Another High Street Rebrand

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WillPS
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Square Eyes wrote:Bit of an offshoot from that Argos TV discussion over at the other place (which is straying into Metropol territory), does everyones branch of Argos now have those touch screen stock checkers ? As opposed to those old calculator style LCD efforts ?
The ones which also function as a self-service till? If so, it's been a long time since I've seen an Argos without them.

Even the ancient tiny branch in the Broadmarsh Centre (which still has all its 90s fittings including the old old old logo) has a cluster of them.
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Pete
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I presume SE means ones that aren't also the tills. As in next to the laminated catalogue.

I must stress I only posted my query regarding the "order number 362 to your collection point" lady's deep voice on the other forum as her voice does boom from an (often clapped out CRT) television.
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DJDave
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We have just had a refit in our local store we had the old green/blue argos store checker until this refit, now we have the touch screen and also a new voice for the order numbers and a LCD TV instead of an old 27ich CRT lol.

I have also noticed our local BK has had a refit on the counter and they use SAMSUNG TV's to show the menu items which I thought was a cool idea, only bad thing is they have the same tills from when it was Wimpy and they have moved location since too!
woah
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DJDave wrote:We have just had a refit in our local store we had the old green/blue argos store checker until this refit, now we have the touch screen and also a new voice for the order numbers and a LCD TV instead of an old 27ich CRT lol.

I have also noticed our local BK has had a refit on the counter and they use SAMSUNG TV's to show the menu items which I thought was a cool idea, only bad thing is they have the same tills from when it was Wimpy and they have moved location since too!
Most Argos stores around here have now had the refurb, with new flooring, paint, letting except - in fact, all bar one have been done - all have gotten the new LCD screens for stock checking/product searching (which is 1000x better) and a couple of them have a new style self serve till. Meadowhall store even had a self serve till which took coins and notes which was red, but I only saw it working once and it was there only briefly.

Regarding the BK menus - I've seen a couple of small KFC stores with the flat screen TV's as menus, three or four of them mounted vertically in a row - seems an expensive way of doing it but must be more convenient!
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WillPS
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woah wrote:
DJDave wrote:We have just had a refit in our local store we had the old green/blue argos store checker until this refit, now we have the touch screen and also a new voice for the order numbers and a LCD TV instead of an old 27ich CRT lol.

I have also noticed our local BK has had a refit on the counter and they use SAMSUNG TV's to show the menu items which I thought was a cool idea, only bad thing is they have the same tills from when it was Wimpy and they have moved location since too!
Most Argos stores around here have now had the refurb, with new flooring, paint, letting except - in fact, all bar one have been done - all have gotten the new LCD screens for stock checking/product searching (which is 1000x better) and a couple of them have a new style self serve till. Meadowhall store even had a self serve till which took coins and notes which was red, but I only saw it working once and it was there only briefly.

Regarding the BK menus - I've seen a couple of small KFC stores with the flat screen TV's as menus, three or four of them mounted vertically in a row - seems an expensive way of doing it but must be more convenient!
I think they'd pay for themselves sooner than you might think. One of my friends works in the offices of a SubWay franchisee, and I remember him quoting something like £70 per store for just the essential material (slide for the menus, window stickers, other POS) that they have to take each time there's a promo change, every 4 weeks or so. BK and KFC generally have more than just one interchangable slide too...
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Cache
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After an apparently successful trial in five stores, T Mobile and Orange stores across the country are set to be rebranded as Everything Everywhere (which is the two brands' new umbrella name if you didn't already know) but the two brands themselves will remain separate with differing contracts and deals. At least that means one less phone shop on the high street.

From what I've seen of the trial stores, they look lot like the concepts that Mary Portas came up with for FoneHouse; lots of glass and wood, comfy sofas and live products to trial and test, much nicer than the Orange shops that I've been in lately.

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Also, not exactly high street, but Coffee Nation who run those awful instant coffee vending machines in service stations have been bought up by Whitbread and will be rebranded as Costa Express; a great plan in my eyes because Costa is seen as a much more premium brand. They also want to effectively triple the size of the business by opening another 2000 machines over the next five years, while also improving the quality of the coffee to near barista standards. Wahoo.
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tillyoshea
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Mattarz wrote:Also, not exactly high street, but Coffee Nation who run those awful instant coffee vending machines in service stations have been bought up by Whitbread and will be rebranded as Costa Express; a great plan in my eyes because Costa is seen as a much more premium brand. They also want to effectively triple the size of the business by opening another 2000 machines over the next five years, while also improving the quality of the coffee to near barista standards. Wahoo.
Seems a bizarre decision to me.

After all that effort they put in to convincing us that their drinks were premium as they were hand crafted by highly trained baristas rather than just being spat out of machines operated by 'monkeys', they go and brand a load of, erm, machines... Mixed messages, much?
woah
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tillyoshea wrote:
Mattarz wrote:Also, not exactly high street, but Coffee Nation who run those awful instant coffee vending machines in service stations have been bought up by Whitbread and will be rebranded as Costa Express; a great plan in my eyes because Costa is seen as a much more premium brand. They also want to effectively triple the size of the business by opening another 2000 machines over the next five years, while also improving the quality of the coffee to near barista standards. Wahoo.
Seems a bizarre decision to me.

After all that effort they put in to convincing us that their drinks were premium as they were hand crafted by highly trained baristas rather than just being spat out of machines operated by 'monkeys', they go and brand a load of, erm, machines... Mixed messages, much?
I think the word 'Express' suggests that the coffee won't be of the same quality, just like you know Tesco Express doesn't have as big a range as products as a normal one.

As another example -I've seen these Starbucks frappuccino drinks in the supermarket, it's absolutely nothing like an actual Starbucks frappuccino and most people know that. But the Starbucks brand name will still increase sales. When people try these drinks and think they are no good it isn't tarnishing the Starbucks brand, as the products at their cafes are still very good and people still want to buy them.
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m-in-m
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Whitbread appear to also be rolling out Costa Express at some of their Premier Inn's. This picture shows the machine at their new Bury hotel.

http://twitpic.com/5w7fmq

I have to say having stayed in one of their hotels I would have been rather annoyed had I paid for their Costa Coffee and Croisaint breakfast - considering their Costa machine had broken by the morning and it was down to the same coffee you could make in your room. For something like £2.95 I can imagine a few people being rather annoyed.
Critique
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Whilst most of you talk about your wonderful new Catalogue machines in your new, refitted Argos stores, the same doesn't apply here. Old logo on the front, old, blue, keypad style Stock Checkers, which is beginning to look very dated. All of this, complete with an old CRT TV. The reason my local store may have not yet had a re-fit could be because, I think, my local store got a load of old style Stock checkers when the local iNDEX store closed.
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Pete
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m-in-m wrote:I have to say having stayed in one of their hotels I would have been rather annoyed had I paid for their Costa Coffee and Croisaint breakfast - considering their Costa machine had broken by the morning and it was down to the same coffee you could make in your room. For something like £2.95 I can imagine a few people being rather annoyed.
The Premier Inn I was in recently also had a faulty coffee machine that during my two week stay was broken three times.

Also, coffee and croissant breakfast? Surely when in a hotel only the full blown buffet is acceptable (and my my did I pig out at that breakfast buffet every morning.)
"He has to be larger than bacon"
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