Clinton’s haven’t really missed much, they basically only make money during major holidays so they’ve missed... Mother’s Day and Father’s Day?
Though frankly why you’d buy a card there instead of the local supermarket (or not at all, we don’t bother with them as it’s just pissing away money on a bad joke) I do not know
Rents and rates aren’t the same thing. Rents you can negotiate down, but business rates are like council tax for businesses and are generally extortionate (often 50% of the annual rent if not more). They’re universally hated by all, and are due to be reviewed in November anyway. They discourage business growth, as rather than growing any paying more tax through profit, PAYE, etc they just encourage businesses to stay small as suddenly you go from no rates to paying £8k or whatever just from an increase in rateable value of a mere £3k due to how small business rate relief works.
Clinton's also missed Easter, having closed just before Easter weekend.
It was only a few months ago that BBC Breakfast did a segment on greetings cards, and whilst Clinton's was having a bit of a wobble then, the actual greetings card market was actually on the up. People still enjoy sending cards, hence the fact, premium cards have gone up.
Their problem was more to do with the fact they failed to adapt, there's online services like Moonpig , funky pigeon which has been acquired by Smith's, and thortful to name a few, which are probably thriving right now.
As for Thornton's, it's a shame it's gone the way it has, the new owners I believe we're only interested in the branding and the actual supply chain part of their business, they had no interest in really keeping their stores going.
I guess this was the final excuse and push they needed. It's a shame, as a good close team worked together in the Stafford branch, they would also personalise any chocolates bought from there, which was their unique selling point.
Their business plan was trashed by their owners though, why buy from their shops, when you can get it half price everywhere else ?
On principal, they wouldn't personalise their own chocolate even if you took it in to their stores. Maybe they should have did it anyway for a small fee, say £1 a go if you took chocolate in, may have helped them.