Nearly all Evans Cycles stores were profitable when chain entered administration

vonhelmet wrote:

Shock as PE kills business.

Actually, in this case it is!  Typically when a PE business kills a company it is through drastic cost cutting or assett stripping in order boost investors profits, in which case at least the management could be credited with having some sort of a plan!  In the case of Evans, by running a high overhead, loss making organisation, they were merely spending any potential profits, so the investors were screwed over in addition to employees, customers, and suppliers. Should we care? Yes, because the biggest investors in ECI are pension funds, which means you and I.

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

Asset management company in fucking over other people shocker, these cunts should be put in jail and given electrodes to the narks! 2.5p/£ for local firms is a disgrace and it's the smaller firms that it hurts the most.

Don't forget to have a pop at the customers who are constantly on the lookout for cheap at the expense of service. We can only blame ourselves at the prevalence of shops that price match as part of their business model.

don simon wrote:

Don't forget to have a pop at the customers who are constantly on the lookout for cheap at the expense of service. We can only blame ourselves at the prevalence of shops that price match as part of their business model.

Sadly, that is the world we live in. My favourite local music store went under a few years ago. Product range, service and expertise were phenomenal, but they buckled under the weight of so many "customers" going in there to try out some guitars, take advantage of their expertise, then go home and buy the exact same equipment online from a bulk seller with little overhead and even less knowledge.

I don't begrudge anyone making the most effective use of their money but, for me,  being able to try out the instruments for myself and avail myself of all that knowledge and experience is more than worth the extra on the price. 

Same with my local bike shop. 

Jetmans Dad wrote:

don simon wrote:

Don't forget to have a pop at the customers who are constantly on the lookout for cheap at the expense of service. We can only blame ourselves at the prevalence of shops that price match as part of their business model.

Sadly, that is the world we live in. My favourite local music store went under a few years ago. Product range, service and expertise were phenomenal, but they buckled under the weight of so many "customers" going in there to try out some guitars, take advantage of their expertise, then go home and buy the exact same equipment online from a bulk seller with little overhead and even less knowledge.

I don't begrudge anyone making the most effective use of their money but, for me,  being able to try out the instruments for myself and avail myself of all that knowledge and experience is more than worth the extra on the price. 

Same with my local bike shop. 

Is it the most effective use of their money though?

I say not, especially as the likes of Jeff Bezos can become the wealthiest man on the planet in the blink of an eye and many many people have lost their jobs or are being forced into zero hour contracts are a result of this. Skills and knowledge are being lost.

I say it's a very short sighted and inefficient use of money.

As a slight aside, I find it quite amusing that supemarket chains are complaining about being found out for charging more in their local stores than in their supermarkets for the same products. Their excuse? Overheads. The same overheads that local shops were complaining about before the supermarkets squeezed them out.

When I say amusing, etc...

don simon wrote:

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

Asset management company in fucking over other people shocker, these cunts should be put in jail and given electrodes to the narks! 2.5p/£ for local firms is a disgrace and it's the smaller firms that it hurts the most.

Don't forget to have a pop at the customers who are constantly on the lookout for cheap at the expense of service. We can only blame ourselves at the prevalence of shops that price match as part of their business model.

And yet despite that the stores were making a profit, it isn't all about punters accepting cheap deals and if a company pushes its prices down to make sales at the expense of going under/getting into huge debt then that's no business model at all is it and most dfinitely not the fault of the punters.

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

don simon wrote:

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

Asset management company in fucking over other people shocker, these cunts should be put in jail and given electrodes to the narks! 2.5p/£ for local firms is a disgrace and it's the smaller firms that it hurts the most.

Don't forget to have a pop at the customers who are constantly on the lookout for cheap at the expense of service. We can only blame ourselves at the prevalence of shops that price match as part of their business model.

And yet despite that the stores were making a profit, it isn't all about punters accepting cheap deals and if a company pushes its prices down to make sales at the expense of going under/getting into huge debt then that's no business model at all is it and most dfinitely not the fault of the punters.

My bad, the head office and its debts are an entirely different entity..... How could I have forgotten that?