Inevitable - it won't be the last to fail
This has been a long time coming but utterly inevitable. These electronics chains were exploiting the extended warranty scams ruthlessly, and all seemed to work together to avoid discounting and giving the consumer a fair deal, there was no true price competition. In addition to this the staff were untrained chimps who were paid peanuts. As soon as an alternative (the online seller) came along with better deals and convenient delivery to the door, the days of these big retail chains were already numbered. They could have cut their losses, jumped on line and dumped their bricks and mortar operations back then, but they didn't, instead re focusing their efforts to exploit those shoppers who were not on line or who were unsure about the technology, some of the appalling misselling I have witnessed in these stores is truly sickening, with the elderly being their main targets. Personally this parasitic practice was a disgrace, and I'm glad to see it removed from our high street. The other parasites guilty of this are Currys / PC World and Apollo 2000, so I am hoping to see the headlines that they will be vanishing from our high streets and retail parks soon.
The future of electrical retailing is invariably manufacturer funded demonstration facilities, with fulfillment being carried out by the likes of E-Buyer or Amazon, but instead of retail chimps, we get knowledgeable product demonstrators, the cost of this being borne by the manufacturer as a marketing cost to do business.
Add to this the Liebour years, with their hatred of private motorists, making even getting to these stores a major inconvenience, and the online option looks really good. I hope all of those supporting the motorist hating policies can now see clearly where their misguided religious beliefs about anthropomorphic climate change has led us, I hope they're proud of their efforts and the destruction of the retail environment where many young people used to get their first jobs, I guess it's now McDonalds or Burger King as the only options now.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
