Metropol

Shops that sell gift cards are being asked to remove New Look and House of Fraser ones from sale. I wonder if some sort of announcement will be imminent from either company?

g67bbx wrote: Mon 05 Mar, 2018 13.04 Shops that sell gift cards are being asked to remove New Look and House of Fraser ones from sale. I wonder if some sort of announcement will be imminent from either company?

Just a sensible bit of risk aversion from retailers; if the gift card becomes unusable they'll be liable for chargebacks.

WillPS wrote: Mon 05 Mar, 2018 14.46

g67bbx wrote: Mon 05 Mar, 2018 13.04 Shops that sell gift cards are being asked to remove New Look and House of Fraser ones from sale. I wonder if some sort of announcement will be imminent from either company?

Just a sensible bit of risk aversion from retailers; if the gift card becomes unusable they'll be liable for chargebacks.

I don't think you can 'charge back' a giftcard - the retailer you bought if from has supplied the product you bought and paid for. There is some outside chance that a civil claim could be brought over unfit goods (which I would say would probably go nowhere), but more than likely if you hold a giftcard for a collapsed retailer then you have no redress from the point of purchase, instead you just join the long line of unsecured creditors and will eventually be offered a couple of pence in the pound on what you are owed.

Would agree though that you wouldn't want to actively sell such cards if you believe a retailer is likely to go under.

MarkAshley wrote: Mon 05 Mar, 2018 20.10 Will they though? Surely the onus is on the customer rather than the retailer - it's not Sainsbury's fault that I purchased a gift card from them for a company that collapses.

Martin Lewis says a chargeback in that case would never work.

g67bbx wrote: Mon 05 Mar, 2018 13.04 Shops that sell gift cards are being asked to remove New Look and House of Fraser ones from sale. I wonder if some sort of announcement will be imminent from either company?

New Look cutting 980 jobs and closing 60 stores. Seeking rent reduction on 400 other stores.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43317334

Out of the 60 stores closing, New Look are closing the London stores which have the highest rents including Oxford Circus and Marble Arch, while keeping small scale suburban stores open.

John Lewis Group have reported a 77% drop in profits. While I don't think JL/Waitrose will be going bust any time soon, it shows a change in shopping trends.

Totally missed that Byron burgers and Prezzo (which includes Chimichanga) are having problems too.

https://inews.co.uk/news/burger-chain-b ... staurants/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/busin ... 33076.html

No word on which Prezzos will go, though I don't expect the newish one in Newport to survive -- there's already a Pizza Express, a Pizza Hut and a Frankie and Benny's out at the retail park and the additional F&B which opened in Friar's' Walk lasted less than 18 months.

Newport still managing to sustain two Nando's, a BK and a McD, a GBK, a Pierre Bistro and a Zizzi's though.

A Prezzo closure list has apparently been released, although I can't find the official press release:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/which-pre ... n-12122496

Newport survives, but Abergavenny doesn't. Unsurprising - they don't like "foreign muck" up there.

Also surprised to see they opened one in Falmouth.... who'd have thought overpriced speciality pizza wouldn't go down well in a student town with an otherwise over-40 population populated by dock workers, musicians and lifeboatmen?