Dixons Carphone to shutter 134 outlets, insists jobs are safe

The high-streets of the UK are becoming more bereft of electronics retailers day by day it seems and now Dixons Carphone is set to make that decline even more apparent, by closing as many as 134 of its outlets around the country. The plan is to begin merging the company's various shops together in order to create more versatile and product diverse stores, selling everything from PCs to phones in one place.

The new scheme is called a “three in one store concept,” which will see the lieks of PC World merge with Curry's, while Carphone Warehouse becomes a little sideshow attraction inside the joint shop front. Despite this contraction of its various outlets around the UK though, executives insist that it will not result in a loss of jobs. It claimed to have been trialling the system in some locations and found a reduction in staff is not required.

In fact it said that it was, “very confident that the impact on sales and colleague numbers will be neutral or better,” (via FT).

Currys, PC World, Dixons… it's hard to imagine a better list of antiquated businesses. Source: Dixons Carphone

Despite announcements of store closures though, Dixons Carphone was keen to let everyone know that it is actually projecting a five per cent increase in year on year revenues for the Christmas period. This was two per cent over what analysts projected in 2015.

As you might expect from any such announcement, commentary on social media has been rampant, with one user in particular expressing a sentiment that is hard to refute:

Has a corporate identity ever said “we are stuck in the past” like “Dixons-Carphone”?

— James Parker (@GamesWriting) January 26, 2016

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Does anyone actually buy a smartphone from a shop anymore? I know there's a bunch of people who wait outside Apple stores for various releases, but for everyone else, surely they just do it all online or over the phone?

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