local tackle shops
- Thread starter d-a
- Start date
mark
Well-known member
not just tackle shops, but shopping in general. I own a shop in town. I can count on one hand pretty much how many small independent retailers are left in the city centre
One thing that really boils my **** is the people that think you are some kind of free showroom. they come in to work out what they want, then go off to buy it on ebay. Ebay and Amazon are an absolute cancer on retail, especially the 'bedroom businessmen' who don't even have their 'business' registered with the taxman
and the irony of the stupid people that will come in, see what they want then go and sit in starbucks to use their wifi to buy it - spending 15 quid on crap coffee to save themselves a fiver
The other side of the problem is local councils do not give a damn. I've got a shop much smaller than most one bedroom flats. the council demand £19,000 a year in business rates!! yup £19k a year, and they won't even empty the bins for that. I am legally obliged to show evidence of a waste disposal contract to empty the bin - or pay the council another £750 a year - it works out at about £7.50 for every bin bag I put out. If I want to hand out flyers I have to apply to the council and pay for a licence to do so!
Folks don't see that though. rent and rates and insurances etc
I've got to put £1500 a week in the till to pay the bills and pay for the stock that is sold, before I can even think about taking a wage. and they get all uppity and think you are trying to rip them off when they try tell you can buy such and such on ebay for a fiver
One thing that really boils my **** is the people that think you are some kind of free showroom. they come in to work out what they want, then go off to buy it on ebay. Ebay and Amazon are an absolute cancer on retail, especially the 'bedroom businessmen' who don't even have their 'business' registered with the taxman
and the irony of the stupid people that will come in, see what they want then go and sit in starbucks to use their wifi to buy it - spending 15 quid on crap coffee to save themselves a fiver
The other side of the problem is local councils do not give a damn. I've got a shop much smaller than most one bedroom flats. the council demand £19,000 a year in business rates!! yup £19k a year, and they won't even empty the bins for that. I am legally obliged to show evidence of a waste disposal contract to empty the bin - or pay the council another £750 a year - it works out at about £7.50 for every bin bag I put out. If I want to hand out flyers I have to apply to the council and pay for a licence to do so!
Folks don't see that though. rent and rates and insurances etc
I've got to put £1500 a week in the till to pay the bills and pay for the stock that is sold, before I can even think about taking a wage. and they get all uppity and think you are trying to rip them off when they try tell you can buy such and such on ebay for a fiver
kayos
Well-known member
I feel for you mate. I looked at shop rent prices recently with a friend as he was thinking of opening a shop with his redundancy money. I could not believe the rent and rates for really small shops! I truly have no idea how independent traders stay in business??
I occasionally use Ebay for 2nd hand items, but never for new products. It boggles the mind to think what Ebay earn in a year with charges for placing an item for sale and 10% commission on top!!
My partner is an Ebay and Amazon freak and no amount of discussing with her the consequences of shopping with these companies has any effect whatsoever!
Is it any wonder town centres are full of pound shops, bookies and amusements?
People being paid poverty wages does not help and is why so many new items we buy in the high street come from China, cheap and nasty is King.
It is a disgrace and the very fabric of our society is being ripped apart.
I occasionally use Ebay for 2nd hand items, but never for new products. It boggles the mind to think what Ebay earn in a year with charges for placing an item for sale and 10% commission on top!!
My partner is an Ebay and Amazon freak and no amount of discussing with her the consequences of shopping with these companies has any effect whatsoever!
Is it any wonder town centres are full of pound shops, bookies and amusements?
People being paid poverty wages does not help and is why so many new items we buy in the high street come from China, cheap and nasty is King.
It is a disgrace and the very fabric of our society is being ripped apart.
mark
Well-known member
Don't get me started on China!
selling direct to the UK on ebay at prices cheaper than they can be had wholesale. Little known fact but the wee grey mailer envelopes they put bits n pieces in cost the chinese nothing to post - think about it - as soon as they are on a plane to the west, it's the post office that handles them and delivers them, so the we, and the post office are subsidising chinese traders
and lets no forget the amazon and ebay tax loopholes so they pay virtually nothing in taxes in the UK!
another 5 or 10 years and most city centres will be a wasteland illuminated by the bright lights of starbucks and mcdonalds
selling direct to the UK on ebay at prices cheaper than they can be had wholesale. Little known fact but the wee grey mailer envelopes they put bits n pieces in cost the chinese nothing to post - think about it - as soon as they are on a plane to the west, it's the post office that handles them and delivers them, so the we, and the post office are subsidising chinese traders
and lets no forget the amazon and ebay tax loopholes so they pay virtually nothing in taxes in the UK!
another 5 or 10 years and most city centres will be a wasteland illuminated by the bright lights of starbucks and mcdonalds
Just to say though, on the other hand, and going back to the OP.
I was looking at getting two new fathom reels last year, couple local shops wanted 135 -140 each, no discount.
Got the same two reels from another shop based down south, 100 quid each, with fiver delivery
Fair enough I understand local shops etc want to make a profit, but that's a canny mark up and the local shops lost a sale or two.
on flip side, I have been looking for kayak gear, went to shop in amble as I was there, bloke took time to explain what was what, pointed me away from the most expensive stuff, and even gave me a discount on what I bought, I will defo be shopping there again like.
I was looking at getting two new fathom reels last year, couple local shops wanted 135 -140 each, no discount.
Got the same two reels from another shop based down south, 100 quid each, with fiver delivery
Fair enough I understand local shops etc want to make a profit, but that's a canny mark up and the local shops lost a sale or two.
on flip side, I have been looking for kayak gear, went to shop in amble as I was there, bloke took time to explain what was what, pointed me away from the most expensive stuff, and even gave me a discount on what I bought, I will defo be shopping there again like.
lead chucker
Well-known member
Mark those rates seem criminal, why are they so much it hardly encourages any new business 's in town.
mark
Well-known member
where we are are some of the cheapest in Newcastle. The toon has the most expensive business rates in britain, northumberland street is know for being more expensive than even oxford street in london!
a company we deal with just took over the old Jacobs camera shop opposite where jessops was - rent and rates there - £74,000!!! 44 of that is business rates to the council!!!
its just a blanket tax on businesses - not services gotten for your money really - well, they sweep the streets I suppose, can't see what else I get for the money
a company we deal with just took over the old Jacobs camera shop opposite where jessops was - rent and rates there - £74,000!!! 44 of that is business rates to the council!!!
its just a blanket tax on businesses - not services gotten for your money really - well, they sweep the streets I suppose, can't see what else I get for the money
lead chucker
Well-known member
Wow, keeping the rich richer I suppose.
mark
Well-known member
kathmandu/kathman2 on old eldon square
not been to bishop for a while, watched it die slowly over the last 10-15 years, we're up in the dale so bishop was where we would shop if we didn't go into newcastle
LiamNE
Well-known member
Lads, if you know of things like this - PLEASE dont just have a moan about it - report it to the tax man. Theres plenty of ways to do it so no excuse.
You can even send me a PM and I will look into a case like Mark mentioned personally. They dont just come to an inspector and get thrown into the bin, there are small covert units of inspectors who specialize in this area and have the power to make them pay
Dont be afraid to report it!!
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fishingmark
Well-known member
Pretty much nothing but pound shops and Boyes left in Bishop town centre,even Home Bargains are moving down to Tindale Crescent now. I work at M&S stores and I remember last year when that store closed, an old lady just couldn't understand that the store would be closing. She just kept saying " I know it's closing tomorrow but when will it be open again", really sad. Someone must be making a mint out of the new out of town development, that's what will be at the heart of it.
Juliogeordio
Well-known member
That's politicians for you... Don't live in the real world. I've no idea how you afford £1500 a week just to tick over mate. Best of luck to you for the future. 
mark
Well-known member
for us there's 2 ways we just about survive, one is by trying to match internet prices, which we can do with some smaller stuff, but for that it means I buy direct from china in bulk which I hate doing, the other is do stuff that no-one else does. So we design and screen print a lot of the shirts we sell. Some have been brilliant sellers... the downside there is that the fact they sell well doesn't go un-noticed so a mixture of both chinese and the 'bedroom businessmen' then decide to rip of my designs. Those in the uk, ebay if you hassle them enough will remove them from sellers listings but it is a very time consuming process. The chinese that rip off a design you can't do a damn thing about, so we move on and try stay ahead of the game with something else
It's all pretty soul destroying. If we could walk away from the lease we would. the guy that owns the building (living in tax free Jersey) doesn't give a damn. If we walked away he'd pursue us legally for the value of the remainder of the lease. All he cares about is that legally, we owe him another 2 years rent, to make him even richer than he is already
The tax man really should make simple demand to ebay for a list of sellers that are registered on ebay as sellers and do a few simple checks
the data protection act is there to give them exactly the powers to do that, but it don't seem to happen.
Nothing wrong at all with folks making a few quid selling stuff on ebay, but if you see someone that clearly has 'stock' at hand by looking at there other items, and have lots of feedback for the same sort of gear, then they are a business, plain and simple and should pay Tax and VAT if applicable like the rest of us.
If you look through ebay fishing tackle listings there are hundreds of folks that are clearly buying and selling for profit, and I bet there's not many of them registered as businesses
It's all pretty soul destroying. If we could walk away from the lease we would. the guy that owns the building (living in tax free Jersey) doesn't give a damn. If we walked away he'd pursue us legally for the value of the remainder of the lease. All he cares about is that legally, we owe him another 2 years rent, to make him even richer than he is already
The tax man really should make simple demand to ebay for a list of sellers that are registered on ebay as sellers and do a few simple checks
the data protection act is there to give them exactly the powers to do that, but it don't seem to happen.
Nothing wrong at all with folks making a few quid selling stuff on ebay, but if you see someone that clearly has 'stock' at hand by looking at there other items, and have lots of feedback for the same sort of gear, then they are a business, plain and simple and should pay Tax and VAT if applicable like the rest of us.
If you look through ebay fishing tackle listings there are hundreds of folks that are clearly buying and selling for profit, and I bet there's not many of them registered as businesses
LiamNE
Well-known member
These checks do happen Mark, I have done these checks myself. The taxman uses special powers under the DPA to get this sort of information and ebay is something that is targeted often.
Inspectors do self source cases but I stress again - most cases for inspection come through from people making the tax man aware and unless somebody complains....it probably isnt going to get looked at.
LiamNE
Well-known member
Agreed Winton, I have no experience of working in LBS (large business service) so can't really comment on what goes on. I do sometimes think the little man is being hammered and many times I have thought myself why are we doing this.
I suppose even the small business man has to comply with the law...we do bring in a heck of a lot of money from the "hidden economy" - unregistered businesses like Mark mentioned.
Just again a reminder that any allegation/report to the taxman will be looked at. You can pass this on face to face, letter, telephone...even post a letter through the door of a tax inspector! (if you know one)
If nobody reports it, it may to common knowledge to the surrounding area that "Dave has not registered his business, pays no VAT, does not care who knows" and so on....BUT until somebody officially complains, it may never get picked up so don't leave it to someone else if you want something done about it.
I suppose even the small business man has to comply with the law...we do bring in a heck of a lot of money from the "hidden economy" - unregistered businesses like Mark mentioned.
Just again a reminder that any allegation/report to the taxman will be looked at. You can pass this on face to face, letter, telephone...even post a letter through the door of a tax inspector! (if you know one)
If nobody reports it, it may to common knowledge to the surrounding area that "Dave has not registered his business, pays no VAT, does not care who knows" and so on....BUT until somebody officially complains, it may never get picked up so don't leave it to someone else if you want something done about it.
