The "Credit Crunch" and you?

Mark · 06-12-2008, 14:40

In the majority of Argos stores it's essentially a warehouse operation with a glorified counter and a few shelves of display stock. The result is they can stock a lot of stuff in a lot less space than it would take with a traditional store, so providing the cost of printing all those millions of catalogues isn't too high then overheads per product should be lower, and thus margin should be higher (assuming similar prices).

Of course, if you're going to have to shop from a catalogue anyway then you might as well do it online (where overheads are even lower). However, Argos does undoubtedly have its advantages (both for those who don't want to/can't shop online, and in the case where you might want to return goods).

I don't know how they're doing business-wise. Probably not so well like everyone else, so who knows.

06-12-2008, 14:40	#17
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	In the majority of Argos stores it's essentially a warehouse operation with a glorified counter and a few shelves of display stock. The result is they can stock a lot of stuff in a lot less space than it would take with a traditional store, so providing the cost of printing all those millions of catalogues isn't too high then overheads per product should be lower, and thus margin should be higher (assuming similar prices). Of course, if you're going to have to shop from a catalogue anyway then you might as well do it online (where overheads are even lower). However, Argos does undoubtedly have its advantages (both for those who don't want to/can't shop online, and in the case where you might want to return goods). I don't know how they're doing business-wise. Probably not so well like everyone else, so who knows.