UK Sainsbury’s in talks to sell Argos to China’s JD.com

33 comments

1. Great, the antidote to Amazon’s cheap knockoffs and outright counterfeits is about to go down the drain.

2. So they’ve bought Argos, closed most of the standalone stores to move them inside Sainsbury’s branches and are now looking at selling?

   I guess that’s the next nail in the coffin.

3. Are there any British owned businesses left in this country?

4. Direct sales from a Chinese owned company, cutting out Amazon.

5. The enshitification of a company that actually worked but nope the execs still wanted a few more percentage points on their line chart 

6. This is weird. As I don’t know what Sainsbury’s is up to. They must of spent millions moving them all instore.

   First Sainsbury’s shut their instore chemists.
   Then they shut the fresh food counters
   Then they shut their cafes
   Then they shut their changing room in the clothing section.
   Now they are selling off Argos (which I presume will mean they have to close the instore branches)
   They have been cutting staff like mad since Reeves budget.

   What’s left to cut Sainsbury’s?? Oh the toilets! That’s it.

   If they start doing poorly on food they are fucked as they have jettisoned everything now

7. The argos business model has been doomed for a long time. They can’t compete with Amazon on price or convenience, nor do they offer a great bricks and mortar experience. I don’t know what JD can do other than asset strip or just oversee the next phase of their demise.

8. Nothing left in the UK. Lol. No wonder everyone is running off to Dubai or doing Tommy Robinson protests

9. I mean i have occasionally used Argos thats in Sainsbury’s for a few items that I needed on the day. Even if I had to travel to another Sainsbury’s.

   I bought my PS5 Slim from a Sainsbury’s about an hour or so away in Wantage, purely because they were the only place that had any stock at the time so its definitely come in handy for me on occasion.

10. Argos was never the best but at least it had a slight feeling of being better than shite Chinese tat on Amazon. No longer if this goes through.

11. Given how integrated Argos is with Sainsbury’s, this wouldn’t be an easy sale

    I mean almost everything about the companies are so intertwined that removing Argos is going to take a long time and be very expensive

12. So basically Sainsbury’s have single handendly dismantled a high street brand. Close seemingly 80% of the stand alone stores, move into their supermarkers then sell them.

    Hopefully Sainsburys themselves is the next to disappear then.

13. Im and not as negative on Argos as many here – I have been able to get lots of stuff same day very locally. Works well with popular electronics like Shark fans or IPhones etc. it maybe makes money.

    What makes no sense is how they sell it given its contained within the Sainsbury’s stores… how the hell would that work.

14. Argos went down hill when they stopped using the ‘laminated book of dreams’ and replaced it with boring, soulless touchscreens.

15. Argos should of really put all its effort into its same day delivery service.

    Used it numerous times. £5 for same day delivery including Sundays.

16. Thank you Sainsbury’s for selling out the UK to China. /s

17. Fuck sake, it works great being in Sainsbury’s. I prefer this to using Amazon, prices are often comparable also.

18. Tbf, JD is like the Chinese Amazon. I think it will be good for Argos and will give the UK some great competition in the space. Sometimes it’s okay to watch two behemoths fight it out and glean the benefits along the way.

19. I buy from Argos even when they’re more expensive because I think of them as a British tax paying firm

20. There is an actual Argos (not a Sainsbury’s Argos) a few streets away from me. Having an Argos close by is extremely useful, I love Argos.

    Things that I have bought from Argos in recent memory because I needed them that day:

    – Torch
    – Chargeable battery back with USB-C connector
    – Clothes horse
    – Toys for a kid’s birthday present
    – Laundry basket
    – Mixing bowls
    – Screwdriver set
    – Kettle

    And then a bunch of other things like a pasta maker or a stand for my monitor etc, that I didn’t need the day of but was no more expensive than ordering online, I could just go and get it in minutes. Where else would you be able to buy all that that isn’t Amazon? John Lewis maybe, where you’ve have to carry it all back from the city centre? A massive out-of-town Tesco superstore? A physical store that has the range that Argos does is extremely useful and people shouldn’t take it for granted.

21. JD have been looking to acquire a UK logistics asset for over a while now – they wanted Evri…

    This is 100% a play for their same day supply chain

22. Doesn’t suprise me. I worked at Sainsburys when it purchased Argos. Then a while later massive cuts at Sainsburys across the board, getting rid of manned checkouts etc trying to recoup the money they spent.

    Argos hasn’t been the same since it happened.

23. It seems of overpaid consultant-led strategy, all spreadsheets no actual customer engagement.

    Sainsburys will continue to manage and maintain storefronts in their retail estate, whilst the actual brand will be sold off.

    Meaning, Sainsburys can lease store space for a higher margin than what they’re getting from selling products via Argos.

    Meanwhile JD.com will claw back their margin by flooding the catalogue with cheap Chinese knock-offs like Temu.

    Customer experience and product offering all goes down the drain in the name of shareholder value. Yay.

24. Used to love watching stuff coming down the conveyer hoping I’d be called up.

    Except when I order a weight bench including 100kg of plates

25. They fucked up big time moving all of the Argos stores into Sainsbury’s stores, where they weren’t guaranteed to have the item in stock and so you’d have to wait until they got it.

    They should have given every decent sized town/city (200k lets say) a big Argos store (like IKEA) where you just turn up and buy whatever it is you’re after they could give Amazon a run for there money. SD card, smartphone, laptop, TV etc. Amazon will deliver tomorrow, Argos you can pick it up as soon as you get there. Smaller towns can have the Sainsbury’s – Argos stores.

26. Please, no.

    I really like Argos. It is the only decent place to buy small electronics.

27. Argos to Amazon is what BlackBerry was to iPhone.

    Lack of visionary leadership, risk aversion, market comfort and short-term thinking.

    Death by a thousand cuts.

28. Argos is fucking great I can guarantee the product I’ve bought is legitimate and get it same day

29. How the share price will react monday morning, any predictions?

30. I prefer Argos to Amazon. Not used Amazon for years.

31. yay argos gonna be full of random brands that dissapear at the end of the month.

32. Could be a good business ploy.

    Charge rent to Argos stores in Sainsburys…

33. Having lived in China for a while, stuff from JD is pretty high quality. I bought all my computer parts from there (cpu, motherboard, gpu, power supply, ram, ssd) with no issues and all from well known brands. I’d say we wait and see how this turns out

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