Chris Hodge & Judane's

[tlady]

I wish .... it was the "public purse" ownership I was referring to.

[Malcolm]

Re the Chris Hodge "Big Closing DownSale" I was in there today and I have to say that evidence of the "Drastically reduced prices" was hard to find.

[Ghostrider]

Well, you know, maybe they were such amazing bargains that they'd all been snapped up literally as quickly as they hit the shelves.

[Spinner72]

It's also worth bearing in mind that the prices have always been greatly or massively reduced, or anywhere from 50 to 90% off, etc etc. Thats why you don't notice any difference.

 

I love the "closing down sale" signs next to "new goods arriving daily"

 

[trumptonriots]

New goods arriving daily are presumably the items that turn over quickly (plastic storage boxes etc). These items presumably provide enough working capital to keep the place going until he gets rid of the stuff that doesn't turn over so fast (furniture sets etc). Simple business sense really.

 

I think folk have just got too used to his low prices. He must get the feeling folk are taking the p*ss when they ask for further discounts on top of his half price sale days.

 

Give the guy a break and let him close his business down with a bit of dignity!!

 

Maybe if this happens he will be back in Shetland at some point in the future with his sales at the marts

[Malcolm]

 

I think folk have just got too used to his low prices. He must get the feeling folk are taking the p*ss when they ask for further discounts on top of his half price sale

 

Nobody asked for "discounts" he is advertising as selling at "Further reductions"....

[Ghostrider]

New goods arriving daily are presumably the items that turn over quickly (plastic storage boxes etc). These items presumably provide enough working capital to keep the place going until he gets rid of the stuff that doesn't turn over so fast (furniture sets etc). Simple business sense really.

 

I think folk have just got too used to his low prices. He must get the feeling folk are taking the p*ss when they ask for further discounts on top of his half price sale days.

 

Give the guy a break and let him close his business down with a bit of dignity!!

 

It could equally be argued that some folk are just applying the same levels of cavalier attitude and cynicism to him and his business, as he has often seemed, in their opinion, to apply to his enterprise himself.

[fairislefaerie]

His *everything must go due to immediate closing down* as advertised a good few weeks now does seem to be dragging on a bit doesnt it. Meantime he seems to be constantly stocking up the cheap inferior crap & eluding folk into thinking its a snitch of a price.

[Sheltie Celt]

^^^^^^^^^

 

Listen people, he is closing down, which I'm sure a lot of you (especialy ghostrider) will be very happy about.

I really don't see why people have given him such a hard time. From what I've seen, all he has tried to do is give people a choice.

If, for some reason you don't want to shop there, don't.

Simple.

But instead like everthing else in Shetland, people have to b*tch and moan about it, as is done on forums like this. Now I myself am a Shetlander, as my whole family is, and I'm ashamed to say that the treatment he's had is awfull. I know sometimes he's not helped himself by buying crap goods, but theres no need for all the hostility, as he has tried to offer something new to the Islands: a cheaper alternative.

And why is it, just about any new buisness starting up in Shetland, has everyone up in arms and trying to get it shut down before its even opened.

So lets stop moaning about it, after all he is closing. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon.

And could I just remind you of sommerfield's rather long closing down sale, which to be fair, had very little reduced until the last two days.

[Ghostrider]

Listen people, he is closing down, which I'm sure a lot of you (especialy ghostrider) will be very happy about.

 

If you care to peruse all my posts on the subject of Chris Hodge's long and colourful saga of business ventures in Shetland, I think you'll find I am, or at least I was, on his side. I'm not sure where my support lies any longer, certainly not with the SIC, they have behaved like jackasses all the way through.

 

Choice is good, as is supplying to a waiting market what it wants to buy at the price it wants to pay for it. Hodge has tried, note, I said tried, to do that, and for that kudos to him. However, the longer he has been trying, the more apparent it has become, IMHO, that his style of running a business is, to borrow a phrase heard some years back to describe another not entirely successful local businessperson, to "stumble from one crisis to the next, most of which are at least partly of his own making", then run to the press with sob stories and playing the sympathy card for all it's worth, blaming everyone but himself whenever the excrement funnels through the air conditioning system.

 

As I've said on this thread before, he's in the hole he is in today as much, if not morseso due to the business decisions he's made thus far, as he is due to being messed around by the SIC or anyone else. Everyone is entitled to make a mistake now and again, but to make as many as he's made in the length of time he's made them is a whole lot more than simple bad luck, and probably even more than carelessness, it looks more like a habit to me.

 

I really don't care whether Hodge's business is open or closed, I have neither bought nor sold even so much as one penny's worth in Lerwick for over a decade, and I don't envision that changing anything time soon, so his existence, or lack thereof is irrelevant on that score.

 

What I am completely sick of is not being able to move without tripping over the guy's whining and sympathy seeking tactics continously. When he starts acting like what IMHO is a competent businessperson, and is still being treated by the SIC and others the way he is, he will have my full support. As long as he carries on making what are IMHO bad judgements, and trying to blame everyone else for his misfortunes he will have nothing but my contempt. If the closure of the business is what it takes to regain silence of the subject, so be it, and the sooner the better.

 

Shetland will no doubt be worse off in certain quarters by such a closure, and that's regrettable, but having reached the stage it has, I see it as an inevitable outcome, so the sooner it's gotten over with the better, there is no point in prolonging the agony. On his track record so far, IMHO, unless there's a sudden and very early change in the direction of business decisions taken, demise is unavoidable sooner rather than later.

 

So lets stop moaning about it, after all he is closing.

 

This, I will believe when it has acutally happened. So far all his announcement has produced is free additional media and public attention for him, when it has been done I'll accept it was meant literally too.

[Foords_Chocolates]

I have to agree with Ghostrider, and in response to Sheltie Celt - it is great having cheap prices, but pointless if it is for crap products. Better off spending a little more and getting worthwhile merchandise surely?

 

It is funny though how no-one on this thread has been complaining that Chris Hodge has threated to close local businesses by selling cheap products, unlike the furore of complaints about Tesco possibly doing the same....

[tom thumb]

hodges supplys goods to people like me who cant afford the high street prices i wish i could, yes ive seen some real crap in there but no one made me buy it. thank god for the internet.

 

whats the chance that the new council office will be the old judane building

 

roll on tesco they might just replace hodges but with out the crap

 

i have tried foords chocs and can recommend them hope they sell well in tesco

[Spinner72]

I have to agree with Ghostrider, and in response to Sheltie Celt - it is great having cheap prices, but pointless if it is for crap products. Better off spending a little more and getting worthwhile merchandise surely?

 

Thats OK if you have the money.

 

People who dismiss the goods he offers as "cheap crap" don't realise how insulting that is to the majority of people who simply can't afford the inflated prices of the other local outlets.

 

There is a definte vibe that if you're not loaded, you dont matter.

 

It is funny though how no-one on this thread has been complaining that Chris Hodge has threated to close local businesses by selling cheap products, unlike the furore of complaints about Tesco possibly doing the same....

 

Guess it's harder to bully a major retail chain

[johnny-no-name]

I have to agree with tom thumb. i'm in my late teens trying to make it on a minimum wage. I have a flat in the centre of lerwick and i can barely make rent. if you were to have a look around my flat you will see that a lot of the stuff has come from chris hodges warehouse. he has tried to do an amazing thing by openin up a shop where we, who may not make as much money as the rest of you all, can buy items for minimal amounts of money.

Fair plays to mr hodge for trying and hopefully he will make it elsewhere as the people in shetland have one rule. "no outsiders"

[daveh]

I am with j-n-n on this one.

I have been to the warehouse and, whilst recognising that there is a load of tat, I bought a few things at very good prices that have turned out to be very useful. He has taken a gamble and provided a service that he should be applauded for. Nobody forces anyone to go there and the likes of Poundstretchers have proved to be very popular in other towns and cities and he has given us the opportunity to buy things at budget prices.

I will be sorry when he finally closes down.