See here:

http://www.retail-week.com/home/focu...025520.article

JJB sports is the next company that could go into administration.
there sales have dropped badly this year so far and the sports tradeing in general has been down on all sectors and all companies. Only saving grace could be if man utd wins the champions league and just maybe if we have a winner at the wimbledon grand slam this year . Both of which are fairly unlikely to happen. At least 2012 there is the olympic games and that should help sales of sports great greatly.
Especially after seeing the women beach volleyball finals ,i am shure there be plenty of sales in those bikini.

Eh? No it was a DIY store. It sold the same things as all DIY stores.

This Friday is the day when a large number of retailers have to pay their quarterly rents.

i think most of that row is now an eyesore. the big Rivington Taylor has been empty for a long time, the Focus Store really needs knocking down now.

Turn right at Focus and Bradshawgate and Great Moor St looks like a shanty town. All thats missing is the tumbleweed.

Why is it never DFS?

The chain Life and Style (which are the shops that were Ethel Austin and were retained when EA went under) has gone into administration. I feel for the staff, who probably thought their jobs were ok when their shops were kept on.

Habitat is to go (outside London):

BBC article here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13901123

Also Moben Kitchen owner Homeform:

BBC Article here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13893510

Jane Norman and Clintons are in trouble too apparently.

Jane Norman has just announced in the last hour that the company is to be put into administration.

It is about time that the government did something about this. Before long my local high street in Sunderland is going to have no shops at all.

We are going to have one of those here, another out of town large store to kill off what is left of our city centre

The council moaned like hell when Argos and Next wanted to open a second store each out of the city centre and stopped it happening.

Makes me suspicious

Join the club, we just had a Lakeland open in the city the problem is it is stepping on smaller local shops shoes. But every time I go into the city centre there is another shop closed or closing.

They let the Woolworths shops go under and it's been a long list since.

I totally agree though the Government needs to set out a plan and the VAT increase stopped spending, cut jobs in the retail industry.

Landlords should be keeping rent to a minimum as it's the rent issues that's causing problems. Some are upping the rent and with lower sales the shop has to close. A price freeze all round is the only way to save retail.

Focus DIY is gone too.

In my local town the shops are empty partly due to lack of larger retail space for Primark and H&M the bigger stores plus the landlords are greedy with rent. Shops have closed due to the rent hikes.

Different storey next town from me they lost Zavvi, Woolworths in the recession and a few other stores and there's now MORE shops in the centre than a couple of years leading upto the recession. None are small businesses they are managing to fill them with half decent stores. I suspect they are a bit more pro active and helpful when it comes to filling empty units.

had not hired about Clintons.

It rather worrys me, we are seeing a new wave of closures, I noticed last week that of stores had big sales on, I hope the two are not related.

If let more stores start to close, it wont help the recovery one bit.

That said Peterboruogh has 2 Clintons in the City Centre, and one over at Hampton, im sure they could merge the two City Centre stores without much hassle.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...n-2302793.html

600+ stores too. Plus the Birthdays ones.

Also if you follow Retail News sites then Comet are closing a few stores with high rent. Best Buy are expected to halt new store expansion.

These stores did well before the VAT cut now people are cutting back on new TV's.

I seen a news clip about the closure of Woolworths and a spokesperson said that they didn't bail Woolworths out because in his opinion " it was better to let it collapse and have the shoppers support the other struggling high street shops than have all of them with mediocre sales, and all collapse ".

Wouldn't surprise me if Laura Ashley hits the wall soon.

It does indeed look like were going into a second wave of the recession. Everything cost more, more people are being thrown on the unemployed heap and no one has money for luxuries anymore.

Peterborough has a few retail parks, but there are two, next to each other (Brotherhood Retail Park & Bourges Blvd) the A47 (Soke Parkway) is betewen them

Brotherhood Retail Park has totally flopped, Focus has left, and its Currys is merging with PC World. Brotherhood Retail Park is now as good as dead.

Bourges Blvd on the other hand is thriving, no empty units, and PC World has become Currys PC World.

The differnce I see is that the council moved B&Q and Matalan from a 3rd site, to a site next to Bourges Blvd, and it is a BIG B&Q, biggest ive seen, trade centre everything you could ever want from a B&Q, Argos also have a store on that site.

The point is that I fear the counil moving B&Q has given Bourges Blvd an unfair advantage over Brotherhood, but it has had some luck in store closures.

More recently plans have gone on display for a large sized supermarket site, again next Bourges Blvd. However I should say that Brotherhood has got a Morrisions next door.

The Maskew Avenue Retail Area (which is Bourges Blvd, B&Q and this planned supermarket development) would be a massive area, and could finish Brotherhood and the Town Centre for good.

Jane Norman is actually quite new to Peteborough and replaced one of the many empty stores, but I dont know if EWM is that intereted in my experince they are looking for garden centre to move into.

Labour did warn the VAT increase would risk a double dip recession.

If it does this Government has no chance of re-election.

but would we seriously vote Labour? (even if you forget trival things like not liking Harriet Harman)

It speaks volumes that the last election despite everything Labour did wrong, the Tories failed to get a majorality, and I see no signs of life in Labour to the point that they are the better option.

More to the point, any double dip recession, is going to cause alot more pain than the Tories/LibDems chance at re-election.

Retail Parks are doing really well:

http://www.retailgazette.co.uk/artic...d-year-running

Despite Focus going, Asda are launching Lifestyle stores, Best Buy opened up, B&M, pound shops, Home Bargains, LIDL, Aldi, Next are all opening new stores. The supermarkets are also rapidly expanding.