I read yesterday:
A total of 373 stores are to close at off licence group First Quench, with the loss of 1,738 jobs, the firm's administrators KPMG have announced.
KPMG said the closures will affect all six of the firm's brands - Threshers, Wine Rack, The Local, Haddows, Bottoms Up and Victoria Wine.
First Quench went into administration last month, after it struggled with a fall in sales during the recession.
KPMG hopes to sell most of the business as a going concern.
First Quench has 1,300 stores in total, with 6,500 employees. Let's face it, when no-one's even got the brass to get banjoed anymore, the economy really is in the doo-doo. Hopefully, government will learn the lessons of this crisis, i.e.
The British economy canot exist on people buying and selling their houses at ever-increasing prices that have nothing to do with value, with people taking on stupid and spiralling debt as a result;
- Britain cannot depend on selling itself life insurance, pet insurance, insurance in case you die and there's no-one to look after your pet, double glazing, etc. etc.;
- Britain has to get back to making stuff people overseas want and need and selling such goods at a profit.
For nearly 30 years the British economy was underwriten by oil exports (Britain was, until about 2005, a net exporter of energy), and that bubble has well and truely burst.
Sure the banks made some losses, but the climate this time last year encouraged them to dump all their bad loans in one fell swoop, knowing the government, and by extension you and I, would bail them out, and that in a year to 18 months' time they'd all be back on the gravy train.
I should be sponsored by Cyrus and Chord (and B&Q)!!