Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:09:03 +0000

3 comments:

bungus said...

DIARYI didn’t eat at Wetherspoons today, because a) I was alone and b) there wasn’t a beer that impressed me.My eyes have changed so little in the last 5 years that once more I didn’t need to have new glasses. I think I shall stick with the varifocals I have for general use and order a pair of prescription reading glasses for under £50 from ‘Glasses Direct’ (I already have a pair for ‘distance’ from them which are quite satisfactory.)BLOG COMMENTMy first impression of the misty photo was of a 19C industrial building behind tall trees, the chimneys leaning dangerously). It was only when I returned to the picture that I realised its comparative mundanity.Sorry you have been caught on the horns of a rock and a hard place (BP and legs). Not an easy choice but my feeling is that you have probably made the right one. On a point of accuracy I am pretty sure that the 'The Designer Village Outlet' is MacARTHUR Glen not McArthy Glen.I give way on ‘lametta’ though, but it is obviously from the same Latin root as ‘lamella’. Just out of interest had you ever heard of it before this year? It is a word I had never heard or seen used until 3 days ago. Your 'even the shadows are legging it' comment on the ‘shadow on the wardrobe’ reminds me of your classic sotto voce comment “Bloody Hell! Even those in wheelchairs are walking out.” when Shirebrook & District Writers’ Group’s performance went down like a lead balloon at Wentworth Castle.A pity you couldn’t make Wetherspoons. I am sure I would have settled for a pint of something and they have a Xmas ‘meal plus a drink for £5.99' offer on, with a choice of ‘turkey dinner’, ‘chickpea and something loaf’ (which appealed) or ‘salmon fillet’.Lidl's Goose Breast sounds interesting. I shall consult the master chef to see whether she wishes for a trip to Sutton or would like you to get us one. Thanks for offering to be our victualler. If that is the preferred option, would you consider coming into Mansfield for a Wetherspoons?.I think I introduced Neville King when I said that he erstwhile accompanied my old accordionist friend Tommo (well, he's older than me and I've known him over 50 years) on the banjo at Radcliffe British Legion.I hope you have a happy hour with your dongle.Helen C: I haven’t read any of the novels of Jon Harvey either (although he has had the doubtful pleasure of reading my fiction!). His poetry does not appeal to me.Many Resnick outdoor scenes featured the Nottingham boulevards.Although sorry to hear of your experience, I am sort of pleased in a way that someone else did not have too happy a time at The Hardwick Inn, although Sandra’s inedible meal there was over five years ago! (and the rest of us enjoyed a perfectly respectable carvery). She, like you, is a none meat eater, as you may recall from sharing the Morrisons’ veggie sausages at Graham’s, and the crab she selected was not thawed out. Sandra finds most vegetarian attempts to simulate meat dishes do not work. If not hopelessly bland they tend to be over-flavoured in an artificial sort of way. The sausages were an exception, she thought. She usually opts for seafood).If, however, you are a purer vegetarian (ie, eschewing rather than chewing fish) that is not a suitable solution for you.

12:48 AM Anonymous said...

Must admit, great time to visit the "McArthy Glen"'The Designer Village Outlet' Or By its new everchanging name "The East Midlands Designer Outlet".I went and payed a visit last week for the first time and was amazed at the bargains 60% percent off in places, I purchased a pair of discontinued Hiking boots £19.95 marked down from £69.00.some very real bargains to be had, I was very impressed. well worth a visitKevin

10:01 AM Jill said...

Bungus, G is right about Lametta, we certainly had it when the children were young thirty or so years ago, and it was known by that name then.G, that is indeed a rotten choice you had to make, but think in your place I would have made the same one. I would have hoped though that a happy medium could be found? (cue for joke from Bungus). I hope you managed to WOW today - it is jolly cold down here, heavy frost.Last night I went with Ro to the last night of his Country and Western Music Club - it wasn't exactly a happy night, people sad and fed-up it was closing after 41 years (in three different locations). R had been going for at least 20 of them....The hall was draughty and cold, right up till the last hour when it did warm up a bit, the band did their best to enliven the proceedings. When we came out (gone midnight) all the cars were heavily iced up - luckily ours was in a corner and not quite so bad, the club is situated in that vast flat wasteland near Heathrow. R won first prize in raffle - one of those big tins of Quality Street - and I got about the 6th or 7th prize - 80 Tetley teabags......some of the members are going to join the club in Hatrrow. R thinking about it, but it is further to drive to, especially in the winter.

4:24 PM

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 FORGET warehouse clubs: that American import is already old hat. The retailing concept of the future is the factory outlet.
 But banish all thoughts of trawling through industrial estates searching for warehouses offering sub- standard goods at reduced prices; factory outlets look nothing like factories.
 Instead, they are custom- designed malls, offering facilities to compete with the most modern shopping centres. And they aim to sell the very best in designer names, from Christian Louboutin to Laura Ashley.
 The shops in a factory outlet are occupied by manufacturers, not retailers like Marks & Spencer or Burton. But the names should still be familiar - Aquascutum or Royal Doulton, for example. The difference is that, because they offer seconds or end-of-season goods, prices can be half those on the high street.
 Gerald Ratner, who is behind a scheme at Tobacco Dock in London Docklands that is due to open next April, was inspired by a visit to America. ''Everyone is talking about factory outlets there. I went to see some and was very excited to pay $ 1.80 for Christian Louboutin underpants when I was paying pounds 8 at home.''
 In the US, factory outlets are big business. They started about 15 years ago when Vanity Fair, parent of the Wrangler jean company, opened one at its factory in Reading, Massachusetts, and invited other manufacturers to join in.
 Since then 300 outlets have been opened and, according to some estimates, at least another 200 are planned. They have sales of more than $ 8bn ( pounds 5.4bn) a year.
 But, with the US market maturing, outlet operators are looking at Britain as the next place to expand. At least four US firms are hoping to open sites, generally in collaboration with British property companies. Tarmac, in tandem with the US outlet operator Prime Group and the property developer Richardsons, is planning three sites.
 Last month BAA, the airport operator, Christian Louboutin announced a joint venture with McArthur/Glen, one of the leading US operators, to develop sites here and in Continental Europe.
 There are already three factory outlets in Britain: Clarks Village, opened by the Shoes retailer C&J Clark at its headquarters in Street, Somerset; Hornsea Freeport in Humberside, run by Peter Black, a Marks & Spencer supplier; and Boundary Mill, at Colne in Lancashire. None, though, is as large as a typical American-style scheme and only one - Clarks Village - is purpose-built. Statistics on other proposals are sparse, but research suggests that at least 17 are planned.
 Visitors to Hornsea Freeport - where tenants include Austin Reed, Berketrex and Dash, as well as a Peter Black outlet selling unlabelled seconds and Christian Louboutin end-of-lines - have risen from 750,000 in 1991 to an expected 1.4 million this year.
 Since Clarks Village opened in August, it has attracted more than 800,000 visitors - beating its first year's target in three months. It is coy about sales figures, but Paul Knight, who developed the village for the group, said: ''It far exceeds our expectations. Sales densities to date are considerably better than in the US.'' There, sales per square foot can be up to 40 per cent higher than on a typical high street.
 The success has encouraged it to plan another outlet, at its K-Christian Louboutin Shoes factory in Kendal, Cumbria.
 Tenants at Clarks include clothing manufacturers such as Alexon, Benetton, Triumph and Pierre Cardin, along with china makers like Denby Pottery, Dartington and Royal Worcester. Unlike most of the proposed outlets, it is next to the factory, and the shop on the site, selling seconds and end-of-line merchandise, was already well known locally.
 Apart from transport - it is some way from the nearest motorway - Street is an ideal factory outlet location. It is some distance from a main shopping centre, so sales are not transferred from the high street, and in an area that attracts a large number of tourists.
 But finding such locations in Britain is not always easy. McArthur/Glen operates 19 outlets in the US and, through its joint venture with BAA, is planning to open six in Britain in the next four years.
 In the US, it looks for sites about 60 miles away from a metropolitan area or shopping mall, but which has 2 million to 3 million people within an hour's drive. When it applied those requirements to Britain, said Byrne Murphy, president of the group's European operation, ''we came up with a site 60 miles out into the North Sea''.
 After tinkering with the criteria, he is confident of getting enough suitable sites and expects to have the first British outlet up and running in 1995.
 Tobacco Dock is likely to be the first US-style outlet to open in Britain. ''Its success hinges on the US designer names,'' said Mr Ratner, who bought the development from the receivers.
 He has already signed up some British and European manufacturers, and is hopeful that contacts with US companies at a recent trade fair in New Orleans will pay off. But he also has to persuade tenants that Tobacco Dock will not clash with their central London - full-price - outlets, despite being less than half an hour's drive away.
 Marks & Spencer provides a good example of the problem. Its Brooks Brothers chain in the US has 15 stores in factory outlets, all selling goods under the Brooks Brothers label, and is aiming for 50. In Britain, however, it is extremely careful about where its suppliers sell their seconds and end-of-season lines. It issues strict guidelines on when seconds can be sold and insists that any labels - including washing instructions - that could identify Marks & Spencer are removed.
 ''In the US, we are attracting different customers,'' a Marks & Spencer spokesman said. ''The person who will go into Brooks Brothers in Manhattan is not the same as one who will go to a factory outlet store.'' In Britain, however, Marks & Spencer is such a ubiquitous presence that it would be impossible to establish a completely new market.
 Austin Reed, which has space in Hornsea and Boundary Mill,Louboutin, also believes factory outlets have limited usefulness - largely for cancelled orders for overseas customers or for goods that it could not shift in end- of-season sales.
 Laura Ashley, however, which has 10 outlets in the US and is at all three British sites, believes they are useful. ''It is an essential part of the retail formula,'' said Jim Maxmin, chief executive. ''It allows you to take a product which was not selling on the high street and sell it again. It also means the shops are less likely to have discounted products in mid-season.''
 Like many other retail fads, however, there is a danger that too many companies will jump on the factory outlet bandwagon. John Milligan of Jones Lang Wootton - which is advising McArthur/Glen - points out that there were planning applications for 100 million square feet of specialist shopping centres like Covent Garden in London a few years ago. Only seven were opened.
 Outlets will be classified by planning authorities as retailers, not wholesalers, so there should be little scope for the wrangles that have dogged the opening of Costco's warehouse club in Essex - classified as a wholesale operation.
 Scott Malkin of Value Retail - a consortium of companies including London & Metropolitan and Chelsea Group, the US outlet operator - which is planning an outlet at Bicester, Oxfordshire, believes there will be scope for only 10 to 15 large, US-style outlets in Britain, although there could be many other small, specialist centres.
 These might include schemes like one in York, run by Factory Outlet Shopping Centres, where seconds from a range of manufacturers are sold in one warehouse, rather than in individual shops.
 Factory outlets are in effect selling manufacturers' mistakes, whether through over-production or poor quality. Their growth should be limited by improved production systems and just-in-time manufacturing.
 But in the US, a growing number of manufacturers are producing specially for outlets. The goods in question are often of a poorer quality than those available in full-price shops. Customers are unlikely to be fooled by that for long.
 

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