Bradford jewellery shop to shut over 'joke' tax bill (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Same problem in Bingley. Insane rents/rates baring no relation to customer footfall/spend. The high street will soon be a barren wasteland. Here in Bingley, council have employed new 'flying parking ticket wardens' on motorbikes to further deter shoppers/visitors...
.laughable if it wasn't so sickening.

Bradford is going to end up a ghost town if the council are not carefull. We have been promised a shopping Mall for years but nothing has been done about it. All we get is that its in the pipe line. I wonder what would happen if people just stopped shopping in the City centre and the shops were to move else where what would they do then.

Why don't we all forget about westfield and concentrate on helping the shops we have already got then maybe they will survive and more shops may open but the council need to do their bit as well by keeping and giving these rate reductions.

Huneybunch wrote:
Bradford is going to end up a ghost town if the council are not carefull. We have been promised a shopping Mall for years but nothing has been done about it. All we get is that its in the pipe line. I wonder what would happen if people just stopped shopping in the City centre and the shops were to move else where what would they do then.

Hasn't that already happened?

Where my business is (not in Bradford) we recently discovered in a nearby retail park the local council has been giving large chains who take the units 2 year rate free periods. Also in a new shopping centre, large companies are again getting special treatment, operating in rent-free periods for at least a year (and we have recently discovered one national chain that has a £100k rent isn't breaking even in the rent-free period).
.
I wonder if similar sweeteners have been offered to potential large chains by the council and lardlords who might take up residency in Westfield, while squeezing the independents like in this case. Large companies will automatically attract people, as they stick to what they know and whats safe and the independents that do exist or any new ones will suffer more.

So they're throwing their toys out of the pram for the sake of 9k? Maybe they shouldn't have spent more than 3 times that amount making the store look slightly better and spent the money on advertising!
I wanted to go in the shop for a brows recently but was put off by the fact you have to ring the doorbell and wait for someone to let you in. I'm sure I'm not the only person to be put off by that cause It makes you feel like you need to buy something.
So I went to H Samuel insted and ended up spending quite a bit of money there.

bhuna156 wrote:
So they're throwing their toys out of the pram for the sake of 9k? Maybe they shouldn't have spent more than 3 times that amount making the store look slightly better and spent the money on advertising!
I wanted to go in the shop for a brows recently but was put off by the fact you have to ring the doorbell and wait for someone to let you in. I'm sure I'm not the only person to be put off by that cause It makes you feel like you need to buy something.
So I went to H Samuel insted and ended up spending quite a bit of money there.

Good lord! you must have bought the whole shop!
It's quite common for quality jewellers to have door security, particularly when you consider the number of hit and run robberies of such places.

Albion. wrote:

bhuna156 wrote:
So they're throwing their toys out of the pram for the sake of 9k? Maybe they shouldn't have spent more than 3 times that amount making the store look slightly better and spent the money on advertising!
I wanted to go in the shop for a brows recently but was put off by the fact you have to ring the doorbell and wait for someone to let you in. I'm sure I'm not the only person to be put off by that cause It makes you feel like you need to buy something.
So I went to H Samuel insted and ended up spending quite a bit of money there.

Good lord! you must have bought the whole shop!
It's quite common for quality jewellers to have door security, particularly when you consider the number of hit and run robberies of such places.

Indeed Albion.The type of Jewellery stocked at Ratners isn't going to attract a bullion heist mob!

Given the fact this business has been in the T & A at least twice about antisocial behaviour, plus the large robberies have taken place at other jewellers on Kirkgate, blaming the business for having some prudent security procedure is bizarre.

The simple fact is footfall is falling so there is less profit to be made and until the council do something to reverse that (such as free parking) then the decline will continue.

Labour's legacy on the city centre is actually going to be much worse than when they took it over if they don't wake up soon.

Free parking, lower rents for sole trader/individual style business, hit the national chains for a little more so we can keep a little diversity on the high street. Hopefully one will propagate the other with custom. Or just continue on apace and watch the whole lot become a barren area, void of anything of any use.

Part of the blame has to be with the shop itself, have been in once to help get my fiancee get her engagement ring re-sized, the supposed elderly female "expert" that served us quoted a ridiculously high price to have the work done, had no customer service skills, made us feel unworthy of being in the shop, and actually hurt my fiancee by forcing the sizing rings onto her finger, and telling her the wrong size needed. It doesn't surprise me they have gone out of business given this experience, the money spent on the shop would've been better spent on staff training and purchasing stock people want to buy, adapt to the market or go bust, basic business sense...

By the time Westfield is built (if ever), the 75 shops it will bring will be far less than what has been lost to it and the farce that this project has become!

bhuna156 wrote:
So they're throwing their toys out of the pram for the sake of 9k? Maybe they shouldn't have spent more than 3 times that amount making the store look slightly better and spent the money on advertising!
I wanted to go in the shop for a brows recently but was put off by the fact you have to ring the doorbell and wait for someone to let you in. I'm sure I'm not the only person to be put off by that cause It makes you feel like you need to buy something.
So I went to H Samuel insted and ended up spending quite a bit of money there.

One of the jewellery pawn shops 50ft away, the Tim Hogarth one has been robbed about 3 times (if i recall as reported on here a few months ago), so its understandable if they have a doorbell.

ministry_of_justice wrote:

Albion. wrote:

bhuna156 wrote:
So they're throwing their toys out of the pram for the sake of 9k? Maybe they shouldn't have spent more than 3 times that amount making the store look slightly better and spent the money on advertising!
I wanted to go in the shop for a brows recently but was put off by the fact you have to ring the doorbell and wait for someone to let you in. I'm sure I'm not the only person to be put off by that cause It makes you feel like you need to buy something.
So I went to H Samuel insted and ended up spending quite a bit of money there.

Good lord! you must have bought the whole shop!
It's quite common for quality jewellers to have door security, particularly when you consider the number of hit and run robberies of such places.

Indeed Albion.The type of Jewellery stocked at Ratners isn't going to attract a bullion heist mob!

H.Samuel is part of Signet Group, Ratners hasn't existed for over 8 years and as its very possible that work will start on Westfield soon, maybe Jeff will change his mind as that store will be in a prime position

ministry_of_justice wrote:
Same problem in Bingley. Insane rents/rates baring no relation to customer footfall/spend. The high street will soon be a barren wasteland. Here in Bingley, council have employed new 'flying parking ticket wardens' on motorbikes to further deter shoppers/visitors...

.laughable if it wasn't so sickening.

I believe the ticket wardens get a cash bonus every time a shop closes down..

g1ne wrote:
Part of the blame has to be with the shop itself, have been in once to help get my fiancee get her engagement ring re-sized, the supposed elderly female "expert" that served us quoted a ridiculously high price to have the work done, had no customer service skills, made us feel unworthy of being in the shop, and actually hurt my fiancee by forcing the sizing rings onto her finger, and telling her the wrong size needed. It doesn't surprise me they have gone out of business given this experience, the money spent on the shop would've been better spent on staff training and purchasing stock people want to buy, adapt to the market or go bust, basic business sense...

In contrast I have always found their service outstanding. In fact (and as I've mentioned previously) it is one of the few - perhaps even the ONLY reason - I venture into Bradford every once in a while these days (to Sydney's).

Small (and for that matter large) businesses are on their knees in Bradford. Decent traders such as Jeff Frankel deserve better than this!

Meanwhile the Council seems quite happy to sit on its hands and turn a blind eye while scores of stalls operate in blatantly illegal 'bazaars'. There's something not right here...

I suggest Mr Jeff Frankel to open his business in some illegal Markets or Bazaar with minimum overheads and can claim benefits as well. This is the only business plan which can work and beyond the Bradford council control. Despite rejecting the illegal markets application they are helpless to close them and the process could take years to finalise. All other councils knelled these types of markets immediately, Why not Bradford Council?