What are you all up to

I miss BHS, my sister used to be a branch manager years ago. BHS used to do some very good value men's clothing for everyday wear and I quite liked their shirts which were sized well!!! I don't like tight fitting clothes. I have found that both JL and M&S have gone a bit too trendy with their menswear selection and sizing in the last 10 years. I appreciate I may have expanded but not as fast as they have gone the other way!!! There used to be something I think called "Bradford Sizing" which was meant to be a standard, it worked something like this a size 12 you added 20 to equate to a 32 inch chest size and so on and so forth. I can buy a shirt from different suppliers and for the same given size it can range from being unable to do the buttons up to something akin to a tent!!!

David

I heard that the Chester JL store closing as well. It's set on a shopping centre area called the Greyhound as that's where the old Greyhound racing stadium used to be along with the old Chester Football Ground. We didn't use it a great deal but have bought items from it on occasion. The biggest loss will be that it will take away footfall competition for electrical items and leave only Currys as the main supplier with a store.

We miss the old BHS and Owen Owen stores as well but such is life. Opportunities for others to step in if they can.

A long walk today. There's washing on the line with a brisk breeze blowing. Lawns are cut and weeds extracted just in time for brown bin day tomorrow.

 

David you are so right with regard to sizing! Complete nightmare even within the same range, same style in the same shop!

There's a store for the larger endowed ladies in the chest region. I have joined these ladies . Their designs are cut to accommodate just this area, it's been great not to have to go up a size to get a fit in one area and oversized in other areas like arm length, (Why do designers assume a couple of inches on the chest equals longer arms or legs?). In fact this store  has 3 choices for this curvious area. Always been good, buttons in proper places to avoid gaping, no pulling and puckering etc. But now they have gone skinny everywhere apart from this area, beautiful fit over shoulders and bust then it's like a an unflattering corset, sometimes resembling corrugated cardboard 😱,not on me you understand. If this is mentioned to the staff they say lots of people say the same!! I rarely buy their clothing these days.

My friend who is 5"9" and always wears 4'inch heels complains that long summer dresses and skirts are too long for her. I just look at her and say I offer free street cleaning service if I buy one.........

So much hassle buying clothes to fit, no idea why anyone considers clothes buying as an enjoyable hobby?

I think what JL are reckoning is that people will be prepared to travel to visit a store, time will tell if that is correct. In the case of Chester the alternative is Liverpool or Cheadle not places you just pop out to. The Chester store seems to be one of the JL at Home stores which were started not so many years ago as a relatively cheap way of getting a wider spread of stores around the country. For comparison Chester has just under 40000 sq ft of selling space but Peterborough, when it opened, had 150000 sq ft. Kitchen appliances I would just buy online now as I don't think I learn anything from staring at a white box. However something like a TV I would probably want to see it in action before buying?

David

I agree about the TV David. We bought a new one a couple of years ago and completly changed our minds as to the make and model after going into JL and looking at them 'in action' and speaking to a very helpful member of staff. I have had look at the profiles of the board members of JL - all relatively new appointments and very few if any with a retail background. I am of the opinion that they have jumped the gun and will realise in a year or two that they have made a mistake. I thought that some JLs in large shopping malls had an agreement to pay a much smaller rent as they acted as the 'draw' to bring in smaller retailers?

Our friend's daughter was a director at JL, she jumped ship a few years back, we wondered why at the time but I think things were starting to change. She was one of the entrants who were originally trained from scratch so they knew the system and the customers.

I wonder what happens to all the "partners" in these dramtic changes and closures?

DK, yes it was just an "at home" store.

Just had a look to see if our Santander branch was amongst the closures but it isn't.

Full list can be found at following

www.thisismoneyco.uk

 

brue, yes OH and I were discussing it yesterday and wondered about the 'partners'. It says it all really that the present directors are not trained from scratch. Do they really know what is happening on the shop floor? I worked for the NHS and it was the same there. They sat in their offices 'crunching numbers' and had no clue how the system worked 'at the coal face'.

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The Parachuting of graduates into senior jobs with little or no experiance of the company or how it works is not a new phenominum? it was happening when i was expected to take graduates (as they could absorb knowledge?)in 1992 ,and had no work experiance 

When i questioned one , if a fitter had a problem could he give assistants his answer "that is not for me to do that is why we have supervisors" 

And it has it seems got worse, some of the directors in most companies this club included have no experiance of the company but they have (as i have seen)  wonderfully written  CV papers? that makes one wonder how they got such experiance for their age ie 9 posts in 10yrs