Metropol

http://arstechnica.co.uk/business/2016/ ... shops/[url][/url]

Dixons-Carphone are shutting 134 shops...Struggling to make any sense out of the official company line which is that they are not closing stores but are merely...

"taking the opportunity to put [their] estate into its long-term shape by rolling out the 3-in-1 format across the UK and Ireland with a major property programme that will enhance long-term earnings and improve [their] customer experience"

...but what it actually sounds like is they're shutting 134 in-town Carphone Warehouse stores and moving them into out of town Currys/PC World stores to create a '3 in 1' Currys/PC World/Carphone Warehouse which will be totes amaze and absolutely not evidence of them pulling even further out of the high street than they have already done with the closure of Currys.digital stores.

At least they project no job losses.

Merging the remaining separate but neighbouring Currys and PC World's into one unit makes sense as they've both been effectively the same store for years. I think Dixons largely know what they're doing and these moves are what you'd expect as result of any merger between retailers.

I hope they choose on a name after they finish merging all the stores. I'm not a fan of the 'Currys PC World' name. Dixons Warehouse, perhaps?

It's interesting looking at how the Curry's/PC World situation developed near us- the Curry's opened 1990-ish and for around 10 years only took up around 1/5th of the building- the rest being MFI. Then in 2000 they changed it to that it was 3 units of equal size- PC World (the front half of which was where the Curry's used to be), Curry's and MFI, then in 2011, after MFI had been shut down for a couple of years they knocked the whole building into one and made it a PC World-Curry's Megastore. So we now have a Curry's that's about 5 times the size it used to be!

Philip wrote:I hope they choose on a name after they finish merging all the stores. I'm not a fan of the 'Currys PC World' name. Dixons Warehouse, perhaps?

Given they're joining together everything, and it's all electrical, how about Fuse / Fusion ?

I like the combined name - my local Currys PC World Carphone Warehouse is next door to Bensons for Beds Carpet Right. It just fits.

Alexia wrote:

Philip wrote:I hope they choose on a name after they finish merging all the stores. I'm not a fan of the 'Currys PC World' name. Dixons Warehouse, perhaps?

Given they're joining together everything, and it's all electrical, how about Fuse / Fusion ?

The trouble is Alexia you'd end up with loads of people expecting to get their hair done there or ariving on a Saturday evening for a night out.

Philip wrote:I hope they choose on a name after they finish merging all the stores. I'm not a fan of the 'Currys PC World' name. Dixons Warehouse, perhaps?

Don't be silly. The Currys PC World brand might seem clunky but it tells people that they're going both offerings in one unit. And as for Dixons it hasn't been a consumer brand (excluding airports and online for a bit) for about a decade and sticking Warehouse on the end of it without any reference to the phone part would be pointless and sound a bit naff. If anything when the full merger is complete they'd drop down to just Currys after a few years.

Well, I was being silly on purpose, of course they're just going to call it Currys eventually.

Now you point it out though, I wasn't even thinking of Carphone Warehouse with that made up name, I was referencing the old B&Q Warehouse name (I.e. This is a huge B&Q).

You say that though, but even when they're merging stores they seem to be going into the smaller of two units or moving to a smaller one. So don't expect many megastores.

They don't have to rename anything as in most cases it's basically Carphone Warehouse within Currys PC World, displayed on a separate sign outside and a separately branded section inside, a concession basically.

I expect Carphone Warehouse will still have a major presence on the high street. Merging the remaining separate PC World and Currys along with closing retail park Carphone Warehouses will probably add up to a big chunk of the 134.

Then there are the cases when some towns have multiple Carphone Warehouse branches in the city centre, and also all the remaining city centre Currys branches which could be merged.

Another thing that is happening is Currys PC World and Carphone staff are being merged so managers of Carphone consessions just become team leaders and there isn't a separate team.