Retailers that deserve to go bust

I'm with Nick on BHS - they HAVE to be next on the list don't they? I mean, do any of us actually shop in there?!

I like Next. I've got loads of clothes from Next. Good quality, not overly expensive, look good. Can't agree with you on that one Nick, sorry.

Nope. I only go in near Christmas, when we're stuck for inspiration for something to buy H's grandparents. We look at the gift sets, marvel at the tat they package up into a 'gift', and go somewhere else.

Oooooh, if we're doing restaurants as well, can we please zap Fat Ron's, and BK and KFC, and Angus steak houses, and every single one of those disgusting fried chicken places that flog people vile, grease-sodden bits of battered bone that they then eat on the bus?

i reckon they are a close contender. I did get a lampshade there once.

KFC definitely. greasy, hideous, unhappy chickens

Nandos too.

WH Smiths is a newsagents but I believe they are also the biggest book seller in the UK.

Oh, GOD yes!! I hate Nandos. I'm in a fight with them at the moment over a hideous experience H and I had in there a month ago. If they think I'm going to forget and let it go, they can think again!

Anyway, WHSMith won't go bust, i think I am single handedly keeping them afloat. Everytime we visit the UK I end up spending a fortune in WHSMith Books at Luton airport.

Another vote for PC world , recentley spent 2 hrs in there trying to decide which laptop to buy with the help of a 14 year old who was texting as he "advised" us. Finally made a decision , to be told "sorry we don't have that one in stock , anywhere".

Actually....I like BHS for cheap and cheerful summer/holiday clothes. They do really good value mix n match bikinis, vest tops, beachwear etc. And they usually have a sale day that makes everything even cheaper.

Other than that I never shop in there.

But it's part of Philip Green's empire (I think) so danger of going bust I wouldn't have thought.

You have a fellow supporter here.

I can count the number of times I've been to Primark on one hand - and every occasion has been like a rugby match at a church bazaar. I've seen better stuff spilling from ripped bin bags outside Oxfam.

BHS is quite good for homeware - lampshades, cushions and the like. I think they should stop selling everything else and concentrate on that. The used to be British Home Stores after all.

I agree re M&S online. Appalling.

I'd vote for most chain music stores: HMV, Zavvi (what did this used to be?) - they're always really gloomy and depressing. They could learn a lot from the people who run mobile phone shops and Apple stores.

Laura Ashley clothing - what's that all about? ny time i've gone into a Laura Ashley to look at furniture there's never what I want; meanwhile half the shop isstocked with overpriced sub-Boden frumpy clothes, and it's always like a ghost town. Does anyone buy clothes in Laura Ashley?They'd be better to concentrate on their furniture and wallpaper etc.

Another vote for Next. It's horrible- boring, poor quality and, even when something's not actually made of navy blue polyester, it always seems as if it longs to be.

Cafe Rouge- used to be ok. Last time I went it was vile- horrid food- and priced just madly (I had a salad made of about a tablespoon of crappy tinned tuna, two cherry tomatoes, about two mini new potatoes and a bit of unpleasant looking limp lettuce- nine quid). TBH I think 95% of British chain restaurants should close. It's easier to list those that should stay open.

Apart from Waitrose? They haven't sold unhappy eggs for years and I think their meat is all fairly happy just not necessarily organic?

I'll nominate Pizza Hut as well - should be renamed Indigestion Hut. No one has told them that it's no longer acceptable (if it ever was) to serve garlic bread that is only toasted on one side and that people might like vegetables on their pizza other than onions, peppers, mushrooms, and tomatos.

Halfords - never have the stock you need and staff have virtually no knowledge of stock, oh and they are more expensive for bike stuff than a local independent store. How? They must be ordering enough stock to get a massive discount from their suppliers.

Oh yes Pizza Hut and also Dominos, I can't believe how much Dominos charge for a pizza!

I went to Primark for the first time a few weeks ago. They had a boys t-shirt bearing the charming and possibly prescient slogan 'Menace to Society'. WTF?

Absolutely agree with PC World, TK Maxx (though Matalan is even worse imo), Currys. M&S needs to buck it's ideas up as well.

I do have a small soft spot for BHS though, even though I know it's totally crap. ?

Virgin

I think Zavvi used to be Virgin megastores?

I am not a Primark fan either. And agree re the chain restaurants- particularly Cafe Rouge who charged me over a tenner for a salad and a glass of white and poisoned me for my troubles. Ba-stards.

You can't get rid of Dominos! Or Fat Ron's! Where will my hangovers be cured, honestly, think about it people?

Am happy for KFC to go though.

Great thread.

Im with the OP on this one, Sports World in Braehead is just one big headache!

I vote for Matalan. Always stupidly overheated inside, the staff are always huddled in groups looking furtive and their sizing seems to be based on random figures plucked from someone's imagination.

Oh and my local one is always full of people with BO screaming at their kids to 'get over here now you fcucking little cretin!'

<shudder>

texting? WTF?! oh god i m glad it wasnt me there, i d have given him a bollocking ?

and the little tossers are always bloody chewing gum as well.

yes, lets keep waitrose, i like it.

Clinton Effing Cards - full of hideous cards for occasions that don't deserve to be celebrated, and effing Tatty Teddies and Me To You Bear twee twat nonsense. Plastic keyrings with poems in - WTF?

Matalan - I got dragged into one in Birkenhead recently and I thought it would be a bit like Primark/TK Maxx, with a few quite groovy items here and there that would be a must-purchase, but it was all utter bland dross.

Leave Nando's alone ? ?

It's called Zavvi because it sounds like 'savvy' apparently. Darn wiv da kidz and all dat. Aiiiiiiiiiiiieeeee.

I can't see them surviving for much longer.

So that just leaves Monsoon, Boots, Starbucks and La Senza spaced out along the Nation's high streets. ?

Ryan Air - cannot stand Michael O Leary (have i got the name right)

Lush - agree it stinks

BHS - even viler than Woolies

Selfridges for the obnoxious tw@ts who work there.

Oh dear, where will all the civilians shop ?

No, La Senza can sod off as well. Selling 'Little Miss' pjs for adults.

If you'd had the experience we'd had, you wouldn't be saying that. It was, without doubt, my worst dining experience EVER, and the letter I got in response to my complaint was patronising and had blatant lies in it.

Can we include online?

cd-wow - if you've got stock, then send the bloody stuff out - don't just take the money off my credit card and let my order sit there for two weeks without the status changing. I ordered at the end of November because I want the stuff for Christmas, so please post the bloody things. If you haven't got the stock then don't take the order.

The Hut - if you haven't got the stock, don't take the order, and don't bother waiting two weeks before you deign to tell me you're cancelling the order.

Argos - *shudder*