Jessops in Administration

[perkeleellinen]

Comet (1933-2012), WH Smiths (1792-20..)

Blockbuster (1985 - 2012)

 

[benjiboy]

High street multiple stores now closing at the rate of 35 a day in Britain, I wonder what our towns and citys will be like in five years because they aren't coming back, this isn't a trend, it's a revolution.

 

[paul_c5x4]

I wonder what our towns and citys will be like in five years.

Discount stores, charity shops, drop in(out) centres, Starbucks, and Work Programme hell holes - Not quite there yet in these parts...

 

[perkeleellinen]

I imagine a renewed city centre devoid of chain stores: a civic centre of galleries, libraries and public spaces. Independent stores able to capitalise upon lowered rents alongside pop-up enterprises on short-term leases. Spaces for experiment, for ideas, for meeting, for living. A civic centre without cars where people can breathe, speak in low volume, run, play and just be.

We can dream can't we?

 

[Steve Roberts]

>>Me too. Most of my clothes come from charity shops. I'm interested in them, just not interested in them being fashionable. (Steve Smith)

Yup - turned up for work in my £3.00 charity shop coat today!
I do draw the line at pants (in the English sense!) and socks, though!
Steve

 

[ajuk]

Anybody know what's likely to happen to the stock being that they've already shut?

 

[dreamingartemis]

Well, I'm guessing the creditors will get first picking followed by the second tier creditors and so fourth. In short, the vultures...

 

[Ian Grant]

I think you'll find the stock mostly going back to the suppliers. they set stiff terms last time Jessops went bust and was sold for peanuts.

Ian

 

[ajuk]

They went bust before?

 

[Ian Grant]

They went bust before?

2009 they were on the point of going into administration and managed to do a deal with their bank who took control of the company and supposedly restructured but they got worse not better.

Ian

 

[benjiboy]

I would think the liquidators would return the unpaid for stock to the suppliers, and sell off the remaining stock within the trade to help pay the companys creditors.

 

[ajuk]

So were unlikely to get any cheap film?

 

[benjiboy]

So were unlikely to get any cheap film?

You aren't going to get any cheap anything.

 

[railwayman3]

I would think the liquidators would return the unpaid for stock to the suppliers, and sell off the remaining stock within the trade to help pay the companys creditors.

My impression in the last few months was that the two shops which I see regularly were holding a minimum stock....no doubt a sign that suppliers were not prepared to release large amounts of stock on credit. It is also often usual for suppliers to reserve title to stock, in which case it can normally be claimed back if not paid for.

 

[oreston]

I don't really know why people have discussed the fate of Jessops so much on a forum devoted to film-based photograpy. Despite the company's undoubted historical legacy, they weren't in the analogue market in any meaningful way for the last several years.

Yes, most people were always going to move to what they deemed the "good enough" image making capabilities of their cameraphones, but Jessops abandoned their traditional market: the dedicated amateur photographer (or at the very least least the dedicated amateur who didn't want to migrate entirely to digital). With that, they threw out the baby with the bath water. They would have had to downsize considerably regardless, but they abandoned any semblance of a unique selling point to distinguish them in the mind of the buying public from Amazon in terms of what they could provide. I think the writing was on the wall for at least the last five years.

I was a customer myself for a long time and so, yes, I'm sad. But let's be realistic: Jessops had already been effectively dead for years.

 

[steven_e007]

I don't really know why people have discussed the fate of Jessops so much on a forum devoted to film-based photograph

Well.... Because I like a good moan...

I think Jessops pretty much committed slow suicide - it is the fact they did so much damage by promoting digital by burying analogue and buying out so any independents and closing them down that leaves me, and some others I'm sure, feeling pretty negative about them.

I was in Waterstones today. Books also have a modern digital counterpart, of course. Waterstones sell digital readers, but alongside the books. There seems to be no 'books are dead, buy a Kindle' type hype- they just offer them alongside for whoever is interested. Even HMV, in the corner where they still sold music, had CDs and vinyl for sale as well as downloads on line.

Alas, Jessops took a different tack - promote the new as a replacement for the old, ignore your existing customer base and you will then sell lots of new widgets. Well... It didn't work.

Maybe the good news is that the companies that do meet our needs, the online and mail order companies, will pick up a little extra trade from the few odd film the occasional branch of Jessops did sell...

 

[PentaxBronica]

We all know the staff in Jessops couldn't tell anyone anything about photography. For a 'specialist store', why wasn't this of paramount importance?

I use to love Warhammer when I was little - despite never being particularly nerdy - and going to the Games Workshop store was a real joy; the enthusiastic staff painting models and playing the game on the store's huge tabletop battlefield. There are very few people who go into that store solely to buy models and leave, they will always interact with the staff and discuss their hobby. My Dad, who has always carried himself as Mr. Cool, ended up buying a £50 set of the models after taking me there for the first time - the atmosphere was that infectious. It was completely out of character. Getting home and painting our models on my birthday was one of the few times we really bonded.

I'll never understand why we don't have an analogue photography store like this. I'm sure there are more of us than Warhammer fanatics, and we're just as enthusiastic.
I don't see Lomo places as counting - being boutiques, essentially - somewhere to pop into after Starbucks and the vintage fashion shop. I'm talking about a serious place for serious people... with a lighthearted and welcoming atmosphere.

I wish the business headed APUG members could make something like this happen.

Interesting that you mention GW, there is a bit of a dark side to them...

Essentially they are downright ruthless. Their prices are very high for what you get and their staff are pushed very hard indeed. There's a high turnover rate as people simply can't cope with the way the place works. A friend of mine managed one of their stores and I suspect it got to the stage where he was sick of the sight of model soldiers (even though he'd been a keen wargamer for years).

Sample story: They're obsessed with average transaction value. So when my friend managed to shift £120 worth of kits to a customer he felt pretty good. Unfortunately said customer came back 5mins later as they'd forgotten to buy a £2 bottle of paint. Having just sold them a hefty pile of stuff he naturally couldn't talk them into anything else, but his ATV for the day took a hammering as a result.

I suspect Jessops obsession with convincing people to dump film and buy buy buy bit them in the end. See, if you look at mobile phones you notice something. First they were for Yuppies as a poseur toy. Next tradesmen started buying them. Now the phone industry was a bit stuck as everyone who could afford one had one. So some bright spark invented pay as you go phones and suddenly there was a whole new market of teenagers. When every teenager had one, cameras and web access were added to make them buy a new one. Smart phones were another genius move in that people are now forced to have a new phone regularly in order to have the popular apps.

Translating this into cameras: People bought a digicompact. They didn't see any need to replace it as it didn't wear out and the images looked absolutely fine on the computer or printed up to A4 size. Soon camera phones were "good enough" for them and Jessops didn't see any further sales as a result. When they were selling film compacts to the same people they'd have a steady income from sales of film, processing, reprints, etc. None of which you need for digital. You make one sale at the beginning and that's it.

As for trendy plonker on radio talking about how only "geeks" buy proper cameras now, yes, that's how we're able to get images which make people say "wow". It's called accurate light metering and it's something your phone can't do!

 

[perkeleellinen]

The Waterstones comparison is interesting. I buy books from there and have never been told I need a Kindle because books will be discontinued in 6 months. That type of nonsense is what stopped me from even going into Jessops.

 

[benjiboy]

Jessops like thousands of other photographic retailers( most of whom were better than them,) and including some that I have worked for in my career have ceased trading in the last twenty years are history since photography has become a handmaiden of the computer industry, let's forget about them and move on.

 

[railwayman3]

Jessops like thousands of other photographic retailers( most of whom were better than them,) and including some that I have worked for in my career have ceased trading in the last twenty years are history since photography has become a handmaiden of the computer industry, let's forget about them and move on.

Very true...times change, and, being human, we don't like (some) changes. Time to keep shooting, and support the retailers and manufacturers who continue to support analogue.

 

[benjiboy]

Very true...times change, and, being human, we don't like (some) changes. Time to keep shooting, and support the retailers and manufacturers who continue to support analogue.

Companys who only sell digital cameras and equipment are experiencing major reductions in sales volumes because the iPhone/Smartphone/ipad generation can see no purpose in owning a single purpose dedicated camera since they live through their mobile technology, the World has changed.

 

[batwister]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9840852/Dragons-Den-star-Peter-Jones-buys-Jessops-brand.html

 

[benjiboy]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9840852/Dragons-Den-star-Peter-Jones-buys-Jessops-brand.html

I sincerely hope Mr Jones can make a success of Jessops without having the millstone of 180 odd stores to pay rent and council tax on expensive town centre real estate, heating lighting and knowledgeable staff to pay, he only needs pickers and packers now because they're only what we used to call in the trade "selling boxes now, still I can't feel sorry for the 2,000 people who have lost their jobs. I truly believe that notwithstanding "the digital revolution" the companys downward slide started when Allan Jessop and the Jessop family sold the company and accountants, professional managers, and men in grey suits who understood and cared little or nothing about photography only balance sheets took over.