QVC US Selling Their Studios

[donna255]

I like to have a nose on QVC US forum.

QVC Sells Headquarters, Studio and Distribution Centers for $443 Million to Oak Street​

Like Other Retailers, Home Shopping Network Plans To Lease Back Properties​

QVC televises its programming from QVC Studio Park in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which was included in a sale-leaseback deal with Oak Street. (Qurate Retail). No easy pays included in that deal.

Linda Moss, CoStar News


Spotted this and thought oh! So selling but renting back. Do they need money? Looks like it.


So I know on here we have discussions about how well are QVC UK doing, are they in trouble perhaps? The fact that the parent company in the US are doing this makes me wonder will QVC UK follow suit?

 

[Whyohwhy]

Hi, I’ve been a bit of a lurker for a while, but as I don’t watch QVC that often, I feel that I don’t have much to contribute. But thought this might be helpful to anybody who’s interested. Apologies to everyone, if this is already known information.
In relation to QVC finances, anybody who wants info can check out the Qurate website, click onto Investor Relations and you can get all QVC facts and figures in black & white, (usually posted quarterly, it’s available to everyone, as they’re publicly traded), most of it is way over my head, but some of the numbers people on here might find it fun.
The QVC international figures are broken down into various regions. Often the comments in relation to the UK are really illuminating, they demonstrate time & time again, how clueless they are about the wants & needs of their UK market.

 

[donna255]

Thank you Whyohwhy. To tell the truth, we on this forum just tell to go with how QVC cannot seem to change, I call them dinosaurs. Customers really would love free shipping or even set shipping no matter what you buy for a day. How they just rely on the easy pay which is now up to 5 when back in the day they insisted they could not do more than 4 because the way credit works in the UK, and they did not do credit checks we have found out this is not really true as people have and do get credit checks and some turned out. The extra easy pay did hint at trying to get more buy the expensive Dyson hair care machines they are on endless, by the way.

As I said I like to nose on the QVC US forum, they have a proper forum over there not just Facebook which they have staff answering queries with an x for kiss at the end even if the problem is serious to the customer. Or the usual "we will look into that and come back." They never ever come back and reply. It was interesting spotting a poster putting up the info that QVC US were actually selling their studios and warehouses. That is not a good sign, well to me saying they need cash, and it is cheaper to rent back for them.

 

[Toril]

Regularly offering 5 EZPays suggests a little bit of desperation from QVC, as far as I’m concerned. It could also mean that people are going to end up getting into debt when an unexpected bill arrives because they’re tied into paying QVC for something for 5 months, as well as possibly having other items on EZPay.

I’m lucky in as far as I don’t need to buy anything in instalments, but I wouldn’t anyway because you never know when a more important bill will arrive or an emergency happens. I would rather pay my household bills than pay for a tub of cream or a strand of lights etc.

It also seems to me that QVC are doing more pressure selling now than before and I’ve never succumbed to pressure from anyone in my life so their tactics won’t persuade me to buy things.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

If anyone reads MSE forum there is a debt/bankruptcy section which would make your eyes water at the sums run up on cards and unsecured loans on top of sky high mortgages.

Then there is another section where people take pride on living on sixpence a week ,, or people earning over £100k and whinging about having to pay tax on their £20k bonus so it’s very much the extremes of the spectrum.

Thankfully we don’t have to watch every single penny but all the price hikes mean that we will probably have to cut back on daft things like coffees out if we want to keep our savings intact. Luckily I don’t do expensive beauty so I’m not sucked into Q’s offers of 6 easy pay . If the customer isn’t paying off their credit card then the debt is extending even longer than 6 months .

 

[donna255]

I went to the site given by whyohwhy, searched for QVC UK as it seems to be about QVC US. Anyway, when I went into finance it was showing $$ not ££ so not sure if it was going back to info on QVC US?

 

[mrwhizzard]

EZ Pay, much like Klarna, Clearpay and even Paypal Pay in 3 are but some of the many means of lowering the barrier to entry to - companies literally offer these things on anything these days, just to get people's business in their tills in order to survive, which is why particularly in the pandemic literally every other website offered these.

Obviously its easy to fall into that stack trap of multiple payments across multiple months which is why some of those services above now have more regulation and indeed, get declared to credit reports. The fact Q are becoming more and more like SCS with their never ending sales and EZ pays is pretty telling that without the custom, the UK arm may not end up any different to the US one.

 

[ERICS MUM]

In my opinion the increased number of easy pays and now up to 5 months shows they are concerned about their balance sheet & trading figures. With these instalments they can show ‘definite’ future income. Also refunds for returns will be lower as items are returned before all the easy pays have been made.

 

[Millie's Mum]

Parent Company of West Chester-Based QVC Implementing Turnaround Plan Amid Declines in Revenue

West Chester-based Qurate Retail, owner of QVC and HSN, will implement a plan amid significant declines in revenue across the board.

vista.today

 

[donna255]

When your accounts tell you to sell property, you know money shortage. No doubt they have been told it will save money to just rent.

 

[Tinyfeet]

Just looked at the QVC UK statutory accounts for 2020 and they reported a net profit of £39m, not bad although the NP for the previous year was £44m, they also have capital and reserves of £173m. I think if QVC US went bust the UK company would carry on as a stand alone company

 

[boffy]

QVC need stop stop being like Harrods and Selfridges with thier product pricing.

 

[donna255]

Just looked at the QVC UK statutory accounts for 2020 and they reported a net profit of £39m, not bad although the NP for the previous year was £44m, they also have capital and reserves of £173m. I think if QVC US went bust the UK company would carry on as a stand alone company

But, they would need a buyer to keep it going. QVC US is the parent company and if they go they will be selling the satellite branches.

IW was in big trouble and going under, but managed to get a buyer earlier this year.

 

[mrwhizzard]

They may well have capital and reserves, and one could argue the only thing working in their favour right now is that as companies own profit margins diminish, they are more likely to want to punt their goods on Q, which at least for the customer means not being subjected to an endless treadmill of Shark, Hotel Chocolat, Elemis, Cozee Home, and Lee bloody Holbein week in week out. Of course if some the brands that come may not necessarily be the brands you want to buy from.

 

[upsidedown]

But, they would need a buyer to keep it going. QVC US is the parent company and if they go they will be selling the satellite branches.

IW was in big trouble and going under, but managed to get a buyer earlier this year.

I was surprised that IW were struggling. There was so much talk on their page here.

 

[stratobuddy]

I was surprised that IW were struggling. There was so much talk on their page here.

Mainly critical though

 

[Toril]

Mainly critical though

A bit like the comments about QVC then.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

The small individual type vendors can’t work under Q‘s rules so it is only the Elemis/shark’s of this world who can do so, thus it’s Groundhog Day every day.

We all know the brands, often jewellery, which came, couldn’t produce enough/didn’t have enough of a margin to allow Q to rip the arse out of them/Q wanted to get the production transferred to their factory in China and so they didn’t last.

I don’t understand why people buy high street branded clothes and shoes from Q as they can buy direct from the supplier unless it’s the EP and 60day returns which makes a big enough difference to cover the price and post.

 

[mrwhizzard]

The small individual type vendors can’t work under Q‘s rules so it is only the Elemis/shark’s of this world who can do so, thus it’s Groundhog Day every day.

We all know the brands, often jewellery, which came, couldn’t produce enough/didn’t have enough of a margin to allow Q to rip the arse out of them/Q wanted to get the production transferred to their factory in China and so they didn’t last.

I don’t understand why people buy high street branded clothes and shoes from Q as they can buy direct from the supplier unless it’s the EP and 60day returns which makes a big enough difference to cover the price and post.

Joules probably do well on Q for that reason, as in their direct supply chain you guarantee people wait for the item of desire to rotate through whatever their weekly sale is (£94 for a Fairisle Jumper isnt going to get the tills ringing until it drops in price). Obviously as a company they've suffered losses this year, so it's for those kind of companies as you say Q holds value - but then again many stores and brands have also cottoned onto the concept of an "ebay outlet" now also for similar reasons.

Am guessing the reason we don't see the likes of Joe Browns on Q anymore is that whilst they are a brand that seem to sell everywhere, in recent months they've gone out of their way to ensure they are excluded from any sales / discounts the retailers they are sold through, thus not making them attractive to Q anymore.

 

[Toril]

I never use EZPays because I’m lucky in that I can afford to buy things outright. However, I can see how it encourages people to buy things that they might not really want because the EZPays are an attractive proposition compared to forking out the full price in one go. I just wonder how customers cope if they have several EZPay payments due to leave their bank account and then they need money for an emergency.

It probably sounds daft but, in my head, if I paid in instalments then I wouldn’t own the item until all payments have been made. I wouldn’t go into a supermarket and ask to buy my food in instalments and I apply the same to any online shopping that I do with any retailer.

The 60mbg doesn’t attract me either because, if I’ve ever bought a top etc from QVC, I know immediately whether it’s ”a keeper.” I don’t need 60 days to make up my mind. If anything is damaged or faulty on arrival it would go back the next day, not 59 days later.

The fact that QVC are offering so many EZPays nowadays suggests to me that they aren’t as secure as they were, especially as savvy online shoppers know that there are other and better places from which to purchase items. Why buy from somewhere with ridiculous P&P when many retailers offer free delivery?

I’m watching less and less QVC nowadays and that’s mainly because it’s now so repetitive and the prices fluctuate at the blink of an eye. It’s the same old brands day after day, TSVs are available days before the due date and any good brands soon disappear. It’s become a total “yawn fest.”