Argos to close all Irish stores starting March

AllForIt · 19-01-2023 10:00PM

Was expecting this for some time. My local Argos is always dead. I didn't even notice it being particularly busy over xmas when it would be packed in years gone by.

What I used to mostly purchase there would be electronic items but in recent years I do that online now because of greater selection and cheaper prices.

walterking · 19-01-2023 10:07PM

The maudling by some people is just hilarious.

Over half the staff were part time, all will get very generous redundancy and I suspect all will be working with another retail/service company the week after they finish.

I think the staff are winners here.

As for the stores, most are in good locations and good size and there are plenty of retailers looking to take the space and many locations will have several contenders.

So stop the maudling and enjoy the probable closing down sale without any guilt

walterking · 19-01-2023 10:10PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130603#Comment_120130603

Very obvious that you haven't a clue about retail. Almost every prime retail space is occupied in Ireland

Retail is the #1 pastime of Irish people.

Boring retail where you order on a gadget in a store and wait as a conveyor belt brings your goods that you cannot see before buying, are not what people want

road_high · 19-01-2023 10:14PM

I’m interested to see what goes into the vacant stores. Can see the Kilkenny one being snapped up as it’s a biggish unit in the High st which rarely come up

19-01-2023 10:18PM

The Cork stores are in *very* busy retail parks, so I would assume someone will snap those spaces up.

They left the city centre a long time ago.

The units are probably bigger than they look as they’ve a lot of stock room areas.

road_high · 19-01-2023 10:28PM

I remember about maybe 6/7 years ago they had a nice display of foodie things (costa coffee etc) at Christmas in the window and I went and asked the pretty clueless staff member told me I’d have to order it and that was only a display- a fcukin nuts way to not sell something to you in prime retail space!

They seemed very reluctant to use that prime space to do what any retail must do- SELL things!

Atlantic Dawn · 19-01-2023 10:33PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120131609#Comment_120131609

My point was not a single business will take all 34 stores.

Strumms · 19-01-2023 10:34PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120131595#Comment_120131595

i think loosing the convenience of Argos is the main issue, not the staff per say.

i don’t anticipate much of a closing down sale. Stock can / will just be moved to their British shops.

Photobox · 19-01-2023 10:36PM

I remember in the early nineties you couldn't buy anything electrical like tv's in the argos store in my home town, the items details were blacked out in the catalogue , i believe there was some agreement that they couldn't sell those items as it would affect local electrical stores, gone be the days of that..sad to see it go, hope all the staff get good redundancy deals.

breezy1985 · 19-01-2023 10:37PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120131771#Comment_120131771

For me they stopped being convenient when they abandoned their city centre high street shops.

The popping in thing hasn't worked in years either. Never seemed to have what I wanted actually in stock.

19-01-2023 10:43PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130468#Comment_120130468

That may happen.

Amazon already have pick up locations in other countries.

19-01-2023 10:47PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130664#Comment_120130664

I don't know about days from delivery, pretty much everything I order on Amazon is next day delivery.

Strumms · 19-01-2023 11:01PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120131796#Comment_120131796

Maybe, I’m just lucky I live close to two 🫣

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120131848#Comment_120131848

Really ? I mainly just get electronics and back in the day Cds/DVDs… even the camera I’m just looking at for my cousin is Wednesday 25th

walterking · 19-01-2023 11:08PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120131762#Comment_120131762

Ah, and with probably 34 landlords it would never happen even if someone did have an interest.

Hopefully something more interesting replaces them, and I suspect that almost every one of them will be occupied within a few weeks of closing

breezy1985 · 19-01-2023 11:15PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120131954#Comment_120131954

Very lucky because there isn't very many places that have 2 close by to each other.

Grab All Association · 19-01-2023 11:28PM

Jesus there’ll be nothing left. Carphone Warehouse gone, now Argos. The only thing left will be vape shops and bookmakers

murpho999 · 19-01-2023 11:40PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130866#Comment_120130866

You have the warranty with the manufacturer not the retailer so no problem.

SteM · 19-01-2023 11:49PM

Be interesting to see what happens with the one in the square. It's a bit out of the way from the rest of the centre.

20-01-2023 12:05AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120131954#Comment_120131954

Pretty much. Especially if you have Prime. I ordered two items on Wednesday that were delivered today (Thursday).

Also they deliver up to 9pm.

20-01-2023 12:20AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120131771#Comment_120131771

Not as easily done post Brexit…

Strumms · 20-01-2023 12:22AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120132101#Comment_120132101

truth… imagine grocery shopping… early in the pandemic some of the fruit and veg I ordered online was fit for the bin, nothing else.

the great thing about any in person shopping experience is you get to see the product, experience the quality.. choose.

would anyone here, spend 40,000 euros on a car, without going to take it for a test drive ?

in X years you’ll probably have no car showrooms, you’ll just click model, colour, finish, extras….given a collection date and time and collect from a warehouse.

20-01-2023 12:34AM

I know people have a bit of nostalgia about Argos, but to be quite honest, I always found the experience quite grim and somewhat like dealing with the motor tax office before it all went online. There was something very 1970s British civil service bureaucracy about the whole thing.

It just felt like Gordon Brittas (early 1990s British comedy reference) was going to jump out at you at any moment to ask you "How may I help you?"

When you think about how it worked it was quite weird:

Until they scrapped the catalogues, look up item in laminated copies of catalogue that were difficult to flip through, or take huge phone directory sized catalogue and sit in a near by coffee shop and browse (which was how I did it). Or look up item on ridiculous terminals that were slightly harder to use than a faulty ATM, and which couldn't take your order (that was a separate machine). Or, use their utterly awful website to find the codes (I often had to Google stuff to find it on Argos.ie as the website was so bad)
Check stock levels on weird terminal (much fumbling about with unresponsive touch screen)
Scribble 7-digit code onto paper form (which I often got wrong!)
Go to another type of terminal, and key in these codes all over again and pay or go to till and have someone type it in for you.
Wait in strange waiting room, often with 1 seat and nothing to look at while waiting for your number to be called by the robotic voice (staff in background saying things to automated stock picking headsets)
Get handed item.

The stores were bleak - nothing in them on display usually or really ugly pop up cardboard type displays and I found they are very frequently out of stock of whatever it was you were looking for.

A lot of their hardware items were also absolute rubbish. You'd order some bathroom accessory or something and you'd get the box home, open it and it would be way worse quality than you'd pick up in Woodies or similar.

They were good for branded items and toys and stuff like that but overall I can't say I'll be missing them all that much. We've a lot more options at our fingertips and in physical retail over the years since they opened back in the 1990s here.

road_high · 20-01-2023 12:39AM

I’m not sure brexit was a big factor? Loads of other English/U.K. stores are still gung ho here with lots of stock and no issues

Count Dracula · 20-01-2023 12:42AM

The internet killed them. It was a great idea 20-30 years ago.

The high street has been in transition for over 10 years now. People are moving more and more to online shopping, no parking and no fuss.

Most high streets shops are essentially brand exposure now. You either like shopping or you don't. It is a marmite activity which some people consider a pastime.

Strumms · 20-01-2023 12:42AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120132362#Comment_120132362

But it’s pretty rare to find any retail outlets that carry the range of products under one roof…

Argos always was great for that convenience factor …

20-01-2023 12:44AM

They rarely did carry all that stuff under one roof though. A lot of the time you would find it was out of stock, certainly in recent years anyway. Stocking levels were very patchy.

Flinty997 · 20-01-2023 12:57AM

Management deliberately let the Irish branch wither. It was bought by Sainsbury's 2016 and they've not known what to do with it. It's been lurching along from one bad idea to the next.

"...Sainsbury's management clearly did not know how to run Argos and the plan to transplant into spare store space has not worked..."

While all that was going on they did nothing with the Irish stores and let them wither.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argos_%28retailer%29

20-01-2023 01:00AM

Just to give you an idea of how bad value buying electronics is via UK stores these appear to be the same model in black and in white...

I'd consider both of these crazy prices for a toothbrush but I've been finding this a lot with quite a few things coming through UK supply chains vs Germany and France.

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Rechargeable-Toothbrush-Artificial-Intelligence-Attachment/dp/B094XDW9WS/ref=sr_1_5?crid=35BKXCJT16WCQ&keywords=io+7&qid=1674172456&sprefix=io+7%2Caps%2C79&sr=8-5

https://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/1238682/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CHealth%2Band%2Bpersonal%2Bcare%7C14418350/Trail/searchtext%3ECLEARANCE.htm

The exact same model and colour (which is old) is on amazon.de for €166.00 vs €480.00 !!! ??!

Flinty997 · 20-01-2023 01:14AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120132422#Comment_120132422

It's only recently in the last 12-24 months gone like that. Used to be about 10-30% more expensive than Amazon. (and Argos UK) But they just stopped trying to sell stuff here. They wanted to run it into the ground for some reason.

ejmaztec · 20-01-2023 01:17AM

I'm so old that I can remember when Argos was Green Shield Stamps in the UK, when people handed over their books of stamps to get the goods instead of cash. 😐️

I only ever bought stuff in Argos when there was a sale on, because the prices seemed higher than some local retailers the rest of the time.

Argos to close all Irish stores starting March

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