JJB Sports on the ropes

Yet another High Street store looks set to vanish - putting aside the poor soles about to lose their jobs & my sympathies with them but ...

... this has to be bad for competition & prices of sports clothes and goods are sure to go up.

Can anyone else see a future where there will just be one store where you get everything from? S'pose we arent far away now with the Sainsburys & Tescos giant stores this isnt good !

I can see how some would think it beneficial, but for one place to get that amount of power.... it will take a lot of time, money and work killing off the competition. Its really bad news that this had to happen though, I can only wonder what's going through the minds of those that work there.

Yet another company who were at one time profitable, but then decided to expand with borrowed money and when the crunch came unable to service that debt.

Sports Direct and JD Sports are now left as the only ones on the high street/retail parks, plus I notice a number of Decathalon stores springing up, a brand with many stores across Europe, so more competition.

Could be an interesting time ahead for sportswear retailers.

If you thought the high street gave you a very limited variety of choices of products to buy it seems it is only going to get worse. Recently visited Slough high street, never seen so many 1 pound and shops which had leftovers from others within the chain - shocking

Will local independents fill the gaps left by the failed mega chains, or will the highstreets just deteriorate further into pound stores.

Think about it, what can't cost effectively you buy online?
1. things that cost less than a postage stamp
2. A night out
What else?

Yep but you're forgetting the power of footfall and impulse. Will probably get flamed by the lady mods for sterotyping, but women love to mooch and shop.

Personally I like to buy online, or use the high street or a big retailer to check it out, then buy it online

But the wifes idea of a relaxing day out is mooching around the shops and coming back with unplanned purchases. Throw in some gadget shops or smaller electrical shops to keep blokes happy who get dragged round mooching and I suspect theres still a market for bricks and mortar retail.

I guess it's going to be more down to viability, lowering rents, diversyfing, having an online presence as well. Also local councils need to wake up. Our town for example you can't park anywhere easily for more than 30 mins in the town centre. Yet the big out of town retail park you can park for free, and have most of the big brands in one place. Doesn't help the little shops.

Otherwise it really will be pound shops, charity shops and empty units

Yes, local parking is key. Once upon a time councils saw this as a way to get some extra cash, but it is now back firing badly, as what they gain in parking there have lost many times over in loss of business rates from empty retail units.

Believe it or not, Surrey was going to 'equalise' all villages/towns by insisting on no more 'free parking' in any shopping location! It was over turned by public outrage. They should be doing the reverse, creating MORE free parking, in our local town they needlessly painted yellow lines (no obstruction or issues where they did) just to force people into the paid bays. Free parking does need to be limited to a couple of hours or 4 hours, in most places though to stop hogging by rail commuters and local office workers.

I doubt free parking would have helped JJB though, as the majority of their stores are based on retail parks where parking is free.

With JJB, it was more a case of they didn't have a market and didn't know where to go with the brand.

JD have captured the designer sports gear market, Sports Direct are totally dominant in the cheap sports gear market. JJB tried to fit in the middle, but failed badly. They didn't have the prices to beat SD and they didn't have the trends or the designer name of JD. They where looked upon as a bit of an inbetweener that no self respecting teenager would visit, and with prices no one with any sense would pay as they would go to SD.

They couldn't win.

Unfortunately, the few remaining stores did well in the closing down sales. As there prices where so reduced, it became interesting.

I have to say, I visited, and picked up a golf bag for less than half price. If it wasn't on sale, i'd have gone to SD.