ToysRUs going to the wall - avoidable?
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I work for a small Town Council. The borough Council takes the business rates and we do not receive a contribution. However we employ one member of staff whose role is to engage the local business community. We have managed to put on an event or two to increase footfall but most of the businesses are not interested. The chains, charity shops and some traders who are doing ok, do not want to take part and we rely on a few local businesses to help the town bring in new customers. Certainly a blame the Council attitude.
Sometimes you have to look at the big picture, put something in to get something out.
A common complaint is nowhere to park, but all I see is people driving round looking for off street parking, when cheap Council run car parks have plenty of empty bays.0 -
Have free parking in the council run car parks then.7
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Short of Toysrus closing all their shops and buying up a massive warehouse, trading online only, I'm not too sure what they could've done tbh
Give it 25 years it'll be all online with Amazon and Tesco will provide the real shopping experience, with an Uber there and back. Everyone will save, on average, £94.72 a year, and it will be real value fpr money, so they'll be happy.
At least we won't need to suffer Dom and Matt Alright no more0 -
The borough Council provide the car parks free on weekends during December.MrOneLung said:Have free parking in the council run car parks then.
My council does not own any car parks. If the borough council provided permanent free parking then the cost of that service would surely need to come out of another service? First things first the businesses need to work together to create a more appealing shopper experience. They obviously can't compete on price.2 -
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Gravesham used to do free parking on a weekend, then they done the "Heritage Quarter" up, then they charged top rates in the "Heritage Quarter" so only have a couple of units occupied, then they decided to display local artist works in the vacant units and that's how it's stayed as far as I know0
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Gravesham do 2 free hours parking on a Saturday and free all day on a Sunday. They've also done a recent job of filling a lot of the shops down the old high street and the market revamp has recently finished. So all in all, not too bad a job by the council.1
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Christ, I told the wife last weekend that they were in dire straights yet she queued up for about 20 mins at the Bromley store in the Glades to get about £300 of gift vouchers on behalf of about 4 different family members for the young kids on the remote side of the family.
Just hope they get a chance to spend them before they go bust. I did try to tell her and said cash would probably be wiser but she knows best! Sigh.0 -
Always wiser to give cash. Gift vouchers are one of the biggest rip-offs going.JohnBoyUK said:Christ, I told the wife last weekend that they were in dire straights yet she queued up for about 20 mins at the Bromley store in the Glades to get about £300 of gift vouchers on behalf of about 4 different family members for the young kids on the remote side of the family.
Just hope they get a chance to spend them before they go bust. I did try to tell her and said cash would probably be wiser but she knows best! Sigh.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-wasted-as-people-dont-spend-gift-vouchers2 -
It's not really a rip off is it? You get exactly what you pay for, its just people don't use them, which is not the sellers fault.Stig said:
Always wiser to give cash. Gift vouchers are one of the biggest rip-offs going.JohnBoyUK said:Christ, I told the wife last weekend that they were in dire straights yet she queued up for about 20 mins at the Bromley store in the Glades to get about £300 of gift vouchers on behalf of about 4 different family members for the young kids on the remote side of the family.
Just hope they get a chance to spend them before they go bust. I did try to tell her and said cash would probably be wiser but she knows best! Sigh.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-wasted-as-people-dont-spend-gift-vouchers2 - Sponsored links:
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Bought a loaf of bread
Threw away last 5 slices that I didn’t use
Hovis rip off wankers !!2 -
Toy stores were ruined after Home Alone and BIG, unless they look like those then you may aswell use amazon1
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Maplin as well...a real shame, picked up a lot of stuff in there over the years.clive said:ToysRUs has gone into administration.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business0 -
Maybe if you'd bought it the firm would be ok?Big William said:
Maplin as well...a real shame, picked up a lot of stuff in there over the years.clive said:ToysRUs has gone into administration.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business11 -
maplin sell a lot of bits and peices but ultimately are usually in pretty pony locations and sell stuff too dear for a constant custom.2
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Carter said:
Bar a few exceptions every high street is the same victims of this corporate vandalismBaldybonce said:
and Turkish barbers.i_b_b_o_r_g said:What with the intetnet, the "big 4" (but mainly Tesco) and out of town precincts like Bluewater, all that will be left on the high streets will be fast food outlets, betting shops and the odd haberdashery here and there
Councils aren't blameless, they should have made town centre parking cheaper if not free years ago to help local economies out.
This.
Shopping is a stressful experience at the best of times without the added worry and hassle of parking difficulties.
If a place makes it difficult and unpleasant for me to visit I don't bother.2 -
Amazon Basics > Maplinpalarsehater said:maplin sell a lot of bits and peices but ultimately are usually in pretty pony locations and sell stuff too dear for a constant custom.
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A real shame, I was in ToysRUs this morning buying some stuff for my friends new baby, literally one of the only places out here you can trust to sell 'safe' kids stuff. I really hope their Asian business is OK!clive said:ToysRUs has gone into administration.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business1 -
Awkward... Maplin has just opened a store in Strood in a part of town they're trying to improve0
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Hope they both get some last minute good news2
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anyone who's cheapest hdmi cables are £10 deserve to go out of business, absolute racket that.palarsehater said:maplin sell a lot of bits and peices but ultimately are usually in pretty pony locations and sell stuff too dear for a constant custom.
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They've recently opened a store in Sittingbourne as well. Another business, like a lot of the restaurants chains that are currently struggling, that seems to be have expanded too aggressively.ForeverAddickted said:Awkward... Maplin has just opened a store in Strood in a part of town they're trying to improve
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I hope your relations haven't been slow in spending their vouchers.JohnBoyUK said:Christ, I told the wife last weekend that they were in dire straights yet she queued up for about 20 mins at the Bromley store in the Glades to get about £300 of gift vouchers on behalf of about 4 different family members for the young kids on the remote side of the family.
Just hope they get a chance to spend them before they go bust. I did try to tell her and said cash would probably be wiser but she knows best! Sigh.1 -
I think a lot of retail and restaurant chains will go under this year. Hard times ahead....0
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Back in 1997 I ordered a bunch of stuff from Maplin for my GCSE Electronics coursework project. I think they had one shop, which was basically a warehouse with a counter, in Birmingham, and a massive mail order catalogue full of relays, resistors, capacitors, diodes, LEDs etc. I never really saw the business model for a nationwide chain for those kinds of supplies and, ironically for a electronic supplies shop, they seem to have been severely under cut by online businesses.Gillis said:
They've recently opened a store in Sittingbourne as well. Another business, like a lot of the restaurants chains that are currently struggling, that seems to be have expanded too aggressively.ForeverAddickted said:Awkward... Maplin has just opened a store in Strood in a part of town they're trying to improve
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One of the problems with Maplins is they aren't cheap which is fine because of the convenience but they hardly ever stock the best options for anything. They do a lot of stuff you will only see in Maplin as opposed to higher end branded stuff that would probably sell a lot better
And their DJ stuff was shit
the counter was ok but didn't sell anything you couldn't walk into any electrical wholesalers to get0 -
Their Bluetooth keyboard was £14.99 I got.a better one on Amazon for £7.99.Carter said:One of the problems with Maplins is they aren't cheap which is fine because of the convenience but they hardly ever stock the best options for anything. They do a lot of stuff you will only see in Maplin as opposed to higher end branded stuff that would probably sell a lot better
And their DJ stuff was shit
the counter was ok but didn't sell anything you couldn't walk into any electrical wholesalers to get
I bought their power bank £19.99
I got a better one on Amazon for £9.99. (Theirs charge up to 60%, new one from Amazon goes to 75%).
After those purchases I have given up on Maplin and have spent far more on Amazon Basics stuff.1 -
I read in the paper tonight that Maplin has (had?) 200 stores and 2,500 staff. If these figures are correct it should have screamed out to management that something is wrong. That means that an average store is functioning with just 12.5 staff. Given the size of the buildings, I'd expect them to have more like 12.5 staff on duty at any one time, that number spread across the week is madness. But of course, anyone who's been in a Maplins, knows that there's only ever two staff on duty at a time: One standing behind the till who's dying of boredom and another circling the floor, frightening off any potential customers like a demented vulture whilst waiting to pick over the bones of their soon to be expired colleague.4
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I thought I'd forgotten my USB Charging Cable one morning so went into Maplin to get oneDazzler21 said:
Their Bluetooth keyboard was £14.99 I got.a better one on Amazon for £7.99.Carter said:One of the problems with Maplins is they aren't cheap which is fine because of the convenience but they hardly ever stock the best options for anything. They do a lot of stuff you will only see in Maplin as opposed to higher end branded stuff that would probably sell a lot better
And their DJ stuff was shit
the counter was ok but didn't sell anything you couldn't walk into any electrical wholesalers to get
I bought their power bank £19.99
I got a better one on Amazon for £9.99. (Theirs charge up to 60%, new one from Amazon goes to 75%).
After those purchases I have given up on Maplin and have spent far more on Amazon Basics stuff.
£8.99 it cost for a cable the length of a pen, thankfully didnt need it as hadnt forgotten my original cable so just returned the one to Maplin
You can easily get a cable like that for less than a fiver with good length, they really need to sort their pricing if they survive0
