Companies Circling The Drain: What about Chapter Elevenses?

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Companies Circling The Drain: What about Chapter Elevenses?

«‹›626 »

Bonzo: Mar 11, 2004; Just like Mama used to make it!

Frosted Flake posted:

My neighborhood was built in 1990, and has always had those brown community boxes. It makes sense in the car-oriented suburbs of the GTA. The new subdivisions in Newmarket, Barrie and Vaughn would be really impractical for door to door delivery.

e: Speaking of Canadian retail, I feel like Best Buy killed Future Shop deliberately after acquiring the company.

I wish I could find more photos, but they put their stores side-by-side in the new plazas in the GTA. I think Best Buy even ran ads against Futureshop about how their employees didn't have commission.

I wish I could find more photos of the interior of a Chapters (Bookstore) but the floorspace devoted to books has been steadily shrinking.

Many of the stores in nice areas of Ottawa and Toronto have Starbucks, some kind of electronics store for e-readers, and large areas for home decor with the books waay in the back.

The Chapters near me has all of their graphic novels behind the counter. The location is close to University of Waterloo so I don't know if they had an issue with students coming in and reading them without paying but all the manga is fully accessible on the shelves.

Over half of the store is housewares or other impulse buy kinds of things. Anytime I search for a book at a kiosk I'm told it's not in stock. So basically if you want a book you better hope it made a best seller list because otherwise it won't be on the shelves.

I'm pretty sure having a StarBucks inside the store is the only thing keeping the doors open.

# ? Feb 12, 2016 17:35

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 20, 2024 03:45

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

Nonsense posted:

lol snapchat turned down a billion+ dollar buyout

groupon turned down a $6 bill+ buyout from google, because WE'RE WORTH MORE THAN THAT

now their stocks have dropped from $26/share to like $2 a share and the company is sinking and will probably implode in the next couple years

# ? Feb 12, 2016 18:27

Solice Kirsk: Jun 1, 2004; .

Xaris posted:

groupon turned down a $6 bill+ buyout from google, because WE'RE WORTH MORE THAN THAT

now their stocks have dropped from $26/share to like $2 a share and the company is sinking and will probably implode in the next couple years

Greed. Greed does beautiful things sometimes.

# ? Feb 12, 2016 18:30

Squashing Machine: Jul 5, 2005; I mean boning, the wild mambo, the hunka chunka

Every time I drive by a Sears it seems to be either closed or completely empty, which is really awkward for a guy who works in Sears corporate because I can't be sure if my work is actually going anywhere or just being fed directly into an industrial shredder

# ? Feb 12, 2016 18:31

Solice Kirsk: Jun 1, 2004; .

E1M1 posted:

Every time I drive by a Sears it seems to be either closed or completely empty, which is really awkward for a guy who works in Sears corporate because I can't be sure if my work is actually going anywhere or just being fed directly into an industrial shredder

Stop turning it in and just start coasting. You'll get your answer soon enough.

# ? Feb 12, 2016 18:32

Universe Master: Jun 20, 2005; Darn Fine Pie

E1M1 posted:

Every time I drive by a Sears it seems to be either closed or completely empty, which is really awkward for a guy who works in Sears corporate because I can't be sure if my work is actually going anywhere or just being fed directly into an industrial shredder

You might want to update and spruce up your resume.

# ? Feb 12, 2016 18:34

Captain Yossarian: Feb 24, 2011; All new" Rings of Fire"

****wheezes into thread mopping sweaty brow**** "Microsoft :agesilaus:

# ? Feb 12, 2016 18:40

Houle: Oct 21, 2010

Bestbuy killed futureshop because they had to pay those people commission. They told the staff it was because sales people would push services too much to line their pockets and customers would distrust them for that. Now that they are Best Buy they pay a bunch of college students and high school students a little over minimum wage and tell them to push all those same services or they will lose their job. But to also tell the customer that they do not make commission so that the customer can feel like they aren't being swindled since it is Best Buy lining their pockets. Not the salesman.

I did like the day to day managers there. I do hope they find better places of employment. They seemed nice and for the most part didn't like a lot of things district was forcing. Basically district would come in. poo poo on the store for four hours and threaten to fire the managers because installations or calibration numbers were down despite sales and geek squad being up. Forced. A complete switch of how the backroom is organized by taking down most of the shelves and taking away the chair and computer desk for a "standing area" for store to store transfer and a black shelf that everything would fall behind because that was a moronic idea. It was way better than working for Walmart though.

# ? Feb 12, 2016 18:42

Squashing Machine: Jul 5, 2005; I mean boning, the wild mambo, the hunka chunka

Universe Master posted:

You might want to update and spruce up your resume.

I'm honestly just hoping the place goes under so I can be sitting on a beach earning twenty percent but I guess the death of a huge company is like seabed whale carcasses that take decades to fully decay

# ? Feb 12, 2016 18:49

Cowman: Feb 14, 2006; Beware the Cow

bradzilla posted:

Cashier: "Can I get an email?"

Customer: "No thanks"

Cashier: "How bout a phone number? It's for coupons"

Customer: "I know what it's for, still no thanks"

Cashier: *getting irritated* "Are you sure? You can save $5 off your next purchase if you sign up today."

Customer: "Jesus Christ I said no twice already, can you please just ring up my poo poo?"

Cashier: *silence rest of transaction*

This is why no one likes to go to Sears. And then when you do finally get checked out, they give you like 10 receipts somehow.

it's because the cashier gets in trouble if they don't get an email and phone number and credit cards. seriously they can and will get fired if they don't get enough.

# ? Feb 12, 2016 18:55

Business Gorillas: Mar 11, 2009

Houle posted:

Bestbuy killed futureshop because they had to pay those people commission. They told the staff it was because sales people would push services too much to line their pockets and customers would distrust them for that. Now that they are Best Buy they pay a bunch of college students and high school students a little over minimum wage and tell them to push all those same services or they will lose their job. But to also tell the customer that they do not make commission so that the customer can feel like they aren't being swindled since it is Best Buy lining their pockets. Not the salesman.

I did like the day to day managers there. I do hope they find better places of employment. They seemed nice and for the most part didn't like a lot of things district was forcing. Basically district would come in. poo poo on the store for four hours and threaten to fire the managers because installations or calibration numbers were down despite sales and geek squad being up. Forced. A complete switch of how the backroom is organized by taking down most of the shelves and taking away the chair and computer desk for a "standing area" for store to store transfer and a black shelf that everything would fall behind because that was a moronic idea. It was way better than working for Walmart though.

Re: district
Tbh if they worked on actual problems at the store they'd essentially make their own jobs redundant

# ? Feb 12, 2016 18:56

Ziptar: Aug 13, 2015

a happy snowman posted:

You know how soft-handed, spindly hipster guys dress like ~~immaculately-groomed lumberjacks~~ lumbersexuals?

This, but buildings

FTFY

Ziptar has a new favorite as of 19:30 on Feb 12, 2016

# ? Feb 12, 2016 19:18

Tony quidprano: Jan 19, 2014

Probably more specific to Western Canada but London Drugs (aka Time Portal into the 80s)

No joke I worked two stints there, once in high school the second time in university. As late as 2012 they still had a massive stockpile of outdated media in the store's warehouse. We were loving put blank VHS tapes on front end displays near the tills. Every department had a neon sign, even the store I worked at which was built in loving 2005.

http://www.londondrugs.com/maxell-ur60-cassette---single/L5015516.html?q=Cassette&start=8 "While quantities last"

http://www.londondrugs.com/maxell-t180-vhs-standard---t180std/L5823307.html?q=VHS&start=4 9 loving hours

http://www.londondrugs.com/olympus-m-plus-2gb-xd-card---2gb/L3193562.html Remember XD cards?

They had Betamax tapes when I worked there too, sadly it looks like those have gone on to better pastures now. I was there in high school when iPod videos really started loving taking off in a huge way and we had a god drat half an isle of those lovely ipod accessories nobody wanted that flooded the market around that time.

# ? Feb 12, 2016 19:41

BgRdMchne: Oct 31, 2011

Sears and K-Mart:
http://beluscapitaladvisors.com/2013/11/04/tragic-death-kmart-happening-right-front-eyes/

# ? Feb 12, 2016 19:48

Comfy Fleece Sweater: Apr 2, 2013; You see, but you do not observe.

BgRdMchne posted:

Sears and K-Mart:
http://beluscapitaladvisors.com/2013/11/04/tragic-death-kmart-happening-right-front-eyes/

This poo poo just sad

# ? Feb 12, 2016 19:57

Troy Queef: Jan 12, 2013

Y-Hat posted:

i highly doubt Chipotle is doomed. Jack In The Box had an e.coli epidemic in the early '90s too, and they recovered remarkably well

I'm pretty sure the secret to their success is their tacos. I've only known three groups of people that eat them (drunks, stoners, and friends of mine in high school) and they all swore the main ingredient in them is heroin.

# ? Feb 12, 2016 19:59

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

Y-Hat posted:

i highly doubt Chipotle is doomed. Jack In The Box had an e.coli epidemic in the early '90s too, and they recovered remarkably well

Chipotle is not doomed, though their stocks are down $750 to $400-ish. Quite a big loss though it's recovering and went up $20 today. I think they'll be fine but still in for a low-profit time until the typical goldfish memory kicks in but it could take a year or so to get back up to $750

I still know a lot of people who won't eat Jack in the box for that very reason (mostly gen-x or later--millenials were probably too young to know/care what it was about). I think most of their business is prolly (drunk) college students.

# ? Feb 12, 2016 20:09

Toadvine: Mar 16, 2009; Please disregard my advice w/r/t history.

Jack in the Box also had a relatively good advertising run when they came back. I remember a few of their silly commercials eliciting a grin. We never had a Jack in the Box in Ohio otherwise I would have given them a shot

# ? Feb 12, 2016 22:23

reallivedinosaur: Jun 13, 2012; Ogdober subrise! XDDD

Chipoltle is marketed to "health conscious" demographic though, isn't it? I'd expect it to hurt them more.

Drunk dudes wanting a burg and Jack in the Box probably care less.

Nobody's surprised if you get diarreah at Taco Bell, you know what I mean?

Also Chipoltle seems to me at least to be in a huge grab bag of totally replaceable franchises. They don't have the brand recognition of like McD or whatnot, and I doubt anybody would notice if they were all replaced by Panera Breads or some other poo poo.

I might just be too goony to eat Chipoltle

# ? Feb 12, 2016 22:27

Irradiation: Sep 14, 2005; I understand your frustration.

I didn't eat at Chipotle because there was a Qdoba a block away and a taqueria downtown that was cheaper than either.

# ? Feb 12, 2016 22:29

Uncle Enzo: Apr 28, 2008; I always wanted to be a Wizard

I loving love Chipotle and I eat there every chance I get.

It'll be fine, drain shmain.

# ? Feb 12, 2016 23:27

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

Houle posted:

Bestbuy killed futureshop because they had to pay those people commission. They told the staff it was because sales people would push services too much to line their pockets and customers would distrust them for that. Now that they are Best Buy they pay a bunch of college students and high school students a little over minimum wage and tell them to push all those same services or they will lose their job. But to also tell the customer that they do not make commission so that the customer can feel like they aren't being swindled since it is Best Buy lining their pockets. Not the salesman.

the practice of upselling as a non-commissioned part of a retail job is widespread among retail chains. Best Buy, Target, Gamestop, even Staples frequently push warranties and other useless crap on the people who are only there to buy one or two things. it's bad for customers because it puts them on the spot, and it's bad for employees because they have to ask it during every sale as part of their job and they get disciplined or fired for not selling enough. if employees got bonus commission for every extra thing they sell, i wouldn't have as much of a problem with it. as it is now, i'll just do my shopping online

reallivedinosaur posted:

Chipoltle is marketed to "health conscious" demographic though, isn't it? I'd expect it to hurt them more.

for whatever reason, yes, even though the average burrito there is pretty drat unhealthy. they're probably going to have to go through some drastic rebranding in order to survive, but it's been done before

there's a local chain in NYC that serves bigger and better burritos, so i go there when i want to. Chipotle doesn't taste good enough to risk getting sick

# ? Feb 13, 2016 08:26

Happy Bear Suit: Jul 21, 2004

retail talk:

a future shop near me closed

the Indigo near me is now like 35% Pier 1. the mini-starbucks attached to the side is the sole reason people still visit.

don't know where my Staples went

# ? Feb 13, 2016 09:05

Johnny Aztec: Jan 30, 2005; by Hand Knit

Cowman posted:

it's because the cashier gets in trouble if they don't get an email and phone number and credit cards. seriously they can and will get fired if they don't get enough.

Just tell them " 867-5309"

# ? Feb 13, 2016 09:55

Automatic Slim: Jul 1, 2007

Johnny Aztec posted:

Just tell them " 867-5309"

9-34-26-34

# ? Feb 13, 2016 10:03

thathonkey: Jul 17, 2012

Xaris posted:

groupon turned down a $6 bill+ buyout from google, because WE'RE WORTH MORE THAN THAT

now their stocks have dropped from $26/share to like $2 a share and the company is sinking and will probably implode in the next couple years

Tech entrepreneurs are the best. Hahah 6 billi

# ? Feb 13, 2016 10:41

Snow Cone Capone: Jul 31, 2003

reallivedinosaur posted:

It made sense to kill off one of the brands and close some stores to me.. Long run, does Best Buy have a future? I thought the joke was that Best Buy is basically a showroom for amazon. It's kind of an oversized combo of EB Games and Radio Shack since the only thing thats useful to buy there is batteries and video games.

I think they're on their slow way out, too. When I was living in Boston they closed 2 or 3 prime-location BBs within like 6 months, and the remaining ones looked like poo poo. Come to think of it, the 2 in my area also look like poo poo, and they're both located in literally the most profitable retail sales zip code in the country, so I dunno. Bare shelves, lots of empty open space, at this point they remind me of Kmart more than anything else, or Circuit City in its last moments.

Best Buy needs to drop any and all non-main-appliance brands it can and private-label as much stuff as they can. Nobody pays $70 for a Monster-brand HDMI cable anymore, but people will still pay $20 for a regular HDMI cable they can get on Amazon/Monoprice for $2-5, either for the convenience factor or through laziness/ignorance. Amazon already figured this out with their Basics line - a month or two back I picked up 3 25-foot HDMI's for $7.98 total from them and they're drat solid cables.

Private-label stuff was the true lifeblood of Radio Shack and I don't understand how multiple CFOs and CEOs across 4-5 years couldn't figure that out. Literally the reason RS imploded is because they went all-in on buying inventory of super-low-margin products like laptops, TVs, cell phones, GPSes, Fitbits and all that stuff. (Who the gently caress even considers buying a PS4 at a Radio Shack?)
You ever try to buy a cell phone outright at a brick&mortar? They hate that poo poo. Well, corporate hates it (at RS it was awesome because it was a commission on $700 with none of the bullshit usually associated with selling/activating a phone). Why? Because if it's an Android phone, what they just sold you for $700 they bought from Verizon/ATT/Sprint for between $650-680. If it's an iPhone? They sold it to you at a loss of about $50. Cell phone resellers profit directly off the incentives provided to them by the carriers. It's incentivized the same way as the reseller incentivizes their employees - they get extra for bigger dataplans, etc.
Meanwhile, the $10 aux cable to plug your phone into your car stereo? Warehouse price $1.03. $5 pack of AA's? $0.76. It scaled up, too - they were buying 25ft Cat5e cables for like $3 and selling them $34.99 and people bought that poo poo constantly. And yeah, sometimes people would bitch about $19.99 for a USB cable, but those same people would clean the store out when the cable went on sale for $14.99.

Radio Shack and Best Buy should just be physical Monoprice/Bestlink type stores. They don't even have to come close to Monoprice prices, but the profit margins on those basic electronic necessities is so loving high it's hilarious.

# ? Feb 13, 2016 11:44

Snow Cone Capone: Jul 31, 2003

Ein cooler Typ posted:

I went to Kmart today. There was like 20 cars in the football field sized parking lot.
They had a 2 pack of blank vhs tapes for $12.
Everything they have is more expensive even than walmart. Idk why anyone goes there

That's actually exactly why I used to go to the one Kmart that existed by me - it was like a tech museum where you could buy the exhibits if you wanted. I distinctly remember seeing Super Nintendo games for sale during the height of the PS1/N64 era, and there was a short period of time during which I purchased a Blu-Ray copy of The Fifth Element and a sealed copy of Blast Corps for N64 out of the same aisle. Sadly, they went the Walmart path shortly afterwards and all the fun was lost. It finally closed about a year back and now I think the building is an indoor track/field practice complex?

Cowman posted:

it's because the cashier gets in trouble if they don't get an email and phone number and credit cards. seriously they can and will get fired if they don't get enough.

This sucks and is true for a lot of retail chains. For a while it was just emails, and it was literally faster to just say "mike@aol.com" then have to deal with the spiel they were required to give me. Nobody ever actually questioned if it was a real address, they did their job, who cares? Now it's email and phone number at the very least, I've had places ask me for my address before. I figure it's only a matter of time til they're scanning your retinas like in Minority Report or beaming ads into your dreams like Futurama.

# ? Feb 13, 2016 12:06

thathonkey: Jul 17, 2012

who cares? it's not like that information is protectable in this day and age (your name and address? seriously?)

# ? Feb 13, 2016 12:13

raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

Cowman posted:

it's because the cashier gets in trouble if they don't get an email and phone number and credit cards. seriously they can and will get fired if they don't get enough.

Just type poo poo in there.

# ? Feb 13, 2016 12:15

raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

thathonkey posted:

who cares? it's not like that information is protectable in this day and age (your name and address? seriously?)

"Can I get an email?"

"Do they evaluate you on that?"

"Yes."

"Bill gates at fart dot com."

"Phone number?"

"123 456 7890"

# ? Feb 13, 2016 12:17

raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

Toadvine posted:

Jack in the Box also had a relatively good advertising run when they came back. I remember a few of their silly commercials eliciting a grin. We never had a Jack in the Box in Ohio otherwise I would have given them a shot

I saw one in Vegas and was like "oh hey a Jack in the Box it's a real thing"

It's terrible. You get the same feeling of desolation and second-bestitude in there you got in a K-mart at the height of their squalor.

Plus In And Out is all over the place there and while it's not A+ best burger in world it is an A burger at basically McDonalds prices.

# ? Feb 13, 2016 12:25

Nostalgia4Dogges: Jun 18, 2004; Only emojis can express my pure, simple stupidity.

lots of dumb poo poo in this thread but how can people say that apple and Microsoft are going down? Who doesn't have an iPhone or iPad? Who doesn't use a PC with Windows? Like lol

# ? Feb 13, 2016 12:33

JediTalentAgent: Jun 5, 2005; Hey, look. Look, if- if you screw me on this, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine, you rat bastard!

I should just have an obscene throw-away, but authentic, e-mail for stores that ask for my email address.

# ? Feb 13, 2016 12:35

raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

How can an airplane go down daddy it is already so high daddy I doan unnerssaaan

# ? Feb 13, 2016 12:35

raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

JediTalentAgent posted:

I should just have an obscene throw-away, but authentic, e-mail for stores that ask for my email address.

I use billgates@cum.fart for pushy clothing websites but in person I'm not spergy enough to do that to some poor cashier.

# ? Feb 13, 2016 12:37

thathonkey: Jul 17, 2012

the phone # and email you enter into store POS equipment dont have to actually work you clowns...

# ? Feb 13, 2016 12:39

JediTalentAgent: Jun 5, 2005; Hey, look. Look, if- if you screw me on this, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine, you rat bastard!