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Little Chef

Inspired by the iconic roadside diners in the US, catering businessman Sam Alper and caravan manufacturer Peter Marchant opened the first Little Chef in 1958, in Reading. At its peak, in the 1990s, there were 439 branches, with their iconic branding, Olympic breakfasts, Jubilee pancakes and post-meal lollies for children all playing their part in the rise of Little Chef.

However, in 2002, Canadian private equity firm Permira bought the chain, hiking prices and closing 150 restaurants between 2002 and 2005, when entrepreneur Lawrence Wosskow took over and modernised with a 'grab n' go' approach. Sadly, ill health and a bad summer weather scuppered Wosskow's grand plan and Little Chef went into administration. Turnaround specialists RCapital attempted to revive the business with, among other things, a menu from Heston Blumenthal, and succeeded in selling on the business at a profit to Kuwaiti firm KFG. The subsequent investment was too late to make an impression on increasing competition and the restaurant sites were sold off in 2017 replaced by branches of Greggs, Starbucks and other outlets.

Find out why Sam thinks Little Chef ran out of road by listening to the full episode.

Vine

Vine's looping six-second videos were adored by social media users when the online video sharing site appeared in 2012. Easy to upload, even with 3G, Vines highlighted some of the goofiest human moments and were enjoyed by content creators including musicians and comedians.

Twitter bought Vine for $30m months after it was created but left the creators to their own devices, with Vines racking up millions of views. However, it wasn't long before Snapchat and Instagram started offering video features. Content creators like Eric Dunn, a diehard Vine fan, were essentially compelled to work across the other platforms to keep corporate clients happy, and, as one of Vine's founders Rus Yusupov notes, the app didn't have the mechanisms and algorithms to grow both organically and through paid acquisition. Rus admits that Vine built the wrong features and couldn’t compete with Instagram. His biggest regret? “The moment when we said no to doing lip sync videos.”

Listen here to find out what Sam thinks was Vine's most withering moment.

Mothercare's UK stores

Established in 1961, Mothercare became the one-stop-shop for new mothers. Tim Curtis, who ran the store's website in the 2000s, says that “over 80% of first-time mums would come into Mothercare as part of their maternity journey.” The store not only offered a range of goods, but their customer service was often noted for going above and beyond.

As Tim points out, the business, which survived mergers with Habitat and BHS, was always based on new mums, as second time mums often made do. This made Mothercare in the UK susceptible to birth rate, but the real threat came from supermarkets stocking more and more baby clothes and accessories. Intensive restructuring, putting off big decisions and the rise of the second-hand market were other significant factors in the mix. Mothercare does, however, live on as franchised stores in 36 countries abroad, and Mothercare-branded goods are now sold in Boots.

Find out why Sam thinks Mothercare couldn't keep reinventing itself in the UK by listening to the episode in full.

Green Shield Stamps

An early form of loyalty points, Green Shield Stamps were established in 1958 by retail entrepreneur Richard Tompkins. The stamps, available from many small high street supermarkets and from petrol stations, were collected in books that could be exchanged for anything from electric blankets to a Ford Fiesta. Although a car would need 950 books of 1280 stamps each, many families on lower incomes were able to collect enough for items that they could not otherwise afford. Excited shoppers chose the goods they had saved for from a catalogue and then picked them up from a Green Shield gift house or redemption centre.

The stamps were wildly popular. At one point in the early 1970s, almost 70% of the working population were saving them, and the turnover of Green Shield in 1972 was more than £40 million – around £1 billion in today’s money.

A Safeway supermarket in Camden, London in 2002.

The attachment to the stamps started to drop off in the late 1970s, when, during a period of high inflation, one of the biggest Green Stamp outlets, Tesco, decided to offer immediate discounts instead to help customers with the raised cost of living. Richard Tompkins was, however, a resilient entrepreneur and had another idea in the 1970s that would also capture the public’s imagination – Argos!

Find out why Sam thinks Green Shield Stamps lost their shine by listening here.

Safeway UK

Established in the UK in 1962, Safeway was a US company that crossed the pond and brought with it an ethos of larger stores and expanded in-store services, such as cafes. Its heyday in the UK was the late 1980s through to the mid-1990s, and it was a trailblazer when it came to liaising with small producers and keeping produce fresh via a network of large distribution centres. Safeway was also one of the first supermarkets to stock organic products, and it was the first chain to use self-scanning in stores.

Despite all of this innovation, the early 2000s saw Safeway slip from the third biggest supermarket, behind Tesco, a clear market leader, and Sainsbury's, to go fourth behind Asda. One of the main factors was Tesco's ability to grab a lot of out-of-town sites that were becoming so pivotal to the industry. Merger moves were in the air but the then government Competition Commission blocked the top three supermarkets from a takeover, however, it allowed Morrisons, the fifth largest supermarket and a long-established UK brand, to buy Safeway in 2004.

Hear why Sam thinks Safeway exited the brutal world of retail by listening to the full episode.

And to hear more stories of businesses hitting hard times, listen to the latest series of Toast on 大象传媒 Sounds.

The information in this article was correct at the time of broadcast on 2 May, 2024.