The Student Room Group

dun dun dun *clap* ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST (JJB)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19792124

Well RIP JJB. Bit crap how there are loads of job losses but I won't miss you anyway.

Bad management imo. Couldn't even move with the times and get in stuff that people actually want at prices people are willing to pay.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 1
I was only a matter of time, Sports Direct have been undercutting them for years.
Reply 2
Damn damn damn, now sports direct have a monopoly. I apsolutely despise them, they are rude, cheap on some things but ridiculously priced on others, most of their products are crap. God I hate them.
awful store, sold some nasty stuff ,

JD is more modern and sells fewer items so it will hopefully stay up

though I am not sure where the Polish will now buy their clothes
Original post by democracyforum
awful store, sold some nasty stuff ,

JD is more modern and sells fewer items so it will hopefully stay up

though I am not sure where the Polish will now buy their clothes


Chavs love JD so that has a bit of life in it for the moment.
Is there still a store open called Donnay , or sports shop or something ? I haven't been on the high street in ages
Here we go! Ultimate funeral anthem!

Original post by democracyforum
awful store, sold some nasty stuff ,

JD is more modern and sells fewer items so it will hopefully stay up

though I am not sure where the Polish will now buy their clothes


I've never thought of JD as a place where Polish people shop? But know that a lot of chavs (Polish included) shop there
Original post by lbsf1
Damn damn damn, now sports direct have a monopoly. I apsolutely despise them, they are rude, cheap on some things but ridiculously priced on others, most of their products are crap. God I hate them.


Sports Direct is a claustrophobic stress hole. Everytime I go in one of their stores it's filled up with all sorts of crap to the point that you can't move without taking something off a rail :mad:

I agree that the staff suck as well, they're possibly worse than Primark. At least you can sympathise with Primark staff.
Original post by aliluvschoc
I was only a matter of time, Sports Direct have been undercutting them for years.
Hopefully there's enough online competition to stop sports direct thinking "you know what? **** it. the competition is gone now so we can just raise prices".

Because that one pair of running shoes I buy every year will make a huge dent in my expenditure if it rises in price.
Where JJB went wrong imo:

1) JJB just had no unique selling point plus they were too expensive for the stuff they sold. The stuff they sold wasn't as cheap as Sports Direct, but were never at the quality of the sportswear sold in JD. They were in the lame middle. I can't forget about Foot Locker either so more competition for poor JJB.

2) The staff sucked, but I put that down to poor management and training and low morale.

3) JJB were mostly based in retail parks. What sort of young people go to retail parks??? :confused: Were JJB out of their mind? No group of young people are going to flock to a sports wear shop (which means paying more bus fare), unless maybe if they live local and they like to ride bikes and piss around in the car park. Main people who visit retail parks are families with cars, middle aged and old people who want to avoid the hustle and bustle and get cheap/free parking. Can't forget the mums on the back to school shop.

4) They just weren't cool enough. The marketting wasn't cool either. IMO in the world of sportswear being cool if you want to appeal to the masses of youth is important, because lets face it - young people are obsessed with status and looking the best and showing off. Bodybuilders, athletes, etc will prefer specialist stores for most stuff sports related that they're gonna spend big cash on.

5) Young people don't have much money, but when they do they're gonna want to buy something that's cool and trendy (e.g. a snapback, cool label kicks, etc). Again if you don't have the cash it's sports direct because face it... they're cheaper.

6) The company was a stubborn old man who was unwilling to evolve, change and appeal to a new generation. They were stuck in their ways. They just didn't understand what their potential customers want.

7) The stores were way too big. They were more comfortable than Sports Direct to get around, but the stores just looked sorry and depressing. They just looked totally empty and unnatractive to go in. Really airy and you felt as though you were being watched all the time.

8) Too slow to respond to trends - and in the world we live in there is NO EXCUSE with the internet around. Most of the stock was outdated, poor quality for the price and boring. You'd just go around looking like a chav if you did all your shopping JJB.

They're now sleeping with the fishes (Woolworths, Peacocks, etc)
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by aliluvschoc
I was only a matter of time, Sports Direct have been undercutting them for years.


Not to mention due to the economic slump the pikey scum can't rob enough from people for enough of them to afford their trackies and Nikes.

Crying shame really.
Reply 12
Original post by jblackmoustache
Sports Direct is a claustrophobic stress hole. Everytime I go in one of their stores it's filled up with all sorts of crap to the point that you can't move without taking something off a rail :mad:

I agree that the staff suck as well, they're possibly worse than Primark. At least you can sympathise with Primark staff.


The staff in my local sports direct are just aweful, they put the wrong price up for a pair of shoes that made it £3 more expensive then it should have been, we took it too the till, it brought up the more expensive price, they refused to sell it at the price they had advertised and just said the we were wrong and must have read something wrong, we they showed her the sign but she still said that we were wrong and refused to sell it at that price, my mum said they had to due to consumer rights, ect and then she just said that she didn't care if she broke the law and what would we do about it. (however another assistant scanned it on another machine and then it brought up the lower price :biggrin: )

Every time I go in there I'm also followed around by staff who I guess think I'm gonna steal something and even once while looking at cycling gloves there with a mate was told to leave as we were "causing a disturbance"?????
Original post by jblackmoustache
Sports Direct is a claustrophobic stress hole. Everytime I go in one of their stores it's filled up with all sorts of crap to the point that you can't move without taking something off a rail :mad:

I agree that the staff suck as well, they're possibly worse than Primark. At least you can sympathise with Primark staff.


I feel sorry for sports direct staff too. They are under strict orders to sell as many of those bags for life as possible as humanly possible. Probably because that's what they make the biggest margin on.

Every time without fail they will give you a sorry little sales pitch for the bag. Last time I went I bought an arm wallet and a wrist band and they still had to try and sell me the sturdy bag for life which I could use for my weekly shop. I just laughed.
Reply 14
I'm sorry to hear that you guys have had such poor experiences with members of staff in SD (as you can probably figure out, I do work in one). I have worked with some pretty bad people in the 2 years I've been here, so I can quite believe that you've had people treat you that way, though they really shouldn't have.

E: We have to offer you guys catalogues too now, for which I do also apologise, trust me, we don't like having to offer them any more than you like being asked if you want one, but at one point, we were threatened with being given a company investigation if we were caught out not asking people for one.
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by MoonGazer
I'm sorry to hear that you guys have had such poor experiences with members of staff in SD (as you can probably figure out, I do work in one). I have worked with some pretty bad people in the 2 years I've been here, so I can quite believe that you've had people treat you that way, though they really shouldn't have.

E: We have to offer you guys catalogues too now, for which I do also apologise, trust me, we don't like having to offer them any more than you like being asked if you want one, but at one point, we were threatened with being given a company investigation if we were caught out not asking people for one.


Sorry to hear about your experiences. Hopefully, something better will come your way soon.

Honestly, who the hell buys a catalogue? How many people have actually thought 'hell yes, i want a catalogue'.

They'd probably be better off asking people if they want a shaker or a bottle. Everyone always needs one for the gym as they go missing all the time.
Original post by democracyforum
awful store, sold some nasty stuff ,

JD is more modern and sells fewer items so it will hopefully stay up

though I am not sure where the Polish will now buy their clothes


I went into a JD store the other day for the first time. I won't be doing that again. Overpriced, poorly made, vomit inducing, crap.

Quick Reply