Fat Buddha Store Blog // All the News

Thank the big man, this is my last jaunt down to London to see some brands, I don’t get enough days off to be spending them getting the 5.40am train to London (up at 4.30am), or Manchester, or Harrogate, or Birmingham or even frigging Edinburgh.  But i have been rather remiss the past few years visiting trade shows and made an effort this year to be out there more finding new brands and boy oh boy have we found a few crackers for you. Its only twice a year is buying season but was helped in part by the youthful passion of Fraser from the store who has been helping on buying and was instrumental in us bringing in Rebel8 and ramping up our buying of Vans, he pushed for Benny Gold and Undefeated but some of his choices we skipped on Diamond Supply Co & mighty Healthy, theres only so much room for cool American streetwear brands. Now I can get back to work, 4 hour train journey to see a clothing range from a t/shirt company, an t/shirt company that calls themselves a brand, a t...

Right, a wee plug for a new store just opened up at loch lomond called star boudoir , website is www.starboudoir.co.uk , good to see some mor eindependants doing something. Until recently a woman’s choice of fashionable plus size clothing was limited to baggy and unattractive designs, thus creating many a wardrobe nightmare! But today, plus size means having a closet full of great looking clothes. We guarantee that we can provide an answer to your plus size fashion dilemma, keeping you ahead of the best fashionistas. We proudly carry designer fashions for women in sizes 12 – 30, for all occasions - casual & Evening Wear, and we specialize in UK and European collections from the best Designers. We carry- Clothing by annascholtz, Laurie, ellbi, ellbi pui, Deluca, Junge, NYDJ Tummy Tuck Jeans & more. Bags/Purses/Credit Card Holders by Dents, Betty Barclay, Gaby's & Rocawear. Jewellery by Pilgrim, Topazglow & Janeo. Hosiery by Aristoc & Pretty Polly. Umbrellas by G...

Right kids, you can read, take 30% of all sale prices, this includes toys, gadgets, footwear & Clothing. some examples for you are as follows Addict Hoody, was £90, now £50, only £35 with 30% off MHI jacket, was £130, now £60, only £48 with 30% off. You get the picture im sure, so dont waste much time.

At last, someone has put Qube to end, i hope it doesnt re-appear, it must have been the worst show shop ever to have opened its doors, truly terrible. JJB Sports has filed notice of intention to appoint administrators for its Qube and Original Shoe Company chains. JJB began a review of its Lifestyle division at the end of last year. A preliminary approach for the brands did not result in a sale. In a Stock Exchange announcement today, JJB said that the Lifestyle division continues to trade at a "substantial" loss and that its directors have filed notice of intention to appoint administrators from KPMG. The board of JJB still hopes to attract a buyer to the business. Lifestyle clothing and footwear brand Original Shoe Company has 64 stores and fashion footwear brand Qube operates from 13 stores. It follows confirmation by JJB today that it has received a preliminary approach for its fitness clubs. It is widely believed that Mike Ashley has expressed an interest in the divisi...

The end has pretty much come for Zavvi as it starts to get broken up and sold piece by piece. HMV has snapped up 14 of them and also some music venues like the Hammersmith Apollo, well woop be doop for HMV . I never realised that when Richard Branson sold Virgin to the management buyout it had just made a £48 million pound loss, the use of the word sold implies that they gave him money to buy Virgin, but i've looked really really hard and can find no mention of the figure. This leads me to believe it wasn't really sold but more like given away, with Richard Branso n agreeing to underwrite a certain element of future debt. To be fair none of the past 9 months could have been anticipated but the wounded animal has limped as far as it can go, and now it dies, boo hoo . September last year, the board announced that they had managed to stem losses by £10 million and where making good progress, i'm not a mathematician by any stretch of the imagination but that means yo...

Once again Primark is caught with its pants down, buying stock from suppliers who use illegal cheap labour, flouting the minimum wage and using migrant workers. Primark must know about it and only every take action when its on the front page of a sunday paper. People must realise every time they shop in primark, they support them, do yourself a favour and shop elsewhere. Primark is conducting an investigation into one of its key suppliers after an undercover probe found illegal immigrants were being employed at just over half the minimum wage. The value fashion chain said it would investigate Manchester-based supplier TNS Knitwear after The Observer and the BBC conducted an undercover investigation into practices at the garment firm. TNS Knitwear supplies 20,000 garments a week to Primark and workers were caught on camera admitting that they were working there illegally. Some were allegedly being paid as little as £3 an hour. Another supplier to Primark, Fashion Waves, was investigated...

In this time of doom and gloom, companies from everywhere are posting losses its good to know that there are some companies out there that can buck the trend and show an increase in sales, not like the following few. Alexon ( AXN.L ) Clothing Like-for-like sales down 10.5 pct in 23 weeks to Jan 3 Blacks Leisure Outdoor goods Like-for-like sales down 3.9 pct in 6( BSLA.L ) weeks to Jan. 3 EBTM ( EBTM.L ) Online fashion Net sales at online retail division down 33 pct in December House of Fraser Department stores Like-for-like sales down 1.5 pct in 5 weeks to Jan. 3 John Lewis [JLP.UL] Department stores Like-for-like sales excluding VAT flat in 5 weeks to Jan. 3 In this time of despair, who can prevail, the mighty GREGGS , Like-for-like sales up 5.3 pct in 4 weeks to Jan. 3.Everyone loves greggs, steak beak, sausage roll, yum yum bubble gum, good to see that the whole unhealthy eating thing doesn't put people off

Zavvi is to shut 22 of its stores with immediate effect after it fell in to administration before Christmas. The closures mean 178 employees will lose their jobs, on top of the 69 members of staff who were made redundant at head office at the end of last year. Administrator Ernst & Young will keep the remaining 92 stores open and implement further reductions on already discounted products, with 20 to 50 per cent off across all product lines with effect from Friday January 9. Ernst & Young said it is still attempting to sell all or part of the business as a going concern and has received 60 expressions of interest. Ernst & Young joint administrator Tom Jack said: "Despite record consumer demand since Christmas it is no longer possible to support continued trading across all of the Zavvi stores. Unfortunately the current difficulties faced on the UK high street seem to be discouraging retailers from investing in a significant number of new stores. "However, we inten...

I heard a rumour last month about Addict going bust one point soon, didnt sound like it couldn't happen and id guessed as much from looking at recent ranges. 3 things have confirmed that they will go bust, here goes. 1 - Never seen so much Addict Clothing in TK Maxx, i know they have been using it as a dumping ground for ages, but im talking tons of shit in TK Maxx, complete size breaks, complete colour options, whole styles, loads of jackets. Why is there so muh in TK Maxx, simple, Addict only order what retailers pick, so that way they dont need to guess the market or sit on excess stock. People always cancel orders but the level of stock they dumped into TK Maxx indicates far worse problems, talking lots of cancelled orders, either from retailers going bust or more likely retailers realising the range is poor, doesn't sell and they cancel the order. 2 - Scanned 35 retailers i knew from recent times as Addict stockists, half werent doing addict and the rest, couldnt work o...

Came aross this really informative article on the wonderful BBC News , as usual well writtten and will answer a few questions, full artile is here . The insolvencies of Woolworths and MFI present their newly appointed administrators with some tough tasks. Dozens of staff from the two insolvency firms concerned are busily putting themselves in the shoes of the former management. Their task is to try to retrieve something for the creditors - the taxman, banks, other lenders, and possibly even the unsecured creditors like suppliers and customers. All that means dealing with staff, including making some redundant, running or shutting stores as appropriate, moving stock around, and assessing the levels of debts and the value of assets in the companies. 'On the hoof' The administrators will be talking to creditors, suppliers, customers and, most importantly, trying to find a buyer for all or parts of the now insolvent businesses. If you can't get enough info...

Its hard trading just now, no-ones got money to spend and everyone is skint, me included But its good to know that us independants in Glasgow send customers to each other, just had a guy in this morning sent from Goodlife, fair enough it was only a £3 pair of laces he was after, but these £3 soon add up, yesterday the guys at Aspecto sent a guy up who bought a £100 Carhartt jacket.  £100 not to be sniffed at, the guy thn returned today and dropped another £70. In return i get lots of tourists, (we advertise on tourist maps) and when they ask about good shopping places in Glasgow i always tell them about Goodlife, Aspecto & Focus. So its festive cheer here and good on the independants and thanks to the guys at Goodlife, Aspecto & Focus

As reported in the BBC today , this has been months coming, and it shouldn't surprise you, they wont collapse, they will get bought out and be reformed somehow, they always do. Music, games and DVD chain Zavvi has gone into administration, Ernst & Young has announced, threatening 3,400 jobs. The troubled chain has been badly affected by the demise of Woolworths, which forced it to stop taking new orders via its website. Zavvi's main supplier is Woolworths' unit Entertainment UK (EUK), which went into administration on 27 November. All of Zavvi's stores should be open as normal on Boxing day, for its traditional post-Christmas sale. The retailer is the latest victim of the slump in High Street sales that has seen the administrators called in at tea and coffee specialist Whittards and menswear chain The Officers Club. It employs 2,363 permanent staff and 1,052 temporary staff. The problems encountered with EUK, and particularly its recent failure, have been too much f...

JJB Sports has closed five of its Qube stores as turmoil for the struggling chain continues to mount. It is reported to have closed stores today in Nottingham, Cardiff, Swansea, Blackpool and Leamington Spa. JJB had hoped to find a buyer for its loss-making lifestyle chain, which includes Qube and Original Shoe Company. A deal has yet to be done and no buyer has yet been confirmed for its health clubs business, which many have touted as vital for the future survival of the business. A spokesman for JJB confirmed that five Qube leases had been terminated. "Rents for the rest of the Qube store portfolio have been paid in full. This is part of the ongoing rationalisation of the business." JJB is also under scrutiny from the Office of Fair Trading over its off-loading of some of its JJB stores to rival Sports Direct. Cube must have been the worst shoe shop ive ever seen, a shop full of white trainers, all shite ones aswell, no wonder it went tits up, as for original shoe, ned cit...

Woolworths could fall into administration in a matter of days unless it completes a deal to sell its retail business to restructuring specialist Hilco, according to sources close to the company. A lack of sales in the crucial pre-Christmas period is expected to push the company into administration unless a deal can be made. Over the weekend Hilco improved the terms of its offer to buy Woolworths' struggling retail arm, by agreeing to take on £300 million of debt, an advance on the £265 million originally tabled. This would leave the group with EUK and 2Entertain, as well as £85 million of debt. However, Woolworths' biggest shareholder, property tycoon Ardeshir Naghshineh is expected to meet the retailer's management and banks today to discuss an alternative rescue plan to Hilco's. He plans to raise cash by selling a number of leases on its stores and then moving the remainder of the outlets upmarket. The bigger question needs to be, how has woolies managed to last so l...