The Same Over and Over again

I notice the S#it-Up channels are selling the same items over and over again every few hours.
They are now selling far less items per hour than they used to.
I have had Bid on for the last hour and Elisa has only had 2 items; the Gener8 steam mop and Blue Magic.
To me this is because they are in serious financial trouble and no-one will supply them items on credit anymore so they only have old stock to sell, and any new items they do sell are what they got from the darkest forgotten corner of the warehouse or fire/flood damaged stock bought cheaply that is re-packaged?

It does make sense to me, they will be gone before the end of this year.

Thunderstorm said:

I notice the S#it-Up channels are selling the same items over and over again every few hours.
They are now selling far less items per hour than they used to.
I have had Bid on for the last hour and Elisa has only had 2 items; the Gener8 steam mop and Blue Magic.
To me this is because they are in serious financial trouble and no-one will supply them items on credit anymore so they only have old stock to sell, and any new items they do sell are what they got from the darkest forgotten corner of the warehouse or fire/flood damaged stock bought cheaply that is re-packaged?



It does make sense to me, they will be gone before the end of this year.

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Certainly sounds like the death throes doesn't it? In our city centre, many old and good shops have gone and our high street is depressingly empty. I can't understand how situps keep going, when reputable shops are closing down and they didn't have rip off p&p charges!.

It's the same old, over and over.

But the good news is that everyone has plenty of chances to get their hands on the latest designs from Rosa Benini, every cloud has a silver lining.

Tommy & Kate will be soon on the streets, cap in hand as they try to flog their latest creations to the unsuspecting Peacocks buying team. (Well I think they're still going in some areas?)

The misery just goes on and on. Yet more pillows, they've even dragged in the little gardening man to help sell them.

Why do they sell endless hours of gardening everyday? They don't sell loads of it, so why sell it all the time? Well, it's direct dispatch, so bid will buy it as they sell it so no credit. They will have a few chinese wholesalers who will supply them and that's it. The only decent brands which they do get (once in a blue moon) are from liquidated stock.

Bennyxp said:

Why do they sell endless hours of gardening everyday? They don't sell loads of it, so why sell it all the time? Well, it's direct dispatch, so bid will buy it as they sell it so no credit. They will have a few chinese wholesalers who will supply them and that's it. The only decent brands which they do get (once in a blue moon) are from liquidated stock.

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So do you believe they could be nearly over? How many suppliers are turning them down?

PJ

Bid! Bid! Bid! Die! Die! Die!


...not really folks!

Haha bidtv is it me or it feel likes the last legs of auctionworld.

One item I've seen 3 or more times is the Your Kitchen 3 piece enamel set of oven trays, which appeared to be of appalling quality even on television so they must be horrendous when seen in real life:

http://store.bid.tv/bidtv/Your-Kitc...nd-Baking-Tray/BK132775/ProductDetail.raction

(Glad to be proved wrong by anyone who has actually bought these, but my advice is not to bother.) And the tragic thing is you can buy 3 similar trays for under £5 from a discount shop like Home Bargains (or similar) discount shop, or alternatively if you have internet access you can buy 3 trays from John Lewis online for a similar price even if it's from their value range.

I know what I would rather do!

Bennyxp said:

Why do they sell endless hours of gardening everyday? They don't sell loads of it, so why sell it all the time? Well, it's direct dispatch, so bid will buy it as they sell it so no credit. They will have a few chinese wholesalers who will supply them and that's it. The only decent brands which they do get (once in a blue moon) are from liquidated stock.

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Yeah, you've hit the nail on the head there.

I usually switch over whenever there's a gardening section, but happened to catch a small portion of one yesterday, with the short man presenting (Mark?). He was attempting to flog something (I'm sure he was rambling about 'white picket fences', though I'm struggling to remember what the actual item was) - he started with 200 units... and ended with 199! Oh dear

PJ. said:

So do you believe they could be nearly over? How many suppliers are turning them down?

PJ

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I wouldn't like to say how much longer they will last, but if not gone before Christmas, I would imagine they will have a poor Christmas and finish soon after. All they sell is tacky things - and chinese suppliers are happy to make customised items, so there may be a variety of items, but could all come from one supplier. Once gardening is over (or when they sell hardly anything from the section) that's when I think they could be in even more trouble.

One would probably think that if they can limp through till autumn the Christmas trade will carry them over until new year 2014, considering how long the Christmas build-up lasts these days. I wouldn't be hugely surprised at all if they didn't make it to the end of this summer, though.

I hope it goes without saying that I obviously don't rejoice in the failure of any business (even Sit-up Ltd.!), because inevitably it results in some good people either ending up unemployed or out of pocket.

The only way I can see them turning round is for the current owners of the company to sell up and for them to get a new owner and inject some money into the business to buy decent products and build up good reputation with the suppliers, but I can't see any company wanting to buy them out.

I think if they are more honest they would do better. I love Poundland and the like but they are honest with what they are selling. Copy products at cheap prices. Not like bid who pretend everything is designer and worth mega bucks ...

It's poor management, misplaced training, crap buying policies and woeful compliancy - a recipe for disaster...

I just think (and the current owners might be thinking the same) that if they were more honest it would get more customers back, but due to their situation, they can't waste time getting back on track as they will go bust in the process. If they got new owners, they could send emails and flyers to old customers saying "under new management" etc. and customers would be more tempted to come back. Personally, I don't think any good will come out of it under the same management.

whilst i agree that the same products is rather dull i would personally be a bit careful in suggesting suppliers are not dealing with situp due to non payment

do you have any evidence of this?

Trouble is we keep thinking this is their last year but somehow they keep going. Like others no one wants to see a business fold but they can't go on like this.

PJ. said:

Trouble is we keep thinking this is their last year but somehow they keep going. Like others no one wants to see a business fold but they can't go on like this.

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Depends on their cash reserve, especially if they can still broker deals with Chinese suppliers directly and pay for goods upfront.

However their voucher scam - and it is a scam if the vouchers are barely redeemable because the T's and C's don't suggest anything of the sort apart from a list of exceptions that are meaningless when taken in isolation - is most likely to put them into a point of no return situation, especially when risking the loss of a percentage of customers which they cannot afford to lose. (Only those who aren't fussed about their £10 'credits' and just want to buy something overpriced from the channels will stay with them.)

The vouchers are an act of utter desperation in themselves, hence some new-found credibility being attached to any doom and gloom reports regardless of their source.