Crazy Argos

I've mentioned before how blindingly obvious some of the mistakes that Argos are making are, but the last comment was something along the lines of 'we checked our navel and we aren't doing anything wrong'. Now that can be true and the best thing to do is batten down the hatches and ride out the storm, but things clearly weren't right.

So in the time honoured tradition, outsiders in the form of costly Consultants were brought in and here are the results of the Spanish jury. Argos will close some 75 stores (that's money saving) and concentrate on internet sales. There is some merit in this, but I'm guessing what Terry 'Dud' Duddy means is shifting the brand onto a more online led outlet basis.

This will be another nail in the coffin. The problem if you are a shop is that online is a pain in the backside, except when it isn't. What Argos don't seem to understand (and they are not alone) is how to discern the difference; when is the internet useful to a shop.

The first thing I would do is get rid of computers and photography. These are fast moving technologies that have an intense market, unsuited to the Argos model. Keeping cheaper compact cameras is OK as is tablets and such, cheaper devices.

Concentrate instead on house wares, gadgets, toys and a better range of jewellery and watches, not necessarily more expensive, just buy better. and stop selling stupid, specially commissioned stuff, unless you do it right. I bought a branded, 'made specially for Argos' lawnmower which had a ridiculously short mains lead on it. OK, so it forces you to buy an extension which is not, perhaps the end of the world. Except you can't, because it has a unique connector on it that not even Argos sell anything to match. This annoys people, guys. Seriously.

But the danger with the internet led approach I think they are proposing is that they will go to war with themselves internally. I think I have a talent for systems, particularly how people interact with systems and processes. Online will try to reflect the cheaper prices available with internet-only companies and undercut their own stores. If you have expensive stores to support, don't create a competing model internally, don't incentivise staff through targets to do harm to the business by dropping prices without regard to the bigger picture.

Online is supposed to help your business, not hinder it, so look for ways it can help. Give better product descriptions online, put some effort into it, no-one else does so that is a game-changer straight away and whether someone orders online or picks up in a store, they will have made a more informed choice. They will feel more confident buying it from Argos. What about order online and pick up (or the excellent idea of rapid local delivery)? That is what I did with the lawnmower. I researched online, found Argos had what I wanted at a good price, ordered online and picked it up.

There is a very good reason for the stores and they should be worked hard to get the money out of them; the staff need to be better and more responsive. And the whole point is to get the stock out to the delivery desk ASAP, so put more people on as soon as it gets busy and that includes all the standing around chatting supervisors.

Oooh some retailers make my blood boil and Argos is one of them.

Retail Ikea

I've just been to Ikea. It's OK it wasn't for me; Elder Boy is setting up home and Ikea is the store that has the most, apparently. I don't deny it has an attractive range of goods and offers attractive prices, but it is years since I had last entered a store. Saturday was the day. Oh my God.

The place is vast, which shouldn't be a concern, it is their choice and right to decide on the size of their store. But we wanted one thing, a TV stand (OK we got a clock too) and Ikea have ideas about the way you should live your life that go beyond being slavishly tied to their brand.

We took a flatbed trolley in, fought up the one-floor-at-a-time lifts and 'progressed'. At the display of the item required we couldn't find where it was in the self-service warehouse.This is another intimidating aspect of Ikea; you have to find out how the store works, how to buy things in there.

And that a wardrobe is not a wardrobe in their eyes. It is a cupboard that can be a wardrobe if you buy the appropriate fittings, which are sold separately. Maybe they should teach 'Ikea' in schools. Heck, maybe they do. A member of staff told us the warehouse location and off we went. Wheeling our trolley around corner after corner of endless displays. All stuff we had no interest in.

Then found that you cannot take a trolley such as ours down on the sloping moving floor (do they have a name?) and as the lift was out of action, abandoned the trolley and made our way down. Now to find a trolley and get the box, remembering to place it with the label showing, for the ease of the staff at the till. You rapidly come to understand on entering a store, everything is about Ikea, not you.

At the checkout the lad happily used his scanner on a wire to scan the heavy box on the trolley, but we had to put the clock on the conveyor belt to be scanned. Stupid. But we were away.

Let's be clear what is wrong with Ikea; it is a deliberate pain in the backside. No matter what you want you have to walk through the whole store, which is irritating to the nth degree and made worse by their arrows ordering your direction of travel. These don't have any impact on the morons (who it has to be said on my visit, exclusively didn't speak English) who were wandering aimlessly about, in any direction when they weren't blocking the isles with their trolleys and kids in buggies.

You actually had to make yourself known before they felt any obligation to, reluctantly it seemed, move out of the way. Ikea are responsible for this because of the store layout, forcing people to traverse the entire place and for marketing to morons.

Harsh? Maybe not. In days we no longer have, when thinking for yourself was a common activity, any store that tried to do what Ikea do would have been empty. No matter how tempting their wares, no-one would have been seen dead in a shop with such an arrogant attitude.

And that is the crux of it; people don't think for themselves these days and are happy to walk round like zombies, doing exactly what they are told, buying because it's Ikea and so must be stylish. I don't know who are the more moronic, Ikea Executives for their selfish, high-handed, rude stores, or the people who flock there and endure its insults as if they were blessings.

Don't get me wrong. A lot of what they do is fine. I have yet to find a better, cheap bookcase than Ikea's Billy. It is fit for purpose in a way even much more expensive ones aren't. But much of the 'chipboard' from which Ikea flat pack furniture is constructed is of very poor quality and the finish is sometimes barely acceptable.

If you want something you feel Ikea may be able to supply, go online and order it for home delivery. Don't ever even consider going to a store. I for one hate them and hate is a strong word.

Doom And Gloom

Marks and Spencer report a profit fall and the retail sector generally seems to be in trouble. This is due to a number of reasons. The smallest and least significant is people losing their jobs. Those still in work have no reason not to 'carry on'. The major reasons are lack of disposable income and newspaper stories. On the latter, I'm surprised the media haven't accessed everyone's Facebook page and Twitter account in order to tell everyone personally and individually just how bad their life is going to be.

The papers endlessly report the end of the world and then ignore it not happening. They have no idea what is going on, so they make most of it up and guess that scaring people makes for better copy. So people hold back on spending because the papers tell them everyone else is doing the same. Not buying that dress today will, of course mean that you can pay the mortgage next month, as you are about to lose your job in the next day or so, according to the papers.

A major, real problem is rising prices. These are caused in a very small part, by producers needing to keep up with inflation. The biggest cause is either subsidies we must pay for on energy production, to allow wind turbines to be built, that will help eradicate fairies at the bottom of David Cameron's garden, or something. This is a cost without benefit. Then there is the opportunity spotted by these companies (and some others) to just increase prices, because they have realised just how stupid politicians and their bureaucrats are.

If the people who 'control' your prices believe in dragons, you should be able to charge pretty much what you like. Look at water. When we had a (government, again) generated crisis in supply, the water companies said that they were willing to meet their existing legal obligation to fix leaks, if they were allowed to put their prices up. And no-one, it seems, thought that outrageous.

Then there is increased taxation to take into account and so we have a situation where people are scared and penniless, not for any real or tangible reason, but because the government interferes and over taxes you, me and business due to their own inabilities and so the economy doesn't grow. As ever, a key indicator of a successful, or failing economy is the state of the retail trade. I wonder if Cameron can find time in his busy (games) schedule to listen to anyone other than a communist inspired pressure group, be it homosexual or environmental.

Retail Strife

Clinton Cards goes into administration, with 2,800 jobs at risk and the cry goes up about the beleaguered High Street, facing online competition. It is true that Clinton's were slow out of the blocks in challenging the online start ups, but no-one seems to comment on the stores.

Firstly there are way too many of them and secondly, have you seen what they sell? In addition to a massive selection of so-so cards, they have a clutter of shelves and stands stacked with tat. When you go in and find something nice, tasteful and perhaps a little different, the shock is partly the product and partly that you didn't expect it of Clinton's.

So yes, online needs to be countered if you have a physical presence in the form of shops, but what is being sold is even more important. Look at the casualties; Woolworth's, Best Buy and Clinton's with Argos under pressure. All of these chose to stock too much and too much rubbish.

Did I Miss The Good News?

We all know our newspapers thrive on bad news, but really some consistency in the things they report wouldn't go amiss, even when it does mean reporting good news. Recently they have been banging on about how bad it is on the 'high street', how retail is going down the pan. So when Dixons Retail post some pretty OK results, in the current climate, we get no mention of it at all.

Is that really how we want these institutions to behave? Maybe Leveson should be looking into that. Things are tough, but from what I gather nowhere near as bad as they paint it, particularly regarding research and development and manufacturing. It could probably do with some help, but Cameron is tied up with tilting at windmills and chasing chimera's; gay marriage and non-existent global warming.

Wasn't there also something in the Queen's Speech about holding the tide back? I mean if we think that we control the weather.....

Retailing Woes

So let me understand this from the recruitment perspective. A global brand want someone to run all of their retailing side, maintaining the image already established (and responsible for healthy profit margins). Naturally, the ideal candidate will have supermarket experience and more recently have run a business selling computers and technology products based on a 'sale', 'half price' strategy and who's international experience is closing overseas operations. Naturally.

Of course the actual reason given for Apple attracting Dixons boss John Browett is his fantastic customer service focus. I certainly can't fault him for having talked about it often enough, but my own personal experience recently was of an inept, unconnected organisation that cannot use its own computer systems and fail to interface with delivery firms correctly. OK, so you don't get so hounded when you go into a store these days as you once did, but he has definitely not got on top of the way the customer should be dealt with in such a company. The staff still don't know any more about what they are 'selling' than they did 5 years ago.

But good luck to Browett and even more so Apple. Will he bring his own ideas to the table and change the translucent white brand into something closer to his 'pallet' mentality, with lots of (fake) 'half price' offers? Or, sit back and do nothing at all, letting the marketing people create a desire and the customers to do the rest. It's a strategy.

Does this mean the Tesco era is over at Dixons? I think Browett's sidekick from that neck of the woods should be being looked at by Argos. They share a demographic, chasing the same customer segment, the range is vast, image low, but it is a real sector and it could be better done. He might be the man to fill that long-standing senior vacancy at Argos, but do the people above have the vision to recognise the kind of change that is required in their business? To date nothing suggests they do.

For Dixon's the departure of someone who clearly hasn't been that interested for quite a while now, presents a real opportunity. Let's see if they grasp it. The Industrial Revolution is so called because of the vast, fundamental changes it introduced. It wasn't called the Industrial Musical Chairs, in which people carry on doing what everyone has always done, but moving chairs occasionally.

Murder On The Sales Floor

The bad news from retailers continues to roll in and the papers continue to pump it up. But is it so bad? Round here the shops looked as busy as ever. M&S and JL's report decent trading. So what does that tell us? That when things get a little tight, people look for quality. They do not want to risk their money with rock bottom retailers but want stuff that will last.

Those suffering are those that don't pay attention to this. Obviously Argos and Comet, but strangely Dixons too. Why, in their position would a company decide to ignore the evidence and pursue a rush to the bottom? Is it because they have a Tesco mentality? OK so they are not as cynical in dealing with their customers as 'the nations favourite grocer', but they do love the word 'sale'.

Personally, I probably get caught by the 'half price' tag that is routinely used as much as anyone, but then get really annoyed when it is half a price they made up and pretty much the same as everyone else charges. But me being annoyed doesn't register. If the con works sometimes then stick with it, they seem to be thinking. If the annoyed move away from that retailer, then something happens that they hadn't contemplated.

It appears that there is an entrenched mindset at Dixons and nothing will cause it to change. 'Well, we've always done it like that'. I see that part of the success at Dixons has been Dr Dre headphones, which are basically over-hyped, over-priced mediocrity, so how to explain the sales? Might be that brand image and suggestion of higher quality (they aren't crap, but you can get better sound cheaper -though not with the image admittedly!)? But Dixons move up market and address their core customers? Wow! What a lot for a retailer to take in.

No, the rudderless ship continues on its way, though hardly alone. The current breed of CEO's seem to be focussed on grand schemes for European expansion (without realising what a bad idea 'Europe' is), borrowing exorbitantly and rather less on raising their game as a functioning business.

Shopping

Should I have known better than to go into the Centre for some essential shopping on a Sunday? Well, Spanish dictionaries don't just turn up you know (Oh yes, Amazon). The circuit included WH Smith, Superdrug and BHS (and a wander through Boots).

I love books and I came to hate WH Smith when they seemed to pull back from being a bookseller, but that has reversed and it has a useful and OK laid out library of tomes. Still facing the challenge of buy it now at full cost or online later. They stock a wide range of magazines and must be praised for that. The rest of the store seems to be decorated with random displays of knick-knacks and cheap junk. With lots of primary colours again. I think this repulses the older people so must be aimed at youngsters. Do they really use their significant buying power in response to bright colours. Is our youth really so stupid, or just marketing people?

Superdrug is that brightly lit cornucopia of all manner of household necessities such as polish and cleaners and perfumes. Except now it is a hopelessly laid out, brightly lit, not that cheap also ran. With a cheap name. It wasn't busy and it didn't deserve to be. Lord knows what motivates their buyers.

BHS. A decent store I think but desperately schizoid. Own brand walking style shoes at £42; is that a bargain? In the crowded market place, no. The range of things on offer are not graduated but seem random and overlapping. The use of space is thoughtless beyond 'sections'. Sight-lines could be better but are not as bad as Boots.

How do Boots survive? What are they known for or do well? It is a mess, you cannot understand the layout and sight-lines are non-existent. I hate the place and only use it as a thoroughfare to somewhere else.

Oh, I mustn't forget The Works. You have to love this place. They have some very interesting stock, it is reasonably laid out around a compact store and everything is easy to find. And they do live up to their promise of attractive prices. With quite a bit of tat.

Retail does give you the impression in these especially stressful times that the big decisions are not well founded, that stores could do better by standing back and looking properly at their business (metaphorically as a construct and actually in their stores) and thinking around the subject of people buying their wares instead of trying to be 'clever', with bright colours.

Retail Detail

Is it just me? I went to Pets At Home at the weekend. I appreciate that often there is a not a huge amount of competition regarding pet supplies (well not if you need mixed corn and layers pellets as well as Bakers Complete), so a certain disregard can creep in to a retailer, but does it have to just be a warehouse? It isn't of course, its a standard retail estate unit of barn like proportions, but really it is a riot of brightly coloured (why?) toys and packaging of pet foods stacked high.

But most annoying of all (and it is an absolute rule with this shop) fully half of the people in the store will be queuing at the till. How do they manage that? And then as you put down a myriad of items they ask you 'did you find everything you wanted?' Now this either infers that you are pretty stupid in the shopping department, their store is spectacularly badly laid out so it is highly likely that you would struggle or they are giving you an opportunity to say 'well actually...' because you were too timid to ask otherwise, as you thought it might hurt their feelings.

But. But, if you wanted say a bell shaped parrot treat that you have seen before but couldn't find today and you say so at this entreaty, they usually just drone 'no, we haven't got any of those left'. Excellent, thank you for just giving me a glimmer of hope there, only to dash it by proving that the empty space on the shelf did actually mean that you hadn't got any, as I originally supposed.

They are usually sweet kids in the store and don't mean any harm and the stupid question clearly isn't their idea, so you can't maintain a rage about it all. Just a dread of going back.

Understanding Change

Thought I would go for a clever title, impressive eh? What I am referring to is the broad reaction to the 'economic downturn'. The Democrats in America seem genuinely ashamed to have associated themselves with a vote to raise the level of debt hung around the nations neck (hurrah, they say) but with the unacceptable rider that they should do something about it, eg reduce spending. We saw this 'I'm popular when everyone has got money, so I'll keep borrowing' here from the fantasist Gordon Brown. Of course the Democrats would say that they do wish to reduce the debt by increasing taxation. Which is just giving more power, really, to the people who got you into this mess. You may worry about getting into bed with a Republican, but is the suicidal nutcase Democrat really the best choice?

Anyway, we also see pundits, sorry experts, waffling on about which country is doing the best job fiscally and the markets money flows there. Britain seems to be doing OK in their view and whilst that seems sound in itself you have to remember that our position is only slightly more favourable because we are not in the Eurozone, despite politicians desperately trying to join us up. Yes they are that thick; ideology (and personal gain) comes way before actually understanding what they are doing.

Then there are 'retail analysts'. Don't these people make you laugh? They treat companies as entities and address their situation based on 'market sector' and 'buying trends'. In other words, they are actually not applying any intelligence to making predictions they are just recounting statistics, in case you hadn't collected them. Technology companies introduce a new product and the analysts are stumped, because they have no history to rely on. The transistor radio took ages to get established, because industry and its experts said it was a bad idea. Given the choice, people bought them in the millions.

These cherubs sit around in their brain-storming immersion tanks and decide that due to 'discretionary purchasing' being reduced by 'broad economic factors', high street stores will struggle and some will go under. Like a fortune teller in a tent, if vague enough (and couched in 'modernspeak' which is valueless) they will appear to get some of it right. In military circles you do have to study history to understand what happened before, but Generals then, all too often are prepared to fight the last war, not what they are currently facing. So too our analysts. Innovation will be a key tool to beating recession and manufacturers should be investing in R&D (and not asking 'experts' what the market wants!) and retailers should be alive to the possibilities. Look for innovation in your appeal to the customer, understand where the money will be spent and provide those products, lead don't follow and increase efficiency. I know efficiency (and cost reduction) in the minds of the unimaginative managers companies in Britain saddle themselves with, is considered to be redundancies, but often it isn't. If you build a warehouse someone will fill it. Control stock, control distribution. Use your people well. Remember, if everyone follows dopey's example of making people redundant, who the hell is going to have any money to spend on your products!!?

Managers are a key though. Good ones will respond to the situation and find solutions, bad ones will make a bad situation worse. And companies not only recruit bad managers, they almost have a system for finding them. aside from the 'he is a mate of mine, we were part of a team where I used to work', you have the 'tick box' HR mentality (to be fair it isn't just them, but they are the worst). 'We need an experienced manager who has done x,y,z before' runs the formulaic job spec. Why? Because the hiring company lack the imagination to understand what they really need and how a new hire can be a great opportunity to bring in a fresh approach. Naturally the person you look at must have some key skills, but must he have come from an electrical retailer, just because you are? You want him to oversee staff, appraise, motivate, monitor figures and innovate change for the better. If you cannot discover that in any candidate you see, then you should be asking yourself whether you are fit for your role, do you know how to drive the business? A Kennedy said, 'we do not do these things because they are easy, but because they are hard'. The days when Chief Executives think they get the big bucks for turning up should be over. If they aren't then a lot of other, little people will pay with their jobs. And the analysts will say 'I told you so' whether they did or not.