How Long before Argos is Gone?
Other
I shop at Sainsburys occasionally I would estimate maybe 10-15% of my supermarket shopping trips however the one thing I noticed is the Argos section in the stores are never busy often empty with no staff there and certainly rarely any customers. On a recent visit I saw someone returning an item and overheard them state they managed to find the same item somewhere else for 30% less so were returning this un-opened item. The Yeovil high street store is gone and in many high streets they have disappeared.
Just seems a waste of Sainsbury's space that could achieve far more as supermarket space. Ultimately its uncompetitive in pricing. I've done one order to Argos perhaps in the last 10 years and they cancelled it online.
Their sales went up in Covid times I think but since 2020 have been losing about 10% sales each year which is a huge reduction in sales. This is likely linked to store closures but they had to close the stores as unprofitable.
Also Argos seem to be utterly clueless how they sell their products with a lot of very poor copy on their website that is factually incorrect or misleading. It seems very poorly run; uncompetitive prices, often wrong products and poorly described. It just seems like a business destined to disappear.
How much further can it shrink before it becomes unviable. Sainsburys themselves don't seem to be interested in it.
I used to buy a lot from Argos at one time B, but as with yourself i tend to shop elsewhere unless there is something specific i see on offer there
I think Amazon and the like have taken a lot of business from them as well as other high street stores , but that is progress which cannot be stopped
telmel In many ways it should still be good as customers are kept away from stock so theft should be low to non-existent. I still feel well run it could be a success but it just seems incredibly poorly managed. They import a lot of the stock they sell themselves which Amazon don't do, Amazon mainly sell other companies products but Argos deal with factories abroad directly. This should give them a price advantage. They own many brands I think like Alba and Bush. It just feels like something that really should be far more competitive with its low amount of theft, no courier charges for store collection and the factory to retail direct business model for many of their products. You wonder how they have gone so wrong.
BonzoBanana A typical UK problem B, being set in your own ways , not wanting to change the business model ?
telmel I think their business model is perhaps too wide, too many products when they really need to focus on products they can be competitive on price. No point selling Tefal or Ninja products if they are always dearer than their main competitors, they need to face the reality they either compete on price or don't sell them. Every overpriced item is a reason not to shop with Argos and if you have a huge amount of such products it destroys the image of Argos in consumer's minds.
telmel I can't help noticing this news;
news.sky.com/story/sainsburys-to-cut-1-500-jobs-in-cost-cutting-plan-13083846
It says focusing more on food and reducing general merchandise but not sure how that reflects with regard Argos. You could read it as reducing the range of Argos products or general merchandise on the shelves of Sainsburys or both. I also noticed they are stopping it seems normal bakeries and going down the low quality Lidl/Aldi/Convenience Store route of parbaked products. Much cheaper due to less waste but a short life product of inferior quality. It's a race to the bottom again. I've been very pleased with recent Sainsburys shops which admittedly was using a voucher but the overall value was excellent the quality of some of the products fantastic compared to some of their competitors.
When you look at the UK supermarkets like Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsburys they all have staggering debts in the billions yet often still pay shareholder dividends.
jam45 The family members who owned it knew it was going down the pan so extracted huge sums for themselves and ultimately brought forward the demise of the shop. Maybe it would have made a difference but I'm not sure. I question how it can be legal to do that seems wrong to me. Same as buying a business on loans. I see so many leveraged buyouts where a business buys another business on pretty much loans only and then adds that debt to the business they have bought like Morrisons. So it's really no cost to themselves and if Morrisons survives despite these debts they get a multi-billion pound business for free and if they don't well it doesn't cost them anything except the banks will likely not fund their next leveraged buyout.
I think argos has gone down the
Hill, I do not think it will be around
Much longer
My mum was one of the first people to work there when Argos was a totally new type of shop. It was really good in the early days. Unfortunately it’s gone right downhill now. It has good products on the website but hardly ever got anything you want in stock. Also recently mum went to buy shower curtain. Went to one store, said they didn’t have it. We checked online and it said they did. Anyway assistant said another branch had one and she preordered for them. When they arrived it was the wrong one. They got another out and still wrong so they got a refund and gave up. Eventually they found a suitable curtain in Tesco!
I think argos does have a fair few items that are competitively priced and they have the convenience of click and collect so i hope they survive
We picked something up on Sunday that we’d bought via Click & Collect and it was pretty busy.
I felt like I got a bargain as they had a 20% off code, plus I exchanged points from a GPT site for an Argos voucher. So I only ended up paying £10 for a £50 item.
Having said that, in the past I ordered a frying pan and when I collected it I noticed it was all scratched. So I got a refund and then just picked up the same pan off the shelf in Sainsburys.
I do like that Argos stores are now situated in Sainsburys as it’s convenient and free parking.
Years ago Argos was my goto store for everything batteries , tools and garden equipment, household and small electrical, even watches and jewellery from Elizabeth Duke, even as kids we would compile our Christmas list from the Argos catalogue Not anymore rarely buy anything from them now, they just don't seem to have what I want at a competitive price.
I’ve ordered from Argos and picked up in Sainsburys rather than travelling into town and paying parking.
Most Supermarkets nowadays rent out spaces for their revenue like Argos. I use to do refits for ASDA and within those refits were allocated spaces for a Sushi Counter, Warrens Bakery even a Mcdonalds and so on. Thats how these big corporations survive. I always shop around for products and If they are cheaper then I buy. Argos on the other hand has been expensive. I only shop there when the price has come down. Argos back In the day was everything. Not anymore.
I bought my friends son his birthday and Christmas present from Argos as they had the best deals on lego at the time and I had nectar points I could use. But I don't use Argos often. It's never been a place that I shopped at regularly.
I use to love shopping with Argos as a child, searching the catalogue, going to pick up order and watching it come down the travelator. I always wanted to have a go on that!
I must admit that Argos never springs to mind when I need to purchase anything other than groceries. I often forget they even have a spot in Sainsburys as 80% of my groceries from Sainsburys are purchased online. Correct me if I am wrong but I do not recollect seeing any advertisements for Argos in recent years, maybe they should prod peoples memories as they are no longer visible on the high street and miss out on passing trade.
I think I we all have a bit of nostalgia about the catalogue and the stores. It was a brand new way of shopping, but it's no longer on every high street so it's lost its usp. Such a shame but as others have said the stores aren't stocked as well as they used to be and once you've driven to collect something and returned home empty handed it's simpler to shop online
My local Argos is in Sainsbury's as well and I've been noticing for quite a while now how quiet it is there and they stay open till late to. If there's something I need then usually I'll shop around and yes if Argos is the cheapest then that's where I'd get it from but usually find other competitors on par with them if not cheaper.
TiaTia For the sort of stuff I buy I find Argos quite expensive but did order something a while ago that was a very competitive price but they cancelled the order the next day. 10 years ago going to Argos was a regular occurrence but extremely rare nowadays. Last one I went into was at Taunton but it was really to avoid the rain but had a nose around the store and look at the clearance items on their electronic catalogue. I looked at their cycling accessories and noticed generic Chinese bicycle accessories were 2 to 3x more expensive than buying off ebay or similar sellers.
Sometimes on latestdeals a Argos offer is listed with limited stock but never available from the Yeovil store on Babylon Hill. Typically its 40 miles away or more to get stock. I feel for value focused shoppers Argos is now not an option but for those who put convenience over value then perhaps Argos still makes sense.
BonzoBanana it's swings and roundabouts, I always check what I'm looking for in Sainsbury's as sometimes things can be cheaper off the shelf.
People might not realize it, but having physical stores that sell electronics and whatnot are very useful because if something goes wrong and probably will within its warranty (it's not built to last nowadays), you'll want it replaced. And that's why.
If it's Amazon you're trying your luck since customer service has gotten worse and are not as reliable as they used to be.
CeX, Currys, Argos, Richer Sounds, Costco, John Lewis, AO, Reliant, and the likes are all better choices than Amazon.
My Samsung A52s has been malfunctioning due to a software screw up by Samsung and I'm waiting for an update to fix the mess they made. I mean, in terms of hardware there's nothing wrong, but the updated system update is semi-broken for some users. God damn it, Samsung. 
PhilipMarc The other day I got good customer service from Amazon's Indian customer support chat but strangely they thanked me for being a prime member despite not being a prime member. I didn't actually reply to say I wasn't a prime member as I thought that might mean I get worse customer service so kept quiet.
I worked for Argos for 2 or 3 Christmass we were really busy, as it was Christmas and we were running around upstairs collecting orders , we didn't stop. But when January come it was really quiet. Guess it depends on what season it is.
I use to really like Argos I got alot of things from there over the years. But now there won't deliver to my home address. I don't know why. There use to Infact I got a bookcase I think just before COVID but now can't get anything delivered. When I last went on the website which is awhile ago it said I had to go quite a distance to a Sainsbury's and pick it up from there. So I've had to go on other websites to get things I want.
We use to buy from Argos quite a bit, especially at Christmas for the kids, we didn't buy anything from there this year and to be honest, I barely look anymore
Argos won't go anywhere, it still makes good money, that's the reason Sainsbury's bought it, then moved Argos into its stores to almost eliminate rents lowering its overall running costs
RnD194hd It's losing about 10% of sales year by year at the moment. It will be interesting to see how it faired this financial year which is likely strongly linked to shop closures. I'm not one myself but many people are supermarket loyal which could be Tesco, Asda, Aldi, Lidl etc they aren't going to be going to Sainsburys. Argos are still closing stores, the news in 2023 was 100 high street stores closing which would finish in March 2024 which surely means even lower sales this financial year.
Also I haven't got anything to back this up but the supermarket versions of Argos are much smaller of the one's I've seen so have a much smaller range of stock held. Surely number of stores and number of stock lines are two factors that control sales volume.
BonzoBanana lowering company overheads can be more significant than sales for established businesses, also they do home delivery from central distribution centres.
It's sales for the year ending in march 2023 were £4.16billion with a statement from Sainsbury's saying it was becoming more profitable
RnD194hd They are certainly lowering their overheads by closing 100 stores I'll give you that. The thing is if you close unprofitable stores you obviously make the overall business more profitable in margin based on those lower sales figures. So a 11% margin is better than a 10% margin overall but it is still a much smaller business after closing so many stores. I just think Argos are spinning it to sound positive when really its not, its a shrinking business.
But they do online so maybe you don't see people come for the click and collect or inshore purchase. It's annoying because most m=times items are not available for pickup in my local Argos so I usually opt for delivery.
Just did a Sainsburys shop and in the Argos section I counted about 11 customers. A few were couples.
JLouM That actually sounds pretty decent. I mainly see none or one when I go to Sainsburys which is typically in the week though not weekends. Weekends would of course be busier. However Sainsburys themselves are typically very busy in the week.
Funny enough I have just bought a pair of SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless PS4 Headset for £149.99 from Argos they normally retail at £300, plus they sent me a voucher for £7 OFF when you Spend £75. So, I am very happy. But like most people I don't buy there on a regular basis, only in the Sales, but that is the same for most things.
Years ago there was 2 argos in my home town now 0. So unless it's something we really want at a good price not worth the effort of going out of town
There's barely any Argos stores in NI at all atm. Most were moved into Sainsburys. Ok if u wanna do ur weekly shop there, have a car to travel to it and use click and collect. Most Sainsburys stores are less accessible by bus or on foot, so u need to travel by car etc to them. Argos years ago, was where most bargains were for toys etc, got them delivered too. But u now have Toys r us, Smyths The Entertainer and the likes. I always liked Argos, most local 1s didn't re open after covid. They do and did some good bargains.
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