Administration - here we go!

[SiHart]

Well at least I won't be paying tax to use my bike. And it's 50p. It's not going to break the bank is it?

Oh we had this argument before didn't we?

Si xx

[WhiteCrowNZ]

One of the things the Scottish plan to tax bikes highlighted, is that Government has got into a lot of debt trying to bail out the economy. And the way out of this will have to be higher taxation (which is ironic when you consider banks are almost back to "bonuses all around" normal).

But what the "cycle" debate has shown, and it's a general trend across any group of people. We're very keen to create taxes that cost other people. And somewhat outraged if we have to pay more "what me? I already pay enough tax as it is".

There is a wonderful poster on the community centre in Tawa "You do not pay tax, they take tax".

[WhiteCrowNZ]

An odd way to measure the credit crunch but ...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/fa...dy-bags-go-bad

[Captain Tancredi]

As I understand it, it's not the done thing to introduce a new tax in the run-up to a general election unless there's cross-party support for it. Not only are you giving ammunition to your opponents by presenting yourself as a tax-raising party, but if (as seems more likely than not) they subsequently win the election they're faced with a choice between scrapping the new tax (which then ends up causing a net loss to the public accounts) or keeping something they were against in opposition. Plus there's the possibility of winning an election you expected to lose (or at least keeping one hand in government) and having to deal with the consequences of a timebomb you wanted to go off under somebody else.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Surely Gordon Brown doesn't think for a moment they're going to win do they? Alas with the credit crunch happening on his watch, and many seeing he did a lot to help banks and little to help them, it's just not going to happen.

Perhaps a little unfair - the credit crunch was years in the making. Ironically if Brown hadn't got Blair out of office, the credit crunch would have sat squarely as an unfortunate epitaph for New Labour, instead Blair got out at the right time - like many a Bank director.

But I won't feel too sad for Brown - I'm sure a very lucrative job in banking is waiting for him as a thank you.

[Rob McCow]

How will you sell Pick n Mix... from beyond the graaaave?!?!

Less than 10 months after Woolworths' final stores closed, the iconic style is set for a high street comeback. Alworths – a new "Son-of-Woolworths" chain selling everything from picture frames to pick 'n' mix confectionery – will open its first batch of stores next month.

The grand opening on 5 November will be 100 years to the day since Frank Winfield Woolworth unveiled his "five-and-dime" concept to Britain with his first shop, in Liverpool. Three former Woolworths sites – Didcot in Oxfordshire, Wokingham in Berkshire and Faversham in Kent are the front- runners for the opening.


But the launch will be soured by the threat of litigation against the new company's managing director by his two former business partners.

Tony Page, a former commercial director at Woolworths, has, with a former UBS banker Gareth Thomas, spent more than 10 months and much of his own money securing up to £10m funding for a rescue plan for Woolworths, but says he is no longer involved in the venture.

It has emerged that the new chain is to be headed instead by Andy Latham, the former head of stores and concessions at Woolworths and, until recently, a close associate of Messrs Page and Thomas. Mr Latham is understood to have exploited wealthy family connections in the Middle East to go it alone.

Mr Page said: "Alworths has been my vision and my passion since early this year, but the timing is no longer right for us to reach critical mass with the speed we would have hoped. We are now looking at other retail opportunities."

He added: "I cannot describe how I feel about Mr Latham; but I can say that Mr Thomas and I will be talking to our lawyers." Mr Latham was unavailable for comment last night.

While the new Alworths name is at best a compromise between old and new – the original Woolworths brand name and logo were sold for £12m several months ago to the Shop Direct Group owned by the Barclay Brothers – in most other respects, Alworths will prove reassuringly familiar.

"We are talking about this being a Woolworths by any other name," said an insider.

A spokesman for Shop Direct, the online retailer, said any developments that appeared to "come close" to the territory occupied by its brand Woolworths.co.uk would be "closely looked at" but added that action would not be taken "for the sake of it".

Although more than 60 per cent of the 807 mothballed Woolworth stores are already re-occupied – predominantly by budget chains such as Iceland and Poundland – there are likely to be up to 50 more Alworths store openings in the South-East of England in the coming year.

A significant number of Alworths staff are likely to be drawn from the ranks of the 30,000 Woolworths employees made redundant when the chain went into administration at the end of last year. Other names suggested for the new stores by former staff included Worthit, The Peoples Store and Britworths.

Some of the most famous retail names of the day have reportedly been associated with the Woolies rescue plan – among them Sir Geoff Mulcahy, a former chief executive of Woolworths' former owner Kingfisher, and Sir Philip Green, the owner of Arcadia.

But the most successful attempt to resurrect the Woolworths image was by the less well-known Claire Robertson, a former manager of the Dorchester branch of Woolworths. She re-opened in the same premises as Wellworths in March and is now planning a second store.

Wallworths, Allworths, Wellworths oh my! It's like a slain Hydra, every time you chop of it's head another three grow in it's place!

[Si Hunt]

It's not a great business plan - based your new shop on a concept that's just gone bust. I hope he considers that there were reasons why "Woolworths" collapsed (and was deep in debt even BEFORE the recession) while others didn't.

Interesting that there's a little fact sneaked in there that the Barclay Brothers bought the "Woolworths" name - a bit of £12m pocket money spending for them there (and they say the banks are hard up!). What are they going to do with it? It's like they're saving it for a rainy day! You never know when a brand name associated with failure (and now an eternal reminder of the fall of the high street boom in the wake of global recession) is going to come in handy.

Si.

[SiHart]

Borders has gone under



Si xx

[P-Bal]

This has been rumbling for a while, sadly.

[SiHart]

We guessed as much from our last visit when all their audiobook and CDs etc were extensively reduced. It's sad news- it's a store I've always liked.

Si xx

[Captain Tancredi]

I don't think it was ever quite the same after it was sold on by the American parent company- when the one in Leeds opened circa 1999/2000 (I know it wasn't earlier because the first one I went in was in Glasgow in November 1998) it really felt different and more like the kind of bookshop-with-cafe that most people in this country only knew from the likes of Ellen. Lots of American editions, American magazines and almost a lifestyle bookshop with evening talks and so on- particularly good memories of sitting in the cafe and listening to Nick Redfern giving a talk to promote his latest UFO book. The Leeds shop (formerly the Virgin Megastore, ironically) is now cramped and full of tables selling this, that and the other and people seem to have fallen out of love with it. Time was when I could quite happily spend £50 there on a payday but tonight hardly anybody was waiting to be served- although strangely enough I did buy my Dalek War DVDs there the other week.

And Lissa and I once established that we'd missed each other there by about ten minutes one day...

[Rob McCow]

Very sad to hear Borders have been pushed into a corner.

If Borders had any stores in the high street, this would be a real blow for the high street. But most of the places they went for were out of town.

What we really need now is for Costa and Starbucks to start selling books and magazines.

[Pip Madeley]

Borders' prices were always sky high, so I'm not surprised.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I loved Borders, and the little coffee shop they had inside as well. This is a terrible shame.

I found them really useful for some of my "special interest" books which you were a bit hard pressed to find a decent section for elsewhere.

[Alex]

Aw, that is a shame, I've picked up many a good book thanks to there "3 for 2" offers that I might not otherwise have read, and spent a good few hours in the coffee shop in the Oxford Street branch, eyeing up pretty bookish types!

[Captain Tancredi]

If Borders had any stores in the high street, this would be a real blow for the high street. But most of the places they went for were out of town.

The Leeds and Glasgow ones are certainly in very good city centre locations- the Leeds one is on Briggate ("the Knightsbridge of the North", just up from Harvey Nichols and House of Fraser and two down from Muji) and the Glasgow one is an entire building. In fact the rent on the Glasgow one alone must be astronomical.

[SiHart]

I remember late night drunk visits to the Oxford Street branch and coming home with a piles of random books. Great times! They were always so well stocked- so much better than other bookshops.

Si xx

[WhiteCrowNZ]

eyeing up pretty bookish types!

Ah yes there was that too. Have you ever tried your local library???

[SiHart]

Don't! It never works... I tried that!

Si xx

[Milky Tears]

The Glasgow Borders has been on the slippery slope for over a year now. I think WH Smith might also be DOOOOOOOOOOMED!

[Alex]

Ah yes there was that too. Have you ever tried your local library???

Many a time, but sadly it's quite small and I'm often the only person in there, which is quite shocking. That said, there is a much bigger, nicer one about fifteen minutes away, so maybe that's where all the hotties hang out

Can't say I'll miss WH Smiths if it goes though, it's a bit like Woolies in that it tries to cover a lot of different areas, but bar the really big branches, tends to spread itself too thinly.

[Si Hunt]

WH Smiths probably deserves to go. It doesn't appear to be making any effort to price competitively or even sensibly in the current economic climate, and has the interior design/look of the stores changed in about 25 years? It looks dated and dreary and its stock is unexciting and unalluring. It's only ever with routine boredom that we ever go in there.

Si. :mobile

[Jon Masters]

Woolies used to be a great shop when other shops knew their place and sold only the things they were supposed to sell - supermarkets sold food, posh clothes shops sold posh clothes, bookshops sold books, Smiths sold stationary and mags.

They've suffered because all of the things they were good at have been done better by online stores for entertainment goodies and supermarkets for everything else. You just can't run a nationwide chain of shops based on Pic'N'Mix. And their feeble move into catelogue shopping was really the nail in the coffin.

I'd quite cheerfully see WHS go next - if only in the hope of seeing decent bookshops and independent newsagents spring up in their place.

I stick to my original statement.

Borders were just as bad - why try selling games and DVDs when (a) You can't stock enough and (b) You're trying to sell them at full price ?
The one in Brighton used to p!$$ me off because they would have the DW books in two week later than everywhere else, and put them in their 3 for 2 offer, but only have 2 of them in stock.

[Si Hunt]

It's survival of the fittest isn't it? You can moan and have "reasons" but you can neither expect consumers to shop somewhere out of sheer goodwill nor run a business on hot air. People will shop where it's cheapest and easiest and where this is the best choice and value. No other factor matters.

Si.

[Anthony Williams]

As long as Waterstone's keep going, I don't care. They're keeping me in employment for now

Ant x