Agenda 2019

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/22/white-goods-set-to-soar-on-black-friday-shoppers-rush-beat-price-rises-brexit This year’s  Black Friday  will be the biggest yet  Black Friday. Another American "event" imported to this country by shops and retail businesses driven by possibilities of making even more profits. Black Friday soon to be followed by Cyber Monday, yet another American phenomenon rather than "a UK tradition" as the Sun (who else) would have us believe, giving consumers the opportunity to purchase products at ridiculously reduced prices. The issue that I have with these two examples of business greed giving the public the likelihood of becoming involved in fist fights between the rows of shelves in Argos or a thousand and one other shops in the high street, and/or experiencing the trauma of websites crashing as customers try to purchase on line, is that both Black Friday and Cyber Monday are not just 1 day events. I have ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/07/morrisons-sales-fall-christmas Morrisons suffers miserable Christmas Sales slump at Morrisons On the first of January, the Morrisons Facebook page asked, "We hope everyone had an amazing night welcoming in 2013… let us know what you got up to!" In response, I posted the comment, "Brought a couple of Sirloin steaks from Morrisons Bridport, cooked them to medium and served with thick potato chips and a bottle of very nice red wine. The steaks were awful. tough, inedible and were eventually consigned to the bin.(and they were very expensive ! That's the last time that we buy steaks or any other meat from Morrisons)." Now this is not the first time that the quality of products from Morrisons has been poor and the price has been excessive, so it is not surprising that  their sales have dropped. The only surprise is that it seems that they are only referring to the Christmas period. In these time of econ...

Unsecured creditors to Comet, primarily landlords, stand to lose more than £200m from the collapse of the electricals chain.   Henry Jackson . OpCapita Comet stores closing down An additional 6,600 people today join the statistics of those unemployed in this country following the closure of the final 49 of the original 236 Comet electrical stores. The collapse of Comet is one of the biggest failures in high street outlets since Woolworths closed in 2008. Comet was placed in administration by owners OpCapita earlier this year and  Deloitte, was appointed as administrator to Comet in early November. OpCapita purchased Comet  in 2011, just 9 months ago,  for a price of £2. and at the same time received a £50 million "dowry" as part of the deal. Following the collapse of Comet, the government will be faced with a bill of £50 million to cover redundancy payments for 6,800 staff and unpaid VAT.  OpCapita, as one of the top "...

  http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/9893687.Top_retailer_quits_Weymouth_town_centre/?ref=mr WEYMOUTH’S high street has been dealt another blow as it is revealed a major retailer will leave town after more than 25 years. Never mind the "Olympic legacy". Weymouth is dying. Charity shops and "here today, gone tomorrow" shops, in many cases selling only tack and cheap rubbish do nothing for the town. There will soon be yet another "To let" sign in St Mary Street.

http://news.sky.com/story/964120/mp-paying-tradesmen-in-cash-is-morally-wrong  A Treasury minister has hit out at households who pay tradesmen in cash, saying it is "morally wrong" as it helps workers avoid tax. "Getting a discount with your plumber by paying cash in hand is something that is a big cost to the Revenue and means others have to pay more in tax. Exchequer Secretary David Gauke is a complete pillock. I can negotiate a discount for paying cash with all sorts of businesses. The high street shops are more than willing to reduce prices, sometime by as much as 15% in order to secure business especially in the furniture or white goods products. Car franchises usually offer cash discounts on the purchase of cars and vehicles. When Gauke and his ConDem coalition government has inflicted this pressure on the economy and consumers, there is every reason for the consumer to secure the best deal possible whenever a purchase is made. The privatised comp...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis- The past decade has not been kind to Marks & Spencer, and yesterday the company reported that like-for-like sales in the past quarter had fallen by 2.8 per cent. M & S have been in decline for some years. It seems to stem from the time when a television programme exposed the fact that M & S were sending labels showing "Marks and Spencer: Made in England" to third world countries to be attached to garments made in local sweat shops. There has been a significant fall in quality of the vast majority of their product range over the last few years, and control of consistency, particularly in size range is non existent. Their decline in the high street, may well be terminal, but would not come as a surprise.