CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Stuff
PlanetX no more (in Edinburgh)
(54 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
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Sad :O(
Posted 9 years ago # -
Oh. Maybe I should have popped in to collect my click+collect order at the weekend.
Posted 9 years ago # -
ouch- popped in before Xmas and it looked like a nice store worth going back to look at properly. Very impressed by their online offerings(got My Schwalbe Spikes from them) and hope they survive.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Close call - picked up my click+collect order from them on Friday. Their online store will no doubt continue to do well.
Posted 9 years ago # -
That's a pity. I'm really sorry to see them go - I really liked shopping there since the staff were friendly but non-hassling, the carried a good range of products and had fabuluous prices.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Got a bit of a shock when I went in 15 mins ago to try and buy an innertube, the pace has been stripped, everything has gone.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Seems not to be a good time for bike shops, Vello Ecosse has also gone, but then it has had a history of going bust. Rumours I have heard is that it won't be able to come back this time.
Evidently too many people shopping with Chain Reaction and Wiggle, and not enough with their LBS...
Posted 9 years ago # -
There's a slight irony that an online retailer has put its own bricks-and-mortar store out of business by the very heavily discounted and low-overhead online model that they've been so successful with.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@kaputnik LOL how true... ;-)
Posted 9 years ago # -
I went in here over the xmas break and was planning to get a list of stuff I had seen on line, but they had none of it in stock anyway, so had to go back and order it on-line.
Their prices rival that of Decathlon as well. Will still shop on-line with them.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Evidently too many people shopping with Chain Reaction and Wiggle, and not enough with their LBS...
True, but part of the problem is that, apart from the basics (inner tubes/cables etc), my LBS doesn't generally stock the items I want so they'd have to order them in. If you have to do that then you are better off financially going to the likes of Wiggle/CRC etc. I'm willing to pay a premium for good service but unfortunately many of the LBS I have visited fall sadly short.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I picked up my winter tires on the 27th of last month from planetX, have not actually put them on yet as has not been much ice.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Thats a shame, I'd been meaning to pop in but given the only bike related purchase I've made in months was the dynamo light from Rose, which no one else seems to stock, there was wasn't much point making the journey.
A side effect of this is we've also lost the tri-centre properly this time.
Posted 9 years ago # -
grim for the staff. presume they were on zero-hour contracts ?
hope they have been treated decently.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"There's a slight irony that an online retailer has put its own bricks-and-mortar store out of business by the very heavily discounted and low-overhead online model that they've been so successful with. "
They didn't seem to sell the same cheap stuff instore as online.
Posted 9 years ago # -
In case it's hard to read in photo:
" For any queries regarding Click and collect or Warranty please call our Customer services team on 01709 386666 who will be happy to help"
(as per their normal daily marketing email)Posted 9 years ago # -
The parking was a be bit tricky around planetX. When i went luckily there was an empty permit holders only parking space and I managed to get my tires collected before the traffic warden appeared.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Wow. That was quick
Posted 9 years ago # -
I went in a few times, nice shop but (re kaptunik point earlier) when my wife tried to buy me a merino cardigan for christmas it wasnt in stock - the guys said "just go online, they will have it".
I thought when it opened that it was a bit of a bold experiment - given Planet X online presence and prices, I simply couldnt see the numbers stacking up for a shop.
There are times when CRC/Wiggle is just really easy compared to shops which simply dont have everything for space reasons - so you order a chain and cassette from your sofa - its in stock, they send it - no brainer sometimes?
That said, I also use LBS whenever possible - use them or lose them.
I dont see why both cant be successful.
Posted 9 years ago # -
It's not hard to read in the photo.
When I went to pick up my click+collect brown Vavert mudguards last month I had a poke about inside for their all-weather glubs, but none were visible.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"presume they were on zero-hour contracts ?"
Not sure why that would be the case? Could be simple redundancy
I was there last Tuesday asking about brakes. None in stock, but mentioned I could just order online, which like others seems a little of an odd business model. Of course the shop is going to be undercut by the website if you don't stock anything. I mentioned I'd do so and get it delivered to the store (never got round to it), which I presumed might mean the sale got logged against the store. Probably not though.
Real shame.
An article I wrote a year ago on Using your LBS for The Press Room. Seems apt.
Posted 9 years ago # -
i thought all retail shops ran on zero hours models. or, as uni calls it 'hours to be notified'. to be fair to uni, they're moving away from this model, but i thought it was still standard in retail.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I've only ever worked in big supermarkets and that was 10 or so years ago, but everyone had an allocated numbers of hours which was a standard, but was expected to take on more to fill in for absences, demand, sales, etc. Some people were full time, some weekends, others just 2 afternoons a week. I think it would make planning shifts and staffing levels to meet demand very difficult otherwise. The system suited a lof of people, including skint students like myself who wanted to work lates and lots of hours. Perhaps times have changed.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Certainly more prevalent, but usually in the big guns (and then only about a quarter of employers). For smaller companies their use is much less likely. They're a hideous idea, certainly, and Planet X might have used them of course.
Posted 9 years ago # -
i've certainly heard people say zero hours worked for them. tougher when you have family etc, i think.
anyway, was more thinking about the lack of notice to customers - no 'closing down sale' or similar. (even that package delivery company gave people time to collect their parcels from depots. ) and hoping that employees had some notice or payment in lieu that their time there was over.
Posted 9 years ago # -
If it's not zero hours then it'll be redundancy, so yes, there are pretty detailed rules around it (having been through it, and had to advise colleagues - most basically finished up at the end of the week it was announced).
Posted 9 years ago # -
I think I saw a job ad for this planet x store not so long ago (months, not years) and it was not zero hours. Not much redundancy pay after such short employ, maybe.
I liked to click & collect from the shop. Very handy. Really, the shop could be in an ex-policebox, one knowledgeable guy with a big laptop, ready to advise and assist in putting a purchase through and hold the delivery for me! I suppose there's always the Ed Bike price match.
The uni "guaranteed hours" can be 100 hours per year, then no sick pay or pension contributions on the (often) big chunk of hours worked over that first 100. It's "zero hours max".
Posted 9 years ago # -
I only discovered them back in December. They were like a well kept secret. I'm on this forum a fair bit and I don't remember them being described as anything special. I was amazed at how much cheaper they were than other bike shops.
Posted 9 years ago # -
As many others here, I always intended on going in but never got around to it, which perhaps played a part in the demise.
Sad to see it go as in it's previous incarnation as The Tri Centre the used to do biweekly free open water swims up at a loch in the pentlands during the summer, they even used to bring the wetsuits. I understand they were one of the few places in Embra which also did bike fitting. Sad indeed.
Posted 9 years ago #
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