RIP Jessops.

I'm sure Mark Raggett and others wouldn't be pleased to be called one of Paul S's 'girls'! Watch out mista h they have some big guys down there in Salisbury. Even bigger now they've been lugging those 800's around the country.

Steve

Well spotted Tony,one of these days i will learn to type & spell.

Mista H

Had to read it twice, but very good

I'm actually rather sad to hear Jessops have gone.  I bought my last 2 SLR's from them and always found them quite knowledgeable and enthusiastic plus price competitive.  I'm currently looking to change DSLR to a Pentax K5.   Jessops were within about £40 of Amazon's price.  They were certainly more welcoming than London Camera Exchange in Guildford who always acted as if I was about to run out of the door with a camera body!

I am however not at all a fan of PC World who charge outrageous prices, seem to have few staff who genuinely know their subject and treat me like a leper every time I take something back. 

I'm rather pleased to declare that this year has marked a huge shift in my behaviour and I now buy almost everything I can online from shirts to T shirts, all my Christmas presents, GPS units, ski-wear, CD's and Blu-rays, slippers, carpets, clothes etc.  The reason is that the prices are better, I don't have the misery that is parking and trudging around shops full of stupid Christmas music, disinterested sales people and I never face the issue of them not having what I want.  It is all round a nicer experience and far more time and cost efficient.  For too long retailers have geared their business processes to suit themselves rather than their customers - they make exchanges and refunds a headache, they delight in putting things in stupid packaging that cannot be easily opened, tried and returned if it doesn't work, they put sweets and other temptations near the till where my Daughter will start wanting them and they make me trudge through half the shop to reach the lift or stairs to the next floor.  On top of that they offer little expertise in many cases, they play inane Christmas music to me for about 2 months prior to the actual day, they often carry very limited stock of what I want to buy and they artificially inflate their margins and then slash prices a few months later to what they should have been all along.  In short they cynically try to make me suffer for shopping there and frankly I'm now taking great pleasure in sticking it to them by buying online.  I have signed up for Amazon Prime and now buy huge amounts of stuff from them and it's not uncommon to buy something at 7pm and find them delivering it by 10am next day.  The only retailers I have any respect for anymore are a few specialist retailers like my local bike and hi-fi shops and John Lewis, Waitrose, M&S and Lidl.  I love visiting HMV but have to confess I buy a lot less there now. 

In short the high street have to significantly lower their margins and start tailoring their business processes to benefit the consumer not themselves.  As an aside I do feel very sorry for any staff losing their jobs.

Jonathan

I would feel too much guilt to view products in a shop, then buy on-line, unless the on-line outlet was a susidiary of the shop.

if everything had to be bought on-line, it would become a right pain to explore, hanndle and make informed decisions before buying. Making multiple returns to an on=line store until I found something I actually wanted would be tedious. A bit like shopping before Selfridges came along.

Cheers

Don

Don,

I quite agree and I don't use high street stores as a way to view before buying - I just buy online and return if not suitable.  As an example I recently bought a load of ski-wear for the whole family.  I bought all of it - helmets, salopettes, jackets, base layers, goggles etc online - I didn't go near the high street for any of it even to view.  It's amazing how little of it had to be exchanged - some goggles, a pair of warm boots for my Daughter and that was it.  I received better advice too than I might have received from the high street too because the suppliers I was buying from were either the manufacturer direct or large online skiwear specialists who really knew their stuff.

By contrast I recently bought a new Scott MTB for my Daughter from a high street shop because we have an excellent bike shop nearby, we were able to get her to sit on and try various bikes, they have made some component changes to the bike for us and they part-exchanged her old bike.  They also will always be willing and able to offer us ongoing servicing and support for the purchase - that is real value added, that completely justifies them charging more than an internet retailer and I hope that shops like that are able to thrive for another 100 years.  My beef is with the bigger high street stores who as I said above have tailored their business processes and prices to suit themselves.  I happen to know from working in Debenhams that their margin on their normal clothing line e.g. mens shirts was 500% so the shirt you buy for £25 actually cost them £5 and when they slash it to £12.50 next week they're still making a hefty 125% margin on it - I dread to think what the margins are on designer stuff.  My bike shop are doing a whole lot more work for what probably amounts to a 25-30% margin...

I used to spend a lot at HMV on the high street but find my frustration with both their poor stock selection and the fact they were charging a lot more than Amazon has increasingly seen me buying online.  Perhaps high street rents/overheads are simply too high and there will have to be a correction to enable shops like HMV to thrive because I will miss them if they go.

Jonathan

Hi,

Sorry to see them go & whilst their customer service has been a bit hit and miss for some, Ive had really good experience from them. I think their problem was that photography has become a consumer orientated and not the specialist niche it once was & there are a lot of other retailers, John Lewis for example doing a better job.

Im somewhat disappointed to read some of the negative comments about the fate of their staff, from what I consider to be a fairly educated forum, I cant say Id wish redundancy on anyone & hope its not too long before the employment market improves in the UK.

Regs

N

Seems like the art of salesmanship is long gone