John Lewis - Never Knowingly Having Retail Experience.

[Roger_Mellie]

The world her business needs has gone and it ain't coming back. 

The best thing they could do with most town centers is bulldoze them and turn them into parks. Stockton, for a change, is a trailblazer. 

[wherebee]

4 hours ago, One percent said:

We’ve gone from a generally law abiding country to one where violence and theft are rife.  Then you look at the names of those who tend to be the perpetrators.  Import the third world, become the third world seems to fit the pattern.  But no, let’s just leave that particular elephant in the corner of the room.  

The Uk was a very lawless society up until the late victorian period.  Razor gangs would assault people in muggings, and MPs needed armed bodyguards in Westminster square.

The difference to me is that back then, if some cunt tried to mug you, you could stick them with a sword stick and you'd get a  commendation from the mayor.  Try it now, and you lose your house.

4 hours ago, spygirl said:

Th run down state of a lot of city centres can be put down to the large number of potless migrants whove into them over the last 20 years.

Start kicking the potless fuckers out and things will improve.

 

 

Indeed.  I've been to thriving city centres in loads of countries.  You know what they don't have?  Chavs.

[sarahbell]

5 hours ago, spygirl said:

Business rates are totally fair.

They are based on rents.

Surely she needs to be looking at why rents are not zilch?

But ifthat happened then JL would probably go bust as its real estate portfolio is marked to sod all.

And by shoplifters, does she mean - blacks n ethnics?

Cos those are people who tend to be robbing.

Why not push for a law that would see any migrant and family thrown out of they comment any crime beyond a minor parking fine?

Indeed make not paying BBC tax a similar crime.

 

 

Is there not something about turnover being related too?

[Hail the Tripod]

On 06/09/2023 at 21:34, spygirl said:

Waitrose has a distinct feel of the  teachers staff room - loads of fat arsed 50+ wimmin standing around moaning.

Isn’t this every workplace these days? Every woman in the department expects to interrupt you with multi-hour whinges about how overworked they are while you are trying to do three things at once. It’s infuriating.

[spygirl]

29 minutes ago, sarahbell said:

Is there not something about turnover being related too?

No, just rebnts.

At elast directly.

The more turnover/profits an area makes, the higher the rents.

 

[eek]

31 minutes ago, sarahbell said:

Is there not something about turnover being related too?

pubs are turnover based as are garages...

Then again I know what I'm talking about unlike other posters here....

[sarahbell]

2 minutes ago, eek said:

pubs are turnover based as are garages...

Then again I know what I'm talking about unlike other posters here....

https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-business-rate-relief
There's a whole list of businesses who can apply for relief.

 

[spygirl]

https://www.gov.uk/introduction-to-business-rates/how-your-rates-are-calculated

Business rates are based on your property’s ‘rateable value’.

This is its open market rental value on 1 April 2021, based on an estimate by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

There’s guidance on how to estimate your business rates.

 

 

[spygirl]

Mosts pubs are rented for how much the idiot LL has got from their reduno package or savings.

The berwery will just close down the tenancy when the cash runs out.

 

 

[Stuey]

5 hours ago, Roger_Mellie said:

The world her business needs has gone and it ain't coming back. 

The best thing they could do with most town centers is bulldoze them and turn them into parks. Stockton, for a change, is a trailblazer. 

It is going to be truly magnificent once the work is completed.

There's also a great pub crawl circuit with the Sun Inn, Hope & Union, Golden Smog...finish off with a Vadah curry. 

This is why I might buy a second house. Stockton's below the radar a bit but won't be for long! 

[eek]

13 minutes ago, spygirl said:

https://www.gov.uk/introduction-to-business-rates/how-your-rates-are-calculated

Business rates are based on your property’s ‘rateable value’.

This is its open market rental value on 1 April 2021, based on an estimate by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

There’s guidance on how to estimate your business rates.

 

 

But not pubs nor garages / petrol stations

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/valuation-of-public-houses

and https://valuationoffice.blog.gov.uk/2022/03/25/how-we-value-petrol-stations/

[Roger_Mellie]

57 minutes ago, Stuey said:

It is going to be truly magnificent once the work is completed.

There's also a great pub crawl circuit with the Sun Inn, Hope & Union, Golden Smog...finish off with a Vadah curry. 

This is why I might buy a second house. Stockton's below the radar a bit but won't be for long! 

I totally agree. Get a couple of decent shops in along with the market and you've got something that becomes quite an attraction next to the river 

[The Generation Game]

6 hours ago, Roger_Mellie said:

The world her business needs has gone and it ain't coming back. 

The best thing they could do with most town centers is bulldoze them and turn them into parks. Stockton, for a change, is a trailblazer. 

Because they've already bulldozed the town and turned it into a car park?

[Roger_Mellie]

6 minutes ago, The Generation Game said:

Because they've already bulldozed the town and turned it into a car park?

No, they're bulldozing the shopping centre that cut the high street off from the river and having a park instead. 

Makes perfect sense. Fewer retail units in a more attractive setting. It's the direction all town centres should go. 

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Roger_Mellie

[The Generation Game]

54 minutes ago, Roger_Mellie said:

No, they're bulldozing the shopping centre that cut the high street off from the river and having a park instead. 

Makes perfect sense. Fewer retail units in a more attractive setting. It's the direction all town centres should go. 

 

It's been a fair few years since I've visited Stockton. Are we talking the shopping centre by the Millennium bridge or is there another one further north?

[sancho panza]

the blame game appears to be starting.

 

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/john-lewis-boss-calls-public-115447681.html

John Lewis boss calls for public inquiry into decline of UK high streets

The boss of John Lewis has called for a royal commission into Britain’s high streets, which she said risk becoming “looting grounds” for crime and overrun with vacant shops.

Dame Sharon White, chairwoman of the John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose, said some UK towns and cities have become “shells of their former selves”.

“Boarded-up shops left vacant, dwindling numbers of banks and post offices… and, in their place, seemingly endless rows of vaping and charity shops,” she said, writing in The Telegraph.

The retail boss said a royal commission – which is an independent public inquiry – could give them a much-needed boost.

There needs to be a “holistic view” of the problems facing high streets, rather than individually investigating issues such as tax, crime, planning, housing, and environmental policy, she argued.

The British Retail Consortium said in a report in July that some 6,000 shops have closed down over the past five years, largely due to “crippling business rates and the impact of the Covid lockdowns”.

Dame Sharon’s call came as some of the country’s biggest retailers urged the Chancellor to freeze their property taxes, saying a rates increase could add around £400 million a year to retailers’ bills.

Major chains including Tesco, Marks & Spencer and B&Q are among those who wrote a letter to Jeremy Hunt on Monday in a bid to prevent costs running too high for already under-pressure businesses.

Dame Sharon said retailers are “unfairly hit” by business rates, adding that a royal commission could develop proposals for a fairer system which keeps up with the changing face of the high street and shopping habits.

[Stuey]

26 minutes ago, The Generation Game said:

It's been a fair few years since I've visited Stockton. Are we talking the shopping centre by the Millennium bridge or is there another one further north?

Yeah the one that had a footbridge going into it from the river. 

[spunko]

On 07/09/2023 at 10:48, azzuri82 said:

Waitrose is great for popping in and getting 'the' branded item you need there and then. For for the daily necessities - no way in hell could you afford those prices for everything.

I disagree. There is  IMO no point in buying branded items in Waitrose, you can get them from anywhere - they price match to Tesco.

Where Waitrose  comes into its own is that it's great for obscure ingredients. I cook a lot of dishes from around the world, and the other supermarkets offer very little range if you venture outside the Standard Western Diet. Online specialists sell most of the ingreidents but you need to buy in bulk.

If Waitrose goes under I will miss it. I know a lot of DOSBODers have been taken in by the idea that 'less is more' by the German discounters but I personally that is absolute bollocks. A wider range of foods is what we need, not less.

As for the John Lewis side of the business, they've fucked that up by chasing lower prices. JL shoppers don't want lower prices, they want a decent service and are happy to pay more. The fact JL are using Hermes and Yodel as their couriers says it all.

[No One]

On 07/09/2023 at 00:19, sancho panza said:

Oh the Hope!!!!

To be fair,I think JL were sailing up poop creek long before she arrived.Amazing though that someone with near 'zero' retail experience got such an important job.Looks to me like she got set up to be the fall guy tbh.If you can't see the patsy etc etc

ex Cambridge Uni/Civil Service/Treasury/World Bank/British Embassy/Ofcom then errrrr...Chairman JL.

I think it's going to be close who goes first but Asda likely wins it over Morrisons and JL.

Sept 2019

https://www.managers.org.uk/knowledge-and-insights/news/new-face-and-leadership-style-at-john-lewis-sharon-white/

It’s said that some staff at John Lewis wept with joy when Sharon White was announced as chairman of the department store chain. White is the first black woman to chair a large British retail business and, given that such roles are usually filled by white, privately-educated men, it’s easy to understand why her appointment was greeted with such emotion.

One in six John Lewis Partnership employees are black, Asian or minority ethnic, yet business leaders from those backgrounds remain rare in the top echelons of British business. Role models like White, therefore, are crucial in achieving true diversity and inclusion. She demonstrates that — despite obstacles left in her path — bright, capable and talented women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds can aim high and fulfill their potential.

Importantly, White’s appointment to one of the most high-profile jobs in retail — with its near-£1m salary — was made on the strength of her CV and track record alone.

The daughter of Windrush-generation Jamaican immigrants, White was born and raised in Leyton, east London. Her father worked for British Rail and her mother was a machinist. She accepted a place at Cambridge University to study economics, after which she took a year out to work in a deprived area of Birmingham and subsequently joined the civil service in 1989. She fast-tracked through the ranks to the Treasury, eventually becoming the first black person to be a permanent secretary there.

White has worked at the World Bank and British embassy in Washington, as well as in Tony Blair's policy unit at No 10. She has joined John Lewis after four years as chief executive of communications regulator Ofcom. Though linked with top public sector jobs, including Governor of the Bank of England, it’s clear that White has been preparing herself for a move to the private sector, taking a non-executive role on the board of house builder Barratt Developments.

She has described her management style as "delegating” and has been active in coaching and mentoring women at the early stage of their careers. She’s earned a reputation for briskness and efficiency; former Justice Minister Kenneth Clarke describes her as one of the brightest people he has ever worked with.

While in her role as second permanent secretary to the Treasury, White was responsible for overseeing the UK's spending cuts. In this job she proved her skills of diplomacy, as she had to "cut left, right and centre and managed to do it without really falling out with everybody," one colleague has said.

Others have described her as “down to earth and approachable but tough when she needs to be” — someone who “gets on well with everybody but no pushover”. Indeed at Ofcom, White showed herself ready to take on big interests, including BT, the BBC, mobile operators Three and O2, and even the Russian government.

Under White, Ofcom showed an appetite for intervening on behalf of consumers in pricing disputes. It also showed willing to challenge the growing influence of social media sites and streaming video services, even though these fall outside the regulator's remit.

In these different roles, White has honed her skills in cajoling and charming those who walk the corridors of power, in Whitehall, Westminster and in business. Now she has the small matter of turning around the performance at John Lewis which last year suffered a 99% fall in profits. Still, in an industry still largely run by men where the customers are largely women, White’s appointment can already be chalked up as a victory.

 

This Black History Month, check out our Delivering Diversity campaign and see what changes you can make at your company to create a diverse and thriving workplace.

I'm sure it will all turn out great

[No One]

4 hours ago, sancho panza said:

the blame game appears to be starting.

 

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/john-lewis-boss-calls-public-115447681.html

John Lewis boss calls for public inquiry into decline of UK high streets

The boss of John Lewis has called for a royal commission into Britain’s high streets, which she said risk becoming “looting grounds” for crime and overrun with vacant shops.

Dame Sharon White, chairwoman of the John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose, said some UK towns and cities have become “shells of their former selves”.

“Boarded-up shops left vacant, dwindling numbers of banks and post offices… and, in their place, seemingly endless rows of vaping and charity shops,” she said, writing in The Telegraph.

The retail boss said a royal commission – which is an independent public inquiry – could give them a much-needed boost.

There needs to be a “holistic view” of the problems facing high streets, rather than individually investigating issues such as tax, crime, planning, housing, and environmental policy, she argued.

The British Retail Consortium said in a report in July that some 6,000 shops have closed down over the past five years, largely due to “crippling business rates and the impact of the Covid lockdowns”.

Dame Sharon’s call came as some of the country’s biggest retailers urged the Chancellor to freeze their property taxes, saying a rates increase could add around £400 million a year to retailers’ bills.

Major chains including Tesco, Marks & Spencer and B&Q are among those who wrote a letter to Jeremy Hunt on Monday in a bid to prevent costs running too high for already under-pressure businesses.

Dame Sharon said retailers are “unfairly hit” by business rates, adding that a royal commission could develop proposals for a fairer system which keeps up with the changing face of the high street and shopping habits.

The highstreet is going to get killed by Parking [councils strapped for cash for their pensions] and business rates [as affprmentioned.

[wherebee]

7 hours ago, spygirl said:

No, just rebnts.

At elast directly.

The more turnover/profits an area makes, the higher the rents.

 

Classic spygirl ketboard.  I had to read it three times and I am still not sure what the fuck you mean @spygirl

[Funn3r]

3 minutes ago, wherebee said:

Classic spygirl ketboard.  I had to read it three times and I am still not sure what the fuck you mean @spygirl

Not meaning to have a go at  him but he makes life such hard work. Trying to figure out his posts. Is he genuinely so incredibly busy that he has no time to explain properly and correct typos?

Or sadly I have come to the conclusion that we are not worth his effort in doing so 

A shame because I think he is pretty smart underneath it all.

[spygirl]

Shoplifting an epidemic, says John Lewis boss

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66784250

SImple fix.

Any none national caught shoplifting isthrown out the coutry ASAP.

In fact, needs enforcing for all offense bar a cuple of small car parkign gines.

break the then you n fmaily are out. The same day. And banned from reentry. 

Depedent kids n spouse? Off they go too.

All other - any crime results in anyone on benefits losign benefits and housing.

These would stop 80% of crime.

 

 

16 hours ago, wherebee said:

Classic spygirl ketboard.  I had to read it three times and I am still not sure what the fuck you mean @spygirl

No, just rents.

At least directly.

 

[One percent]

2 minutes ago, spygirl said:

Shoplifting an epidemic, says John Lewis boss

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66784250

SImple fix.

Any none national caught shoplifting isthrown out the coutry ASAP.

In fact, needs enforcing for all offense bar a cuple of small car parkign gines.

break the then you n fmaily are out. The same day. And banned from reentry. 

Depedent kids n spouse? Off they go too.

All other - any crime results in anyone on benefits losign benefits and housing.

These would stop 80% of crime.

 

 

No, just rents.

At least directly.

 

How’s that mass immigration of those from the third world working out for you?   They all wanted cheap cheap labour. Reap what you sow, reap what you sow.  
 

me, I can’t wait for it all to come crashing down.  

[spygirl]

John Lewis boss Dame Sharon White to step down next year

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66981035