please empty your brain below

Card Factory ~ they always seem to be the Poundworld of the greetings card market
Far more extraordinary than my derisory predictive powers (although Boots *still* looks to me like it's on its last legs) is the fact that I've been reading - and commenting on - this blog for more than ten years.
How WH Smiths still survives beggars belief, I have not shopped in there for years. It ceased to be relevant ages ago!
A few others here did enter administration mainly for "buy out without debt" reasons:
- Peacocks
- Clinton Cards
- Blue Inc

dg writes: Updated, thanks.
Looks like Clas Ohlson is next.

Ten years ago, my local branch was a Woolworths
Who the smeg are Blue Inc?

Their web-site looks like they’vE already gone bust!
@Drew
Visit a hospital or railway station, that's the answer. The terms they get for product sold there are enhanced by the volume through the high street stores even if the latter are not that profitable. Suggest also, look at their share price movement over 10 years plus the healthy state of their pension fund. WHS may not be exciting but in the time since they booted out the 'family tradition' from the management, as a business they have thrived.
I suspect there have been several more quiet administrations - for example, FADS in 2008 and 2010 - and plenty others have had financial crises and then closed many stores and/or suddenly changed management and/or been sold cheaply to new owners.

The high street feels a very different place without BHS and Woolworths.
Blue Inc are a mens clothing retailer that, not content with partly going into administration in 2016, are having another go at it today (according to The Times)
I'm surprised Blockbuster limped on until 2013. They were like Pandas - nearly wiped out by the actions of others moving into their patch (Netflix, RedBox, etc) by about 2008, but then being very reluctant to do anything about that.
Mothercare and M&S seem to be the ones always in the news, but the checks for likelihood of closure are - does it own its own stores, if it has sold them off then rents them back, then it doesn't really have any assets (the company it sold them to has, and the value of the brand name is largely fiction), does it have large debts and does it have large pension liabilities.
@Sarah. The thing with Boots is, it's now a subsidiary of the Walgreens Boots Alliance and that doesn't appear to be doing too badly.
Maplins is the one I really miss. The things I used to buy there are not the sort I want to buy on the Internet. Batteries are heavy to post, electronic items can be of dubious quality if not from a well-known supplier and sometimes I want advice or to walk in clutching something and ask for something to fit this.
Women's clothing retail is over supplied...we in the UK already buy more clothing than anywhere else. There must be limits to how many versions of the same thing people will buy. My feeling is that one or more charity shop chains will cease trading before long.
I haven't been in Boots since photo processing finished and they stopped doing homebrew kits.
Sainsbury bought Argos in own right business.
Never understood why Argos survives. You have to choose your purchase from a catalogue, as we did in the 1960's. You have to queue up to order it, wait to collect it, then carry it home. Why hasn't Amazon wiped it out?
WHSmith's will survive because they have managed to diversify into becoming Post Offices (and success is helped by bank branches disappearing). Also they will survive as a news distributer.

There is a difference between not surviving and not surviving on the High Street. Argos will survive even if it is only a trading name for Sainsbury's offering of online items (which very conveniently can be collected at any nominated Sainsbury's store 24 hours later).
I’m quite bullish on Argos, compared to some of the comments above.

They should be marketing themselves as a much more convenient Amazon. No waiting two days for delivery, no waiting in the house for a courier, convenient high street and travel locations. I was sad to see the location in Cannon Street station close so quickly.
I laugh when I go past a snappy snaps and see them remaining. You'd think social media and mobile phones would have done them in by now.

I have bad feeling about Ryman in the future.

In terms of food, I wouldn't be surprised if Burger King comes under the dust. They're hardly the big name that they used be.

Just some really spacky suggestions.
Get a life!

Far more important things in life than the name on the bag you carry around, in order to demonstrate how cool you are.
I went in to Robert Dyas this morning,
I hope they manage to survive
Argos work off the convenience factor: they can stock a wide range without needing the floorspace to display it. Technology works in their favour too, as you can check they've got what you need before setting off.

See also Screwfix, who operate the same model but for building materials. B&Q were clearly on the ball to them cannibalising their market so bought them.
Buying from Argos also means you have the confidence that you can easily take a faulty good back without having to go posting it off at your own expense. For low price items like toasters and kettles that's especially handy.
The High Street is a recent phenomenon in history, many shops simply duplicate others. Once you abandon consumerism it becomes rather irrelevant.
I was surprised to see from your list that FADS has survived. However, it seems to be completely different from what it used to be. I remember it as a home decorating chain with an excellent selection of wallpapers. According to its website, it's now an 'online furniture store' – no high street presence at all.
Surely Halfords.
Some of the betting shop chains must be vulnerable when the maximum stake on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals is cut from £100 to £2.

Unlike the other casualties, they won't be missed.

I'm also surprised that estate agents and travel agents still have a significant high street presence.
I find it amazing that 30 years after I first moved to Exeter 8 or 10 of the big name shops are not only still in existence but still in the same place on the high street.
‘Many shops duplicate others’. Yes, Comrade, that’s how competition and choice work. In case you missed it, there are one or two websites out there that offer similar goods.
"Women's clothing retail is over supplied...There must be limits to how many versions of the same thing people will buy."

You obviously haven't met my wife..
My $0.02 is that the owners of the buildings need to adjust the rent downwards (if they haven't done it yet) as more and more people who doesen't drive cars do their shopping online. (People who drive cars have probably not bought much in the high streets since forever, as the stuff you can find in the outskirts is probably cheaper there than in the high streets).
28th Dec 2018: HMV calls in administrators for second time in six years
@ cofffin dodger

Argos is doing well because they have physical stores and have promoted the fact that often even if they don’t have it, if you order online your local store will have it within 24 hours, or sometimes same day. They’ve done well and combining the convenience of online shopping and the convenience of in-store collection.
5th November 2019: All Mothercare stores to close.
1st December 2020: Debenhams enters liquidation










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