Brands that succeed despite being shite...

crunchman

Legionreturns said:

If I get served stuff on a plank or slate, I send it back and ask for a plate. 

I'm tempted to do that, but I think the grief I'd get from my wife would make it not worth doing.

HAL9000

WH Smith. Their business model seems to be less stores on the high street, but more at airports, railway stations, motorway services, etc. In short, places with little or no competition. There they will happily sell you a pack of polos or a Mars bar for 95p whilst my local supermarket will sell four for £1.

Also, the fact that when I get to the checkout of WHS, (in the high street - I refuse to use the ones at airports etc) they will then try to sell me something that bears no relationship to my purchase.

I then get given a '10% off everything' coupon on which the small print says except for newspapers, books, magazines, promotional items, cannot be used in airports, motorway services etc etc.

Rocker

WH Smith became a big player in books and newspapers from selling them from stalls at railway stations. A return to their core business perhaps?

mellowsun

WHSmith's meal deal is pretty good value. They probably sell more of those at stations than magazines.

Their 'bar of chocolate for £1 with any magazine' makes me laugh though, as those same bars cost £1 anyway at any convenience store, they even have '£1' printed on the wrapper.

Snap

Hugo Boss - v poor mass produced stuff, particularly the suits
Ted Baker - the same as above, but worse

In fact, any off the peg suit that costs over £300. Waste of money.

Suits - if you don't want to pay for made to measure, which should set you back from about 500 (john lewis) up, don't spend anymore than 300 on an off the peg, or you will be being fleeced.

Never understand anyone paying say 600 for a Boss suit or similar. Complete con.

boogieman

HAL9000 said:

WH Smith. Their business model seems to be less stores on the high street, but more at airports, railway stations, motorway services, etc. In short, places with little or no competition. There they will happily sell you a pack of polos or a Mars bar for 95p whilst my local supermarket will sell four for £1.

Also, the fact that when I get to the checkout of WHS, (in the high street - I refuse to use the ones at airports etc) they will then try to sell me something that bears no relationship to my purchase.

I then get given a '10% off everything' coupon on which the small print says except for newspapers, books, magazines, promotional items, cannot be used in airports, motorway services etc etc.

That sounds like a good business model to me. Find a place where there's no competition and sell at a high profit margin. I'm sure a lot of retailers would love to do that. 

Its certainly a lot better than their old business: sell lots and lots of different things through high -rent retail units, but don't keep enough range of anything in stock to satisfy most of your customers' demands. And don't buy enough of things from the manufacturer so you can then be competitive on price against the other high street retailers. (Basically the same as Woolworths... and look what happened to them.)

RocknRollDave

boogieman said:

tone1 said:

Wetherspoons

I think Wetherspoons are brilliant at what they do. Cheap food, cheap beer, no frills. You always know what you're going to get: yes, it'll probably be generic pre-cooked food but it won't be a poncy burger with sweet potato fries and a pomegranate jus, served on a plank, yours for £30 thank you. 

Used to work for Wetherspoons, from 1999 to 2002, IIRC, and the food wasn't bad, to be fair, but of course at that price as you say a lot of it was pre-cooked and merely heated up on-site.
Used to make me laugh that Wetherspoons contracted the Egon Ronay company to visit each site regulary, to sample the food and return a report scoring everything from ease of order, waiting time, service, presentation through to flavour.  We'd get reports saying "Chilli Con Carne: Nice, beefy flavour" ....as if it wasn't just the same chilli that was produced centrally and shipped out to every pub.

Evilmags

ICBM said:

Gassage said:

Sorry you are just wrong. Like really wrong.

Example: Roundabout junction in wet, with ruts on road. Accelerate and you'll be torque steering like a dingy in the ocean. Horrible.

Second, lose a front wheel drive car and you've lost it totally. Rear wheel, add power, and let the car come back to stability.

You have to be kidding. Watch any number of BMW drivers make a total nuisance of themselves in snow. Add power and the car goes anywhere except where they want it to.

You either want FWD, or if that doesn't give you enough grip and control, 4WD is *always* better - unless you just enjoy driving with the risk of control loss because you think it's fun. If you're accelerating hard enough on a roundabout that you're in danger of losing control then you're driving like a idiot.

It would be interesting to know the relative accident rates for RWD cars as a proportion of total numbers.

If you connected my engine to the front wheels you'd be off the road in about 2 seconds. Front wheel drive is awful on powerful cars. It might work on some boring, underpowered rep mobile but for any car that is meant to go fast it is terrible. 

richardhomer

Terry Morgan - no website/phone number - hence none-existent communication. And his guitars look like Gibsons....

Sporky

Snap said:

In fact, any off the peg suit that costs over £300. Waste of money.

Can I add "any off the peg shirt that costs over £40"?

Since I started using Tailor Store (many fine alternatives exist) I'm amazed that I put up with the awful tent-with-a-collar crap that Tyrwhitt and Lewin peddle.

And they'll do a made to measure suit for under £400.

HAL9000

boogieman said:

HAL9000 said:

WH Smith. Their business model seems to be less stores on the high street, but more at airports, railway stations, motorway services, etc. In short, places with little or no competition. There they will happily sell you a pack of polos or a Mars bar for 95p whilst my local supermarket will sell four for £1.

Also, the fact that when I get to the checkout of WHS, (in the high street - I refuse to use the ones at airports etc) they will then try to sell me something that bears no relationship to my purchase.

I then get given a '10% off everything' coupon on which the small print says except for newspapers, books, magazines, promotional items, cannot be used in airports, motorway services etc etc.

That sounds like a good business model to me. Find a place where there's no competition and sell at a high profit margin. I'm sure a lot of retailers would love to do that. 

Its certainly a lot better than their old business: sell lots and lots of different things through high -rent retail units, but don't keep enough range of anything in stock to satisfy most of your customers' demands. And don't buy enough of things from the manufacturer so you can then be competitive on price against the other high street retailers. (Basically the same as Woolworths... and look what happened to them.)

I agree it's probably a good business model, but I avoid WHS because of their ridiculous motorway pricing. If I'm on the motorway or at an airport I'm more likely to use M&S as their prices, though a bit more than in their high street stores, aren't unreasonable. WHS always make me feel I'm being ripped off.

RocknRollDave

HAL9000 said:

boogieman said:

HAL9000 said:

WH Smith. Their business model seems to be less stores on the high street, but more at airports, railway stations, motorway services, etc. In short, places with little or no competition. There they will happily sell you a pack of polos or a Mars bar for 95p whilst my local supermarket will sell four for £1.

Also, the fact that when I get to the checkout of WHS, (in the high street - I refuse to use the ones at airports etc) they will then try to sell me something that bears no relationship to my purchase.

I then get given a '10% off everything' coupon on which the small print says except for newspapers, books, magazines, promotional items, cannot be used in airports, motorway services etc etc.

That sounds like a good business model to me. Find a place where there's no competition and sell at a high profit margin. I'm sure a lot of retailers would love to do that. 

Its certainly a lot better than their old business: sell lots and lots of different things through high -rent retail units, but don't keep enough range of anything in stock to satisfy most of your customers' demands. And don't buy enough of things from the manufacturer so you can then be competitive on price against the other high street retailers. (Basically the same as Woolworths... and look what happened to them.)

I agree it's probably a good business model, but I avoid WHS because of their ridiculous motorway pricing. If I'm on the motorway or at an airport I'm more likely to use M&S as their prices, though a bit more than in their high street stores, aren't unreasonable. WHS always make me feel I'm being ripped off.

agreed. 
We'll often stop off at services after a gig and at those times it's common for WH Smith to be the only outlet still open, so I'll spend the best part of a tenner on some chocolate and a drink that would be cheaper in a pub.

prowla

ThePrettyDamned said:

chillidoggy said:

RocknRollDave said:

LinkedIn

Couldn't agree more. It appears to be populated by sharp-suited well-groomed, and coiffured salesmen and middle managers called Darren, who drive Audi's and BMW's.

All of which want to make friends with me. Vomit-inducing.

I find it almost worse than Facebook for adverts, too - endless streams of, "here is how to be an entrepreneur, my course is only £1000 per month!" etc. 

I don't get it really. But then some friends think it's valuable. 

You do know that Microsoft own LinkedIn?

prowla

mellowsun said:

WHSmith's meal deal is pretty good value. They probably sell more of those at stations than magazines.

Their 'bar of chocolate for £1 with any magazine' makes me laugh though, as those same bars cost £1 anyway at any convenience store, they even have '£1' printed on the wrapper.

I get that on a Monday; with my O2 app it's £1.
(Boots used to do that one too, but they stopped.)

scrumhalf

Smiths are hearing the distant sound of the death rattle.

Printed reading material is no longer the market it was, they have had to change their business model. I was in one of their larger high street branches the other day and found that half of it was a post office.

Snap

Sporky said:

Snap said:

In fact, any off the peg suit that costs over £300. Waste of money.

Can I add "any off the peg shirt that costs over £40"?

Since I started using Tailor Store (many fine alternatives exist) I'm amazed that I put up with the awful tent-with-a-collar crap that Tyrwhitt and Lewin peddle.

And they'll do a made to measure suit for under £400.

indeedy

There are a few things you need to watch for with these though

Exploitative labour - usually, the clothes are made in Asia. Some of the online mtm firms will be transparent on where they are made and what the labour rates are, but not always.

Suits - glued or canvassed/half canvassed. Glued suits arent' worth the money, they lose their shape, and they are made in a very cheap and sloppy way. You can check the canvassing by pinching the jacket near the buttons or chest area- if the whole jacket comes with the pinch, in one piece, its glued. If you feel the top layer of the jacket come away from a liner, its canvassed, or half canvassed, so much better, and better value.

The canvassing check is a must for an off the peg IMO. If its over a couple of hundred quit, and not canvassed, its over priced.

mtm shirts are a great thing too!

I don't mind the tyrwhitt/lewin etc slim fit or extra slim shirts. If they are in a sale for £20, can't argue. Full price though? Mental

Handsome_Chris

HAL9000 said:

 ...I avoid WHS because of their ridiculous motorway pricing.

Is there anything they don't sell?

richardhomer

I called in W H Smiths in a service station a few days ago and bought a copy of the Times, a tuna sandwich and a bottle of water. I said to the cashier that I was sorry - I  only had a £20 note on me. She replied, "Don't worry - you can put something back".....

Zoolooter

Women's tennis. Some of them look like darts players, they only play two sets most of the time, three if they're in the mood. And they get equal prize money! 

boogieman

scrumhalf said:

Smiths are hearing the distant sound of the death rattle.

Printed reading material is no longer the market it was, they have had to change their business model. I was in one of their larger high street branches the other day and found that half of it was a post office.

Tbh I'm amazed they've survived this long, seeing as how they had a similar business style to Woolworths: a shop that sells everything, but nothing you'd actually want to buy. Most of the Smiths on Waterloo station is full of people skim reading magazines but then not buying them. Their book pricing is also a joke. They must survive on the profits from overpriced chocolate bars.