Reply With QuoteWas it not in administration 2 years ago?
Just announced on PM
Sorry if this is too political.
Last edited by Imbrex; 9th January 2013 at 18:16.
Was it not in administration 2 years ago?
"Bite my shiny metal ass."
- Bender Bending Rodríguez
I thought so as well. Just checked and HSBC did a debt for equity swap - that kept it going.Originally Posted by stooo
Shame really.
it is a shame, but nobody buys any thing from there hence thats why its closing , amazon always beats them hands down
Another store that has been living in the past, and not in the Jethro Tull sort of way
I agree that Amazon prices are always going to be cheaper, but the way things are going we won't have anywhere to go and physically see items before we buy them!! Although having just read what I've typed, I'm probably a typical customer who checks out the item in store then finds it cheaper on-line, which is the reason for all of these stores closing......
Simon
I hate how Amazon doesnt pay tax, undercuts everyone and puts these stores out of business. Soon, there will be no way to test out a camera, touch it and decide, it will all be controlled by Amazon, with all their profit going to the executives, making everybody else worse off as it makes UK employees redundant etc...
I mean yes I buy stuff from amazon coz its cheaper than everyone else, but actually the TRUE cost of this is far higher than I imagined.
Sorry just read a book about the truth behind low prices lol
+1 here - therein lies the problem
Sad news indeed. I always found Jessops had knowledgeable staff and reliable in terms of quality - not staffed by bits of kids on minimal wage with little training. That said, times are changing and technology is marching along. The cameras on smartphones and tablets/ipads are good enough for most and anyone can get the images onto the internet and shared quickly and easily. Keen photographers who want/need the more specialist kit are more of a minority and are likely to be careful with their money so will shop around - which often means Amazon and similar get the business - so who is left as customers for the likes of Jessops??
I know, but unfortunately I don't know what the solution is. Everybody wants to save a few pounds and will look for the cheapest price, but those offering the cheapest price don't have the overheads of a high street store.
These stores, along with Currys and the like, need to attract customers through knowledgable skilled staff who can sell, unfortunately that doesn't describe the average shop assistant.
What they need to do is:
Tax online companies like Amazon like they do Brick & mortars.
Offer limited edition STORE Only models to encourage people to buy from stores, + things like extended warranties, etc
But yeah, myself included I always wanna buy the cheapest option so...sigh
Agree they need to sort the tax out as otherwise the on-liners have a 20% or so advantage - am pleased to see John Lewis is doing well with their mix of honest pricing, better warranty & "look at" physical stock although if they only match bricks & mortar stores there isn't going to a lot left to price match soon.
I bought my 7D from Jessops.
It was the cheapest place without buying from the grey market.
They had the perfect balance for me, online prices with a bricks and mortar presence. I know the store prices weren't competitive, but their online deals were good.
Of course, you had to buy online and collect, rather than just buy in store at the cheap price. This policy probably cost them long term.
It's sad really, especially with Jacob's gone too. I feel the need to check out bags, tripods and even camera bodies in my hand before I buy. There are fewer and fewer places to do this now.
I'm afraid to say it but post introduction of digital Jessops lost their way. In the 80s and 90s they were excellent, the stock they carried was massive, they had great staff and the prices were good. They used to make good money from Develop & Process / Printing but this has all but disappeared, sadly the whole market has changed massively. I was one who changed to using Warehouse Express after i found Jessops beginning to carry less and less stock instore. They would always say 'we can get that in 1/2/3 days for you sir' whats the point of shop that you can't carry goods away with you - you might as well order online for next day delivery and most semi-pros/pros decided this was a better option.
I'm finding that you can almost predict a high street chain that is destined for trouble in recent times simply due to the general in-store ambience and experience.
Local Woolworths and Comet stores both visibly became quite run down in the years preceding their closure, and there are other stores locally that are starting to feel a bit shabby such as Boots and WHSmith, who in the latter case I'd imagine are kept relatively buoyant by their grip on the general wholesale newspaper distribution chain for now at least.
It's reached a point where the town centre discount and £1 type retailers stores appear better stocked and kept than some of what were the high street giants of a few years ago.
I'd agree with being able to predict which stores are closer to trouble. Still think Boots looks pretty strong though.
It's difficult, isn't it.
I try not be sentimental. The market gets what the market (the market as a whole, taking all its players on all side sinto account) wants.
If there is commercial demand for a try-before-you-buy environment then a way will be found to provide it. I can see the likes of Amazon even opening their own try-and-order (Argos-style!) shops in due course. For them it will be a loss leader for the online business.
This means that smaller businesses and independents have less and less of a place but such is progress. As long as there is minimal state interference them it at least means that new businesses can be set up to exploit new niches.
Also, everything is a fad and goes in cycles. At the most people want 'free-on-the-Internet' or 'as-cheap-as-possible'. In time this will change. Where 'as-cheap-as-possible' provides consistently poor service (as it inevitably will eventually) then people will begin to desire better service (that AD experience, in watch terms). And then the cycle will come around to people en masse being prepared to pay a little more for better service. But it will take time, decades perhaps.
It all comes in cycles. Knowing that won't save certain businesses and business models now but very little can. Once upon a time there were a lot of wagon wheel makers. Now there aren't. Business and market forces in general move on. One should not be sentimental about it.
I agree that we need to sort out the corp tax as it's not a level playing field.
Bought my Fujifilm X10 in Jessops last year.
I was in optical express tonight , and there as a couple wehere the man was trying on glasses and his wife goes nice pair and wrote down the model no on paper and said we will see if its cheaper online.Bloomin heck ! I see that Chinease and American companies online try to undercut uK sellers especially with Uk sellers having vat and those ordering from abroad thinking its cheaper and forgetting to factor in the vat when it arrives in the uK>
Not at all surprised, they have lots of small stores which only carry basic consumer camera kits and not much else supported by staff who don't know anything. My local store was utterly useless, I use bricks and mortar but in my case either a trip west to Mifsuds or east to Robert White's/Castle Cameras. Mifsuds for example despite being on a street in a small Devon town is always busy. Jessops have no excuse other than their mismanagement of the business IMHO, blaming the internet etc. is a weak argument.
Let's keep helping Amazon drive their competitors out of business, Favourable tax rules, and we subsidise the post office just so they can give Amazon rediculus rates.
You couldn't make it up
I bought my D80, my S90 and my D7000 from Jessops. In all three cases they offered the best deal I could find, even when compared with the internet. It will be sad to see them go if they do.
Done the same - the reasons are obvious.....
Local specialist optician - Oakley Keel £399 including lenses.
Vision Express - Oakley Keel £299 including lenses.
Online - Oakley Keel £133 including lenses and delivery within 5 days.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
I bought a camera from Jessops in November and i thought the customer service was top notch, its a real pity, especially for the staff.
Yeah its a real shame. Soon we will have no shops and Amazon will rule us all!!!!
Until the next business comes alone to exploit the missing niche. It's all cycles.
Or Amazon will open try-and-buy shops...
Only once did I ever find a member of staff at Jessops, knowledgeable and informative of products on sale. That was a breath of fresh air.
A few years back I bought Canon 5D original, with 24-105 lens and got a cracking deal compared to online prices - bizarre as I usually end up buying online (from HK) for cheaper grey imports.
Or do what I do, shop in Italy for gorgeous handmade acrylic frames at less than €100, then go to my local, independent opticians who fit reasonably priced thin varifocal lenses.
I think many believe it's only good if it's expensive :-)
Just heard 185 (?) of the shops are closing down tonight....all the stock going back to a central warehouse and distributed to creditors.
The days are numbered for the shop who relied on the the guy who worked 40 years and got £800 in vouchers to spend on his retirement gift, and off to jessops he trotted, got sold something he could only use in Auto mode that cost £800, he died soon after and his son sold it on Ebay for £350 or best offer. so people kicking the bucket could be a part of the problem.
After the first scare 2 years ago they opted for employing students, nuff said,
Its sad but hardly surprising, the stock levels in my local shop meant you had about as much chance of viewing your prospective purchase there as you do with Amazon.
I know v. little about cameras, so Jessops was an ideal place for me to shop. Several years ago I bought a digital camera to photograph watches so I needed a reasonable macro facility. Jessops were excellent, giving me the chance to try a coupld and ensure I got what I needed. As for the price, I wasn`t bothered if I paid a few pounds extra, I wanted the convenience and the advice.
Buying online is OK if you know exactly what you want. If you don`t, a specialist shop is far better. Sadly, people don`t see it this way.
Our local Jessops closed a few weeks back, so I`m hardly surprised to see the group fold. That's another empty shop in a town centre (Wakefield) that's looking very down at heel thesedays.
We'll end up losing all specialist shops for everything and the town centres will continue their decline.
Paul
Indeed. But as I keep on saying, everything goes in cycles. When people begin to recognise that physically trying before you buy has value, then someone will come up with a way to exploit the niche. If there is a genuine need then someone will fulfil it.
I've mentioned that conceivably Amazon themselves could set up loss leader try-before-you-buy 'shops'. It's not beyond the realms of possibility.
Also, larger 'superstores' (either out of town or increasingly commonly in-town on brownfield sites) clearly still have a place for try-before-you-buy combined with competitive pricing, although even these types of shops are under pressure from the Internet (in the current point in the cycle, anyway).
Very true as things stand. But it always helps to look at the big picture: There is no inherent reason, no magical reason, why a high street is the best way to get items to consumers. High streets were a good way to do this in the past when they were created but there is no reason why it should always be this way. The fact is that high streets might simply need to be repurposed. This will change (and is changing) the atmoshpere of town centres but that's life: Change is a constant and there was no truly golden time in the past.
It would take a massive hike in the cost of transport (and/or a massive drop in rents and business taxes) to make high streets cost effective again for most goods/services other than ones that require personal presence or local facilities. This might actually be attractive to some people of certain political persuasions but it would, sadly, result in a much higher cost of living and overall lower quality of life for most people.
Last edited by markrlondon; 12th January 2013 at 02:15.
I have heard the Jessops near my work have had people in making silly offers for things!
A shame to see them go but they have concentrated too much on the printing of mugs, canvas etc.. and not enough on the camera stock!
They have it's called Argos.
Indeed so!
My partner went to buy her D60 a few years back at the store in Leeds. The staff there on a Saturday knew nothing about the camera and they didn't have any other lenses for us to try other than the stock lens that came with the camera body. We left pretty disgruntled and she bought online instead. I remember her saying that she didn't think they'd last long if that was a typical customer experience.
Fast forward a few years and I bought a used Leica R8 from a local independent here in Sheffield. When I had a problem a few weeks later I got a full refund with no quibbles, and we had a lengthy chat about trying to find me a replacement at a good used price. The staff knew the gear and were very helpful.
I think the future is bright for local independent camera shops with an active set of customers trading gear and getting film developed etc. - it's just the national chain model that's not going to work today, particularly if they never have any products in stock!
I don't know if I'd call the future "bright", exactly, for such people but I think there is a future for them. They have to be utterly focussed on customer experience, need that enthusiastic set of active customers, must keep stock of what their customers want, must always be looking at their customer profile to make sure they are not relying on a dying set of core customers(i.e. always be finding new enthusiastic customers), and probably need a very active online presence too. It's a niche though... there can never be that many independents fufilling this niche but for the few who can egt it right I suspect it's survivable (as long as government doesn't tax them out of existence or make employment legislation so costly that they can no longer afford to employ staff in the UK).
Last edited by markrlondon; 11th January 2013 at 22:11.
Remember what there was before Argos? Green Shield Stamps! A pre-digital version of todays reward points (Nectar etc.).
We have one here in Sheffield and no matter what time of day I have called, there have been >5 customers in the store. They may have their finger on the pulse, but you can only speak as you find - and to me their model seems to be a successful one.
Looks like the old cash flow problems?
Having to buy loads of stock pre-christmas on bank credit, then not being able to sell enough, I guess the banks lost faith and called in the loans. As people say, it's not a level playing field with the likes of Amazon (& many other on-line retailers, where lack of a physical store, keeps cost down so that they can undercut the highstreet retailer ??) It's a shame but the way things are going...
When we have the protection of the Distance Selling Regulations, do we really need to "try before we buy"? Why would Amazon want to set up expensive facilities for the great unwashed to apply their snot-encrusted fingerprints to a full range of cameras and other expensive electronic gadgets? What's in it for them?
Argos may need to prune their smaller outlets in order to survive, and when did anybody last go to Harveys?
I'm amazed that Halfords have survived as long as they have, but I suspect they're largely funding the business on the backs of their suppliers by imposing 90 day+ payment terms. I suspect that it's only a matter of time, because they're hardly the epitome of customer service. With their policy of only employing staff whose IQ's are exceeded by their shoe size the customer's buying experience is memorable for all the wrong reasons. And, God forbid, they'll fit parts to your car and give your new bike a reassuring safety check.
The typical High Street will, in just a few short years, consist of coffee shops, fast food restaurants, charity shops and estate agents. Shopping will be done on-line or in shopping malls (or "destinations") or out-of-town "sheds."
Regards
Ian
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
Personally, I think Halfords will be ok. For the average consumer bikes are not easy to buy online/return and it's good to try them first. The cycle departments to be fair do seem to be run by staff with at least some knowledge of bikes.
Much of the stuff sold in the motoring section is not easy to get on line either - oils, batteries, cleaning products, roof racks (same argument as for bikes) etc and it's handy place to get a spare bulb, wiper blade when required straight away.
Yes, for many types of item. DSR is a useful protection but it doesn't really replace actually trying multiple models before buying. It's a hassle, to say the least, to return unwanted items by post. Returning multiple unwanted items is even more hassle (and if you do it too much vendors will cease to deal with you at all).
Clearly at the current point in the cycle, lower costs from Internet vendors are winning the battle for hearts, minds and wallets. For most people, lowest price on commodity purchases is all that counts at the moment. But, in many cases, this is only in combination with using shops to try things out first! Sadly the shop often does not receive the resultant custom.
How will people react if and when the shops have largely gone? Speculation on this leads me to the try-before-you-buy prediction.
More sales. Why else? It's not a strategy that is needed right now. It's a possible future scenario based upon extrapolation of current and predictable near future trends.
Think of long term cycles. What is working right now will not work forever. Consumer preferences can and do change. Consumer preferences will likely change when there are far fewer shops to try things out in before ordering online. This will give larger online vendors a possible incenctive to create try-before-you-buy 'shops' to lock in trade that they might otherwise lose. It would be ironic that, having wiped out most local shop compettion, online vendors would turn to opening their own local shops but it's entirely plausible. It is one possible future.
Indeed so.
Before we all blame Amazon for Jessops decline, does anybody remember when Amazon weren't making any money?
If you were to set up a business like Amazon today, imagine the investment required.
Amazon guessed right how consumers would like to shop going forward, Jessops didn't. They had the vision, and the financial backing, to make it all work. Maybe Jessops could have done so as well? There are plenty of small independents trading via the Amazon market place too, which is to be applauded.
Apart from my rare foray into Jessops last week, I buy all my gear from the British independents, namely Mifsuds/SRS Micro Systems/Ffordes/MPB Photographic/Walters Photo & Video. They all do a fine job.
Having said that, the last camera body I purchased was from Currys! I never thought I would, but there price was the cheapest in the UK, including all the online stores. I don't buy from HK anymore, I value a warranty and ease of return too much.
Fortunately, there is still plenty of competition here in the UK to keep prices keen.
Interesting observations.
It will be cash flow related, because there's no other reason. My guess is that the major suppliers won't have been able to credit insure the debt, because the Company hasn't been cash positive and has had difficulty paying their creditors* so they will refuse to supply on credit terms. This is contagious, and leads to other suppliers withdrawing credit. The business would be forced into buying their stock for cash, which is untenable. The cash dries up very quickly and the plug will be pulled by the Bank as their Debenture can very quickly become worthless, as it will be secured by the assets, such as cash (which will have disappeared), unexpired leases (there's very little value in empty High Street shops at the moment), stock (which will still be owned by the suppliers) and not much else.
Typically, with no prospect of a return to profitable trading because the company can't obtain credit for supplies, there's nothing for the Administrators to - well - Administer. The Company has no tangible net assets which the Administrator can realise. The only hope would be to sell the Company to a larger company or investor who could restore or give it some creditworthiness. Good luck with that.
*Likely to include HMRC for VAT and PAYE, so the taxpayer may be taking a hit as well.
Regards
Ian
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
I remember a colleague saying back in 2006 that he had gone to Jessops, fallen in love with some sony camera, had a good play and a good chat about it. Gone home and bought it online for a good £200 less than the jessops price.
I feel sorry for the employees. The management really should have seen this coming and made better preparations and provisions for the employees.
Plug pulled with all Jessops stores ceasing trading at closing time today.
Last edited by KavKav; 11th January 2013 at 22:36.
Posting Permissions
