The Wonder of Woolies?

[mint]

Call me sentimental but I'm rather sad that Woolworth's are in the hands of administrators.

Good old Woolies, no High Street should be without one.  Where would I next get rose plants at a couple of quid a plant that will grow to be big, beautiful bushes and where are children going to get their pick n mix and their batman and fairy outfits?

[Gardian]

Enough said - high cost High St stores, low value transactions.

Can't remember ever buying anything in Woolies during the last umpteen years that I was in the UK. Doubt that it would have changed if I was still there. 

Heart says "sad-ish", head says "inevitable & no great loss".

[Clarkkent]

It was a business model well past its sell-by date. How else would you describe a company that traded at a loss for ten months of the year in the expectation of making a killing at Christmas? But I suppose that I'm sad to see it go. The American version vanished in the 1990s.

I'm not sad to see MFI go, though. I have a bedroom full of pretentious rubbish.

 

[AnOther]

I feel for the employees of course and although Woolies will have been iconic for my (our) generation it was a dinosaur and is no great loss. Like Gardian I can't remember the last time I went in one or it even crossed my mind to do so. There are any number of other retailers selling the same cheap tat.

As for MFI, although they had reinvented themselves in recent years the name was still a euphemism for cheap rubbish, a drunk is said to be leaning like an MFI wardrobe, and many of us will know what the initials MFI really stood for [Www]

Who next though, IKEA ?

[Théière]

Wilkinsons is the new Woolies,

Ikea, dont get me started at this time of the morning.

Farewell Pick n Mix

[Pierre ZFP]

Does anyone remember the broken biscuits that you could buy loose by the pound?

My wife says she remembers her Mum buy cracked eggs very cheaply - I think she's making it up though.

I've bought my share of MFI wobbly furniture when I couldn't afford anything else.  At least you could choose what you wanted and pick it up straight away.  They lost my business when they went all 'up market' and pretentious and you had to have the stuff delivered.

Just a thought, is Screwfix/Castorama/Brico Despot in the same Woolies group? [:'(]  I hope I'm wrong as I'd hate to see those go under.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="ErnieY"]I feel for the employees of course and although Woolies will have been iconic for my (our) generation it was a dinosaur and is no great loss. Like Gardian I can't remember the last time I went in one or it even crossed my mind to do so. There are any number of other retailers selling the same cheap tat.

As for MFI, although they had reinvented themselves in recent years the name was still a euphemism for cheap rubbish, a drunk is said to be leaning like an MFI wardrobe, and many of us will know what the initials MFI really stood for [Www]

Who next though, IKEA ?

[/quote]

Made For Idiots?

[Chancer]

Made in (can't remember the 3rd word) India [:)]

Woolies lost their appeal for me when you could no longer buy usefull things like shoe repair stick on soles etc, they just bcame another tat shop that if by chance sold something of utility it would never be there the next time.

Agree wholeheratedly re MFI, they were very good in the early years when I first set up home but for many years I questioned who would actually buy the overpriced kitchens and bedrooms, I remember visiting to buy a flat pack wardrobe for a guest room, expecting to pay £75 or so, the staff seemed unable to comprehend that I would not wnat to pay them £5000 or so for fitted units to replacethe ones I had already built.

[Théière]

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]

Just a thought, is Screwfix/Castorama/Brico Despot in the same Woolies group? [:'(]  I hope I'm wrong as I'd hate to see those go under.

[/quote]

No, they split from Kingfisher around 2001, they are on their own.

[Iceni]

On 9th Oct Sir Alan Sugar thought that he had bought nearly 4% of Woolworths but it seems that an Icelandic bank was unable to deliver the shares (though this is shrouded in mystery). If true, is he a lucky man ? Or will it get what he wants when the business is sold off down the market ?

John

 

[AnOther]

[quote user="LyndaandRichard"]Made For Idiots?[/quote]Yes and no, the F can be a bit blunter [Www]

[Théière]

[quote user="Iceni"]

On 9th Oct Sir Alan Sugar thought that he had bought nearly 4% of Woolworths

[/quote]

1 cd, half a pound of pick n mix, and a dust pan and brush = about 4% doesn't it? [:)]

[Alan Zoff]

The likes of Primark and Asda for clothes, Wilkinsons or out-of-town stores for everything else. And the internet.

Woolies needed to change radically or die. Those in charge seem to have gone with the latter option.

The less sentimental Yanks who started the original 5-and-dime stores ditched the UK business and then the Woolworth name itself long ago. The successor is specialising in sports goods as Foot Locker.

But like others, I have great memories of Woolworths. Hardly bought a

record from anyone else at one stage - and we bought a lot of records

then. Now we buy very few CDs, and then mostly off the net. Enough said.

 

Hell of a Christmas present for the 30,000 employees, though.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="ErnieY"][quote user="LyndaandRichard"]Made For Idiots?[/quote]Yes and no, the F can be a bit blunter [Www]

[/quote]

I decided to go clean this time. [:)] Ladies present and all that.

[mint]

[quote user="Alan Zoff"]But like others, I have great memories of Woolworths. Hardly bought a record from anyone else at one stage - and we bought a lot of records then. Now we buy very few CDs, and then mostly off the net. Enough said.
 
Hell of a Christmas present for the 30,000 employees, though.
[/quote]

Like you, Alan, I just have great memories.  Just a sentimental nostalgia really.  I do know the business practices are out of date and the stores are no longer profitable.

It was just the memory of walking down any High Street from chic Chiswick to perhaps a valley town like Tonypandy (now, don't swear in Welsh please, just an example of some place completely unlike Chiswick), and seeing that familiar white-and-red shop sign.

Then, going there to buy chocolates for Christmas and seeing all the little kids with wide eyes looking as though they were in Alladin's Cave itself.

And, as you say, thinking about the staff.  So many will be women on part-time work, getting out of the house and having a break from the children or perhaps really needing those extra few bob to make ends meet....just. 

Ridiculous old woman.........that's what I shall become if I don't watch it!

[Chancer]

Maybe if they had kept to their original haberdashery trade there would still be a limited market for them.

What was so good back then, in hindsight was knowing that when you needed an something essential like shoelaces, curtain hooks, a dustpan and brush, n'importe quoi you knew where to find them quickly, easily and cheaply. You could also say to someone "where did you buy that truc?" knowing that when you went to that particular shop it would still be a stock line.

Nowadays I waste so much time searching for things that when they do appear on the promo rayon I buy them for stock when I dont actually have a need for them, its like living in Russia during communism.

[Frenchie]

Why do you do that JR ?

[mint]

Yes, JR, didn't realised you'd lived in "Russia under communism"![:D]

[WendyG]

Well, I for one am going to miss them.  My local in UK still sells shoe laces, stick on soles, pyrex type dishes, glassware, stationery, plants and gardening items, pens, pencils, cds, mobile phones, light bulbs, tacks, picture hangers, suitcase locks,padlocks, glue;   has a photo booth, lottery, pic n mix, childrens clothes, fancy dress, plimsols and a vast array of toys.

Staff are always glad to help.  When there I always pop and find something.

Problem is the big supermarkets are taking all the business away from the High Streets and we will be left with opticians, charity shops and expensive clothing outlets which come and go rapidly.  Thank goodness we still have Boots and WH Smith, but for how long?

Wendy

[mint]

Boots, who knows?

Remember Timothy White's?  They had a High Street presence until Boots took them over.

Perhaps, we will soon be mourning the death of the High Street (as we knew it) altogether and not just the demise of the Wonder of Woolies.

[Keni]

In our (now pedestrianised) High Street Woolies is the department store - remember us in the sticks still rely on that place!

Rosebys has now gone - so only one store left in town selling curtains/fabrics, but to most shoppers who come into my shop it is 100 yards too far away.

For nearly 20 years, I have stocked all forms (where possible) of haberdashery etc., and if i have one more so-called local come in and say - so how long have you been here then? I can not afford to be placed next to Woollies as the business rates and rents are astonomical for our small town - they are higher than Cheltenhams!

All we need to do is support our local stores - where ever we live. Local is knowledge and service - if bad tell them, we take it when people are not happy - usually because we have taken a year to try and track down a part for a 50 year old sewing machine - try going into a Ford dealer with an Anglia and asking for a part in stock....

Use it or lose it! Our Woollies was taking around 250k a week in good weeks - everyone used it.

 

[Will]

As already mentioned, Wilkinsons has pretty much replaced Woolworths. When it opened in our English town it was sold as 'like an old fashioned Woolworths (i.e. 1950s/60s)'. Perfectly true, and it has done well, though we haven't had Woolworths for ages now. Even so, nationally, Wilkinson is talking of cutting staff.

There is a good chance that the Woolworth business will be sold. Among the known bidders is Theo Paphites, who is introduced on Dragons' Den as a specialist in turning round ailing retail chains. As he has done with Ryman, for example.

There is a French connection to this story. Suppliers often rely on credit insurance to cover the event of financial problems affecting their customers. One large supplier of credit insurance is French company Coface, which is thought to have at least partly triggered the crash of Woolworth when it withdrew credit insurance for its suppliers about two months ago.

 

[Keni]

Apparently Tesco are interested as well - wanting to get back into the High Street....

Comes around, goes around.

[Iceni]

[quote user="WendyG"]

Problem is the big supermarkets are taking all the business away from the High Streets ........

[/quote]

If you feel the need to blame someone for the High St deserts blame the customers - they have a choice as to which shops to support and the great majority have chosen out of town hypermarkets.

Many years ago I was informed that "the only constant factor in a successful business is change" and Woolies didn't, so they're not.

I have sympathy for any staff who are made redundant, at any time of year whether Divali, Hanukkah or whatever.

John

[Théière]

[quote user="Iceni"][quote user="WendyG"]

Problem is the big supermarkets are taking all the business away from the High Streets ........

[/quote]

If you feel the need to blame someone for the High St deserts blame the customers - they have a choice as to which shops to support and the great majority have chosen out of town hypermarkets.

[/quote]

I don't blame the customers, they respond to fact that parking near a shop in town in any place in Britain is almost impossible. You have to carry bulky items miles to get back to the car or face the wrath of the park and ride bus driver who does not like carry passengers let alone their goods.

You have Lord Sainsbury and the others on the board of directors putting very powerful pressure to pass parking laws RED lines what the hell were the yellow ones for then. Once apon a time you could park on a single yellow line in the evenings and on Sundays, not round our way Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham. Not allowed to park on a single yellow until after 10pm and not at all on Sundays.

Theses people line their pockets and force us gradually to use the convenient out of town busines park developments with Free parking. Don't you wonder why every town looks just like all the rest in Britain these days?

Subtly stiched up both the small shops and the shoppers.

Conspiracy, bloody right

Vive la france