Arcadia to close 250+ shops – and next?
Philip Green announced this morning that between 250 and 260 of Arcadia’s stores – which includes BHS, Top Shop, Wallis, Burtons etc. – will close. Arcadia own numerous stores, but this is going to be a big impact on the high street.
What are the potential consequences? Have you noticed how, in your own local shopping centre, when stores close they stay empty for longer? A couple of years ago, when a shop closed, the store re-opened within days as something else. Now, a store closes and no-one wants to rent the space. One key reason for this is our increase in shopping on-line and the other is the economic downturn.
Now imagine that you own one of these shopping malls. How long could you survive without the rent these empty stores should be bringing in? I don’t know the exact answer, but my prophecy is that it will not be much longer before one ‘goes pop’ – and then others will follow, similar to the banks did in 2008.
Watch this space……
Because we care…. I don’t think so!
Apparently Morrison’s supermarket chain are willing to share their poor performance with the world. I have been a customer of theirs for about three years, since they became the closest supermarket to where I live, so I have been looking to see what packaging I can recycle, when it’s empty.
There have been two or three items I buy regularly, which have this wording on the packaging
.
If they care so much, why has it taken them three years to do nothing about it? Either they don’t care and aren’t doing anything about it or they have an inability to influence their suppliers; both of which are indicators of their poor performance.
The lesson here? If you say you’re going to do something then do it, as your customers will notice.
No ‘no-fly’ zone here, then?
It’s nice to see that the UN is threatening sanctions against President Assad of Syria for killing more than 450 civilians.
At least this protest warrants media coverage. Bahrain’s Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa has ‘withdrawn’ his acceptance to Friday’s Royal Wedding, in response to criticism of alleged shooting of peaceful demonstrators by government troops. Have you noticed how many times the disturbances in Bahrain have been mentioned on the news?
We are, allegedly enforcing a ‘no-fly’ zone in Libya to prevent the killing of innocent civilians. And the enforced no-fly zone and military intervention to protect civilians in Syria and Bahrain is …..?
Have we done it again?
Never mind the rights or wrongs 
of becoming involved in Libya, the question for me is, ‘what happens after the military have achieved their objectives?’ I am hoping that the western world has not entered yet another conflict without an exit strategy.
Having done some work for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to develop a programme for a joint police / military strategic steering group, I feel that I can speak with some authority on this issue.
It’s a difficult decision to enter into another country’s internal conflict, but it’s not one that should be made without a clear understanding of the strategic objectives and a ‘return to normality’ strategy. We didn’t have one in Bosnia, either of the Iraq wars or Afghanistan and I just have a fear that we could leave another nation struggling to recover after our ‘assistance’ has ended.
Hopefully I will be proved wrong – I hope so!
This WILL NOT affect front line services.!!!
20% cutbacks for public services – ‘But the this will not affect the front line delivery’. Wooah I think I am hallucinating as a pink pig just winked at me as it passed the bedroom window. Did we really think those running our public services would look across the boardroom and ask each other which one of them was going to be part of the cutbacks?
I think not – imagine the scenario “Okay we have a situation and many in our team have got to go due to the government cuts, any ideas?” Would a single one suggest they and their department were surplus to requirements?
The filtration effect now kicks in as names and roles are put forward as favourites for the chop, the reasoning seems a little hazy – umm no Senior Officers or Executives leaving then? “Well my desk helps steer a steady ship and without it the organisation would be rudderless”. “Ah yes, of course you are right” answers the government official “What about those guys who cause all that trouble ‘kettling’ the students? Maybe they will not be missed”.
Read Alan’s informed thoughts on this here.. and see how we think the cuts should look.
HMS Ark Royal video
HMS Ark Royal – last days!!!!
There are times that objective performance decisions don’t reflect the mood of the masses. A classic example of this is the decommissioning of HMS Ark Royal, which I am sure makes sense to accountants.
However, there is a pride element of a country having such an iconic ship that is not able to be costed. If you don’t believe me then try watching Grahame’s video about his visit without emotion.
You could’make it up… video
You couldn’t make it up……
Surrey Council has announced new ways to measure the performance of Surrey Fire and Rescue Service. They intend to measure the response time to a fire from the time an engine is deployed, rather than when the call is made.
Perhaps this is part of their strategy for it’s fire service to ‘be in the top 25% for performance and the bottom 25% for cost’. The Council say that this performance criteria will bring them in line with most other councils. What is clear is that councils can put in their own performance measurement and this has been the case since 2006, when the government discontinued shared standards. Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) figures showed Surrey Fire and Rescue Service in the bottom 25% of fire and rescue services in the UK between 1996 and 2006, so it was clear they needed to do something.
Now they have done what is typical of most civil services; instead of improving performance they change the criteria to make their current performance look better whilst actually changing nothing! Just consider the nonsense of the following scenario: You have a fire in your house and telephone the fire service. The fire service arrive after twenty minutes, by which time most of your property has been destroyed. The figures released by Surrey Council may show a different response time – say seven minutes – and you will never know where the other thirteen minutes went. Was there a delay in putting your emergency call through to the fire service or was there a delay in the control room?
Whilst you as the consumer have been duped I’m sure Surrey Council will be applauding themselves for improving performance! At what cost?
