h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

2legs, where is that little haberdashers? I sometimes have need of such a store...

Sort of center of Cambridge... err... I could try find out what street it is on... err I've no idea what street it is... hmmm... can't be that* far from maplins, fr the coffee shop I use... err, which probably doesn't help narrow its location down much!

I keep meaning to go in, I want some 'toggle' buttons, err, sort of paddington bear style, perhaps in stupid colours, to put on my leather coat to repalce teh boring round ones and I was thinking of making a new giant pocket, to fit into the coat, with a zip pocket, and r putting a zip on the other pocket it already has, which doesn't have a zip or button fastening for some rason OH, and I need some matterial for making a cushion to go on the wooden chair I've been using for the past five years or so as a PC chair; I think after that long I can safely say I just can't be bothered to buy a replacement soft swivel chair thinggy now

@winnoch2 - Home
With jewelry your paying for everybody to know your rich afford to spend obscene amounts of money on a rock. That or telling your S.O. you love them enough to sped obscene amounts of money so that they can have a rock. Apparently this is actually pretty valuable for a lot of people.

I'd have been quite disgusted had William wasted a fortune on my engagement ring... Especially as I lost the first one at the pub Its intrinsic value, in gold or silver, or gemstone, is (or should be) as nothing, compaired to its representative value, I.E., the value one places on what the ring represents... Hmmm... AT least the new ring is tighter than the old one and I can hardly get it off if I want too, let alone by accident, so hopefully I won't lose this one

I could have lived without 2legs telling me how loose his ring used to be.

Yeah, or his 'getting it off', 'alone', by 'accident'.

~jwf~

I've never seen much point in wearing rings. I marvel, though, at the number of jewelry stores in upscale shopping malls. One of the malls I go to fairly often once had a woman who was followed into the ladies' room by a jewelry thief. The thief cut off the woman's finger and fled with the ring that was on it.

I hope she complained

@KB @jwf You'd neither of you believe me, would you, were I to say, in all honesty, that I hadn't intentially, put those comments in, to be read in the manner in which you read htem.... Nor, even, for that matter, noticed them myselfs until minds, far dirtier clearly than my own, spotted them err.... I fail to make further comment on the matter.... as it would all be far too intentially smutty and liable to fail any scrutiny by the mods really... I didn't notice.... I'm a good girl me

Whilst agreeing with what has been said how has John lewis group kept ahead of this trend (is it just customer service and basic trust that the customer has in the stores) any ideas

I'm not sure, but I gather that they've scrapped at least one prospective store (Preston), and significantly scaled down the model of many other stores. Their modern business model seems to be a much more stripped-down, streamlined affair than of old.

They also do a fair bit of trade online..,

Yes on line preformed well it was as good as the 2 best conventional stores.

However it shows that the two can work together to make a more stable business. Prehaps the others should try and fight back on line. I would like to see eg: the Stafford town center stores web site, working together trying to keep local trade.

I'd suggest one reason John Lewis do so well is they are targetting themselves at the herd of snobby Luddites who "don't do downloading". Obviously such people exist and will continue to exist as a dwindling minority in a world that has moved on. There's a certain class implication of shopping at John Lewis, much as there is at Waitrose, and the kind of folks who are seeking that implication actively don't want a cheaper deal.

I'd say that's definitely a part of it.

One reason the physical store, in CAmbridge at least does well, (John Lewis I mean), is that it is one of the few places left where one can actually just go into the shop and 'buy stuff', a lot of the other relectrical retailers in particular just don't exist any more... if you want an electric fan heater, or hairdryer, or toaster, or kettle, and don't want to wait for delivery, but just want to buy it, I cna't think of many other places in the town that would actually be able to provide the items, without hastle.. simualrly, a few kitchen shops have closed, John Lewis was the only place in town which could sell me a non-stick compatible soup ladle/serving spoon MInd, bit peed off by paying so much, for waht oughta have cost about two quid from one of the other kitchen wear shops we used to have until they closed
MInd, there's enough rich posh people here to keep John Lewis going wahtever happens, I guess
Was unable to find any clothes I wanted to buy in there last time I looked mind, but M&S, and BHS and err wahtever the other shops were I looked in were equally poor on male clothing, as we've already discovered in this thread... So no shop in town got my money in the last few years, for any clothing... well, cept for some socks and stockings and tights and knickers and things

One thing that shops could try out...

Offer people a free smartphone app, when you're in the shop looking at their products you can scan a barcode on the shelf or on each product, and when you get home you connect your computer to the phone and it automatically drags up the shop's website with the exact models you were looking at...

Nothing worse than looking at a laptop in a shop, getting home and finding that the model number you scribbled down on the back of a fag packet corresponds to half a dozen different products at different prices

its a start however are there enough I-phone users to support the idea

One problem with that idea: it's already been done, but worse.

I have a free app on my phone which allows me to scan ANY barcode of ANY item, and will then automatically find me the cheapest price for that item from any available online shop.

A friend of mine was using this app on his iPhone last year, looking at a set of speakers in a shop. He'd scanned the barcode on the box, and was just scrolling through the options of where to purchase them (all cheaper than the shop he was standing in) when the manager came over and demanded to know what he was doing. My friend is a forthright type, so he told him. What happened next surprised him - the manager informed him that he wasn't allowed to do that sort of thing in that shop, as it was against store policy. My friend protested mildly, and was asked firmly to leave the shop.

What shop could be so short-sightedly Luddite as to ban iPhone users from using such apps in their store I hear you cry?

I bet you can guess the answer...

The store.

I promise, I absolutely promise, and I know you may be sceptical but really, truly, I am not making this up. I'm not convinced you could make it up.

To paraphrase the great man:

"I didn't become manager of an Apple constructor ship simply so I could turn it into a directory service for a load of degenerate freeloaders"

Did he read your friend any of his poetry before he ejected him from the shop?

Is the apple store a franchise I wonder? if so probably dont care about the survival of retailer. Tesco here do now with the knowledge of ex Comet employees they have taken on