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Fortnum & Mason has closed

Fortnum & Mason has closed

Old Aug 20th 2017, 7:39 am
  #16  
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Originally Posted by Millhouse
My god you people are dumb

It's the end of the first quarter under the new vat rules.
No, you fool. It's when my birthday is, I'm having fireworks for my 30th.
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Old Aug 20th 2017, 7:58 am
  #17  
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Originally Posted by Scamp
No, you fool. It's when my birthday is, I'm having fireworks for my 30th.
yeah and they will be lit up from your pants being on fire!

Originally Posted by DXBtoDOH
Whut?
was in reference to businesses suffering and shutting down mate
another one with 4 shops did a runner last night. Shops are open and the salesmen are there but boss has gone 'out of town' so no one there to sign the chqs obviously. I just feel sorry for the poor buggers who are out of a job and dont even know it yet.

end of march 2018, as rightly pointed out by my esteemed colleague is end of first quarter of VAT and the last date to submit all that money that one has accumulated in the government's name and must submit in a bank etc, but a runner...wont! ipso facto :
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Old Aug 20th 2017, 11:54 am
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

No one will miss it because nobody ever went, which is why it closed down.
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Old Aug 20th 2017, 12:40 pm
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Not my problem. I'm not in finance.

And I don't spend money anyway.

Originally Posted by Millhouse
My god you people are dumb

It's the end of the first quarter under the new vat rules.
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Old Aug 20th 2017, 1:17 pm
  #20  
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Not in the same league, obviously, but I hope the new M&S on the marina does well, if/when it finally opens.
It'll be great if they sell meat (not sure if they'll have a pork section) because, as I remember, their tapas is gorgeous.

Do you reckon they'll have the Dine In For £10/50+++AED thingy? (sans wine, unfortunately).
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Old Aug 21st 2017, 6:50 am
  #21  
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Originally Posted by Made in Sheffield 1
Not in the same league, obviously, but I hope the new M&S on the marina does well, if/when it finally opens.
It'll be great if they sell meat (not sure if they'll have a pork section) because, as I remember, their tapas is gorgeous.

Do you reckon they'll have the Dine In For £10/50+++AED thingy? (sans wine, unfortunately).
I'd be stunned if they had any fresh or chilled food as that supply chain would be so difficult to sustain here and the logistics would be prohibitively expensive (let alone all the hygiene and safety hurdles). I can't imagine either that they have the infrastructure to develop equivalent suppliers locally here even if acceptable candidates could be found (and being a supplier to M&S requires entering the sixth circle of hell). Surely it will be the same packaged food and frozen offerings that they have in their other UAE stores..
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Old Aug 21st 2017, 7:51 am
  #22  
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope
I'd be stunned if they had any fresh or chilled food as that supply chain would be so difficult to sustain here and the logistics would be prohibitively expensive (let alone all the hygiene and safety hurdles). I can't imagine either that they have the infrastructure to develop equivalent suppliers locally here even if acceptable candidates could be found (and being a supplier to M&S requires entering the sixth circle of hell). Surely it will be the same packaged food and frozen offerings that they have in their other UAE stores..
That's a shame.

We might as well stick to the closer one at Bin Battuta then. Their pikelets, cheese and onion rolls and proper coleslaw are rather nice.
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Old Aug 21st 2017, 7:52 am
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Galeries Lafayette food hall at Dubai Mall seems to be decent enough. If they can do it, so can M&S. The question is - do they want to? It call comes down to profits.

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope
I'd be stunned if they had any fresh or chilled food as that supply chain would be so difficult to sustain here and the logistics would be prohibitively expensive (let alone all the hygiene and safety hurdles). I can't imagine either that they have the infrastructure to develop equivalent suppliers locally here even if acceptable candidates could be found (and being a supplier to M&S requires entering the sixth circle of hell). Surely it will be the same packaged food and frozen offerings that they have in their other UAE stores..
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Old Aug 21st 2017, 8:11 am
  #24  
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Originally Posted by DXBtoDOH
Galeries Lafayette food hall at Dubai Mall seems to be decent enough. If they can do it, so can M&S. The question is - do they want to? It call comes down to profits.
Exactly: implementing M&S standards to a local supply chain here would be a huge undertaking. Of course that doesn't account for the fact that the business is a JV and perhaps the local partner could take their own initiative? MAF have obviously done this with Carrefour even prior to buying out the local business. But the scale is completely different.
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Old Aug 21st 2017, 8:37 am
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope
I'd be stunned if they had any fresh or chilled food as that supply chain would be so difficult to sustain here and the logistics would be prohibitively expensive
huh? There's loads of chilled foods from the UK everyday. Fancy yogurts, coleslaw, certain fruits/veg. None of this is made locally or repackaged.

Of course, 28Dh for a yogurt that costs 1.50GBP is another story (or 30dh for a lettuce), but it can be done. I'm sure they will be happy to supply their ready meals for 100dh and the punters will happily buy it.

Why anyone buys a ready meal is beyond me though. Never really understood it, even the posh ones are shit.
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Old Aug 21st 2017, 8:47 am
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Originally Posted by Irishbeekeeper
was in reference to businesses suffering and shutting down mate
another one with 4 shops did a runner last night. Shops are open and the salesmen are there but boss has gone 'out of town' so no one there to sign the chqs obviously. I just feel sorry for the poor buggers who are out of a job and dont even know it yet.

end of march 2018, as rightly pointed out by my esteemed colleague is end of first quarter of VAT and the last date to submit all that money that one has accumulated in the government's name and must submit in a bank etc, but a runner...wont!
Beekeeper and Millhouse have been our bored Cassandras (or Chicken Littles, pick your outfit accordingly) for some time now, regularly predicting the next crash. Of course they will be right at some point but so far can only rely on informed speculative analysis and anecdotal portents (like MH's mysteriously acquired haemorrhoids flaring up or IBK's vibrant bed-linen spontaneously combusting in a polymeric inferno etc.).

Having lived through both the run-up to and the aftermath of the last crash here, my sense is that things are quite different now. While there is the usual Dubai silliness, there is none of the extravagant nonsense of 2007/'08, including unsustainable macro-effects like $150/barrel oil. There are plenty of mini-bubbles that expand and pop but none are significant enough to drag the whole economy down. The high footfall/low turnover in the malls, the unrealised expectation of large rental drops, the mass layoffs in one sector or another, the constipated market for property sales have all been with us for some time now. And yet things trundle on.

For one reason or another, there is always money looking for an unfussy home in this part of the world. Dubai and the UAE have been lucky in the sense that there is always something that comes along that contrives to highlight this as a favourable destination for any money looking for a home in the region. One thing after another over recent years continues to emphasise this: Syrian civil war, Egyptian coup-by-any-other-name, 2020 expo announcement, Saudi liquidity crisis, Turkey counter-coup, India demonetisation, Qatar whatever-it-is-that-we're-not-allowed-to-call-a-blockade etc. etc.

So I think there is life in the old dog yet. It is blessedly far from a boom which is why it can sustain. And VAT will affect things but, again, however much of a cluster***** it inevitably transpires to be here, it will probably only serve to underline how much easier it remains to do business here than anywhere else in the GCC.
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Old Aug 21st 2017, 8:50 am
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Originally Posted by Millhouse
huh? There's loads of chilled foods from the UK everyday. Fancy yogurts, coleslaw, certain fruits/veg. None of this is made locally or repackaged.

Of course, 28Dh for a yogurt that costs 1.50GBP is another story (or 30dh for a lettuce), but it can be done. I'm sure they will be happy to supply their ready meals for 100dh and the punters will happily buy it.

Why anyone buys a ready meal is beyond me though. Never really understood it, even the posh ones are shit.
Shelf life for a chilled meal is much shorter than yoghurt or veg stuff though and safety and hygiene risks much higher. But, you're right, maybe I'm applying my own filters to the viability of such a business...
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Old Aug 21st 2017, 8:52 am
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope
Beekeeper and Millhouse have been our bored Cassandras (or Chicken Littles, pick your outfit accordingly) for some time now, regularly predicting the next crash. Of course they will be right at some point but so far can only rely on informed speculative analysis and anecdotal portents (like MH's mysteriously acquired haemorrhoids flaring up or IBK's vibrant bed-linen spontaneously combusting in a polymeric inferno etc.).

Having lived through both the run-up to and the aftermath of the last crash here, my sense is that things are quite different now. While there is the usual Dubai silliness, there is none of the extravagant nonsense of 2007/'08, including unsustainable macro-effects like $150/barrel oil. There are plenty of mini-bubbles that expand and pop but none are significant enough to drag the whole economy down. The high footfall/low turnover in the malls, the unrealised expectation of large rental drops, the mass layoffs in one sector or another, the constipated market for property sales have all been with us for some time now. And yet things trundle on.

For one reason or another, there is always money looking for an unfussy home in this part of the world. Dubai and the UAE have been lucky in the sense that there is always something that comes along that contrives to highlight this as a favourable destination for any money looking for a home in the region. One thing after another over recent years continues to emphasise this: Syrian civil war, Egyptian coup-by-any-other-name, 2020 expo announcement, Saudi liquidity crisis, Turkey counter-coup, India demonetisation, Qatar whatever-it-is-that-we're-not-allowed-to-call-a-blockade etc. etc.

So I think there is life in the old dog yet. It is blessedly far from a boom which is why it can sustain. And VAT will affect things but, again, however much of a cluster***** it inevitably transpires to be here, it will probably only serve to underline how much easier it remains to do business here than anywhere else in the GCC.
I'm not predicting a crash. I'm predicting a slow downward trend for another couple of years. VAT will add to that. VAT will not trigger a catastrophic event in my mind at all.
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Old Aug 21st 2017, 8:53 am
  #29  
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope
Shelf life for a chilled meal is much shorter than yoghurt or veg stuff though and safety and hygiene risks much higher. But, you're right, maybe I'm applying my own filters to the viability of such a business...
but probably longer than a lettuce, those things are full of rubbish and preservatives.
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Old Aug 21st 2017, 9:16 am
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Default Re: Fortnum & Mason has closed

Just be thankful you're in the UAE. I remember being a poncy twat expat complaining about the quality of food in the UAE.

Till I moved to Qatar.

Since coming here in December I've had food poisoning three times whereas I never had it in all my years in the UAE. Food supply here is really shitty and a complete hit or miss and the embargo's only worsened it.
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