Patisserie Valerie

kidmugsy · 13 October 2018 at 10:09PM

bxboards wrote: »

I like to think I'm well informed but I never heard of these people.

Suddenly news headlines everywhere - am I living under a rock?!

They used to do very decent croissants. Do they still?

Thrugelmir wrote: »

You obviously don't remember Maxwell publishing then. How complex and sophisticated the fraud was to deceive the auditors.

Part of the fraud was to open the company safe and extract share certificates that belonged to the pension funds.

Thrugelmir · 13 October 2018 at 10:20PM

kidmugsy wrote: »

Part of the fraud was to open the company safe and extract share certificates that belonged to the pension funds.

There were some 170 subsidiary companies set-up around the globe. With varying year ends. A Treasury department would move cash around the subsidiaries. So that at the time of the audit of any group company. The subsidiary would be cash solvent. In reality the cash had been siphoned out of the group.

Glen_Clark · 14 October 2018 at 10:30AM

Alexland wrote: »

In this country there seems to be a huge market for people sitting around doing nothing but slurping on expensive coffee and eating cake. I was in Costa today (using up Zeek TopCashBack credit on a Frostino and getting the free Babyccinno for my son) and the place was rammed with punters. Most of them seemed to be paying with real money.

Alex

In some areas yes. But over expansion has led them to open branches where they should not have done. Whilst high rents is a double whammy - both directly, and indirectly as it leaves their customers with less disposable income.
Opening branches where they shouldn't has put the management under pressure to save face by pretending they are profitable. Perhaps in the mistaken belief they will become profitable before anyone notices. Or maybe just to keep the party going and put off the day of reckoning as long as possible.

thrifty_pete · 14 October 2018 at 10:45PM

Alexland wrote: »

In this country there seems to be a huge market for people sitting around doing nothing but slurping on expensive coffee and eating cake.

I think this will be the future, a high street filled with cafes, restaurants and the odd clothing shop. Given the trivial cost of making coffee with a self service machine, I hope before long free coffee will come with every purchase in every shop, just like the free coffee and newspaper in Waitrose. I suggested Nationwide put free coffee machines in every branch at one of their online focus groups, but they ignored it. I think I'd be happy to be sold a financial product as I slurped the coffee. It would be a win-win for everyone.

TrustyOven · 14 October 2018 at 11:37PM

thrifty_pete wrote: »

I suggested Nationwide put free coffee machines in every branch at one of their online focus groups, but they ignored it. I think I'd be happy to be sold a financial product as I slurped the coffee. It would be a win-win for everyone.

Haha you just reminded me of a quote from the film You've Got Mail:

Joe Fox: Because we're going to sell them cheap books and legal addictive stimulants.

kidmugsy · 14 October 2018 at 11:55PM

thrifty_pete wrote: »

I think this will be the future, a high street filled with cafes, restaurants and the odd clothing shop.

Shoe shops - I've always said I can't imagine attempting to buy shoes online. An offspring mocked me for this and ordered me a pair of trainers - didn't fit, back they went. What a bonkers way to shop.

Books, fine. Even shirts or, at a pinch, trousers. But shoes?

Anyway, coffee and cake shops - I imagine the point is social, isn't it? Meet for a natter? And display your new trainers?

Apodemus · 15 October 2018 at 5:59AM

Is there not a more fundamental problem that, in the Service sector, it is far from certain that a small, private company with an excellent product and great service can make the transition to a bigger, public company without dumbing down the product and losing the focus on service? Add in the classic cash-flow problems of a Company trying to expand too fast, simply to please the new investors and you have a car-crash waiting to happen.

I was very impressed with PV the couple of times I went there and had a look at the IPO, but reckoned the chances of it making the transition were poor. I hope it recovers and proves me wrong!

Malthusian · 15 October 2018 at 9:40AM

kidmugsy wrote: »

Shoe shops - I've always said I can't imagine attempting to buy shoes online. An offspring mocked me for this and ordered me a pair of trainers - didn't fit, back they went. What a bonkers way to shop.

Takes five minutes to repackage it and send it back. Then you order another one which hopefully fits. Total time to buy shoes - however long it takes you to find something that looks good online (maximum half an hour if you're really fussy), plus five minutes per failed attempt. How long does it take to get to a high street, try some shoes on, stand in a queue, and then come back? An hour at least, more likely two.

My partner gets most of their clothing this way and once you're used to the merry-go-round of parcels it's highly efficient.

Obviously it takes much longer to get a pair of shoes that fits, but as long as you haven't waited until they're actually letting in the rain (which no self-respecting millennial would) and your need isn't urgent, the important thing is that you lose much less of your precious life doing the deliveryman's job.

Apodemus wrote:

Is there not a more fundamental problem that, in the Service sector, it is far from certain that a small, private company with an excellent product and great service can make the transition to a bigger, public company without dumbing down the product and losing the focus on service?

Are we talking about any company in particular? I thought we were talking about Patisserie Valerie, the Nando's of cakes.

Make a load of cheap cakes that would come dead last in a Rainbows baking competition in any village in Devon, pick a pretentious name, gear the living daylights out of it, IPO and cash out a load of money, then stick your hand in the till and extract another load of money before the business gets found out, either by customers or by creditors. Excellent business plan.

Thrugelmir · 15 October 2018 at 10:19AM

Malthusian wrote: »

My partner gets most of their clothing this way and once you're used to the merry-go-round of parcels it's highly efficient.

Not for the retailer though.

AnotherJoe · 15 October 2018 at 10:25AM

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Not for the retailer though.

Indeed. SWMBO ordered some clothes last week. It was free delivery over a certain sum, let's say £100. Her order came to about £75 so she simply added in another item to take it over the limit and then sent that back along with other stuff she didn't like after trying on.

FWIW I bought shoes yesterday in an actual shop, but if I did buy online, I'd order multiple pairs of slightly different sizes rather than try them one ata time.

Patisserie Valerie

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