Borders closed

PGM

I think its a sad thing when a chain of book stores closes. Sign of a bad economy, or that people aren't reading, or cut price internet sites and supermarket selling just the best sellers?

Whatever the cause, it can't be good for society that it can't sustain the odd bookshop!

AK002

I honestly think one day (soon) internet will ruin retailers.

CJC

PGM wrote: »

Whatever the cause, it can't be good for society that it can't sustain the odd bookshop!

Trouble is that most of the odd, small, independent booksellers are already long gone put out of business by the likes of pile-em-high, sell-em-cheap outfits like Waterstones for whom books are just products to be shifted. Living in the back of beyond like me Amazon is a lifeline as it also surely is for many smaller and niche publishers. Don't blame the internet.

The older of us may remember the Net Book Agreement that prevented booksellers discounting books thus protecting the smaller, quirkier and specialist shops and allowing publishers to maintain much more diversity and adventurousness in their lists. When it was abolished (another thing to despise Thatcher for) many people predicted that it would lead to just the sad situation we have today.

blobbyh

As much as we dislike the likes of Asda and Tesco crushing our smaller, long established local businesses, who's willing to pay almost full price for a disposable paperback from your local bookshop when you get it two or three quid cheaper from your local supermarket along with your food shopping? Good intentions have to turn into hard cash if we want the smaller stores to survive but in these hard times we understandably go to wherever's cheapest.

Many small (and even large) businesses go bust because they focus too much on revenue generation and lose sight of keeping costs under control combined with fatally flawed cash management and collection controls. Many are doomed from the beginning by selling something the public doesn't really need or not selling at the right price. Often people open businesses based upon their hobbies and/or the errant advice of a few friends who aren't willing to invest their own cash. Does Worthing really need that fancy candle or photography print shop: how many hundreds must they sell each week to even cover their rent and rates, never mind wages or turning a small profit?

slackda

Even Better...Charity Shop....60p for Lee childs book, that was less than 6months old and was retailing for £6.99...., but again it is a shame to see a chain close,

Was thinking cos of the snow wanted to get a sledge.....oh wait...got no woolworths....im Glad that whittards (tea and coffee) has managed to weather the storm...imo like roberts post alot of this happens to miss management, at ym last company the target where all we need to hit X Million sales, no one seemed to care at what margin, what good is a Million pound order at a negative margin...a purelack of finance is also a major issue....like the dubai world fiasco....banks i know are using set repayment plans to forecast their capital...but come on getting your money back over a slightly longer term is better than getting back a fraction of it , destroying a company and ruining lives in the process....

OT do you remember the show " i remeber 1984" or some thing like that, there was a brilliant one off parody called "i remeber 2012 " where tescos stores had invaded the world, walking around on giant legs (much like the recent remake of the aliens in war of the worlds) was funny as

mark130273

well the internet will eventually take over everything and you wont have to leave home for anything, even work !!they will just send you your jobs for the day and then you will finish them and send them back ....adn wont even need a office because everything will be online anyway !

blobbyh

We still need to manufacture products but as more of our core industries go abroad, we're seeing their decline followed by the knock on effect of other industries going with them.

If you don't manufacture cars beause you've closed a plant, there's no three thousand workers to splash out on holidays, expensive visits to the hair dressers, nights out, florists, dvd's and pretty much everything else within the local infrastructure.

And we drive the decline because we continually demand ever cheaper products that can often only be achieved through drastic cost reductions, usually in the form of shedding British labour along with all it's prohibitive working laws.

There is no cure.

mark130273

blobbyh wrote: »

We still need to manufacture products but as more of our core industries go abroad, we're seeing their decline followed by the knock on effect of other industries going with them.

If you don't manufacture cars beause you've closed a plant, there's no three thousand workers to splash out on holidays, expensive visits to the hair dressers, nights out, florists, dvd's and pretty much everything else within the local infrastructure.

And we drive the decline because we continually demand ever cheaper products that can often only be achieved through drastic cost reductions, usually in the form of shedding British labour along with all it's prohibitive working laws.

There is no cure.

but like you said the only things that you will have to go out and buy is things that can be delivered !