trespass are holding a closing down...

Are they moving too? Can't imagine they are actually shutting, and seems way too early for a sale if it is November...

I heard the whole of Greengate St north of the High House was due to close by the end of the year. Everything must go.

alphagamma said:

I heard the whole of Greengate St north of the High House was due to close by the end of the year. Everything must go.

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Now there's a rumour that'll please all the traders up there...

Gareth said:

Total lack of class alphagamma. There are people with jobs up there and private businesses that can do without such stupid comments

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You should look up the word 'irony', garth. If large numbers of shops in the north end of town die off, as seems so likely that even the council recognise the danger, we all suffer the effects. The opportunity of buying £1.99 Y-fronts in Primark won't really help very much.

The council do recognise the problem and are paying lip service by offering a hundred grand pot of gold in the form of subsidised rates.

Great Idea. At least five years too late.

Gareth said:

That's what the signs and boars say in the windows.

never found the need for 3 outdoor shops in town, but you never these places like to advertise the closing when they actually are not, like sports direct.

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Odd, they always have an everything must go massive mega sale on (that makes things normal price) but not an actual closing down sale.

Mmm, sorry to pour oil on troubled waters but the rates will not really help. The problem looming for Retailers is the minimum wage that will continue to rise- large Retailers can handle that by reducing staff perks ( see Boots, B&Q, Nero etc etc etc) but for small Retailers and Independents it is far more serious.

Add to that the Pension nonsense that will hit them this year or next AND, as I discovered to my disgust - they can no longer claim any SSP back that they pay if someone goes sick (they always used to be able to claim it back but the government decided it was not worth the effort and simply stopped it.) It may only be £88 quid a week but that equates to I would guess £300 worth of sales for the smaller trader- the difference between breakeven and loss for some. I think we have a lot more pain to come for the retail small guys - and it's those that make Stafford different from the other towns in the area.

as much as I hate them, THE COUNCIL IS NOT TO BLAME - WE ARE

The ONLY thing that will change this is if we all started actually supporting the small Retailer - you'd be amazed how good they actually are. If you are dealing with the owner they genuinly care about you and will help in ways that will take you back years. As Gareth suggests, St Marys and Mill Street is not a bad place to start. You will miss them once they are gone.

There was a post on Facecloth the other day that summed it up very well: "When you buy from a local independent you are not giving your money towards a posh company car, an expensive Head Office or an off shore bank account, you are helping a local person pay their bills, helping them employ other loocal people, helping them put food on the table for their kids - and keeping your local economy alive usually whilst getting the advice and service we used to get in the 50's "

Really? said:

Mmm, sorry to pour oil on troubled waters but the rates will not really help. The problem looming for Retailers is the minimum wage that will continue to rise- large Retailers can handle that by reducing staff perks ( see Boots, B&Q, Nero etc etc etc) but for small Retailers and Independents it is far more serious.

Add to that the Pension nonsense that will hit them this year or next AND, as I discovered to my disgust - they can no longer claim any SSP back that they pay if someone goes sick (they always used to be able to claim it back but the government decided it was not worth the effort and simply stopped it.) It may only be £88 quid a week but that equates to I would guess £300 worth of sales for the smaller trader- the difference between breakeven and loss for some. I think we have a lot more pain to come for the retail small guys - and it's those that make Stafford different from the other towns in the area.

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This part I don't buy. If people can't live on the wages given then why work at all? If you need government topups because your employer can't give you a wage you can live on without then the employer doesn't deserve to have staff. Wages need to rise because costs have risen, housing and utilitiy bills have skyrocketed where wages have not. Sick pay is a tricky one, but I believe employers should meet the first maybe 10 days per year the employee is sick. After that they should be be going to the government, but if you want to keep good staff you need to treat them well.

Really? said:

The ONLY thing that will change this is if we all started actually supporting the small Retailer - you'd be amazed how good they actually are. If you are dealing with the owner they genuinly care about you and will help in ways that will take you back years. As Gareth suggests, St Marys and Mill Street is not a bad place to start. You will miss them once they are gone.

There was a post on Facecloth the other day that summed it up very well: "When you buy from a local independent you are not giving your money towards a posh company car, an expensive Head Office or an off shore bank account, you are helping a local person pay their bills, helping them employ other loocal people, helping them put food on the table for their kids - and keeping your local economy alive usually whilst getting the advice and service we used to get in the 50's "

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This part I do agree with. Every penny you spend with a multinational is a penny that leaves our town (even our country) making us as a whole poorer. Spend local and see the benefits locally, more money flowing through local businesses means more local people employed.

tek-monkey said:

This part I don't buy. If people can't live on the wages given then why work at all? If you need government topups because your employer can't give you a wage you can live on without then the employer doesn't deserve to have staff. Wages need to rise because costs have risen, housing and utilitiy bills have skyrocketed where wages have not. Sick pay is a tricky one, but I believe employers should meet the first maybe 10 days per year the employee is sick. After that they should be be going to the government, but if you want to keep good staff you need to treat them well.



This part I do agree with. Every penny you spend with a multinational is a penny that leaves our town (even our country) making us as a whole poorer. Spend local and see the benefits locally, more money flowing through local businesses means more local people employed.

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This goes along with my "shot through the head" test - the people you see in front of you, usually on low wages, would be missed in the morning, if they were shot through the head tonight - but, the people removing the money from our local economy would not be missed for ages, if ever.

"Rebalancing of the economy" is a phrase you will often hear, but it's never applied to individuals' actual worth.

tek-monkey said:

This part I don't buy. If people can't live on the wages given then why work at all? If you need government topups because your employer can't give you a wage you can live on without then the employer doesn't deserve to have staff. Wages need to rise because costs have risen, housing and utilitiy bills have skyrocketed where wages have not. Sick pay is a tricky one, but I believe employers should meet the first maybe 10 days per year the employee is sick. After that they should be be going to the government, but if you want to keep good staff you need to treat them well.

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I understand what you are saying but you miss my point. The "new" minimum wage (marketed as a "step up") has done nothing to help the poorly paid. Big compnaies have simply reduced their hours or reduced their perks to ensure it costs them nothing extra. Some have simply reduced the contracted hours to save on holiday entitlement. The smaller business cannot do this. Most independents run on low margins as it is, relying on the service they give to attract customers rather than low prices - They will never be able to match the prices of the big sharks. We do, however, have to accept price DOES play a part in what and where we buy from, so fantastic service is a very blunt tool to use, but is the only tool the independent has. What we need in Retail is Equity - so the small person is playing with a decent hand.

Most good independents treat their staff like family members and often pay their staff more than they pay themselves, especially during lean times. Of course wages need to rise, but costs for the small Retailer also rise and in real terms by a far higher percentage than it does for the big guys.

If I could work out how to post images I'll post a very good one that describes Equity very well

sorted it

tek-monkey said:

This part I don't buy. If people can't live on the wages given then why work at all? If you need government topups because your employer can't give you a wage you can live on without then the employer doesn't deserve to have staff. Wages need to rise because costs have risen, housing and utilitiy bills have skyrocketed where wages have not. Sick pay is a tricky one, but I believe employers should meet the first maybe 10 days per year the employee is sick. After that they should be be going to the government, but if you want to keep good staff you need to treat them well.



This part I do agree with. Every penny you spend with a multinational is a penny that leaves our town (even our country) making us as a whole poorer. Spend local and see the benefits locally, more money flowing through local businesses means more local people employed.

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That's more or less exactly what I was going to post, so you've saved me the job.

Well said!

Back to Tresspass- I believe they use the "Closing Down" trick as a negotiation tool for a lease renewal with a landlord. There appear to be quite a few "closing down" at the moment with dates near to the end of the year. I am sure they wait to the last minute and if the landlord hasn't found a new tenent then they screw him to the floor on price- and if he has- they shrug their shoulders and either pay the new lease costs or close as advertised

Really? said:

I understand what you are saying but you miss my point. The "new" minimum wage (marketed as a "step up") has done nothing to help the poorly paid. Big compnaies have simply reduced their hours or reduced their perks to ensure it costs them nothing extra. Some have simply reduced the contracted hours to save on holiday entitlement. The smaller business cannot do this. Most independents run on low margins as it is, relying on the service they give to attract customers rather than low prices - They will never be able to match the prices of the big sharks. We do, however, have to accept price DOES play a part in what and where we buy from, so fantastic service is a very blunt tool to use, but is the only tool the independent has. What we need in Retail is Equity - so the small person is playing with a decent hand.

Most good independents treat their staff like family members and often pay their staff more than they pay themselves, especially during lean times. Of course wages need to rise, but costs for the small Retailer also rise and in real terms by a far higher percentage than it does for the big guys.

If I could work out how to post images I'll post a very good one that describes Equity very well

Click to expand...

I understand what you are saying, my OH runs her own business and can't afford staff so she does it all herself apart from a saturday girl. She pays that saturday girl the proper wage for someone much older though because she thinks its bullshit expecting a 16 year old to get paid half what a 21 year old does for the same job. The fact is she's very aware that if she can't pay her staff properly she won't have them, as its not fair. It means she works very long hours for little reward when weighed up, but that is her problem and not the people she asks to work for her. She provides a better service than a lot of the bigger firms, but they probably make a lot more money than her. She has principles though.

The fact is you still can't work on the new 'living wage', they simply took away the tax credits that balanced the wages and still left you with too little. I still see this as a good thing though, why am I subsidising companies that pay the lowest wage possible with my taxes?

EDIT: Just to add I'd happily work less hours for the same money, much better than working more hours for it!