Re: Has John Lewis finally lost the plot?

We've bought things from John Lewis in the past and have found most of them to be of good quality and, if you're careful, even sometimes competitively priced.

Only once have we been really disappointed when we bought some crockery. If I recall, some plates, bowls and cups all of a particular matching style.
On this occasion, however, they turned out to be of distinctly inferior quality because after a couple of washings the internal surfaces became increasingly scratched and marked the more they were used. We took the worst affected to the store manager who, admittedly, replaced them like for like without any argument.
Nevertheless, the replaced items suffered the same damage afterwards and we decided to call it a day and throw them away.

We've bought some cheap replacements from Sainsburys since then which have retained their good quality appearance ever since, and that must be a couple of years ago now.

So much for Lewis's only selling high quality products!

Re: Has John Lewis finally lost the plot?

Whata horrid advert, got on my pips

Re: Has John Lewis finally lost the plot?

Since their usual adverts aren't attracting sufficient new business, it seems reasonable for them to try a different approach. There's no doubt that they'll have looked at how other companies have done with their own ads, and try to apply appropriate strategies.

It might not be to out middle aged taste, but we're not the new customers it's trying to entice.

Re: Has John Lewis finally lost the plot?

Indeed. They ousted their traditional customers, those looking for good quality products along with excellent service. I predicted a couple of years ago that JL was in a downward spiral and this latest trashy ad just proves it. I give them two years at the most.

Re: Has John Lewis finally lost the plot?

A shame as, if you avoided the ridiculously expensive stuff, a lot of their items were good quality and reasonably priced.
Our Dyson vacuum cleaner came from Lewis's and, yes, before we bought it I had looked at prices elsewhere - and you often got a longer guarantee at Lewis's.

Re: Has John Lewis finally lost the plot?

I really don't know LD. I recall listening to radio 4 when I used to commute to work until nearly 5 years ago, and evne then there were reports back then of JL struggling (usual stuff about trying to compete with online markets). One can only assume that their traditional customers weren't bringing in enough income.

Maybe this is their final throw of the dice. Always a shame when one of the big retailers who we've known for years goes under.

I always tend to worry and feel sorry for the employees.

Re: Has John Lewis finally lost the plot?

They don't seem to specialise in anything do they?

I was thinking about it there is nothing I would go specifically to John Lewis for and maybe that's the problem.

I remember once a few years ago walking through the store seeing a quite nice handbag..... I looked at the price tag.... mental note to self don't look for handbags in John Lewis .... some ridiculous prices I amazed anyone would pay them.

Re: Has John Lewis finally lost the plot?

Until the guarantees run out!

Re: Has John Lewis finally lost the plot?

In my mind, that was the start of it. They started selling handbags for thousands of pounds.

Re: Has John Lewis finally lost the plot?