[richie]

I was speaking to a guy that works in Zavvi about a week ago,  he said that they havn't found a buyer yet.  He went on to say that the way he found out that the company was going to the wall was.....customers were telling him???  As it turned out,  the top dogs all knew by 8.30am then it was realeased to the news desks & tabloids at 9.30am then all emplyees of Zavvi were told at 11.30am.  Pretty much was the same for woolworths employees.

Zavvi still looking for a buyer,  they are having NO new stock delivered. 3400 workers & 125 shops

M&S cutting 1000 jobs.  They are restructuring so losing what they class as non essential staff.

Adams is more than likely to be bought out by George of Asda.  111 shops closing but keeping the remaining 160 shops open in the hope it is sold.

Waterford Wedgwood who were due to celebrate their 250th anniversary this year have gone into administration with over £400 million of debt. 1900 UK workers & 19 shops.

Passion for Perfume have gone into administration closing all 45 shops immediately.  Nearly 200 job losses

HMV/Waterstones are getting ever closer to the wall 

Argos are looking at closing ALL its outlets & going WEB ONLY.  Over 700 stores employing around 34,000 people throughout the whole company.

JJB sports, JD sports will soon be gone.

Comet will be going.

WH Smiths not looking rosey.

PC World not looking good.

Many high street stores are reporting downturn in sales as is to be expected.  Anyone know of any other stores that may be soon wiped off the face of the earth?

Richie.

[Ian Rochester]

Not so much the national companies, but local to us we have had two builders that we did a lot of work with go under, one owing me £1000+ for office cleaning work  .

Also the local Kia garage, who we do the showroom windows for closed shop yesterday, luckily for us they pay on the day so owe us nothing.

There are also two pubs who we do annual cleans for, who have cancelled their January cleans and are sound like they are on the brink of closing.

We've had three cancellations for domestic window cleaning over the Christmas due to people being made redundant.

We clean the windows on the local Argos on a weekly basis so I'll be keeping a close eye on them, though we're only subbies to the main cleaners so it'll be them I chase up.

I was in HMV last week and they were selling 3 x DVD's or CD's for £5

[Ian Gourlay]

Thing to remember about W.H.Smith they have never been subject to a take over or buy out.

Unless this yearslosses are exeptional they stillhaveadequate resources.

Iam expecting profits to be down considerarably but they can pull through.

I am a very minor shareholder.

THey might even be in a position tobuy Waterstones back

do not think they will want  HMV, they withdrew their stake in Virgin Record Stores two years before Branson

[mark_roberts]

A guy who I know is a plasterer hasent worked in two months.

Had a local drain cleaning co out to unblock a drain yesterday and they laid off 5 before Christmas and are very quiet.

Im chasing all monies owed asap just in case.

Mark

[Dave_Lee]

Ian,
I hope you are right about W H Smiths. My son works in the bookshop, on the flight side at Gatwick Airport. He says they are remaining busy.
Dave.

[derek west]

dave.
went in every shop in northwich just before xmas and the only one that had a massive queue at the tills was wh-smith,
just some comforting words there for ya.
derek

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

As with a lot of businesses there is more to WH Smith than meets the eye.

They have a huge business just distributing newspapers and the like to ALL or most outlets that retail newspapers and magazines.

[Dave_Lee]

Cheers Derek. I see some US finished early today!
Dave.

[derek west]

didn't even start today dave, can't do anywork til the wife perks up a bit, chief babysitter and housewife plus nurse at the mo. bluddy hard work. rather be capet cleaning. just glad its happened now when theres not much work about, well not for me anyhoo,
derek

[colin thomas]

blimey richie, i'm not an ostrich but leave it out, doom and gloom is all we are getting these days. i'm just going to keep my head down and keep working!   

not sure about the argos and currys thing, just because on here people are computer literate there are millions out there still who dont know a computer from a milk bottle,

colin

[Mike Osbourne]

Don't say that Derek she will want a pay rise when she gets back to health.

[derek west]

she will be getting a rise from me when she's feeling better but thats got nothing to do with money
derek

[Mike Osbourne]

That is way to much information Derek. :

[derek west]

sorry mike.
its been a while, oops there i go again.
ahem! dominoes for tea, yum.
derek

[clinton]

Derek

You will have to try theose other web sites

[derek west]

no thanks clinton.
my wifes lovely and well worth waiting for.
all together, aaaawwwwwwwww
derek

[clinton]

 

[terrymaloy]

Bloody hell Richie...you're a ray of sunshine are'nt you !

Hope you're wrong about JJB sports...I've just asked for £80s worth of JJB vouchers (rewards with my credit card points)

[spencer davies]

Tchibo will be closing too, they have warned the staff that they will be getting one months notice soon. Adams shut on Saturday.


S

[Neil Williams]

Hope you're wrong about JJB sports...I've just asked for £80s worth of JJB vouchers (rewards with my credit card points)

All the best because Zavvi have stitched us up good and proper.
In Nov we bought £80 of Zavvi vouchers for the godchildren. When they went to use them in January the shop wouldn't accept them as payment.
Now let's get this right, they had £80 of our money up front and now they won't honour the vouchers. I told the girls to just pick up £80's worth of goods and just walk out of the shop and throw the vouchers at the till staff. (There would have been no intent to steal and it would never have got to court- trust me ex-plod).
As it is you can send the vouchers away to head office who will send the money back in return......so why can't they do that in the shop?