Well it looks like administration for Comet. I have a lot of sympathy for the staff who are losing ther jobs, but based on what I’ve seen in my very rare visits there it had it coming.

Very sad. Yes it was coming from a long long time ago (sadly).

My recent experiences with them over a fridge was appalling. I went all the way up the chain to the MD’s office and was still told I’d need to pay a call out charge +costs etc.

A very clear illustration of evoke or die.

It amazes me that Argos are still trading. I don’t expect them to be around in 5 years time though.

It’ll be a different ARRRRGH!OS by then…

Yep. There’s a long tradition in retail of getting big, then getting lazy whilst the directors enjoy their salaries, get old and comfortable and lose their competitive edge.

Then because electronics is such a competitive business, these chains are the only people with the buying power and size to shift enough volume at low enough prices, so they are the only option for us poor saps.

Or something, anyway. I guess that changed when Tesco etc muscled in on bargain stuff.

/vulture

Will there be any bargains to be had?

Bad news for the staff, but its been coming. Very poor reputation.

But you can be a bulk retailer without patronising your customers, and providing appalling service.

yeah they are big employers, shame the business model never really changed with the times – yet more empty units in the out-of-town shopping center….well until a poundland opens up.

could be some big bargains instore too!

I’ll be sorry to see Comet go. I’ve had nothing but good experiences buying from them, couldn’t be more helpful and the staff are a lot more polite than the scum in the Currys 2 doors down from them, whose management (both local & national) have never even acknowledged the 3 letters of complaint we’ve sent to them.

No doubt Currys/PC World will be next…

No doubt Currys/PC World will be next…

I doubt it if their biggest competitor is about to go belly up. Apart from the supermarkets, they’ll have a monopoly position. Surely the holy grail for any organisation?

Yep. There’s a long tradition in retail of getting big, then getting lazy whilst the directors enjoy their salaries, get old and comfortable and lose their competitive edge.

theres a different game being played when venture capital gets involved – theres a lot of money to be made from a company going belly up.

For example:

Take a successful retailer with a good rep
Buy it
Reduce staffing levels, reduce stock levels, reduce maintenance, stop replacing dead bulbs in the carpark (in doing so reduce running costs)
For a while customers will keep coming, out of habit, even though the service is poor and they can’t always buy what they came for, and the place is looking more and more shabby.
During that time the retailer appears to be more profitable in terms of costs per sale
Sell retailer at a profit

New buyer pays too much for it and buys it just as customers have had one too many disappointments and stop coming through the door.

What also kills a lot of these big chains is being bought by people who’ve had to borrow the money to buy them, so the day they are bought the are immediately in debt and from then on are saddled with servicing that debt.

But Binners, the relentless competition from the online retailers will bear down on Currys/PC World as well…

New buyer pays too much for it and buys it just as customers have had one too many disappointments and stop coming through the door.

What also kills a lot of these big chains is being bought by people who’ve had to borrow the money to buy them, so the day they are bought the are immediately in debt and from then on are saddled with servicing that debt.

Is that really how it works?

A lot of these sales seem to be for a nominal amount (in Curry’s case £2), with a cash payment (£50 million I think in this case) paid to the purchaser.

Pretty sad in my opinion…I found them to be MUCH better to deal with than PC World / Currys who are what we are left with on the highstreet.

In fact this sums it up much better…

I’ll be sorry to see Comet go. I’ve had nothing but good experiences buying from them, couldn’t be more helpful and the staff are a lot more polite than the scum in the Currys 2 doors down from them, whose management (both local & national) have never even acknowledged the 3 letters of complaint we’ve sent to them.

Aye, way better than DSG, who are an utter shower IME.

Just because they go into administration, it doesn’t mean they are doomed. In fact, potentially quite the opposite.

It’s the unsecured creditors that are definitely in trouble. Not Sony but maybe the distributors of the products on the shelf that might get sold for peanuts.

Is that really how it works?

not specifically for Comet (but I also wouldn’t look at the most recent changes of ownership for any chain that hits the buffers). If was responding to Molgrips’ notion that the directors of these big chain were sitting with their feet up watching the cash roll in. The people who established these chains and made them successful will have long left the building.

I wouldn’t touch Currys/Dixons. Still their instore displays etc were waaaaaaaay better than Comet. Comet stores looked terribly tired- a symptom that the last owners really did think it wasn’t worth throwing money at. To go into administration just before their peak selling period….

The administrators may well save part of Comet. But there comes a point where no amount of rebranding or relaunching will save a busted brand.

Apart from the supermarkets, they’ll have a monopoly position.

Well.. The market is changing. Discerning buyers don’t go there, so they have to rely on walk-ins. And those people are seeing loads of tellies at good prices every time they do their weekly shopping.

They are trying to get ‘nice’ looking stuff on display made of leather, neoprene or white plastic, to grab impulse purchase. And I think there’s definitely a market for that kind of shop along with a place to pick up ‘essentia’l items (ie new headphones for yours that broke or a spare memory card etc). TVs and washing machines though – not so sure.

Perhaps they should have purchased a guarantee to cover the event of problems with the business?

I popped in to buy a filter coffee machine a while ago, it cost about £10. They tried to hard sell me guarantee that cost £30!

I don’t like being sold to nowadays, I like to be given enough information to make my own decision. Their model is out of date and hasn’t evolved at all. For that reason, I’m oot

If was responding to Molgrips’ notion that the directors of these big chain were sitting with their feet up watching the cash roll in.

Ok so that was speculation.

Mrs Grips worked for Borders books for a while. That was not doing particularly well despite being a huge chain in the US. They were bought by a consortium of business people who apparently had zero interesting in running a book store, and were either trying to make it profitable and sell it on or strip assets. In the end, the latter was what happened.

Their model is out of date

Well it wouldn’t be if their staff knew more than their customers. Many buyers are now well armed with reviews, specs and info from teh internets, so you really want to be able to look at the stuff in a proper setting and ask specific questions of someone who really knows their subject.

You don’t get that in DSG, you didn’t get it in Comet either. John Lewis are better and guess what? They are doing well.

Never been in a Comet store.

Been in Currys though and bought stuff.

Isn’t this something to do with Insurance and them being refused cover for losses or a premium sooo large they couldn’t pay it?

As said, supermarkets will eventually take over the (rest of the) distribution of electrics n stuff.

On my fridge- I told in store by the Store Manager ‘nothing to do with us but I can give you the number of a repair company’.

and then..

‘You should have bought the extra protection’.

I’ll shop where my custom is valued. Be it a Supermarket or elsewhere for my electrical goods in future.

I dislike Comet and won’t shop there. For me they never recovered from warranty mis-selling, we were duped into a free warranty – pay £100 upfront and then get it back after 5 years, despite keeping the receipt and paper work as required we never got our money back.

In my home town the Sony and Panasonic shops have closed down. More and more people are buying online. What we do need to think of is which companies might replace the loss of employment and the loss of business rate income which our local authorities rely on.

Another that is not surprised. Bought a washing machine online that was entirely different to the website description (ie, spin cycle not as fast, no quick wash, drum size different, no delicates wash etc.

But, because I had plugged it in and used it, they said it was deemed accepted. It took me hours on the phone arguing (politely but *VERY* firmly) before they backed down.

Two months later the same description was online.

Oh. I’ve just had a business idea.

You become an independent expert in TVs or whatever, then for a small fee you advise people either over the phone or in real life and tell them what to buy.

Might not make a lot of money though 🙂

It took me hours on the phone arguing

On their expensive 0871 number?

My wife tried to buy a new kettle at Comet recently.

They had problably 30 different makes/models on display.

And one in a box that you could walk out the store with then and there. This is a massive store and they had one kettle available to sell. Rubbish.

The only reason left to go to a store is to see the product and be able to get it there and then.

She ended up picking the one she liked and coming home and buying it £10 cheaper on the web.

Woolworths failed to respond when their market changed & their biggest profit line swung towards t’interweb sales and the supermarkets- they went bust.

Comet, like a few others of late, have gone the same way despite having the Woolies example as a warning.

I think Currys/Dixons would go the same way if it wasn’t for PC World being in the group as folk still seem to prefer to walk into a store to buy pooters & stuff.

Maybe I’m unsophisticated but I like just walking into comet get getting something you want.

I really can’t be ar5ed with comparing washing machines, hoovers etc…. even TVs …. boring…. too much choice, not enough time.

Get down comet … pick your price point… have they got it in stock… Yes…. Great that one then please… lets get outta here and do something far more enjoyable than wasting time on consumer rubbish.

I popped in briefly when I was looking at laptops a year or so ago. The staff didn’t seem to know any more about what they sold than what they read off the little cards on the display, which had varying levels of information and accuracy. A lot of models they only had the display ones available, which were looking pretty tired.

Or: go on Amazon, have much more information available and be sure it actually refers to the thing you’re looking at, and get a brand new one cheaper without having to actually go to the shops.

So I’m surprised they’ve lasted as long as they have. The internet means the only angle shops (of any description) have is service, expertise and convenience- if they can’t do those they won’t last long.

I’ll be sorry to see Comet go. I’ve had nothing but good experiences buying from them,

+1

I worked for them +20 years ago in their HO (Programmer – Easytrieve+ and CICS Cobol DL1) which was then still in Hull (the firm started there charging batteries for home radios – how the world has changed…).

tbh It started to go downhill after they’d fought off a Dixons’ takeover, and then brought their management in – and then moved the HO down south.

Wonder what will happen with my pension 😥 I answered a post on pensions last week where someone was talking of bring all theirs together, and advised not. This is why.

Can’t say I’m surprised. The staff in our local one are dire; I popped in there last week to enquire if they knew when they were getting stocks of the new fourth generation iPad and was told rudely that there was no such thing, only the iPad mini. I tried to explain that there was a new version due out with a faster professor and different connector…but no, all the info on web is wrong, as is the Apple web site that had them up for pre order. He was supposed to be one of the tech guys….

Went to John Lewis who said they expected to have them in on the 2nd as they hadn’t been told otherwise. I only went to Comet because I’ve got some vouchers.

On their expensive 0871 number?

Not a chance – I always find the normal call numbers (and we get free calls with our business plan so it cost me nothing) – apart from the 2 hours billable time I was sat on the phone to them of course.

I only went to Comet because I’ve got some vouchers

I’d use em up asap. the moment the administrators are in, and the stock is being sold off for peanuts, they’ll be worthless.

these shed places are a con– you can go to an independant family run place and buy the same stuff for less, with personal service and after sales thrown in for nowt . This is part of marketing bull, bigger is always cheaper.

price of veg in Tesco- price of veg in a market

one bought a kettle from comet

got it home and realised the one on the shelf didn’t match the sign on the shelf

Took it back to same store 2 hours later, unused and with receipt, yet they wouldn’t exchange it for the right one*

Never ever bought from them again.

*I forced them to exchange by leaving the original kettle and £5 price difference on the counter an walking out with the right one saying “call the police if you want”.

Not a chance – I always find the normal call numbers (and we get free calls with our business plan so it cost me nothing) – apart from the 2 hours billable time I was sat on the phone to them of course.

I was being passed from pillar to post round their call centre so I went onto Linkedin and contacted as many senior management as possible. The MD’s office called me back, talked me through then said ‘tough titty’ basically. Gobsmacked by the response. Basically after 6months the fridge cut out- repaired by them. Less than 1yr later the same fault re-occurred. Nope- not their problem. They magically looked into the issue and said ‘its not the same fault as last time’ without even having an engineer present to check. I asked if a large expensive product could be fit for purpose/good for the bin after 18months and/or their repair wasn’t upto scratch etc..

I ended the call with I’d leave the fridge in the middle of the shop on a Sat afternoon. YOU CANT DO THAT! I was told.