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The Downfall of Woolworths in the UK

OneWingedOtakuOneWingedOtaku Registered User regular
edited December 2008 in Debate and/or Discourse
What does everyone think to the recent finanical trouble that Woolworths stores are going through in the UK?

If you don't already know they are in big trouble and are pretty much going into Administration, with a recent rescue plan failed and lots of shops sold for very little money. I don't know the whole story on this because I am not a financial expert, but a quick Google should tell you the whole thing.

Anyway, just out interest I was wondering what people thought of the collapse of the franchise. I know I have heard so many different opinions on Woolworths itself from different people, and their own ideas on why it is in such a downfall.

I personally have not liked the stores for a long time now. Our local Woolies is old fashioned and would never be the first choice to buy anything. The staff are out of touch and miserable, and seem to have no knowledge on what they are selling.

Also without doubt my biggest gripe with the store (of which I mean the local Woolies in towns in the West Midlands), is that they never have anyting in stock when you go in. I can't count the amount of times I have gone into Woolies to buy, for example, a game, and after queing for ages at the counter, the staff take one look at the box and grumble "not in stock". However, I see they still have the boxes displayed on the shelves in full view of everyone! I once even tried to buy a HDTV from them a few years ago, as in the very front of the shop they have stacks of boxes and a massive sales pitch on these TV's. The woman went to the warehouse, came back and once again grumbled almost as if she was pleased that they had no stock of the item.

Now, I occasionally used the Woolies in my local town as it is the closet place I can go to buy things from, without having to drive into a major city. But Recently I have found they are overpriced and understocked on almost everything, so much I have found Morrisons supermarket (also in my local town) to have better selections of things like CD's, Games and DVD's.

So from my expereince with the Woolworth's around here, it is no surprise to me that they are in such trouble. The stores seem dirty and out of touch, and the staff seem to hate you going in to buy things from them.

Now, the reason I made this topic is that some people I have spoken to have found the opposite to my expereinces with their local Woolworths. I have spoken to people who say theirs is one of the best places to buy things from, including games, and that they always have things in stock.

So, anyone here from the UK with experience of Woolworths, it would be interesting to hear your views on the stores, and what people think of the recent downfall of the franchise.

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Posts

  • japanjapan Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I think it's generally getting harder for general retailers to compete with shops that concentrate on one area of the market.

    For just about anything I would want to purchase from Woolworths, there will be another shop that has a better range, more knowledgeable staff, and almost certainly lower prices. It's just another example of a retailer that got eaten away at the edges by it's competition and relied for too long on people shopping there because they didn't know any better.

    Having said that, this effect is the reason that I was able to walk into a Woolies in the middle of a major city and buy a Wii on launch day.

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  • BobCescaBobCesca Is a girl Birmingham, UKRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Like I always say, Woolies was better when it was a general hardware and homewares shop. What killed them, in my opinion, was trying to also do games and music and dvds and electrical hardware.

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  • OneWingedOtakuOneWingedOtaku Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    japan wrote: »

    Having said that, this effect is the reason that I was able to walk into a Woolies in the middle of a major city and buy a Wii on launch day.

    Actually I forgot to say that, I bought my PS3 and PSP from them, with the PS3 being on Launch day. Other than that though, my expereince is as mentioned in the OP.

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  • japanjapan Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    japan wrote: »

    Having said that, this effect is the reason that I was able to walk into a Woolies in the middle of a major city and buy a Wii on launch day.

    Actually I forgot to say that, I bought my PS3 and PSP from them, with the PS3 being on Launch day. Other than that though, my expereince is as mentioned in the OP.

    In hindsight, this should really have been an early warning sign. These are massively hyped items, for which people were placing pre-orders months in advance, yet Woolworths didn't seem to be able to sell any decent volume of them.

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  • areaarea Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I can't remember the last time I bought anything from Woolies, but I will mourn their passing just because they had the occasional cracking advert:

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=a9_-l3ums1s

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  • OneWingedOtakuOneWingedOtaku Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    area wrote: »
    I can't remember the last time I bought anything from Woolies, but I will mourn their passing just because they had the occasional cracking advert:

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=a9_-l3ums1s

    XD that was hilarious!!!:lol::lol:

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  • ÆthelredÆthelred Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    They're like a pawn shop inside. Jack of all trades, master of none. Department stores have been hurting for years now; general retailers just can't cope with the tri-pronged assault of the supermarkets, specialist retailrs and the internet.

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  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    area wrote: »
    I can't remember the last time I bought anything from Woolies, but I will mourn their passing just because they had the occasional cracking advert:

    *snip of youtube*

    XD that was hilarious!!!:lol::lol:

    Okay the last line in that really got me.

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  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I remember when they changed their Pick 'n' Mix to sell it by volume instead of weight - that was a glorious time, when you experimented with sweets to see what compressed the most.

    My granddad met my grandma when she was working in Woolworths - on the shoelace counter, back in the days when they had specific counters.

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  • Anarchy Rules!Anarchy Rules! Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I kind of like Woolworths in a nostalgic kind of way - buying sweets and coke before going to the cinema. My best pruchase ever was in one of their bargain bins - a Barry White CD called Unlimted Love. That's right, the title was misspelt.

    Some of the games in Woolworths were actually reasonably priced, the odd title being cheaper than say Game, or sometimes Amazon and Play. The places I don't understand why they stock games are PC World and WH Smiths, all there games are at £45. How do they shift stock?

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  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited November 2008
    I remember buying my first single from Woolworths. Shakespeare's Sister - You're History. Don't remember the last time I saw something in there I wanted that I couldn't get cheaper elsewhere.

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  • EpiphanyEpiphany Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Again I'd say woolworths have been in some trouble for at least 5 years, last purchase I made in there was of gta4 when I'd left it till the day before launch and couldnt be bothered to wait in line at asda overnight, think they had at least 6 copies of the game for both 360 and ps3 sitting on the shelves and only two preorders, so I'd think that shows people just dont go into woolies or even think of going in, directed some of my friends who'd left it similarly late and they just walked in on their work lunch brake and picked them up fine.

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  • KalkinoKalkino Buttons Londres Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I've never had a need to go to Woolworths, not since I was a kid anyway. Actually, in NZ our Woolworths (not to be confused with a supermarket chain of the same name) renamed itself about 20 years ago, then shut down about 6 years ago, probably for similar reasons as the one here - a wide range of stuff that didn't really excite people enough

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  • Element BrianElement Brian Peanut Butter Shill Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    The only thing I know about the store woolworth is from the movie O Brother Where Art Thou

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  • DoctorArchDoctorArch Curmudgeon Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Am I crazy, or did Woolworths at a time have a United States presence?

    <- says the man with the Welsh actress avatar. :)

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  • LacroixLacroix Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I kinda reacted the same way as them cancelling TOTP - 'oh no! But its a national institution!' before following that up with 'yes... but you never shopped there/watched totp' .

    It is not really surprising. That said, with it there goes the last of the dvd shops in my town. When I moved here there was 5, and they all started shutting down with each consecutive year i remained here. Oh, I tell a lie, WH Smith remains, but they have just as bad stock as woolies in that dept (as they are primarily a bookstore) and charge loads.

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  • FireflashFireflash Montreal, QCRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Well when I was a kid there was a Woolworth for a while in my home town. But that's in Canada though. It was pretty ugly and depressing inside. It lasted a few years then eventually closed down.

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  • juice for jesusjuice for jesus Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Archgarth wrote: »
    Am I crazy, or did Woolworths at a time have a United States presence?

    They started out in the US. The overseas departments were spun off and the US company has since become... Foot Locker.

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  • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Why can't America have commercials this awesome?

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  • clsCorwinclsCorwin Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I remember Woolworth's. As I recall, they were like a classy Walgreens. (in the states, that is)

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  • OneWingedOtakuOneWingedOtaku Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    It's weird how people have completely different expereinces with the stores. I was talking last night about this subject and other people's Woolies stores seem to be a lot better than others. Maybe it's do with local competetion or something? I dunno.

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  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited December 2008
    clsCorwin wrote: »
    I remember Woolworth's. As I recall, they were like a classy Walgreens.

    I don't know what Walgreens is, but if Woolworths is a classier version of it I assume the checkout staff are lepers and the only thing on the shelves is bottled dysentry.

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  • clsCorwinclsCorwin Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Do you guys have CVS, or RiteAid over there? Like, an overpriced store with a pharmacy attached, that also has a cosmetics counter and 1 hour photo finishing? Thats Walgreens.

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  • joshua1joshua1 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Woolworths here is a straight up grocery store. I'm guessing its different in Aust.

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  • DoctorArchDoctorArch Curmudgeon Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Bogart wrote: »
    clsCorwin wrote: »
    I remember Woolworth's. As I recall, they were like a classy Walgreens.

    I don't know what Walgreens is, but if Woolworths is a classier version of it I assume the checkout staff are lepers and the only thing on the shelves is bottled dysentry.

    Wow, that's amazingly accurate :)

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  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    On the plus side, it was the only store open on the Gosport high street when I worked on a Sunday and had a hankering for a bottle of Irn Bru and a bag of Skittles.

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  • clsCorwinclsCorwin Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Archgarth wrote: »
    Bogart wrote: »
    clsCorwin wrote: »
    I remember Woolworth's. As I recall, they were like a classy Walgreens.

    I don't know what Walgreens is, but if Woolworths is a classier version of it I assume the checkout staff are lepers and the only thing on the shelves is bottled dysentry.

    Wow, that's amazingly accurate :)

    Which one? I claim both, lol.

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