Retail Carnage - Regular Updates

Each day seems to bring fresh news of carnage on the High Street. This blog will carry updated links to the most recent retail failures and their aftermath

Olan Mills Photography
Whittards
Zavvi
The Officers Club
Rosebys
Woolworths
MFI
The Pier
ScS
Adams
Dolcis

In the first of a new series of In Business, Peter Day quizzes bankruptcy and business reconstruction experts and offers a brief guide to how to go bust.

Here are some points jotted down from the programme:

Businesses in distress need to take rapid corrective action to increase their chances of survival
Many executives / entrepreneurs have limited or no experience of an economic downturn
Re-finance for struggling businesses has become tough to achieve - a dangerous feature of this economic cycle
The majority of businesses do not have a site map which explains their business and which engages in worst-case scenarios to test how robust they will be in the event of an economic crisis - contingency plans can help a business survive
Decisive action is needed to change the loss-making activities of a business
CVAs - creditors voluntary arrangements - provide a short term breathing space for limited companies that are in financial distress
Many small businesses rely on credit cards for short term finance - the early part of 2009 will put thousands of small businesses under enormous pressure.

The Independent today offers a brief guide for retail survival:

“In a downturn, retailers typically slash their capital expenditure – notably opening less new stores and refurbishing fewer existing ones, but also trimming IT spend; reducing stock; cutting staff numbers or hours in stores; and extending payment terms with suppliers or demanding that they contribute more substantially to a retailer’s marketing spend. Above all, one of the most powerful actions is to conduct a review of their store portfolio, in an effort to ditch the loss-making outlets.”

Unit 2 Macro: The Importance of Productivity [20 May 2012]
Q&A: What do we need to know about output gaps? [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Bank Cuts UK growth Forecast for 2012 [16 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Notes on Supply-side Policies [10 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Model answer for revision data question [9 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Cycle Glossary [5 May 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Evaluation Question on Supermarkets [11 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Post Office Threatens Smaller Photo Businesses [2 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Revision on Scale Economies, Technology and Prices [1 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Capital Investment [30 Mar 2012]
Life in the Slow Lane - UK Growth in 2011 Lags the Euro Area [28 Mar 2012]
Martin Wolf on Global Shocks [10 Feb 2012]
2012 - Carnage on the High Street [28 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tacit Collusion in the Supermarket [27 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Contestable Markets - Lucozade takes on Coca Cola [10 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Cotton Prices and the Retail Price of Clothing [13 Jul 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Reducing Unemployment after a Recession [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Economic Recovery [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Recession [23 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Oligopoly and Collusion [20 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Oligopoly [20 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Monopsony Power in Markets [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: The Importance of Profit [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Business Growth [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Moving Away from Profit Max [18 May 2011]
AS Macro: Extended House Price Deflation? [5 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Double-Dip Recession [8 Apr 2011]
Tracking the effects of the recession on GDP [5 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Fiscal Deficit [3 Apr 2011]
Ireland - Mass Unemployment and Shrinking GDP [10 Mar 2011]
EU Economics: Germany leads Euro Zone revival [25 Feb 2011]
Economics Q&A: Will the rise in VAT harm the UK’s economic performance? [17 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: How might rising food prices affect food retailers and manufacturers in the UK? [16 Jan 2011]
HMV - another busted flush on the High Street [6 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: Why might Europe’s weaker economies struggle to grow in the next few years? [2 Jan 2011]
Pricing tricks and behavioural economics [12 Dec 2010]
Cashing in on pricing errors? [27 Nov 2010]
Growth and Strategy at Domino’s Pizza [27 Nov 2010]
Extend and Enrich with EconoMax [29 Oct 2010]
Currency wars [27 Sep 2010]
Hysteresis in the US Economy [21 Sep 2010]
Smartphones and Apps - Complementary Demand [13 Sep 2010]
Where next for the UK economy? [23 Jul 2010]
Unit 2 Macro: How can supply-side policies help in a recession? [6 Jun 2010]
Paul Krugman at the LSE [2 Jun 2010]
Warnings of hysteresis for the EU economy [29 May 2010]
Alcohol pricing - an end to loss leaders? [21 May 2010]
Gary Hamel interviewed by Peter Day [17 May 2010]
The Financial Crisis and Beyond [6 May 2010]
Business profits and the recession [1 May 2010]
A2 Economics Revision - From Budget surplus to deficit [1 May 2010]
AS Economics Revision - Dissecting the Recession [1 May 2010]
Issues and Prospects for the UK Economy in 2010 [25 Apr 2010]
Record fines for tobacco price-fixing as cartel goes up in smoke [16 Apr 2010]
End of the Road for the Car Scrappage Scheme [31 Mar 2010]
OFT report finds welfare gains from liberalising pharmacies [23 Mar 2010]
UK CEOs on their recession strategies [23 Feb 2010]
Slumpflation? UK inflation jumps to 3.5% [16 Feb 2010]
Supermarkets accused of price gouging [13 Feb 2010]
2009 - a desperately difficult year for airlines [27 Jan 2010]
Unemployment and the UK economic cycle [23 Dec 2009]
Impact of global recession on developing countries [18 Dec 2009]
Cadbury’s share of UK confectionery market melts away [17 Dec 2009]
Joel’s Noel Message on Giving [3 Dec 2009]
Reasons to expect a Nike Swoosh recovery [13 Nov 2009]
Toy Story [11 Nov 2009]
Warning - Businesses at Risk from Economic Recovery [26 Oct 2009]
13% fall in household wealth will shape any 2010 rebound [25 Oct 2009]
Walmart and Amazon Price War - Hyper Efficiency and the Consumer [23 Oct 2009]
Classroom Activity - Economic Cycle in Pictures [20 Oct 2009]
Gloomy summary [13 Oct 2009]
Banana Price War Must Hit Growers [7 Oct 2009]
The UK Economy - a Long Run Perspective [7 Oct 2009]
Are the Japanese the latest victims of a strengthening currency? [28 Sep 2009]
Paul Mason on Economic Aftershocks [21 Sep 2009]
More ‘Aftershock’ resources [12 Sep 2009]
Another Brussels lightbulb moment [8 Sep 2009]
Keynes and the Multiplier Effect [3 Sep 2009]
Hysteresis [1 Sep 2009]
Deflation in the European Economy [14 Aug 2009]
Unemployment in the UK labour market [13 Aug 2009]
Signs that Scrappage is Driving Demand [10 Aug 2009]
How the recession is changing behaviour [25 Jul 2009]
Causes of a double-dip recession [19 Jul 2009]
Biggest rise in UK unemployment since 1971 [15 Jul 2009]
OECD Review of the Brazilian Economy [14 Jul 2009]
Taking the pulse of the global economy [14 Jul 2009]
Short time working is a sign of labour market flexibility [14 Jul 2009]
Ireland in the grip of deflation [10 Jul 2009]
Fiscal policy, public sector pay and employment flexibility [5 Jul 2009]
UK Recession - Deep Very Deep [30 Jun 2009]
Q&A: Size of State Sector and Automatic Stabilisers [2 Jun 2009]
EU single market creaks under the pressure of the recession [1 Jun 2009]
Evidence of elasticity in a recession [27 May 2009]
Spare Capacity in Manufacturing [26 May 2009]
Revision - Animal Spirits [25 May 2009]
BBC Video: Ireland in Recession [24 May 2009]

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