It's not surprising, but I'll miss Comet as although I'd usually end up making a purchase online it's nice to be able to go have a look at white goods before you buy. There's something pretty scary about dropping £500 on a fridge that you've never even seen IRL.
Another High Street retailer bites the dust (Comet)
- Thread starter Twirlywoos
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It's not surprising, but I'll miss Comet as although I'd usually end up making a purchase online it's nice to be able to go have a look at white goods before you buy. There's something pretty scary about dropping £500 on a fridge that you've never even seen IRL.
Really
Iceland didn't bail out the banks and they are recovering from the global recession far better than most of Europe!
Really
Iceland didn't bail out the banks and they are recovering from the global recession far better than most of Europe!
Iceland owes the UK something like £2.3Billion because all its banks went the proverbial base over apex then they decided "actually...sc**w you guys we arent repaying a penny that we owe......" THATS why they're doing so well
Here you go
Went into Comet a few weeks back to check out some speakers for the PC. Found some nice Edifier speakers which were reduced to clear. Went and asked the lady to get them for me. She informed me they didn't have any, while we stood in front of the display model. I informed her that I would happily take the display model with a little discount. She told me she cannot sell them to me as they don't have a box.
I mean come on, first time I decide to use a store like this for years and I get this!
So I walked out and told the missus that I have lost all faith in shopping and will be exclusively getting all purchases online from now!
Have that you silly fake tanned tattooed eyebrowed wench!
I mean come on, first time I decide to use a store like this for years and I get this!
So I walked out and told the missus that I have lost all faith in shopping and will be exclusively getting all purchases online from now!
Have that you silly fake tanned tattooed eyebrowed wench!
In 2009 Iceland's parliament voted 34–15 (with 14 abstentions) to approve a bill to pay the U.K and the Netherlands $5+ billion lost in Icelandic bank accounts.
They never said 'screw you' about the debt more that they didn't feel they should be paying interest on it considering the mistakes were made by private banks under the watch of U.K and other governments!
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Soldato
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Lol whats killed these guys is I would look at an item in person, scan the bar code to price comparison then order online. 
If you fast forward to 2011 you'll find Iceland has refused to pay:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13022524
To be honest I find it sad that so many people abuse these types of shops, using bricks and mortar shops, and their overheads, to view something prior to buying it online.
With that attitude the high street will be dead in time. I purposefully try to shop locally and 9 times out of 10 the local shop will get somewhere near on price with he pece of mind they're just down the road.
My local electrical shop lent me a display 46" TV to see if it looked too small for the 50 it was replacing. Even carried it to my house and set it up.
Comet did suck though, never had much stock which is a cardinal sin for a high street shop.
With that attitude the high street will be dead in time. I purposefully try to shop locally and 9 times out of 10 the local shop will get somewhere near on price with he pece of mind they're just down the road.
My local electrical shop lent me a display 46" TV to see if it looked too small for the 50 it was replacing. Even carried it to my house and set it up.
Comet did suck though, never had much stock which is a cardinal sin for a high street shop.
I worked for Comet as a Christmas temp and ended up staying there as my first full time job from about 2000-2006ish. 962 store, which ended up being 1091 (it's actually the store shown on the BBC article, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20164228)
I have a fair number of friends who's jobs are at risk and it sucks to be them, however, this has been a long time coming and some of the people there when I started 12 years ago, had already worked there for a few years and had never progressed.
Ultimately, you can't say that all the staff are useless or rude, as there's 6000+ of them and everyone is different, but I can guess at what is most likely to be the undoing of them...
Firstly, terrible, awful people in management. I mean the WORST kind of human beings to be put in a position of power. In my time there I had probably 40-50 different managers of different levels and I can name literally two who were actually good managers and humane enough to stomach. Most of the management were from some higher-echelon circle jerk where you got in if you licked the right set of balls.
Those promoted into management were those with the best sales figures. The best sales figures in Comet, by a country mile were those sales people that lied, cheated and downright fisted the systems in place and the customers we served. They'd lie about simple facts, they would steal sales from other colleagues who had done the groundwork and more. These are the people who were made 'management'.
With that, you had a culture of 'performance management' through bullying, bending of employment laws and some quite basic human rights ('You can't leave the shop floor for the loo until you've sold another 5 year warranty') and then the gradual removal of any incentive for people to deliver any level of service. It was all about milking customers for attachements from the moment they walked in the door. Open questions and planting the seed.
They used to have generally competitive prices, but this was as a result of negotiating very poor service level agreements with vendors and suppliers, so when things went belly up, the customers had to usually take the longest, slowest and most aggrevating possible path to get a resolution. You'd frequently find customers screaming, swearing and shouting at staff who were helpless to assist with broken products whilst managers hid out back.
That's just the enivironment.
The downfall of the business, is this terrible, awful style of people management, the general culture of oppression and crushing the life out of people - combined with a massive understanding of what needed to be done in the market they were supplying.
Frequently they missed innovative products because the buying department were pushing prices too low, stock levels were poor, stores became half empty and shabby and the whole experience of going to a comet store became pointless unless you wanting an argument about something.
Don't even get me started on Monster Cable.
I have a fair number of friends who's jobs are at risk and it sucks to be them, however, this has been a long time coming and some of the people there when I started 12 years ago, had already worked there for a few years and had never progressed.
Ultimately, you can't say that all the staff are useless or rude, as there's 6000+ of them and everyone is different, but I can guess at what is most likely to be the undoing of them...
Firstly, terrible, awful people in management. I mean the WORST kind of human beings to be put in a position of power. In my time there I had probably 40-50 different managers of different levels and I can name literally two who were actually good managers and humane enough to stomach. Most of the management were from some higher-echelon circle jerk where you got in if you licked the right set of balls.
Those promoted into management were those with the best sales figures. The best sales figures in Comet, by a country mile were those sales people that lied, cheated and downright fisted the systems in place and the customers we served. They'd lie about simple facts, they would steal sales from other colleagues who had done the groundwork and more. These are the people who were made 'management'.
With that, you had a culture of 'performance management' through bullying, bending of employment laws and some quite basic human rights ('You can't leave the shop floor for the loo until you've sold another 5 year warranty') and then the gradual removal of any incentive for people to deliver any level of service. It was all about milking customers for attachements from the moment they walked in the door. Open questions and planting the seed.
They used to have generally competitive prices, but this was as a result of negotiating very poor service level agreements with vendors and suppliers, so when things went belly up, the customers had to usually take the longest, slowest and most aggrevating possible path to get a resolution. You'd frequently find customers screaming, swearing and shouting at staff who were helpless to assist with broken products whilst managers hid out back.
That's just the enivironment.
The downfall of the business, is this terrible, awful style of people management, the general culture of oppression and crushing the life out of people - combined with a massive understanding of what needed to be done in the market they were supplying.
Frequently they missed innovative products because the buying department were pushing prices too low, stock levels were poor, stores became half empty and shabby and the whole experience of going to a comet store became pointless unless you wanting an argument about something.
Don't even get me started on Monster Cable.
Actually they do. Their website is competing with other websites, hence the lower prices.
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Caporegime
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Astonished they've lasted as long as they have.
On the plus side I am enjoying the disgust people are showing towards Monster products. What an utterly revolting company.
On the plus side I am enjoying the disgust people are showing towards Monster products. What an utterly revolting company.
Soldato
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Yes, independants are vastly different to the bigger retails chains. They do indeed give a better service.
Soldato
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never had a good experience in there, and looking at this thread it seems not many others have either. sad for people to loose their jobs though.
I honestly hardly ever shopped there and when I did some sales people swarming around doesn't put me off. I don't see how these companies can be so focussed on forcing sales though. I speak to a lot of people and they generally always go back to shops where there is a personable, friendly atmosphere. If you are in a good location, with good footfall and with a good brand name behind you, it's difficult to go wrong. But Comet woul wreck their brand name and try and shove things down customers throats.
I haven't looked at figures but a lot of shops are struggling whilst others who pride themselves on strong customer service and good branding continue to do well - John Lewis £358m profit, M&S £658m, Debenhams £158m profit, etc. You need to differentiate and make it a place customers want to go, not somewhere where the thought or merely entering the shop brings up anxieties about being swarmed by sales people.
If online is really competing then make your shops fun, interesting, full of good people etc. If you had a games shop that was lively, let you play on consoles, maybe some in-store competition etc, you'd draw people in and create a good vibe (which leads to sales), rather than just a few racks of games titles at £10 more than online..
I haven't looked at figures but a lot of shops are struggling whilst others who pride themselves on strong customer service and good branding continue to do well - John Lewis £358m profit, M&S £658m, Debenhams £158m profit, etc. You need to differentiate and make it a place customers want to go, not somewhere where the thought or merely entering the shop brings up anxieties about being swarmed by sales people.
If online is really competing then make your shops fun, interesting, full of good people etc. If you had a games shop that was lively, let you play on consoles, maybe some in-store competition etc, you'd draw people in and create a good vibe (which leads to sales), rather than just a few racks of games titles at £10 more than online..
I can vouch for this.
The local comet has a independent (Euronics) dealer more or less opposite. (its flagship shop, warehouse and head office AFAIK) The bosses bought an old wreck of a van which is barely roadworthy, but fully taxed, MOT'd & insured and its parked right outside the comet car park with its advert plastered all over it stating that it is 'an independent alternative'.
I would think that the independent has made a fair bit of money off the back of people who have gone into that comet, walked out with nothing & gone across the road to buy what they needed from there instead.
I know one or two people in the independent (from my old job) & they will:
price match on the spot (subject to checking)
free delivery
cheaper warranties (free 5 years on most tellies)
better after sales on brown goods (their own service centre)
special orders
finance (buy now pay later)
better product knowledge
One of those people is also the best salesman on the firm & has been for many years (the flagship shop is one of 6 shops) & he probably does more in sales than that Comet branch on its own, I'll wager.
I would think the van will be scrapped once Comet goes the way of the dodo.
The existence and growth of businesses is much like the existence and growth of a population of a species through evolution. During less productive environmental conditions like asteroid impacts or global economic recessions there is a decline in the diversity of species or business as only the stronger and more adaptable survive.
Much as in nature, it is beneficial that the weaker members are either eliminated or modified into wealthier and more productive entities.
how many people on OCUk regularly shopped at Comet, I doubt many. Comet couldn't compete with internet sales but their under-trained and inadequate staff meant there was little added value in pursing in a bricks and mortar store over a website for most people.
I happily purchases from a real shop if I get professional advice and prices are with 10-15% of online. Even for electronics and white good there were better independents around (as suggested in the post above), so that leeaves comet as a fairly useless concept.
But behaviour like that has really ontributed to the decline of high street shops. If you ant to see and feel the products, get technical advice or wahtever form a shop then you really should just buy from the shop.
But i'm guilty as anyone for window shopping and buying online. But I never go explicitly to a shop to look/get advice and then buy online.
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