John Lewis/Waitrose - Going Bust

Discussion in 'Taylor's Tittle-Tattle - General Banter' started by Clive_ofthe_Kremlin, Sep 13, 2018.

  1. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player

    Profits slump by 99% in "difficult times" for the posho store.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45506322

    Perhaps they shouldn't have spent so much on stupid bloody Christmas adverts. Or perhaps they should reduce their prices so that they're back in reach of normal human people.

    We've never bought anything from John Lewis, but we have been inside one once in Oxford. We spent a while in there. It was massive. The stuff that was for sale was comically and ludicrously expensive. I'm not sure who buys it from them. We spent all our time in there showing each other price tickets in absolute amazement. Guess how much for this eggcup? £50? More! £75? More! £100? More! That sort of thing.

    As for Waitrose, I've stopped going there since they stopped doing free coffee, so they lost my custom for what it was worth (not very much).
     
  2. Cthulhu

    Cthulhu Keyboard Warrior Staff Member

    Thanks for the tip off comrade.

    I have £100 of John Lewis vouchers better get me one of those sweeeeeet egg cups before they go bust
     
    kVA and oxhey67 like this.
  3. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    The store that doesn't have workers or employees but partners - who all "own" the company. Sometimes Clive you're really full of ****. And you still haven't come back with your defence of "Travellers" - you know that group of people who practice slavery - interesting intellectual position for a black bloke to take..
     
  4. oxhey67

    oxhey67 Squad Player

    Some years back I worked at John Lewis and it was an awful place to be. There may be partners but the complete lack of equality between senior positions and those beneath them was as bad, if not worse, than anywhere I've worked before or since.

    I wouldn't wish anyone out of a job but I won't lose sleep if the name disappears from the high street/shopping multiplex or whatever its collective title is these days.
     
    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin likes this.
  5. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player


    Did I attack it? Did I say it was horrible? Did I attack its management structure or condemn it in any way? All I said was it is 'posho'. That's undeniable surely?

    As for defending travellers (the most discriminated and persecuted group in Europe for centuries) - I'm proud to do so. Whenever the powerful attack the weak, I'll defend them with whatever comes to hand. Always have done and always will do. Especially against those who, for example, condemn all muslim men as sex offenders or all travellers as slavers and daft things like that.
     
    Maninblack and fan like this.
  6. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Going to the JL store in Basingstoke in a couple of weeks to get some baby stuff. Can't wait.
     
  7. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    Did you even read the article? They claim the biggest factor is reduction in margin due in part to the fact they ARE following your advice of reducing prices so they are in reach of “normal” people.
     
  8. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    Still readily & plentifully available in my local branch.

    Sure, it wasn't just you they stopped serving?
     
  9. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player


    Ha! Maybe. There's a lady in Waitrose who flippin' hates all Kremlins. We call her "La Enemiga" - The enemy in Spanish. She is always really beastly to us whenever she has to serve us, but I don't really know why. One or two other people have mentioned her also, so maybe it's black people or poor people who she doesn't like. Who knows. Anyway, she's always got a long, irritated "Puffffffffff" of the cheeks or a sarky comment for us whenever we go in there. Always. Without fail. She's very dedicated.

    Usually if there are two of you (both with cards) but only one lot of shopping they'll let you have two coffees without any problem. Not La Enemiga though. She's made of sterner stuff. Went through with my daughter and a load of shopping and she refused point black to let her have a coffee. "You've got to buy something love..."

    Her problem though is that it's her job to be a shop girl and we're the customer, so she's very limited in the damage she can do. By the time I'd explained that in that case I'd like a refund on one of the items I'd bought so that my daughter could then purchase it and get her coffee, she was already changing her mind. As the queue started building up and I was emptying my carrier bags out to choose the item I'd like refunded, she was starting to panic a bit.

    We got our two coffees.
     
    Bring Back Standing likes this.
  10. Robert Peel

    Robert Peel Squad Player

    You'd change your tune on travellers if you spent a couple of weeks in Leighton Buzzard which has numerous sites nearby.
     
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  11. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player


    Maybe I'd be cross with those particular travellers, but I doubt very much I'd be up for condemning every traveller.
     
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  12. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    If only there was, you know, evidence of this otherwise my assertion would be "daft".

    And again, you are aware of the difference between "travellers" and "gypsies" - the pikeys certainly do.

    Please note - this is in 21st century Britain.
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2018
    wfcmoog likes this.
  13. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    M Keynes too. I drive past them every day and dodge the litter and beer cans etc they have left which has blown into the road. Bloody Tories fault though.
     
  14. Robert Peel

    Robert Peel Squad Player

    True, my wife works in a school and has interactions with a lot, who are no problem. Unfortunately though, the percentage of travellers that cause problems seems way higher than other groups, and those that send their kids to school are generally more responsible citizens. A lot don't send them at all or they only turn up once in a blue moon. There are a lot of problems in the town with intimidation of shop owners etc. which I mentioned in another thread.

    Central Bedfordshire has a lot of problems with the mess and crime that accompanies them. God knows how much of the already slashed council budget goes on them and cleaning up, particularly bending over backwards to accommodate them, like sending buses specifically to collect the kids from sites for school (which no other group gets).

    When the majority seem committed to crime and have no respect for society, it's hard to feel the love. And it really is the majority.
     
    Bwood_Horn, Diamond, wfcmoog and 4 others like this.
  15. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    No wonder the John Lewis Partnership profits are in freefall if they allow punters to game the system so vigorously.
     
    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin likes this.
  16. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player


    Please feel free to provide links to the evidence that all travellers are also slavers (no BNP or Breitbart please!) and once you've proven your case, I'll reassess who's daft.

    Anyway, if all travellers are slavers, how come Nobbler didn't enslave Dennis Dunstable in the Please Sir! movie?


    [​IMG]
     
  17. Robert Peel

    Robert Peel Squad Player

    Back on topic, Waitrose is the shop of snobs. Over priced to keep the riff raff out and the rich gullible in, the latter being swayed by the name and pretentious packaging.

    Don't mind John Lewis stores so much as they price match. Anyone stupid enough to pay £100 for an egg cup is going to pay it anyway. Whilst I'm no real fan of John Lewis, arguments about retailers always seems to come back to Amazon and their non-existent tax. Why the government haven't put through laws to close the "loophole" that allows them to do that, when they are the biggest retailer in the country in mind blowing. I'd be happier to see the back of John Lewis if Amazon were paying a fair whack into the system.
     
    Sahorn likes this.
  18. Have you got a Waitrose loyalty card? Still get free coffee in Harrow.
     
  19. Whinney whinney. That's a 'orse.
     
    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin likes this.
  20. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Here are two from Breitbartlite (aka B'wood Times) it such a non-problem that our local plod has a designated anti-slavery unit.

    http://www.borehamwoodtimes.co.uk/news/9659533.slaves-escaped-from-traveller-family-court-told/
    http://www.borehamwoodtimes.co.uk/n...ly-ill-people-exploited-as-slaves-police-say/
     
  21. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player


    ZZTop = Definitely wore a red blazer and went to Boulters.
     
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  22. jw-

    jw- Reservist

    Yep, it's never a good thing to make sweeping generalisations...

    One or two other people have mentioned her also, so maybe it's black people or poor people who she doesn't like.
     
  23. Happy bunny

    Happy bunny Cheered up a bit

    The Snorbens Waitrose has gone downhill, with terrible availability now. Their own-label products are excellent when you can get them though.

    We've always found service excellent and pricing fair in the Watford JL, but we go for good stuff we need not showy stuff. We're off to IKEA next week.....
     
  24. Meh!

    Meh! Pre-Dictator

    I had 3 (three) interviews for a job that they gave to an internal applicant.

    I mean, after interview 1 you'd hope they knew the internal applicant was preferred. After interview number 2 you'd think it would be pretty clear.

    No, I trundle down there 3 times costing me train fares and time off work for them to end up filling it internally.

    :mad::mad::mad:
     
  25. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    To add a bit of balance I worked at JL for a bit after I left Uni, As has been said staff are called partners and are partners in the sense they get a share of the profits each year dependant on results. The year I was there it was 23% and it was paid as a % of your annual salary, so to get a quarter of my salary as a bonus wasn’t bad at all. I’ve no idea if they still do that or not but if they do clearly this year will not be a good bonus year.

    When I was there you could also claim back half the cost of certain things, so if you wanted to learn to scuba dive you could claim half the cost back, with the ethos being happy employees are productive employees.

    Basically my experience was that they were a very good employee who looked after their staff, however this was over 15 years ago. You may remember that years back they never opened on Mondays, this was to give their staff a day off, but obviously they had to scrap that idea eventually with retail changing so much.
     
    Moose likes this.
  26. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    Well, having read that it seems clear to me that hitler was right all along.
     
  27. Levon

    Levon Squad Player

    The worst part is they'd have most likely made that decision before you'd even had interview #1.
     
  28. Happy bunny

    Happy bunny Cheered up a bit

    Not sure about that. Interviewing is boring and time-consuming. My guess is that it was either a close-run thing between Meh! and the other candidate or that something happened internally, e.g. the internal candidate proving his/her suitability through some other achievement, or originally bring destined for some other post which was cancelled
     
  29. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    I expect the internal candidate wanted £30k more than Meh !. By the time of the second interview the gap was down to £20k. The finally agreed a deal with him when he was only £15k more than they'd have paid Meh !
     
  30. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    John Lewis is pricey. Well it sells pricey stuff. It doesn't sell tat, it's selective. They price match so they are no more expensive than anywhere else for what they sell and they offer far better customer service (5 year guarantees on tellys for example), proper trained staff that know their area. Add to that, staff get a percentage of proffit.

    Can't understand why anyone wouldn't like JL.

    Waitrose on the other had does seem incredibly expensive for only a small if any increase in quality. Marks & Spencers food is the same. I'm more than happy with Aldi or Lidl.

    Mulinational companies such as Amazon relocate proffits to the country where they will pay the least tax. Perfectly legal when your're a member of a trading block. Theres only only way to resolve that, by having a low or zero rate of corporation tax and loading all required tax take on income. More employed people, creates lower tax requirement, which gets more businesses moving here, which creates more employment reducing tax requirement further etc. Etc.
     
    miked2006 and Happy bunny like this.
  31. I Blame Pozzo

    I Blame Pozzo First Team

    WGC has had a few wobbles,mainly since the Hertford store closed and some of the staff came to WG.
     
  32. HappyHornet24

    HappyHornet24 Crapster Staff Member

    I think Levon's probably right. My first job after uni was as a temp & I was only supposed to be in the job for a couple of weeks as cover. But I got on well, they kept finding a reason to keep me on and, after a couple of months, wanted to employ me as a permanent member of staff. But my bosses were obliged to advertise the position, both externally and internally, and interview a number of candidates - including me - before officially offering me the job. It was very bizarre and I actually felt a bit guilty seeing people arrive to be interviewed for a job that had basically already been promised to me.
     
  33. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Possibly one for any NZ 'Orns to comment on but (there are reports of them being issued with) deportation orders.
     
  34. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    If only we could relocate all of the pikeys. I can but dream.
     
  35. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    We could relocate them to the end of my steel toecapped boot from whence they would get a good kicking.
     

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