Seems like the greetings card market is on it’s knees

Its not, IMO Clintons is just a bit rubbish and pricey. If I want a nice card I’l go the indie place, if I dont it’ll be card factory, cant beat 5 cards for £1!

Drac

Subscriber

Bet that wasn’t on the cards.

There’s no rhyme or reason to it…..

I’m sorry your business went bust
But cards are no longer a must.
A text or a tweet
Is almost as sweet
And no one is really that fussed

👌🏻😂

survivor ^^^ it’s highly unlikely greetings cards are made from virgin fibre; they probably aren’t 100% recycled either.
You do understand that paper, card and board production is highly sustainable?
You might benefit from reading up on pulp & paper production, recycling and sustainability

I’m not on a particular environmental high horse nor do I care about reading up on recycling or sustainability of cards.

My problem is it’s entirely pointless in the first place.

You’ve been brain washed by the evil card making corporations to think you need to buy and send cards. You don’t. No one cares. Free yourself from their bonds brother. 😂

It makes me laugh when people say that the decline in the high street is a consequence of the growth of online, then suggest that reduced rents would have little effect. I’ve run both high street and online shops, so have a pretty good idea of where the issues are.

The fact is that warehouse rents are much much cheaper than high street rents, and business rates are also way too high in the centre of towns. The massive hikes in business rates a couple of years ago in most areas really didn’t help, either.

Now, lefties like tj would probably suggest that increasing business rates and rents for online businesses would help level the playing field, but most people with a brain would realise that this would be disastrous. What would be better is for high street landlords to accept that the days of taking the piss with rent are over, and bring things down to sensible, sustainable levels. £100k pa rents for an off-high street medium sized shop are just stupid (I’m looking at you, Bath & NES Council, but there are many other places that are just as bad).

JP

Yep. what’s really needed is to take land ownership out of the hands of a few wealthy individuals who buy up town centre properties and let it out at extortionate rates. Community Land Ownership in Scotland has, to date, been focused on rural issues but needs expanded, along with right-to-buy in the same way that large estates are obligated to sell to the community.

Now, lefties like tj would probably suggest that increasing business rates and rents for online businesses would help level the playing field, but most people with a brain would realise that this would be disastrous. What would be better is for high street landlords to accept that the days of taking the piss with rent are over, and bring things down to sensible, sustainable levels. £100k pa rents for an off-high street medium sized shop are just stupid (I’m looking at you, Bath & NES Council, but there are many other places that are just as bad).

Maybe, but there has to be a ballance.

Cant just make everything cheaper and more cost effective. Otherwise no one would have a job.

A high street shop closes because people buy their coffee and chess sets online because they have lower rents and fewer staff.

A few years later the coffee roasters realise they can just ship directly to the customers and chess sets can be bought online at alibaba.

Unfortunately now that no one has a job on the high street or in a warehouse there’s no one left to sell it to.

And there ends the modern allegory of 1920’s laizes faire American economic policy.

My problem is it’s entirely pointless in the first place.

You’ve been brain washed by the evil card making corporations to think you need to buy and send cards. You don’t. No one cares. Free yourself from their bonds brother. 😂

Amen brother. It’s time for the last card shop to be closed and the envelope sealed for good.

One of man’s less intelligent inventions as far as I’m concerned.

Indeed. Because before greetings cards were invented, people would simply send a letter on special occasions.

Which was far better for some reason.

I love it. Inventing a whole new thesis for me that bears no resemblance to what I think or say

Personally I believe it should have been done thru planning like the dutch have. NO big supermarkets allowed in town centres, no food retail in out of town shopping centres. Thais has been a policy for decades. the result is Dutch town centres still thrive, independents do not get squeezed out. the difference with the UK is like night and day

BTW – I am no lefty. I only seem like one to you because you are so far to the right. I am a liberal dark green if you want to know my political home. Or as Ernie once called me ” some sort of pale pink wishy washy liberal”

And of course stopping the massive tax fraud and evasion by companies like Amazon would help level the playing field,. Howver its not internet shopping that killed the high street. Its out of town shopping centres and oversupply of supermarkets

Amazon et al don’t commit any tax fraud they pay exactly what the outdated tax laws allow.

survivor – piss poor attempt at humour up there ^^^; or was it failed sarcasm?
Do you have a vision for the ‘high street’?
You may feel comfortable when it’s been reduced to a melange of charity shops, nailbars, bookies and massage parlours; maybe that’s what you’re used to – who knows?
As for the physical products sold by Clintons and others, there’s a significant demand and long may that continue.
You’re welcome to your opinion; I think you’re wrong – brother.

drac & tj^^^- I’m with TJ’s sentiment but, as drac pointed out, amazon et al cannot be accused of tax fraud.
They use the loosely written tax rules to their advantage and know that the likelihood of governments working together to develop a cohesive tax policy for internet companies is vanishingly small.
Oooh look, there’s an open door – let’s push it and see what happens; answer – nothing.
Problem is the lack of co-ordination – and absence of a real determination to find a means of ‘levelling the playing field’.
Until that happens Bezos and others will fill their wallets – tax free.

For all you grumpy pants have a card on me.

I think the greeting card industry needs to go altogether… All those trees, all that fuel in transportation for what? For someone to look at a card then throw it in the bin a few days later. One of man’s less intelligent inventions as far as I’m concerned.

It would be interesting to know the carbon footprint of the card industry.
It’s not right to say its killing off trees. If we did not have a card industry, the trees would not be planted to support it. Is the production and transport pollution offset by the life of the tree? I dont know.

The business model of Clinton’s does seem a bit s**t though. I understand people hoping to preserve the skills and knowledge of their high street butcher and baker, but what does the high street card retailer bring to the specialist table?

You do not think its fraud to export all the profits? Of course it is. It might not be illegal but it certainly is fraudulent because its based around false reporting of profits

Wonder what percentage of young folk (under 30) still purchase cards. I’m an old duffer and tend to give folk a call, drop a text, WhatsApp or as a last resort Facebook. Cards might be sustainable, I don’t know, but it just seems like such a waste.

I suppose the one positive of buying a card from a gift shop is that you get less of those creepy cards. You know the ones. Where somebody you vaguely know thinks it’s a good idea to send you a family portrait and you kind of recognise them.

I’ve worked in retail design for 20 years, what’s happening to bricks and mortar retail is obviously not good for my industry which is why I’ve been trying to get out for years, this year I’ve finally got an exit plan that appears to be working, and it involves bikes which is a bonus :0)

Retail is going through a major change which is being affected by online retail but it’s not the only reason.
– People are busier than ever before, they don’t want to spend the weekend queuing for carparks (and paying for the privilege) just to find their size isn’t in stock. What was once a leisure activity (for some) is now a chore for most.
– Many retailers have degraded the shopping experience by concentrating on cutting store staff. What’s the point of buying in-store if the staff no less about the products than you – see Mothercare.
– Like politics, retail is becoming polarised with the middle ground being ripped out leaving the budget stores at one end and high end at the other.

The tax regime for bricks and mortar certainly needs to be looked at to make the playing field a bit more level but bemoaning the loss of national retailers who provided an outdated shopping experience is pointless.
I actually think independent retail will start to grow again, not based on price but on being able to offer an experience that can compete or accompany leisure activities.

Quite a few years ago a chap i knew spent a few hundred quid on cards to sell on the local market, huge mark up on the proces paid,and they sold reasonably well.

People bought and sent cards then postage was a lot cheaper, its not now, and royal mail have just been told to pay 50 million quid fine for a monopoly service so expect stamps to rise in price.

You’ve been brain washed by the evil card making corporations to think you need to buy and send cards. You don’t. No one cares. Free yourself from their bonds brother. 😂

I stopped doing it years ago. I still send cards where it’s “expected” – mum’s birthday for instance – but the idea of sending Christmas cards to everyone I’ve ever met is just barmy. For the last few years now I’ve put the money I would have spent on cards towards a food bank donation, followed by an (obviously virtue-signalling) post on Facebook showing a bag of food and saying “this is why I’m not sending you a Christmas card and why I don’t want one.” Hopefully it’ll catch on.

amazon et al cannot be accused of tax fraud.
They use the loosely written tax rules to their advantage

And of course, this has nothing to do with brexit and new EU tax laws.

You do not think its fraud to export all the profits? Of course it is. It might not be illegal but it certainly is fraudulent because its based around false reporting of profits

You seem to have confused “legal” with “moral” here. If it’s not illegal then it ipso facto cannot be fraud. These companies may be acting immorally but if they’re working inside the letter of the law then they’ve done nothing wrong, it’s the law which is at fault.