Maplin and Toys R Us UK collapse on dark day for British retail

[snookypookums]

[QUOTE=Thomo;53176353]Without meaning to sound like a spokesperson, our biggest downfall is we tell people what they actually need and how to do it, then they can just leave the store and buy it online, essentially losing a sale.[/QUOTE]

A lot of Brick and Mortar stores have fallen to this fate - I mean, shit, even I'm guilty of this. I only ever actually go to a BnM store anymore for the 'touch and feel' stage of a buying decision, because I've already done all the research and am close to a buying decision. The BnM store will rarely match the price, might not even have the stock and the sales people are going to be pushy as all fuck trying to hit their quotas (and I feel bad for them).

The thing is that the nature of sales have changed from an advisory position (where sales were like consiglieres with far more product knowledge than you as a consumer would have, who could give you something perfectly suited) to more of a 'consultative' position (where the consumer likely knows everything and will only trust sales people once they've passed all the customer's shit tests).

With shit pay for floor sales staff, lack of incentives for tenure, massive turnover, huge amounts of pre-purchase information available on the internet, a good retail sales person is a rare and dying breed. In the past ten years I can only think of one or two 'career' retail sales people who were exceptional at their jobs.

[RocketRacer]

[QUOTE=Thomo;53176353]Without meaning to sound like a spokesperson, our biggest downfall is we tell people what they actually need and how to do it, then they can just leave the store and buy it online, essentially losing a sale.

Then again I can only speak for the store I work in, many of the elder people who come in are actually quite knowledgeable and are often hobbyists who just want resistors and capacitors and those kind of things anyway.[/QUOTE]

I work in an area where we mostly get businesspeople that are interested in new gadgets or need a cable asap. Most of the time they'll look at a cool thing, enquire about it and then leave.

[Doneeh]

[QUOTE=Indyclone77;53172051]Toys R US or Maplin?[/QUOTE]

TRU.

[RocketRacer]

Bumping this thread for some news - all Maplin stores are in closure mode, that means all stock is on sale and stores will shut down within next two-three months, including mine. I posted more about it in UK thread.