WHSmith is the only high street place still left to buy specialist magazines. I hope all those guys who use WHSmith to stand there and read the mags and not buy, realise that they won't be able to do so if it went under. If I see a mag that I want to read, I will always buy it.

All those magazines are on sale or return to the company that printed them so to WHS it doesn't matter as they don't lose out.

WH Smith had its best sales since 2002 in the financial year that ended in August 2015

In their last accounts they made a profit of over £100m and had £34m in cash in the bank so I think they're ok.

Thanks everyone - I'm genuinely pleased to hear this. I must admit though I'd completely forgotten their outlets at airports and stations. They're always light, bright and heaving! Whereas our local one is in a very old building, and seems dark, cramped and depressing!

Why pay the middleman?

I've just ordered some furniture online. It's hand made in the UK. Get a choice of Oak or Pine and 8 different finishes - they have standard sizes for all of their 400+ pieces, but happy to adjust them to suit the buyer.

So I can have a Bookcase that is a perfect 80cm wide, 32cm deep and 130cm tall to fit in space and a new sideboard that is 5cm shorter than their standard to accommodate a staircase.

You don't get that on the high street.

Ooh, can you tell me where you ordered that from? I'm looking to buy a bookcase for an alcove but all the ones I like are too wide for the alcove!

I would generally agree with this, railway stations and motorway services stations im sure make alot of profit for them, even if they have a higher rent to start off with.

That said Peterborough station was revamped a couple of years back, and lost its WHSmith, likely to do with the Waitrose built right outside.

Sainsburys are also going into this market too so it's definitely more competitive in larger stations.

I bet you paid a fortune for it

To be fair this is exactly what would have been on the High St 30+ years ago before the consumer bought in to buying the lowest cost, mass produced, almost-what-was-needed furniture that now fills the out-of-town shopping centres.
The shops like MFI made the bespoke places look so expensive that people stopped using them so they closed down. The nice thing with the internet and the shopping scene is that these businesses that have survived can now reach a much bigger consumer base which will hopefully allow them to expand again and start to give the consumer much better products than those found everywhere else.

Matalan seems to be going through a rough period:

http://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/newswire...measures-unit/

There is to many clothes shops at the moment anyway. Primark however is the worst as they never get men sizes right.

that isnt good, gonna make alot of people very nervous, could make matters worse

Nelson Packaging has just gone, due to the 5p plastic bag charge.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...ester-35694164

They shouldn've diversified into courier bags...

I bought 5 items using "click & collect" last week. 2 facecloths, 2 hand towels and an electric toothbrush..

Each facecloth and each towel was individually wrapped in a clear bag and put in a sturdy plastic courier bag. The toothbrush was boxed and in a separate courier bag too. Six bags altogether.

If I'd gone to an ordinary shop and bought those items I would have just bought one 5p bag...

I own a retail company so I use plastic bags. UK based companies charge a lot for their bags partly due to minimum wage. Some small retailers who have only 1000 bags made the carrier bag companies charge around 25p per bag. If you get the bags outsourced to the far east they can cost around 1.5p each per 10,000 bags.

Plastic postage envelopes aren't included in the 5p charge so you can give as many of them as you like. Most supermarket bags are bio degradable so there wouldn't be an environmental issue because they start falling apart after around 18 months and turn to dust.

25p per bag is that for one with a firms logo on it, even then it seems alot.

I have seen them for more 25p, 25p would be for a double side printed bag in one colour. Most bags are in one colour as you need to pay around £300 per printing plate. A lot of people don't realise how much things that are given away are worth. Many independent retailers get plain bags but for most of them 25p would be better for advertising.

If you're having 1000 made its going to cost for the machinery to be setup etc so probably 25p is fine and it'll be a collectible and flog able on eBay for loads due to its rarity.

I am totally on board with the idea, that if you give something away for free, people dont understand its cost, but I have bought a few tough and some fabric reusable bags in the past few years, I have no need for plastic bags.

Something I find annoying is when you get people who claim you could make a coffee for 10p. I used to manage restaurants and when you work out the wages, utility bills, rent, rates, equipment and equipment maintenance to name a few things that 10p coffee is already around £2. In expensive restaurants that employ around 15 people per shift they need to make around £120 per hour just to pay staff costs so when you have a large group party spending £200 for a 2 hour stay your table alone hasn't even paid for the staff for that time. Even McDonalds and Burger King have to make around £2 per minute just to cover staff costs so when you get a £2 wrap or £1.50 burger it doesn't cover the staff costs, that's why they need many tills and they need to make the food quickly so they can sell more than one item each minute

The restaurant company I work for is selling at least 16 restaurants. I don't wanna name names as I don't think it's in the public domain yet.

I see BHS is in trouble:

http://www.thurrockgazette.co.uk/new...s_restructure/

BHS Newcastle and Metrocentre stores at risk of closure as chain put itself into administration

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/busin...=FB-Chron-main