Jessops in administration.

Well, if that small shop doesn't take advantage of the situation they don't deserve the business, Sheal
I agree with you about retailers like Jessops and Jacobs as they did a good service for photographers giving advice, tips and help to people coming through the door. Jessops was undergoing a change in the way they wanted to attract people into the store by changing locations to Shopping Malls, upgrading the style of the shops, giving discounts where they could, running courses for photographers, offering low cost transfer of slides onto discs, and various other things. In fact, they were trying to do the sort of things that Clueless thought they should, but I guess time was too short for them to take any effect before the Banks moved in. I must admit I did look at Jessops on line to see if I could get my camera from them but they were almost £200 more than I actually bought it for.
Jacobs was family run and had a good reputation on the Street but again it wasn't enough to save them. I think Jessops took note and maybe a little relief from the fact that there was less commercial competition on the street. I think that relief was misplaced as the danger was from the retailers on the Net and not the Street.

 

We had shops like that in nearby Northwich but they disappeared from the High Street a couple of years ago when the recession set in and kept on going. I do think high rents and rates played a major part in making shops too expensive to run. Also, although not in Northwich's case, the price of car parking was putting off customers. It's only now that Councils and Landlords are starting to reduce rents and rates to keep what businesses are still in the towns. They're also starting to reduce car parking rates.....but it's a bit late in the day now.

 

Well, Comet was a example of that, FB, when thousands of customers who bought goods and not received them when the Administrators moved in had to get in line with the rest of those owed. Also the vouchers issued were invalid.
#Although I have deliberately given up having a Credit Card as I don't like owing money, paying the undeserved rates or the way the Banks seem to add on additional charges without even telling you, I think it's the only way to get protection against loss of money when buying large priced articles. I bought my Pentax K5 from Clifton Cameras over the Net using a Debit Card, which is in effect cash purchase, so I did take a risk as if they had gone into administration I would have lost the money. I think you have to give great thought these days of so many big name traders going bust when spending a lump of cash no matter how familiar the name

 

Well, that has got to be one of the quickest periods of administration ever - apparently, all stores have ceased trading as of today

 

Ouch, that's not good!! Obviously Jessop's creditors and suppliers are in a tight spot themselves and won't take the risk of further commitment. I did understand that there was some interest from buyers but I would doubt if that is on the table now. What a shame, they had a good reputation and did a very good service on the High Street. I still think the high Business rates and rents did nothing to help and probably were some of the things that bled Jessops of enough profits to keep going. Yet another empty shop unit on the High Street that won't come back.

 

According to the reports Sheal, the stock is going back to a central warehouse from which it will be sent back to suppliers if they are entitled to it - I'd imagine that anything thereafter will get sold out to traders and will probably appear on market stalls or on ebay.

 

I think the interest might have come from Investment Banks and Hedge Funds, Sheal, as they are always interested in buying something cheap and turning the business around and then selling it on a quick profit.
Well, it does say in the article that most of the stock will be returned to the suppliers as most of it would have been supplied on agreed 90 days credit terms. The Administrator will be interested in cutting down the debts to creditors and raising any funds from actual Jessop Assets to deal with staff and redundancies although the last is not a priority and they could take the decision to pay other bills and not honour the redundancy payments.