john lewis

[rivarama]

£7m ?
After losing money in 1H, and letting go 1/3 of their management, I am sure the partners will be happy to hear they get no bonus because the £7m tradition has to be protected

 

[Wattie]

£7m ?
After losing money in 1H, and letting go 1/3 of their management, I am sure the partners will be happy to hear they get no bonus because the £7m tradition has to be protected

1st rule of sales, never admit you aren’t selling.....
Turn up in a fancier advert than last years, All is well.
Until it isn’t.

 

[Felonious Crud]

1st rule of sales, never admit you aren’t selling.....
Turn up in a fancier advert than last years, All is well.
Until it isn’t.

But does it work, I wonder? We enjoy the advert and then get in our slippers and drive across to Amazon to stock up on all those festive non-essentials. Does that really make me more positively predisposed to shopping at John Lewis? Or does it just make me feel festive and spend more than I would have done, a rising tide floats all boats and all that.

 

[CatmanV2]

I can't believe we have a thread discussing Christmas ads, but then I have to recall the lawn mower debacle of a couple of years back.

But yes, Senor Crud. So many bemoan the decline of the high street while waiting for their Amazon order.

One thing I still tend to buy IRL is clothes. That's about it normally these days

C

 

[Felonious Crud]

One thing I still tend to buy IRL is clothes. That's about it normally these days

Yeah, more or less likewise, unless I know what size fits or that I can send 'em back if they don't fit.

 

[Spartacus]

wankpot

 

[Wattie]

But does it work, I wonder? We enjoy the advert and then get in our slippers and drive across to Amazon to stock up on all those festive non-essentials. Does that really make me more positively predisposed to shopping at John Lewis? Or does it just make me feel festive and spend more than I would have done, a rising tide floats all boats and all that.

Well one things for sure, if you admit that what you’re doing is unsuccessful it’s doomsday.
Bluffing and perhaps extending buys time.....and maybe presents an opportunity.

 

[Doctor Houx]

wankpot

Was in the Navy back in the 80’s and as a young Midshipman in training, I can recall a favourite term to describe us by our elders and betters was Wankstains! Clearly related.

 

[Felonious Crud]

Was in the Navy back in the 80’s and as a young Midshipman in training, I can recall a favourite term to describe us by our elders and betters was Wankstains! Clearly related.

Perhaps a wankstain is what happens if you don't use your wankpot properly. I must assume that you didn't have wankpots in the navy.

Bloody cost-cutting.

 

[lifes2short]

Perhaps a wankstain is what happens if you don't use your wankpot properly

brilliant

 

[rivarama]

1st rule of sales, never admit you aren’t selling.....
Turn up in a fancier advert than last years, All is well.
Until it isn’t.

Ask Debs, House of Fraser, BHS, Toys are Us, Mothercare etc... yawn the list is too long

 

[Wattie]

Ask Debs, House of Fraser, BHS, Toys are Us, Mothercare etc... yawn the list is too long

And getting longer.......won’t be a high street soon.

 

[allandwf]

And getting longer.......won’t be a high street soon.

That will be for sure, change and survive or not. Perhaps our political system should take heed.

 

[rivarama]

That will be for sure, change and survive or not. Perhaps our political system should take heed.

A rates overhaul is absolutely necessary - without it the high will continue to die and tens of thousands more jobs will disappear

 

[rockits]

We just don't do enough that we could easily do to balance the options better.

I have no idea if a good retail high street is a good thing or not. I would love to see the data.

If it is it should be saved or saved to a degree. We could easily make all retail sales over the counter zero VAT rated or similar that would immediately help. Or increase tax to online businesses or loads of other ways that could balance the opportunities and create fairness.

The issue I feel is much deeper and more far reaching. We consume too much and need to reduce this. We know the effects on the planet and need to take action. This is not an unknown....we know this now for a fact.

I like many other have an Amazon prime account and use it a great deal. Amazon have built a really useful system for people with very busy lives and very little time. Now tax them a premium over less advantaged businesses. They have created almost a Monopoly that is only getting stronger and more powerful. With massive corporate giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and the like they are almost too big and too powerful to be controlled or more importantly regulated now. A few clipping of wings is required I feel.

If we all travelled less, consumed less and demanded less then consumption would reduce dramatically. Great for the planet but terrible for the economy I fear. However it needs to happen so we need to change how we live, work and replace somehow the whole in the economy we will need to create.

 

[CatmanV2]

A rates overhaul is absolutely necessary - without it the high will continue to die and tens of thousands more jobs will disappear

Rate may as well be zero if people only use Amazon...

C

 

[CatmanV2]

Amazon have built a really useful system for people with very busy lives and very little time. Now tax them a premium over less advantaged businesses.

Fascinating way of expressing it. Logically I agree with you, but 'advantaged' Amazon did all the work, took all the risks, spent all the money and now they should be taxed because they have an advantage? That does not fit well with me.

Tax them if we want to level the playing field, or prevent a monopoly but I'm not sure (as it appears are you) that's necessarily a good thing. Also expressing it as 'clipping of wings' also feels like punishment.

$0.02

C

 

[jonny]

Amazon did all the work, took all the risks, spent all the money

Exactly. And they use the usual structures to minimise their tax bill. I get fed up with people saying this makes them evil... it's the fault of the tax system if this happens. This needs radical change in the modern cross-border world so that firms like Amazon and thousands other do pay a sensible level of tax.

 

[rockits]

I do agree with your point C and am not an anti-capitalist at all and far fom it. I started my small business in 2002 all only own with no help from anyone least of all the govt. In fact the govt have never helped us as a business one ioter and possibly even hindered rather than helped in the main.

The banks have always hindered not helped us in the main as well.

I very much believe in free markets and free trade. However we do need a little stick to keep the tyre upright as it were every now and again. We do need guidlines, regulation, controls and assurance along the way to protect certain things from happening.

We know that large corporates often have complex arrangements that allow them to reduce tax burdens although to the strict letter of the law they have often paid the correct amount of tax. We know that this goes on and often means your very large corporates are therefore advantaged by this over very small businesses. This is anti competitive IMHO and surely bad for us all in the long term.

I get there needs to be an inventive to reward innovation, efficiencies, entrepreneurial activity and more. However at points it needs a light touch and sometimes a much stronger hand. We seem to be afraid to use the stronger hand.

There are only two obvious people in this area of the very large corporate world that gain my respect. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Both have done a great deal to do many great things I believe many others in their privileged positions can do. However most and many choose not to.

I guess there is a big difference between what a human chooses to do when they have legal obligations as opposed to moral ones.

Jeff Bezos doesn't gain my respect I'm afraid. He tickles with his giving back in comparison to Gates and Buffet. He also didn't sign the Giving Pledge which was a possible indicator to me on differences in people. He has of course given lots back to good causes but doesn't do enough IMHO. I also don't think that companies like Amazon do enough or as much as they could do to innovate externally to assist with reducing emissions and waste.

Either they morally decide to do more or need strong govts or regulaters to force them to do so. I don't believe either is really happening at the moment.

 

[jonny]

If only the rest of the country and social media could have mature, well-informed debates like this one on SportsMaserati.com, the country would be in a far better place.