The High Street Crisis in Britain

Poundworld yesterday announced the closure of its remaining 190 stores with the loss of 2,339 jobs. The discount goods retailer, which went into administration in June, said the stores would close by 10 August. In total the collapse of the chain, which had 335 stores, will result in the loss of 5,100 jobs.

Administrators, Deloitte, said they would continue discussions with interested parties to try to sell the shops which were still open. However, the longer that process continues the less likely it is that a buyer will be found.
Poundworld's head office and warehouse in Normanton in West Yorkshire are set to close on Friday, and 299 jobs will be lost there.


The discount chain, founded in 1974, went into administration in early June after struggling with tough competition on the High Street from rivals including Poundland and Poundstretcher.
It was also hit by the fall in the value of the pound after the 2016 Brexit referendum, which has pushed up the price of imported goods.

Poundworld is not the only casualty on the UK High Street this year. Squeezed consumer incomes, online competition, rising overheads and too many shops have put pressure on a string of retailers.
Maplin and Toys R Us have both gone into administration.
Other High Street names, including Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser, Carphone Warehouse, New Look and Carpetright, have announced significant store closures.

I think the budget that Hammond presented to help the High Street should have been one that should have been delivered right at the start of the crisis and does leave me wondering how many will survive once Christmas is done and dusted and we lurch towards Brexit day, March 29, 2019.

HMV in trouble again:

https://news.sky.com/story/2200-jobs-at-...n-11593091

HMV owners took nearly 50 million out of the business

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/busin...-88dnf37qs

3.000 jobs are at risk as Patisserie Valerie are placed in administration - wonderful cakes (better than Sainsbury's I haste to add), after £40m black hole was discovered in ledgers due to 'fraudulent entries' and a standstill on its banking facilities which prevented action on recovering debts expired last Friday the company own 200 cafes which would yet another blight on the high street i it was to close.

Tesco's to cut 9,000 jobs in restructuring programme

(29-01-2019 10:27 )babelover48 Wrote:  Tesco's to cut 9,000 jobs in restructuring programme

While it's obviously terrible news for those affected, Tesco isn't really a 'High Street' shop.
In fact it's been part of the problem for the High Street and this might actually drive custom back to local butchers and delicatessens.

^Let's hope that proves to be the case

^ maybe, but it seems to me that the explosion of the "Local" branded smaller/convenience size branches of the big supermarket chains like Sainsburys and Tescos etc chasing market share away from their traditional edge of town drive-in-retail park locations and into more of the central high street areas of towns and cities has already killed off a lot of the independent shops that used to be in those locations ?

Pretty devasting survey analysis with breakdown of what's been happening closer to home while everyone has been infected with the Westminster inspired obsession over the channel: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/ng-in...five-years