They need to advertise that they are employee owned and are trying to operate a fairer commercial model. I had no idea, i would 100% choose them over M&S now i know!!!

Reducing income inequality isn't only kinder, it's more prosperous as well. It reduces crime, healthcare expenditures etc

John Lewis isn’t failing because it’s too ‘nice’ or too good to its employees. For years it has failed to invest in its stores and made a lot of very poor decisions about how it runs. John Lewis stores today are cluttered, dirty and dated and employee perks have been cut back massively and their lack of enthusiasm shows. I don’t know if it’s the CEO or some other executive responsible or just mass complacency but John Lewis Is the author of its own misfortune.

Huawei use the same model. If you work for the firm you can hold shares and if you leave you have to sell the shares. The firm is 100% employee-owned, and interestingly the government at the time criticised it for being "too capitalist". Later on the firm made so much money and paid so much tax that the government changed its mind and thought, wow this is great, and chances are the ways of the firm influenced government thinking rather than the other way around. John Lewis' model is fine, but it is in a difficult sector. People shop online now and so the grand department store is a thing of the past. It's still living in the 1950s.

As an American, I had never heard of this company. Based solely on the information provided here, it seems pretty obvious that the chairwoman they hired seemed to be a terrible decision. She had no experience in that industry or with that business model. Rather than trying to fit into the mold of the company she was leading, she tried to remold it into something she knew, to something that was completely antithetical. We can also talk about standards here. Within the past 2 decades. John Lewis endured the 2008 financial crisis, a global pandemic, Brexit, the rise of broadband internet and ecommerce along with the first generation born into it, and fierce competition in a low margin industry. It is completely absurd to believe that such a company should remain profitable year over year throughout all that. It's far more important that they weather the storm and have some savings to fall back into instead of relying on government handouts. Despite this, you talked about the company condescendingly and defended a bad executive because the owners refused to engage in the practice of wealth extraction and consolidation to facilitate larger scale wealth extraction.

Expected to see more data driven answers from FT. For example would have liked to see productivity per employee or at least sick leave or staff turnover data in comparison to the UK or retail and grocery averages.

As long as the customers are not considered the main investors of the company capitalism will not be able to compete with models that do not have to squeeze max profit out of each and every little step. This is true for governments as well, as long as the tax payer is not considered the main investor in the nation then they will lose as well.

I would say that an issue JL is facing is there isn’t much appeal to younger shoppers. This was something I noticed Debenhams had an issue with before the buyout. M&S actually has items I’d like to buy as an under 30. I think if the range of products were improved and the stores modernised, then sales could potentially improve. I also think the flagship store in grand central may not have been the best location. In grand central, people are focused on getting their trains or getting food to go. There are smaller stores owned by well known brands but no where near as large as JL. I think if they were located in the bill ring where the pool of shoppers is far greater, the results may have been better. I do hope they return to Birmingham in the future, albeit with improvement in approach.

And the quality is decent for a reasonable price. I still have some of their bedding and cashmere jumpers that I got from my uni days nearly ten years ago. Most other brands would have fallen apart ages ago.

Fascinating business structure, from what it describes it almost sounds like a democracy and like most democracies i think in the long term it will be the most sustainable

man, as a german i was wondering when the part about child labour is coming up. To quote a famous Ferrari driver: I am stupid. (kinder=children in german)

Good coverage, a bit slow and repetative. Would have been nice to hear the views from the actual partners on the ground. Sharon White's creative approach would probably have worked better in a less institutionalised company. I feel this coverage is a bit too easy/apologist towards her.

If John Lewis and M&S are middle market then I wonder what is considered upper market?

This is the first balanced assessment of Sharon White that I’ve seen. I do think Tarry will step change their performance

As an American I think M&S blows John Lewis out of the water. M&S just has better designs, quality, mix of products, innovation and value. I think M&S food has better variety as well, better pre cooked meals, better snacks etc. Waitrose quality is better but I only buy certain items from them, whereas I can buy pretty much everything I need at M&S food.

Very good piece on JL.

Love JL/Waitrose and wish they could keep the same employee owned policy yet share with the nation and allow shared ownership with the British public... 😍

As a newbie that wants to invest, you must have these three things in mind 1. Have a long term mindset. 2. Be willing to take risk. 3. Be careful on money usage, if you're not spending to earn back, then stop spending. 4. Never claim to know - Ask questions and it's best you work with a financial advisor.

As an ex-loyal John Lewis and Waitrose shopper, who used to shop there because of the great customer service and their ethos, I have stopped shopping there. Their customer customer service in both JL and Waitrose have been declining in the past 10 years. They have lost their USP!

From America, went to multiple countries. Britain, France, Germany, and Italy are supposed to be richest countries in all of europe. Where I'm from their Walmart (great company, worked there when I was teenager), Aldi, dollar general, lidl, trader Joe's, food lion, Kmart, Ingles, and hundreds of other retail stores.

Betteridge's Law of Headlines applies.

I like m&s products but I like JL ethos

I worked for Waitrose and the one year I was there, they cut the employee bonus because of poor performance so really its a façade.

The retail experience is gone. Where I live it’s just awful to shop. From shootings to poor customer behaviors- Retail seems to be doomed because there is nothing pleasant in brick and mortar shopping

How lovely it must be for all the upper middle class people who can afford to shop there

The partnership needs to go back to basics, sell quality, check quality. Jason has a lot of work to do, they have three brands of clothes, and or, kin, John Lewis, it's confusing. Staff training is so important customers need advice, with good selling skills. The partnership card change upset lots of customers both for J Lewis and Waitrose they were refused a card even though they pay off each month. Waitrose introduce things to customers then take them away, this upsets them. Free newspapers paper voucher's, some customers get more offers than the staff discount, partners are wondering why they work there, on minimum pay, Customers hate S White, partners are thinking she's stayed for the pay out. The small profit they are talking about has been boasted by selling the assets, the golf course was sold the buildings they owned were sold and rented back. The last Xmas advert they created a cuddly toy which they had to give away to children in store as they couldn't sell them. John Spedan Lewis would say, back to basics, look after employees, and they will look after the customers, of course a profit is more complicated than that every detail needs to be looked into. I T systems need to work.

Tokenize ownership and issue it to employees. Use it as collateral for financing. Issue bonds. DeFi awaits.

John Lewis staff if you can find one on the shop floor are the most entitled and ill informed staff or co-owners you’ll ever come across in retail. And the fact that they’re the most boring environments to shop in … literally need to fork my palm to stay awake trying to find what I’m looking for Kinda good for customers who have private pensions and invest in government bonds and 30% cap invested in BP shares for the dividends

the current management team are to blame

The word kind does not go with capitalism or business or money. The energies or qualities of business and money has nothing to do with kindness, so to put the two together is akin to blind faith

wonderful production, i'll watch until the last sec'

British: "We ain't got no money innit cuz of dem Tories fam". That explains why John Lewis is doing so well, car sales are good, McD's is still open at all, Tesco and Sainsburys are still going (come get the same food from us but spend a tenner more minimum). Liars, all of you then at how much you're "suffering".

For all of that growth, they never left GB. They should have expanded the brand into key markets overseas.

nice video John Lewis is usually the first place I think off when I want to buy stuff but there's know longer any real jobs or job security and young people see crime as a sense of family

There's already a model of how to make a co-operative work in the long term: The Mondragon Co-operatives. But a British co-operative probably has a bad case of not-invented-here syndrome.

Compete when you are ahead. Sanctions when your competitor is shoulder to shoulder, or ahead. Compete is not in the empire's playbook.

So now we know. There is a PR department at the FT that produces puff n fluff videos for it's cronies.

Brexit probably didn't help. I used often buy bedsheets or clothing off their online shop here in Ireland but then they shopped shipping abroad in 2021. There are 20 places to go for discounted goods nowadays I think if they can weather the storm a bit they'll do well sticking to their existing model because nearly everything equivalent is now gone out of business.

You would be a fool to be buying in John Lewis or Waitrose just because they are “nice” as per FT. Go buy the cheapest thing you get, you are consumers (the kings and queens of the market) in this crazy, costly UK.

My compensation has a significant stock component. The moment it vests I immediately sell it so that I’m not doubly exposed to my company’s performance (if things go south, my job AND my savings would be at risk). I think pensions are awful ideas for the same reason… just pay your employees more and let them take care of themselves. Plenty of companies are famously great to their employees without marrying them.

The absolute last thing a co-operative should do is bring in financial capitalists. That way lies disaster.

A big part of the problem is that it’s not a true worker’s co-op. Look at Mondragon, and it’s retail arm Eroski, for an example of how to make it work.

Employees do not own the business, the shares of JLP PLC are held in trust and not by the employees. The staff are employees of that PLC they are not partners in any legal sense.

That’s the Balham Waitrose

It has to... cos it is the only way..... for humanity.

Amazing to see so many experts in the comments 🤡

Sharon White was a DEI hire without retail experience and despite this documentary defending her, she’s done a terrible job and proven why DEI is so damaging

"Beloved company" yet no one is shopping there lol Nostalgia and business are fuel and fire. They need a Sharon White forward-thinking type figure 10 years before they hired a Sharon White.

Sharon white seems to have been set up to go off the glass cliff

Amazon in British English = Amazin haha

Dinosaurs did not anticipate their Extinction

What Gen Z's are buying clothes at M&S? 🤣 - a Gen 'Zed'

partnership lol

Government manipulations of flu season in 2020 put out so many retail business.

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🇬🇧🇬🇧💰FT staff💰🇬🇧my sincere congratulations for this🇬🇧really classy reportage🎲🎲💰I’m a WSJ perpetual subscriber💰🇬🇧and sadly I can’t afford to subscribe your rosy🇬🇧🎲🎲newspaper💰💰🇬🇧🇬🇧Maybe FT learns a thing or two fromJohn Lewis descent. Let me then know when my opportunity to join your readship is offered. 🇬🇧💰🇬🇧💰🇬🇧💰🇬🇧💰🇬🇧 21:35

How dare they advertise for their luxurious supermarket 😤 While more than 50% of working parent in the UK are in debt to pay for childcare. This country is a wreck and will always be because english population is thick.

How absurd. A business I work for is not responsible for my happiness. I am. No wonder its failing.

They picked a diversity-hire chairman: and it went about as well as you'd expect.

I realised there is Only one grave mistake they did ..... a) They should have treated employees as employees 😂 not over kindness it fckd thm

Go woke and hire someone who has no idea about retail to run the company because they tick some boxes.

Go woke go broke

Diversity hire, predicted consequences..

Better???... they appointed a CEO with ZERO retail experience because she was a DEI appointment, and she created a disaster .... by the way, John Lewis is just equal to any other retailer zero difference is caused bybthe ownership structure

This is completely nonsense and misleading information about this Company, I did work for them for 6 years and my experience was completely different, lots of stress, very little pay for hard work, and like in that pigs story one group much more important than other, you don’t mansion that this company employees workers to spy on the team and reporting to the Mangers and after they will be promoted in the higher position. And company will find any thing to not increase your salary in your appraisal and for this reason so many people never been paid nation minimum wage, and very interesting how many millions company paid to these two newspapers for this rubbish misleading video, or they helping to promoting community for arrival on the stock exsangue market. Company for 4 years didn’t pay fo the “ partners “ the Bonus and they made just small amount of profit, but Bosses and management didn’t forget to make own salary increase

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