from TRU or Maplin now - and how much from Amazon?
A further hit to the Pension Protection Fund which, when combined with Carillion and others, will likely result in an increase to the levy paid by pension schemes - and a reduction in pension values.
Inept governments failing to develop and robustly implement an appropriate tax system for trans-national/global online businesses will stand as a testament to political incompetence.
probably Debenhams will be next or Wilko,s both seem dated and oldie world.
Hope not, wilkos is a great store to have locally, always seems busy and stores not to shabby. WH Smith however...
wtf is with companies being allowed to raid their pension funds ?
that shit should be ring fenced its not theirs to play with.
Argos next? Not a chance.
Overpriced & rubbish unfortunately. .
Surprised the usual whiners havent blamed trump & the Russians yet though.
Debenhams or HoF next. Debenhams is stuck in that middle ground where it's not fashionable and not cheap. HoF needs to shrink and specialise in higher end stuff but they've got huge stores with equally big rents.
Sainsbury’s own Argos so they won’t go next, they will close over 100 branches and move them into nearby Sainsbury’s stores, already have a few of these locally, you can’t pick up at the same time they work like Tesco click collect.
Im guessing as they move into bigger hyper Sainsbury’s stores they will have the same service, locally they have moved into small Sainsbury’s stores.
Didnt maplin start off as mail order? Remember seeing them in pc shopper back in the 90’s
Argos next
Nah, Argos is now good, often cheaper and more convenient than Amazon. Of course their owner Sainsbury's could go under, but Asda will go first.
+1 for house of fraser and/or debenhams.
Expensive high street locations. Not really special service (debenhams in particular).
Shame, because their own brand stuff we find quite good (hof pans, mattress, some cookware etc).
I occasionally visit the hof store in Birkenhead - I mean, I know it once was affluent but that was a long time ago! I'd suspect most of their stock moves by shoplifters these days.
It's probably the turn of some more restaurant chains to go under soon...
Internet Banking
CRC and bike-components
Amazon
e-bay
Thomann
On a guitar thread the advice wil be to buy a harley Benton, Yamaha, or Squier from Thomann, Woodbrass or Andertons. It's not bad advice if your main consideration is price or you live near one of those shops. But it still pains a little as the local shops can't compete as they don't get the same volume discounts and end of line offers as the Internet giants. I still buy most of my music and ski stuff from local shops because I like playing/trying before buying and they do what they can to get close to on-line prices - but I haven't bought from a bike shop within 50km of where i live for years.
You do wonder if we starting to export our economy/ wealth.
What does amazon contibute to the economy? Automation will reduce the workforce in the warehouses, so less money into local economy and less NI andnincome tax, their tax stratergy is well known.
Thats not to pick on amazon just an example that some online retailers are not good for general uk economics.
Is it time for an honest discussion on the economic path the country is moving to? All low skill/ wage jobs seem to be either disapearing or going zero hours and dispite what the education politicians say not everyone is genius destined to high skill employment.
Another problem, the company's that have replaced them (Amazon and eBay) pay **** all tax.
So it's not just the employees that have been screwed, it's all of us.
If the equal pay claim actually goes through and there pension black hole it’s not rosey at Tesco, they need to make £1.5b in cuts, it won’t be pretty if when they go belly up!
Whsmith have there newspaper business to fall back on but the high street store could go next.
<div class="bbp-reply-author">oldtalent</div>
<div class="bbp-reply-content">Surprised the usual whiners havent blamed trump & the Russians yet though.
</div>
Surprised the usual whiner hasn't been on to throw about straw men. <span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Ohh wait.</span>
W h smith has definitely lost its way,poor selection of books and now magazines moved to back of store.
Pity amazon didnt buy argos, would have fitted in well, no catalogues just internet shopping with storesstocking limited stock and pick up or drop from stores.
Maplins demise has been on the wall for a while now. Mostly they seemed to stock cheap chinese tat at 4x the price and were always out of stock of whatever you wanted and their stores almost always empty of customers.
They were handy for the odd 50p resistor etc but not much else.
Can't believe they have lasted as long as they have.
Maplins was so-o-o shit, there are few words adequate enough to describe its shit-ness.
Not only was it a relic of the early 1980s, it didn't even [I]try[/I] with customer service, and it was colossally overpriced. I mean, what did they expect?
For the life of me, I cannot understand businesses that pay large salaries to CEOs, yet are unable to read the clearest possible signs of the times.
Amazon may well pay low tax but their business model is more akin to an infrastructure play whereby any profit is reinvested back into more infrastructure - over decades. In that scenario where capital investment is high profit will always be low (especially so if borrowing is leveraged to accelerate the investment). Low tax in isolation doesn’t tell us anything - you have to look at the P&L for the whole story.
Low tax in isolation doesn’t tell us anything – you have to look at the P&L for the whole story.
In this example the treasury's take is the key figure, their business model keeps any profit off shore, reduces workers and by that tax income. Amazon want to trade in the UK how much should the UK charge them?
Maplins was a truely crap shop.
Toys R Us has been overtaken by better new rivals
Just like Woolworths and C&A no one will notice they are gone in a few months. Staff will get work elsewhere.
Homebase next.
I hate to say this but Brexit has nothing to do with this particular scenario.
Far outdated business model, failure to keep up with internet profile/selling model and a huge/colossal overhead.
Recipe for disaster.
It is sad to hear of the folks loosing their jobs, but there could be opportunities for some of them in buy outs if the administrators can find a decent solution. I doubt they will, because asset stripping and paying off creditors is thier only model for dealing with businesses in this situation.
We can whine all we like about Amazon and the like but we’re all guilty in some small way of making them vastly successful. The government in this or its previous incarnation would not have done anything but support the business model that Amazon employ, because this government isn’t/doesn’t care about tax evasion or any limits imposed that would restrict thier operations.
There will be more that fall, subsequent job losses are inevitable. Better get used to the UK in the 21st century.
just5 - your analogy is spurious; using your line of thinking, what is the end point?
One super global mega corp? Dodging tax in every country where they operate?
There is nothing ethical about the Amazon business model - and that includes multiple examples in the US of how it opens 'fulfilment centres', usually supported by 'incentives' from local government, and suckers locals into believing their dream job has landed but then subjects them to big brother style management and control; not a dream job but a nightmare employer.
Too few people appear to understand how Amazon and others are undermining the UK retail world and the damaging effect they have on the UK tax take in it's many forms. By the time that realisation dawns, it will be too late.
Staff will get work elsewhere.
Same terms? How long will it take? Which retail is expanding?
Or will this be more zero hours sports direct stuff?
The last innovation in the warehouse was smart lighting that only lit up in the relevant zones, the next gen don't need lights.
The sooner they make Amazon and eBay jointly liable for VAT with the sellers the better
I stopped using Amazon, avoid Starbucks, never used Uber etc, etc
Outdated business model certainly a major factor, but they also pay tax, the likes of amazon don't, certainly not on the same scale and they don't have to pay the overheads associated with retail stores, its just warehouses and logistics so it's not hard to understand why they are going bust.
but they also pay tax,
you sure about that? One of the things that killed them is reportedly a 15M unpaid vat bill! They’ll only pay corporation tax on profits, and truly profitable companies can usually find buyers. If they were highly profitable it would have been easier to correct the pension anomaly.
For the life of me, I cannot understand businesses that pay large salaries to CEOs, yet are unable to read the clearest possible signs of the times.
Its an an interesting issue isn’t it. Keep in mind the shareholders here are private equity funds. They aren’t necessarily interested in improving the business (in terms that the consumer, staff etc would care about) but are focussed on increasing the short term value so they can sell it and give the shareholders a return. That might involve high risk restructuring, getting rid of painful liabilities, etc if you have a sour pension scheme and a load of really long property leases and high staff costs getting rid of those things needs both experienced and callous individuals who don’t come cheap. Their focus is will whatever decision I make today help me sell the business for more tomorrow. The shareholder is rewarding them for that alignment with their interests.
It might not be the thread for it, but most online retailers don't help themselves. Amazon is good because it's so easy to buy something, about two clicks is all it takes.
I'd buy alot more from other online retailers if I didn't have to spend ten minutes filling in delivery addresses, billing addresses, card details etc. And then they send you promotional texts and emails and whatever else. They really don't help themselves. Let me pay in two clicks FFS.
While these two retailers were a bit shit, it's probably that plus the extortionate cost of having a retail estate which killed them.
UK.gov really need to get on top of this and modernise the tax system. There is too much taxation burden on having a physical presence. In my mind the cost of that needs to be levelled with the online retailers. Physical presence = staff.
We have vat already, which seems simple enough ... maybe expand that and reduce the myriad of other avoidable business taxes?
Carpetright should go simply for charging far more than local independents who's product tends to be of a much higher quality. They survive only because people are lazy.
Maplins, meh. Bought a few cables from the Harrogate one but only because I was passing and remembered I needed them. As has been said they sell stuff everyone just buys online.
TrU are slightly different IMO as we still use actual shops to buy the bulk of the children's presents. My 4 year old still looks in wonder at all the stuff in the big shops and I can't see how Smyths will survive if TrU have not. I don't really want to go online for this sort of stuff and our local branches always seem to have shoppers in so think it's a real shame they're vanishing.
Only realised the Jessops are still around the other day. I would have thought they'd have gone long ago.
Noticed they were selling DJI and Feiyu in an attempt to seem relevant. I used to think it was nice to go and physically touch some of these things, but YouTube unboxings/reviews/etc have largely removed the need for that.
Agree with the general thrust of the tax comments above.
I must be the exception to the rule on this thread...
Toys R Us - yeah, I think everyone must have been looking at those massive shops & stock levels for the last decade thinking that surely it can't last.
But since we've gained a family member, we regularly went to Toys R Us to actually look at the toys/bikes/art stuff as it was much better to get a feel of what you were actually buying rather than ordering it online.
We bought most of her stocking fillers from Toys R Us as well as (from memory) a Little Tikes scooter, easel and art stuff, play doh kits, puzzles, alphabet magnets, Toot Toot drivers stuff, etc....and it wasn't much more expensive for a lot of the stuff than buying it online.
Maplin is a bit of an oddity, but again I have bought plenty in there over the years. Standard stuff like a WD NAS drive might be over-priced compared to a lot of other places, but there were certain things they sold that were hard to get hold of. And the Maplin stores in Cambridge & Peterborough were in OK locations; the one in Peterborough particularly.
Only realised the Jessops are still around the other day. I would have thought they’d have gone long ago.
Jessops nearly did - it was a big news story a few years ago. They went into administration.
Argos, IMO, has nailed it - they do same day delivery in most places and the prices are competitive with Amazon. In London, it's much simpler to go to Argos (they're everywhere) and pick something up than wait 5 days for the free delivery from Amazon to be dispatched.
They're ditched the huge warehouse style shops (at least in London) for smaller premises with a huge push to their website to encourage you to reserve online and pick it up - this reduces queues in store and gets more people through the tills.
"Only realised the Jessops are still around the other day. I would have thought they’d have gone long ago"
Jessops did go bust and pretty much disappeared from the high street but that Peter Jones bought them for a pittance and revived them with a new business model. That was many years ago now and now so I assume they are doing OK, so it isn't all over for high street shops, just ones with crap business models who can't or wont modernise and those that are not being run well.
it’s much simpler to go to Argos (they’re everywhere) and pick something up than wait 5 days for the free delivery from Amazon to be dispatched.
This, Argos are my go to for most home and electricals stuff tbh, always keenly priced and ability to check stock levels at 4 different locations within 10 mins of me is great. Argos are great for returns too. John Lewis is my other go to, as I like the business model, price matching and extra year warranty on electricals.
I'll miss Maplin. Yes they were massively overpriced compared to online, but they were occasionally useful when I wanted something like a breadboard or components and didn't fancy waiting a couple of days to see if the one from eBay China at a tenth of the price was actually genuine or not.
My main concern for Maplin is for the staff though.
That's a lot of BO-laden socially-awkward introspective high-functioning autistics to drop on the job market in one go and the programming/IT sector can only absorb so much. 😉
it’s much simpler to go to Argos (they’re everywhere) and pick something up than wait 5 days for the free delivery from Amazon to be dispatched.
Also Argos have cunningly got a (small) finger in the online pie by acting as a delivery point for eBay purchases (possibly Amazon too, not sure).
Maplin / ToysRus failed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and other companies were doing it better (but not necessarily cheaper). Before them there was Woolworths / Virgin Megastores / HMV etc who went the same way - they were all carrying way too much stock, requiring way too many staff and having way to big premises to stay viable. The business models rely so heavily on peak demand and subsequent discounting that its not surprising to see them get to Feb / March and realise that the maths hasn't worked. This is where Argos has stolen a march on its competitors by almost failing and then being able to re-order itself into streamlined, efficient experience.
It's not the internet / Amazon / government at fault here, its the expectation of their management & shareholders that they can saturate an already full market and keep increasing profits.
I'm not in any way suprised for either of those companies. I'd not put either down to anything other than poor businesses that have failed to adapt to a new market.
I've been in Toys R Us twice in recent months and both times it was a thoroughly horrible experience. Vast amounts of stock, poor store layout, grumpy and unhelpful staff and a feel like it was straight out of 1985. The fact it's lasted that long is the major suprise.
Maplin is just an oddity, high street locations for a very niche provider, they'd be better off offering a Screw Fix type solution i'd suggest. Like TRU, staff were terrible, store layout all over the shop and just an odd place.
Who's next is interesting, a lot of talk of Debenhams which i can understand. Big stores, lots of stock, constant sales and no real niche or specialism. House of Fraser I'm more surprised about, they have a much stronger brand to me, offer a better product line and generally seem "better", big shops and expenses though.
WHSmiths will be fine, they make most of their money in stations and airports from what I understand. Argos too will be fine, they're actually doing very well from what I understand.
Went to Homebase at the weekend and asked if they had something to clean electrical contacts. The sales droid looked at me like I had landed from Mars, and then went to find a colleague who asked me what electrical contacts are. I explained as best as my stunned confusion would allow, and she pointed to the wire wool. At that moment I would have been very grateful for a Maplins.
(Of course Amazon have pages of contact cleaning stuff available for next day delivery)
Only realised the Jessops are still around the other day. I would have thought they’d have gone long ago.
Jessops aren't too bad - there's one on Oxford Street that holds its own with the "posh" Park Cameras round the corner, and the staff are'nt as arsey.
DrJ if you'd just asked for IPA they would probably have told you they don't sell beer 🙂
I avoided Toys Were Us because shopping there was like being trapped inside a migraine. Too bright. Too much information. Kids may love it, but it is the grown ups that have to take them there.
I'd much rather go to Smyth's because the atmosphere in the place doesn't make me feel unwell.
No idea how WH Smiths are still in business. The one in Bury always looks like a tip and the grim carpets remind me of a heavy night in the Student's Union.
Toys R Us is a weird one, here in Edinburgh they downsized their main unit citing "retail climate", meanwhile Smyths opened a new unit which was pretty much the same size as TRU's old one, filled it with good stuff, and sell it. They're 2 chains doing literally the same thing, in the same industrial estate, one is dying while the other apparently is growing at the same rate as Amazon. Smyths don't seem especially cheaper, for the stuff I compared, but they're definitely more up to date...
And the TRU felt like a pound shop - and that's not new- while the Smyths feels like a magical place with toys in their millions all under one roof. TRU can't even do online stock checks properly, I was looking for an item that they were advertising in a sale and the answer was "contact the shop", wtf? And no option to relocate stock to where you are.
(don't get me wrong, I love a pound shop, I just don't want to buy a £100 toy there, I want to buy haribos)
I know the underlying issue with TRU is that they're drowning in debt but they just seem to be a really rubbish retailer.
It's not like the demise of the high street hasn't been clearly identified years ago. Yet still the business rates that local councils charge for such locations are stupidly high. They need to drop these massively for any chance of shops to stay.
"Yet still the business rates that local councils charge for such locations are stupidly high. They need to drop these massively for any chance of shops to stay."
very much this.
I looked into commercial property recently. - the rates locally not even on the high street for NON RETAIL properties were astronomic.....
and for context i can move to peebles and pay rent and rates for the year on a building twice the size AND pay my mortgage.
Is it time for an honest discussion on the economic path the country is moving to?
No we needed that 30 years ago... now we just need to prepare for the decline.
We can moan about Maplin for selling cheap tat imported from China whilst employing people.
We can moan about Amazon .. for importing cheap tat, mostly from China
The truth is we are just consumers as a nation. We don't REALLY make much to sell. Even the things we "make" we mainly just put together or "sew on a badge saying finished in the UK" (the sewing the badge on being the finishing)
What can we do? Look for a nearby market where the people can afford the things we make (as opposed to buying them all from China)? or are we going to export our UK made Hope and Superstar to China?
Is this the "fault" of low interest rates?
Vulture capitalists unable to make a return in the banks resort to creating shell companies that buy businesses and grind them up to make a return? Saddle the companies with debt so all they do is pay the loan back, never improve or grow unless it's to pay rent to one of the other venture capital company's property owning divisions?
By paying rent they justify the collosal rent charged, enabling the land owner to borrow more money to set up more stores, all leveraged to the max?
All the while knowing that <span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">the government will sort out pensions...</span>
I thought toys r us and maplins we’re almost exclusively out of town shops? You know, the ones that were built on ring roads and were killing the high street?
anyway, the local ones to me (Bristol) were utter bilge. I wanted to like them and especially, take the kids to a toy mega store but really it was just a tatty shop full of poorly displayed toys...
I stopped using Amazon, avoid Starbucks, never used Uber etc, etc
No no real issue with Uber. Taxis generally have always been expensive and utterly shite for me.
With regards to Toys R Us it's a case of the hunter becoming the hunted.
They stripped bare the toy shops from the high street by opening large out of town retail units and undercutting prices.
But they then failed to respond to the threat of online shopping.
What comes around goes around, eh! Now they know how the high street toy stores felt like!
No no real issue with Uber. Taxis generally have always been expensive and utterly shite for me.
Shite and inconvenient. When I need a taxi it's generally because of some unforseen need so I didn't supply myself with 100 quid in cash, so their refusal to accept cards is a deal breaker.
I went in to Maplins yesterday, as I needed a watch battery, £3.99, not a common cell, so unable to walk in and buy one elsewhere, I usually use buy from a local independent hardware and mixed goods shop, not as cheap as on line, but convenient and useful, so I support it when I can.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">I could have bought one on line, but not had it there and then, a couple of days wait is annoying when you want to get it done and dusted.</span>
I bought a set of outdoor LED Christmas lights last year, they were half the original price and cheaper than the DIY stores offerings.
I remember Maplins when they had a store off the Kings Road in Hammersmith, but were largely mail order, with a huge catalogue to select from.
I think there is a place for Maplins, but probably not in its current form, it filled the hole left by Tandy (Radio Shack), but hasn't improved on it?
I'll miss maplin if they do completely go. Been using them for years from the first shop in Southend. My local one is a short walk away. Prices ate higher than the web but not crazy. Friendly helpful staff too.
TRU deserved to go bust, horrible shops, always felt like they expected you to shop lift and treated you as such from when you walk in. Smyth on the surface is the same concept but so much better. Welcoming and with some discounting.
Will miss Maplin, don't use them much but useful from time to time. Like most people though not often enough.
The truth is we are just consumers as a nation. We don’t REALLY make much to sell.
So what else does the rest of Europe make that we don't?
From what I see the Chinese churn out the vast majority of tech and everyday things we buy (toasters, kettles etc.) These are the same products that are sold all over the world - they aren't made just for us.
As a country we still make a lot of high quality stuff - just not the throw-away tat products.
Well, thirty seconds in and she's already repeated the lie about working for "the many". Downhill from here.
"5 tests" turn out to be meaningless waffle. What a shock!!
Irish problem left to unicorns.
So what else does the rest of Europe make that we don’t?
From what I see the Chinese churn out the vast majority of tech and everyday things we buy (toasters, kettles etc.) These are the same products that are sold all over the world – they aren’t made just for us.
As a country we still make a lot of high quality stuff – just not the throw-away tat products.
The rest of Europe makes a few things (SRAM/RS for one) we don't but that isn't really the issue I see.
Most of our products (and those of Europe) that are not tat have a fairly limited market and a huge slice of that market is "the rest of Europe".
Now don't get me wrong ... Hope make some fantastic kit and Superstar make some pretty decent stuff but it's WAY more expensive than made in Taiwan or Korea who also make some pretty decent kit as do Cane Creek or Chris King.
If I was in the US would I buy Hope or CC or Taiwan/Korea premium?
I'd guess CC if I wanted to support 'local' or Taiwan/Korea premium for value but I'm not going to pay a 50% surcharge for Hope over CC. (Just comparing a headset a CC is cheaper than Hope in the UK, that's before import duties into the US)
I’ll miss Maplin. Yes they were massively overpriced compared to online, but they were occasionally useful when I wanted something like a breadboard or components and didn’t fancy waiting a couple of days to see if the one from eBay China at a tenth of the price was actually genuine or not.
My main concern for Maplin is for the staff though.
That’s a lot of BO-laden socially-awkward introspective high-functioning autistics to drop on the job market in one go and the programming/IT sector can only absorb so much.
LOLZ.
or just buy from a reputable online source like RS or CPC Farnell? Agree it's a shame that there'll be nowhere now that you can just wander in & buy components once a year, but obviously that doesn't pay the bills for them. Ripping the arse out of Joe public with massively inflated prices did though, and they've got away with it for a long time so kudos to them for that, but it's time to see the back of them now!I’ll miss Maplin. Yes they were massively overpriced compared to online, but they were occasionally useful when I wanted something like a breadboard or components and didn’t fancy waiting a couple of days to see if the one from eBay China at a tenth of the price was actually genuine or not.
Debenhams will be next or Wilko,s both seem dated and oldie world.
Debenhams is quite likely, but I very much doubt Wilco will, they’re always really busy, and there isn’t a high street store that can match them for the range or variety of goods they sell or the price they sell at, they often sell cheaper than the Pound shop up the road.
I buy lots of stuff from them, I can walk into town and get stuff, instead of having to get in the car and drive up to the supermarket, although Sainsbury’s is within walking distance they’re not as cheap.
With regards to Toys R Us it’s a case of the hunter becoming the hunted.They stripped bare the toy shops from the high street by opening large out of town retail units and undercutting prices.
But they then failed to respond to the threat of online shopping.
What comes around goes around, eh! Now they know how the high street toy stores felt like!
Exactly this