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I don't believe that JLP along with many other store groups fully understood the impact that on line sales would have on store portfolios.

It's not just the cannibalise sales that are the issue but the significantly increased costs of selling the same product with 2 cost centres and of course the significant cost of matching on line competitor prices on the large assortment of branded product JLP sell.

The reality is that JLP believed the market hype about on line retailing from the very beginning and charged headlong in to to massive investment that will take many years to see a significant return particularly as it will not be long before the stores start to generate significant losses that will bring about closure and the beginning of the end of the JLP brand .

The JLP brand has been built over a very long time and is attributed to many factors but none greater than the human interaction at a store level where they set the standard for large scale volume retailers.

Without doubt on line, ( read pick pack and dispatch) retailing is a poor substitute for store retailing . JLP is beginning to pay the price of its ill thought through strategy of eggs in one basket, however there is still time to balance its route to market and recognise that a healthy estate is the key driver to long term success and not the next latest (Emperors clothes) softwear and massive warehouses.

I note however that no one in LJP is publicly talking about how to develop the store format for the next generation or indeed the opportunity to increase its own buy offer which it should have done years ago.

Hopefully the transfer of Mr Street to politics will bring a fresh perspective on what Seems to be complete apathy in excepting that there is nothing they can do.