Didn't enjoy last nights epsiode as much as others in the series.
The show has never been about business facts and figures, but there is usually a passing comment about how much money the business is losing, how much debt they are in etc...this weeks I didn't hear any comments just that it was struggling.
yet again no questions were asked as to why there were several members of staff manning the shop when just a couple of them and the owner would have sufficed with such low volume trade.
i was interested in a rough estimate of the value of stock they were holding, as although some of the stuff was cheap, 15,000 product lines must still add up to a ludicrous stock inventory level.
instead we wasted time looking at modern art sculptures, trying to train some fairly hopeless staff, and making the shop look a bit better.
overall I didn't feel any of the changes were going to make the business viable in the long-term, I just don't see a future for small DIY shops in that industry due to the big competition from the chains, and also the way that the supermarkets do the 'odds and ends' DIY stuff now too.
Mary Portas knows everything there is to know about fashion retail. DIY is just about as unfashionable as retail gets. She proved this herself in the Under the Moon episode when she got the owners to undertake commissions for people who didn't have time (or couldn't be bothered) to source "homewares" for themselves. Fashion is a different lifestyle from rabbits in cages and dog calendars.
The bit with the modern art was really her imposing her values on a business that doesn't need to be ahead of the latest trends. A good window display and well thought-out gondola ends etc would have done a lot more for that shop's turnover than a collage of buckets. As someone else pointed out, Robert Dyas is in roughly the same business; but they put the stuff you want at the front of the shop, special offers by the checkouts etc to add value to each sale. But that's not the Portas way.
Also, judging by some of the comments, it looks like Mary trying to drill into them the importance of the quality of service and knowledge hasn't gotten through.
Personally, I preferred the catchier name of "The Fix It Factory"... having the small lettering for "Lightwater homecare" on the white was ok, though.
I have to admit that the last time I went into a Budgens was probably in 2001, and it was a pretty crappy place... like Spa with green livery. Reading her article, it seems like the franchising of Budgens and a change of ethos has worked out well. Also, it looks like it's sort of doing what Mary was trying to get Cleall's (village shop) to become.
Her Telegraph reviews are somewhat idiosyncratic. She didn't like Robert Dyas. She slagged off a bank - quite rightly - because the personal banker was offhand with her son (but why review a bank in the first place? - it's not a shop). She loved the Levis store but hated the salesman because he was very muscular. I still think that despite her vast experience in fashion retail, she doesn't "get" normal, everyday shops.
Basically, this is just a low quality version of Ramsey. It wouldbe hugely more useful if the 'expert' had to invest their own time and money, and face the music. It also should have a six month delay, because anyone at all could turn round a shop with an advert on national TV.
Only just caught up with this week's episode, but I really didn't enjoy it. In some ways, Mary came away as seeming just as clueless as the shopowner.
Yes, there were some valid points, such as trying to narrow down the range of products on sale, but she was wrong on many things too:
The 'artistic' window displays are just stupid. It is ridiculous to expect the staff their to keep fresh arty displays going and, I suspect, if she had arrived and found the display shown at the end, she would have instantly decried it as provincial nonsense.
Similarly, the in-house 'how to put up a shelf' display and the cardboard cut-outs
Also, her 'better' displays did not, according to the owner, have the full range out. Somewhere like that, and even B&Q, you do need the full range out. If they do not have 1/2" drills, you are more likely to assume they are out of stock rather than ask.
Also, there really isn't enough depth on the financial situation of the shops to be instructive from a business viewpoint. From the editing, it looked like an overstaffed ghost-ship, but it must have had some customers to keep it going...
Comments
Mary Portas knows everything there is to know about fashion retail. DIY is just about as unfashionable as retail gets. She proved this herself in the Under the Moon episode when she got the owners to undertake commissions for people who didn't have time (or couldn't be bothered) to source "homewares" for themselves. Fashion is a different lifestyle from rabbits in cages and dog calendars.
The bit with the modern art was really her imposing her values on a business that doesn't need to be ahead of the latest trends. A good window display and well thought-out gondola ends etc would have done a lot more for that shop's turnover than a collage of buckets. As someone else pointed out, Robert Dyas is in roughly the same business; but they put the stuff you want at the front of the shop, special offers by the checkouts etc to add value to each sale. But that's not the Portas way.
Did anyone else see her cringeing when she put on the orange fleece top?
http://lightwater.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/the-new-name-didnt-last-long/
Also, judging by some of the comments, it looks like Mary trying to drill into them the importance of the quality of service and knowledge hasn't gotten through.
Personally, I preferred the catchier name of "The Fix It Factory"... having the small lettering for "Lightwater homecare" on the white was ok, though.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/7513936/Shop-Mary-Portas-at-Budgens.html
I have to admit that the last time I went into a Budgens was probably in 2001, and it was a pretty crappy place... like Spa with green livery. Reading her article, it seems like the franchising of Budgens and a change of ethos has worked out well. Also, it looks like it's sort of doing what Mary was trying to get Cleall's (village shop) to become.
I trust that the BBC pay Portas minimum wage.
Yes, there were some valid points, such as trying to narrow down the range of products on sale, but she was wrong on many things too:
The 'artistic' window displays are just stupid. It is ridiculous to expect the staff their to keep fresh arty displays going and, I suspect, if she had arrived and found the display shown at the end, she would have instantly decried it as provincial nonsense.
Similarly, the in-house 'how to put up a shelf' display and the cardboard cut-outs
Also, her 'better' displays did not, according to the owner, have the full range out. Somewhere like that, and even B&Q, you do need the full range out. If they do not have 1/2" drills, you are more likely to assume they are out of stock rather than ask.
Also, there really isn't enough depth on the financial situation of the shops to be instructive from a business viewpoint. From the editing, it looked like an overstaffed ghost-ship, but it must have had some customers to keep it going...