I am going to Woolworths now

"I'm back, but the ones I wanted were sold out" - October 14th, 2002

You were gone a long time, weren't you? Hope you didn't get lost or anything.

I love Woolies, btw. They sell great stuff.

erm... Waitrose / Waterstones / What Everyone Wants (haven't yet dared to go into one of their stores... I mean - is it TRUE?)

Well, if what everyone wants is cheapish socks where the top hem is a different length each time and where the black dye might not last very many washes. (This is what I sometimes want and I have not had any problems with the dye yet. The hems are all different lengths but I should stop being so damn picky because nobody is going to look at my ankles in that much detail, I hope.) Also the Swindon branch has a shop assistant who looks amusingly like Craig David, which may or may not be higher up your want list.

World of Leather? World of Carpets?

oh yeah, i have faint memories of these department stores with the diners in. the cone drink thingy must have been an attempt at maximum rip-off factor. "how can we minimize the volume of this beverage compared to the size of the cup??"

But still! Bargain!

That's the Wonder of Woolies.

A similar trade in prosthetic limbs goes on to this day - but not in Woolies.

Woolies has gone into administration.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7751064.stm

I just bought a lamp in their world-famous Roman Road store and the cashier was super nice, though you can obviously tell the whole chain's got supply problem because there what was on the shelves there was only one of and at least a quarter of the shelf space was empty.

Plenty of crap plastic crap toys and Wii games, though.

Also the lamp cost £4.68 and I used a 10% off voucher.

It's been on its last legs for, what, five years? They are/were quite depressing stores to go into, everything just seemed to be piled high and/or thrown anywhere.

MFI has gone too.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/5812/imageuploadimagenc1.jpg

No more pick n mixes?

AFAIK Woolworths still hanging on in South Africa but it evolved into M&S style there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/

been gone in the US for ages. I kind of miss it.

Although the BBC's reporting is laughable with the whole "the move into administration puts thousands of jobs at threat" thing, when they were just as "at threat" this morning or last week.

What does this mean for the average ilXor? No cheap CDs at Sainsbury's Asda and Morrisons for a while, since Woolworths' distribution division was their supplier. It's odd that EUK was also part of the collapse, since that was the profitable bit.

In a similar vein, HMV's sales were actually up in the third quarter. They're no as fucked as you'd expect.

heh, we don't have HMV in the US anymore either!

With ad campaigns like this I can't fathom how they failed.

I once came to own a handful of Woolworths shares, which I sold years ago for 55p each. I always fancied buying them back one day, and so popped into every Woolies I passed, willing just one of them to look like a business with a future. It never happened, shame.

I'm hoping that the silver lining in all this will be Victorian sweet shops reemerging to reclaim the ground they lost to pic'n'mix.

Along with Victorian tobacconists that also sold cocaine and opium?

Victorian? I thought it was Paisley.

NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Where am I going to buy 2 for £2 picture frames now?!??!

Poundstretchers?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7751714.stm

Woolworths' administrators have begun efforts to rescue the chain, after the firm said its retail stores could no longer operate as a going concern.

All 815 stores will stay open for now, but 30,000 jobs are at risk after the chain buckled under its £385m debt.

Administrators Deloitte said there had been "expressions of interest" for the stores and for the Entertainment UK wholesale business.

Ah right, didn't find this thread on Search.

To reiterate what I said on the other thread: become crap, cling like a limpet to the old ways and fail to keep up, and you deserve to go out of business.

For sentimental reasons I'm quite sad about Woolies in Hamilton going though.

Yes, they've been crap for years, I wouldn't blame this on the Credit Crunch. Last thing I bought in a Woolies, was an Inkspots compilation for my mum.

i can't remember the last time i even saw a woolworths :/

also i'm expecting lots of nonsense about how they were the heart of small town high streets and you metropolis-dwellers just wouldn't understand, but this is bollocks, the last time i visited my parents (in a small town) the woolworths had been replaced by a starbucks

It's sad.

It's sad for the people who will lose their jobs but otherwise, I'm not sure. Other than the loss of a traditional high street name, but that's tradition for tradition's sake really, especially when the stores themselves were so shoddy.

I'd expect they can sell off that (presumably profitable) wholesale business though?

Indeed, one of the two isn't even in administration (The BBC distribution partnership one)

Bring back C&A imo

Westwood can't exactly shout out to all his C&A ladies.

C&A left the UK because they could make more money renting out their property portfolio than they could in the Philip Green Fashion economy.

I bought Wall-E on DVD in Woolies last night. It was cheap, and I wanted it. Doing my bit.

"It was easy, it was cheap, go and buy one!"

Apparently 80-90% of their annual turnover comes from the run-up to Christmas.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/03/27/carlabruni1_narrowweb__300x344,0.jpg

(Southall xp)

Weird photo! I thought Sarkozy was the midget, I didn't know his wife (and Prince Philip) was actually 2 foot tall!

Insert 'standing to attention' joke here.

Rather a phallic pose from the geezer ont he left

Personally I think it's time for one of those old-style seventies star-studded Woolies Xmas ads to encourage Stand Up Britain-type buying.

Too late to take that Winfield guitar amp back to Woolies? Lost the receipt anyway.

cue cameo by ROCK LEGEND Bert Weedon clutching said amp

the last time i visited my parents (in a small town) the woolworths had been replaced by a starbucks

this was either the smallest woolworths ever or is now the largest starbucks ever

Or they split that retail unit in two.

to make two Starbucks
OH THE HUMANITY

Guys, sometimes I think they'll eventually build a Starbucks INSIDE A STARBUCKS! Amirite guys?

Still no Starbucks in Northampton btw. Up to three Subways in the town centre now, though.

i'm expecting lots of nonsense about how they were the heart of small town high streets and you metropolis-dwellers just wouldn't understand, but this is bollocks, the last time i visited my parents (in a small town) the woolworths had been replaced by a starbucks

you say that last part like it's a good thing.

they don't have to be "the heart of small town high streets" for it to sad that they're going, and not just for the 30,000 people they employ. in amongst the piled high plastic toys woolies is one of the last places in most city centres that you can find useful things of a decent quality. try finding glue that's not pound shop rubbish, a sewing kit, clothes dye, decent quality paintbrushes, a reasonably priced frying pan, a water bottle, or parma violets...

To reiterate what I said on the other thread: become crap, cling like a limpet to the old ways and fail to keep up, and you deserve to go out of business.

what are the old ways? selling a variety of useful products? (admittedly in with a high amount of rubbish). since the new ways seem to be either "sell terrible quality items for a pound" or "buy online" you can accept how difficult it was for them to stay afloat. you make it sound like it would have been easy for them to change but it's actually a huge challenge.

see also, excellent bbc4 doc series "The Department Store" that has been showing this week and last.

this episode was particularly good: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fqpn0/b00fqpd5/The_Department_Store_Peters/

try finding glue that's not pound shop rubbish, a sewing kit, clothes dye, decent quality paintbrushes, a reasonably priced frying pan, a water bottle,

This is what Ryness and John Lewis are for. Which is part of what the problem is, no one really knows what Woolies is for apart from pic and mix and christmas lights.

glue that's not pound shop rubbish, a sewing kit, clothes dye, decent quality paintbrushes, a reasonably priced frying pan, a water bottle, or parma violets

None of these things are exactly hard to come by even in today's homogenized town centres.

(xpost - exactly, the problem with Woolies was it was the ultimate jack of all trades, master of none chain)

well done, Jed.

People are so unfeeling, it still surprises me a little. No, it doesn't actually - I am used to these people by now.

Hey I sent lilies to their head office!

Loads of people I know still use Woolies for school clothing and kids' toys - very good for those £5-10 toys and games your kids are expected to bring to every birthday party they are invited to (meaning that every single kid who has a party has the exact same toys).

The ones I've been in recently have all been busy, apart from one wee High Street one that's been pretty much dead for years, so I'm surprised they are doing so badly.

but not everywhere has a rymans or a john lewis?

I wonder how much all those cheapo Embassy label compilations will fetch on eBay now?

And why is VENTURE CAPITALIST HERO Theo "I Saved Rymans From WORSE" Paphitis not investing any of his hard-earned children's inheritance in getting Woolies back on track?

You're not kidding, Jed. John Lewis? That's some kind of luxury elite furniture shop! It's nothing to do with Woolworths!

John Lewis is not 'luxury', it's pretty much the official yardstick for mid-market. But yes, nothing to do with Woolworths.

I think if anything did for Woolworth's it's probably the expanded range available in most supermarkets.

Speaking of useful-things-at-decent-value, how many Robert Dyases are there outside London these days?

it's probably the expanded range available in most supermarkets

ah good we can blame Tesco again

Re. Robert Dyas: most of the non-London branches seem to be concentrated in the M40 corridor (Warcs, Oxon, Glos) but that includes a fair number of "Shop Within Somerfield" "branches."

it's probably the expanded range available in most supermarkets

No probably about it

When I said Ryness I meant Robert Dyas, thanks Matt.

Blaming Tesco is a bit like blaming Thatcher, even when it's not directly their fault, it probably is REALLY.

The idea that Woolworths basically sells tat is becoming the norm here, but actually it's false. Their range of basic goods is fine and good value. The last thing I bought was probably a terrific 3CD box set of Elvis Presley, for a fiver.

Part of the assumption that Woolworths basically sells tat is because the stores are/were laid out in such a way as to make everything on sale look like tat.

That silly, dated eighties jumble bazaar look where nothing is in a straight line and if you want to find anything you have to fight your way through oceans of tat to get there.

Hackney Woolworths recently:

cashier: sorry we don't this game in stock...but you can reserve it..
bloke in front of me (agitated): well why is it on the shelf then?? (storms off angrily)
me: hi
cashier: sorry we don't have this game in stock...but you can reserve it...
me: uh, no, bye (thinking 'put a notice on the shelf/game cases you clowns')

There are plenty of straight lines in my local Woolworths.

Anyway, I assume at least some of these stores are still profitable and the best ones will be picked up, right? That's what usually happens in these situations.

The idea that Woolworths has a dated eighties jumble bazaar look where nothing is in a straight line is becoming the norm here, but it's actually false. Their shelves are perfectly straight and navigable. The last shelf I walked past there was probably exactly perpendicular to the central corridor through the shop.

there were a few geese running around in the Hackney one but otherwise fine

People are so unfeeling, it still surprises me a little. No, it doesn't actually - I am used to these people by now.

― the pinefox, 27 November 2008 12:09 (38 minutes ago) Bookmark

would you, perhaps, describe yourself as having become 'unfeeling' about them?

In the Hackney Woolworth's there was definitely a feeling that no one was really in control. They have a had a huge problem with their retail experience for years and they just haven't fixed it. Yes there are things that are frustratingly never in stock - blank DVDs, for instance, are like unicorns in the Mare St Woolworth's - but it's really this slightly armageddonish feel inside that sank them. FWIW I have felt this way about every Woolie's I've been in (all in London) (what I remember of the ones in New York is that they seemed much calmer and organized and cared for).

(But as I said on the other thread, they vanished from American towns about a decade ago. It might be worth examining why.)

I got my first ever football boots at Woolworths in Burnt Oak, so I feel a bit sentimental about that going, even though they hurt my feet and had crappy moulded studs when all my friends had screw-ins. Other than that I am unphased.

Yeah I think Tracer has encapsulated what I was trying to get at, they just seemed very haphazard and a bit tatty and maybe they didn't have the cash to invest in reversing that. The one in Lewisham is a case in point, the shelves seemed to be very high, the aisles quite narrow, and stock just seemed piled everywhere, or alternatively put back in the wrong place with no one to correct it.

A bit of a nightmare if you are trying to navigate it with children in tow, I'd imagine - far easier to just pick up what you need in Tesco or Sainsbury's as part of the weekly shop.

Like I said it's sad for the people who will lose their jobs, but otherwise what is there to miss? Seems like nostalgia rather than anything else, after all everyone remembers going to Woolies as a kid.

Tracer OTM

Most of the nostalgia is from people who remember going to Woolies in the 70's, when they were still part of the US company. Since 1982 the UK stores were a separate company, and really it's been a slow trundle downhill since then.

The US company having folded its stores in the 80s apart from what became Foot Locker.

Seems like nostalgia rather than anything else, after all everyone remembers going to Woolies as a kid.

Kids still love going to Woolies (based on a sample of three).

I don't know about anywhere else but the various Woolworths stores I've been in in recent years in central Scotland have all been refurbished with modern lighting and layouts and no problems with having stock in store.

The main problem seemed to me was that they stocked a little bit of everything at a slightly higher price than the specialist stores.

I was going to say maybe the Scottish stores are fitted out differently but the one in Hamilton (which I last visited last Xmas) was as irritatingly bendy as any of the ones down here.

Ryness and John Lewis

Way to name one shop which only exists in London and one shop with 26 branches, as opposed to Woolies' 800. Happier with Robert Dyas as it is actually in the small-to-medium towns round here as well (don't forget that some counties have a lot of small-to-medium towns and no cities big enough to have whatever shop you Londoners all get to use), but small electrical/household useful things = only one of Woolies' markets, and some of them I can't think of an obvious small-town competitor, though I guess supermarkets do now sell most of their stock. Do the Tescos/Asdas with clothing sections do school uniforms?

Not that I'll miss it out of anything other than childhood nostalgia, since I now do most of my shopping in Oxford, which hasn't had one for years. But that haphazard layout was actually pretty cool and Aladdin's Cave-ish as a kid. Immensely frustrating after the age of about 9 though, yes.

Do the Tescos/Asdas with clothing sections do school uniforms?

Yes.

That reminds me, I need a new kettle, what's the best shop to go to?

Robert Dyas, John Lewis, Argos

Hate to be a poseur, but I bought my last kettle out of Peter Jones in Sloane Square yah. It was only twenty quid though and has lasted for a good six years.

I don't do Argos, it freaks me out that place

Get a catalogue (or go online), make your pick, only then go into the store.

..and use the creditcard station.

I don't use creidt cards

Or even credit cards

Neither did anyone in the Streatham High Road branch of Argos, from memory.

I only went in there once and it was horrendous; miles of queues of screaming kids in prams and screaming mums. Went straight out again.

Working behind the counter in Argos has to be the worst job in retail.

also i'm expecting lots of nonsense about how they were the heart of small town high streets and you metropolis-dwellers just wouldn't understand, but this is bollocks

but it's truuuuuue! Woolworths was pretty much the only shop that wasn't a grocers or newsagents in my town centre, ah how I anticipated my visit to look at the toys (maybe even get one!) after the food shopping trip, nostalgia nostalgia etc. But then last year a Tesco Extra got plonked down two minutes away (my town is so much of a nowhere that there's an out-of-town [for other towns] Tesco right in the middle of it and no one notices the rest of the town), so I don't suppose they're doing the business they once were.

For sentimental reasons I'm quite sad about Woolies in Hamilton going though.

They refurbished it a few years back and it's huge now. Also it is always mobbed. I dont believe that one doesn't make money. I remember when i was about 6 or 7 buying Madness singles in there on a saturday when out shopping with my mum and dad.

As for the small town argument, I spent my teenage years in Prestwick , and woolies was the only big shop. Got all my computer games and lps/7" singles/cds there.

And if it wasnt the Prestwick shop it was the one in Ayr.

ok i also bought my first ever cassingles, albums &c from woolworths but so what? do u really think they have that function for kids nowadays?

There's always schoolkids in there buying cds

Em's brother worked in Argos as a picker / passer / counter dude (rather than a till dude) for a while. He didn't mind it.

stop spying on them! xp

There's no record shops left in Hamilton and Smiths has a tiny crap selection (when it was John Menzies it was so much better for everything)
x-post

hi we have ye olde recorde shoppe known as the internet now

u can even order proper CDs from it if u want!

where can i buy pic n' mix online?

"He's so modern... he's so .... 21st Century!"

http://www.aquarterof.co.uk

When Woolworth's stopped selling CD singles it was hailed as the death of the single, if I remember correctly. It was only a year or so ago.

u can even order proper CDs from it if u want!

We've got increasingly little choice, haven't we?

Hello Brother Belcher. How's Doreen? Not seen Lyn for a long time. Did she ever teach the world to sing? Not for the want of trying, anyroad...

Of course, they're all mad, you know.

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:N7UUEcP9c36SNM:http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2335/2093826792_215045190a.jpg%3Fv%3D0

We've got increasingly little choice, haven't we?

yeah but those websites offer a much larger selection of titles. so in some ways the choice has increased - of the music, if not the outlets to buy it from (but the latter has never been as important to me as the former).

I want to buy CDs out of shops, so I can see and feel them, not unseen and unproven off the internet. I want to be able to FIND things randomly. You know, the old fashioned way.

Hold on tho, aren't you merely "clinging like a limpet to the old ways and failing to keep up"?

If it means clinging to the notion that if you choose to buy something out of a shop you are a sociopathic freak and get charged twice what you would if you bought it on the internet...

If it means clinging to the notion of not having credit cards because I prefer to spend money I've earned...

...then I'm happy to be a clinger in that sense.

Oh, and if anyone's just about to post the old "internets unsecure credcard" etc,

I just found my maestrocard I have never used on t'int has been faked and used in NY. Stopped, moneys retereived, still. Bdamna.

http://attachments.techguy.org/attachments/41049d1097025723/klinger.jpg

xpost

Chuckle

Most of the things I buy on the internet are usually several pounds cheaper than can be found in a bricks and mortar shop. Other than Tesco/WH Smith there aren't any near me within a 15 mile radius so it's not like I can just nip down the street for an impulse purchase.

I pay by credit card too, spending money I've earned. You don't have to go into debt if you have one, unless you've no self control.

Oh, we have a Woolies too, not that it ever has much to my taste

I prefer not to have the temptation, Bill. That's why we're in the mess we are now and businesses are falling by the wayside, because of people and organisations spending money they don't have. Where's Micawber when you need him?

Can you not use debit cards on the internet these days? Last time I tried you could.

I want to buy CDs out of shops, so I can see and feel them, not unseen and unproven off the internet.

This makes no sense. How does seeing and feeling a CD clue you into the music contained therein? And that same internet, can provide many means (myspace pages, youtube, illegal DLing) to Try Before You Buy. And most chainstores seal their stock, if its on the shop-floor, so at best all you can see and feel, in such a store, is the jewel case.

If it means clinging to the notion that if you choose to buy something out of a shop you are a sociopathic freak and get charged twice what you would if you bought it on the internet...

That seems a somewhat paranoid notion. Who is calling you a sociopathic freak??? And you aren't being charged twice the internet price out of spite, but because that's the business model. It really is nothing personal against you, MC.

If it means clinging to the notion of not having credit cards because I prefer to spend money I've earned...

Debit cards?

xp

Charges for debit card usage online are creeping in more and more tho. On Bleep now if you don't spend more than a fiver at a time you get a small surcharge.

last thing i bought in woolies wimbledon was a cd copy of Led Zep II with a voucher from my 16th birthday. they always had terrible stock, and the shop resembled the aftermath of a stampede, at all times.

I went to Woolworth's today. I didn't buy anything, there were more people in there than usual.

They used the Woolies in West Ealing on the news yesterday.

When Woolworth's stopped selling CD singles it was hailed as the death of the single, if I remember correctly. It was only a year or so ago.

See, I thought CD singles were a dead duck too, but today I found a rack of Sugababes CD singles for sale in BOOTS of all places. I haven't seen music in Boots since I was a nipper. Why have they started now?

Boots selling music now???? They stopped that in the early 90s I thought.

I bought all my music from Boots as a nipper! Compared to Woolies they didn't have a clue how to price things. Consequently I got Buzzcocks' 'Singles Going Steady', Patti Smith 'Horses', Television's 'Marquee Moon', Byrds' and Stones and Dusty's Greatest Hits etc etc all for an exceptionally Nice Price between 1985 and 1986.

I can kind of understand them selling some music as an impulse-buy item (I didn't see anything other than Sugababes), but it seems weird to be doing it now, rather than ten years ago. Who buys CD singles?

People who want to ingratiate themselves with 10-year old relatives they don't understand? Sugababes strike me as the ideal band from that point of view.

The Sugababes do the song on the Boots adverts. That would likely explain it.

Anyone doing the Woolies advert?

What is the meaning of Stevie T's photo, upthread?

It's a picture of Corporal Klinger from M*A*S*H in re Marcello's comments about clinging to stuff.

I assume Woolworths in Aus has nothing whatsoever to do with UK or US woolies, seeing as ours is (afaik) one of the biggest damn companies on the stock exch here?

They run supermarkets as well as the dodgy big W tatty wallmart style places.

no connection. AU woolies is safeway innit

So are Woolies really selling off everything for half price or more now?

2004. me in a chaotically run woolworth's in chorlton, manchester.
bloke who works there approaches and says the following in a perfunctory fashion
'hi can i help you..' and then as i start to answer, under his breath in a pissed off tone
'..or are you just wandering about aimlessly'.
their staff training could have used a little work.

their staff training could have used a little work.

or that one guy's attitude could have. "One guy was rude once" shouldn't really condemn their entire staff training regime.

Well it should do. If I'm going into a shop for the first time I base everything on first impressions. If someone working there is rude to me for no reason then the shop doesn't get my money and I never go in there again.

I would supply a list of the shops in question but unsurpisingly almost all of them went bust and shut.

To summarize, people are shit.

It's scale.

Generally, staff do not need to be told "don't go round being stroppy to customers", they know already.

But, if you employ 1000's of floor staff, one day one will be.

Training regime = "don't annoy customers for no reason, duh!"

just don't buy stuff from shops.

^^^ Yeah, shoplift instead. Also solves the problem of some assistants being rude. If you shoplift, all of them are rude.

i was thinking ebay but ^^^ truthbomb

The trouble with not buying stuff from shops is that no matter how snazzy the website is or how expansive their stock is or how secure the ordering procedures are, At The End Of The Day Brian you're still dependent on White Van Man turning up at 2:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, failing to deliver your package and probably being a lot grumpier than any shop staff.

what about some kind of "shop on your behalf" service? You provide them with a shopping list and he/she goes to the shop/internet and deal with rude shop staff/white van man on your behalf, then provide you with your goods with a smile at a time that's convenient for you?

yeah, like Ocado!

(a) needless expenditure
(b) I wouldn't trust them not to leg it with the goods.

That's another thing - Ocado, Tesco.com and all that.

With food surely it's vital that you get a chance to look at and examine it before you buy it. Otherwise with home deliveries it's all dented cans, bruised apples and Best Before 26 Jun 07 just to clear the warehouse.

Also I've got a phobia about home deliveries in general, i.e. open the door and in come hoodlums led by young Jeff Goldblum to wreak untold havoc (see first Death Wish movie and for all I know all other Death Wish movies).

i have a trustworthy postie, i think the avalanche of shitty promo cds pouring through my letterbox has forever cured him of any curiosity as to the contents of a jiffy bag.

I lived in Streatham for six years. The terms "trustworthy" and "postie" were oxymoronic.

(a) needless expenditure
(b) I wouldn't trust them not to leg it with the goods.

you pay for service, innit. Cheapskates deserve ungrateful store staff

We've used Ocad occasionally.

Fresher than Wait.

Also, I don't think Ocado fits the bill with what I mean. The kind of service I'm thinking here is a personal one. Like, it's always the same person you deal with who goes through the troubles for you. Like a personal assistant but only does your shopping.

the sooner we're all provided with remote controlled robots so we never have to leave the house again, the better

I think if some hapless minimum wage retail dude was a little bit rude to me I would definitely kill myself

Ungrateful store staff should be unpaid store staff not to mention unemployed store staff. You fucked up your GCSEs, tough, you should have paid more attention in class instead of sniffing your armpits, don't take it out on me. You feel too good to work here, so how did you end up here then, go back to school or college and study so you can get a better job. You can't stand dealing with other human beings face to face, consider a career in IT. I'm the customer and if I'm going to give you some of my hard earned money you'd better be flipping glad to see me.

Ungrateful store staff should be unpaid store staff not to mention unemployed store staff.

― Brother Belcher (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 28 November 2008 14:41 (48 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Following in the footsteps of your freelance journalism career, huh?

Ocado rules, especially as you can give them the plastic bags back the next time. don't use it that often more out of forgetfulness than anything but they've never sent dodgy food (i get fruit and veg and a few other things indie local anyway tho).

If you can't afford to go to a better shop with a higher calibre of staff then tough don't complain.

the foot-stomping I AM THE CUSTOMER, I DEMAND THE BEST OR I WILL TAKE MY MONEY ELSEWHERE type provides the indifferent retail grunt with his entertainment for the day

And his unemployment cheque, provided he gets one, which having been sacked he probably wouldn't.

"oh yeah. I'm really sorry about that sir. I'll have a word with him about it. It won't happen again."

"hey Keith that complaining prick's been trying to get you fired again! What a character!"

I wish shops can provide a 10% "I'm not always right" discount for rational customers who can deal with the fact that they're not always right.

"If you can admit that you're not always right, we'll pay the VAT! Provided that we can smirk at you as we do so..."

"Please do not ask for a 10% 'I'm not always right' discount, as refusal often offends means that you're not right. Er..."

Sorry, but the customer is always right, even (or especially) when they're wrong. Number one rule of shopkeeping.

If they're wrong you smile and say the right thing.

this does not affect your statutory wrongs

xxpost

"You had the wrong price on this DVD player! That means you have to sell it to me for it!"

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00120/F_200610_October11b_120397a.jpg

(which is not true)

(but everyone thinks it is)

(especially temporary or untrained staff)

(but not the bloke on the Ocado Lorry)

(not even mispriced stuff on the website!)

If a customer storms into a shop and acts like a cunt then the old Gandhi rules don't apply. No one should have to put up with anything like that.

But if a member of staff starts grumbling and/or snarling at the customer for no more reason than they fell out the wrong side of bed that morning/their girlfriend pissed off/whatever then that's equally unacceptable. You're having a hard time? Don't come into work then. Stay at home and sort it out.

The American "have a nice day" model is palpably insincere 99% of the time I'm sure but even as a token gesture it's infinitely preferable to having to deal with - or give money to - grouches who stand there mute, face down towards the desk, pretending to read Heat magazine and hoping that you'll keel over and die before they have to serve you.

Yeah you're right, you know. Have a nice day!

If you want grumpy staff, go to "Everything's 99p-land"

I mean, you can't blame them, but still.

There's our kid with £1 in her tightly, and a halloween hat in her other, and a smile, and do they look up and say hello? No they do not.

And are they going out of business? No. Despite that inflation should mean that there are fewer things that fall lower than £1 wholesale price for them to sell on, no. Most likely candidates to move into empty Woolworths stores, inglanwide.

It'll be either pound shops or Starbucks.

When the Woolworths in Islington closed a few months back it got turned into a Waitrose, so now the row of shops has an M&S Food next to a Waitrose next to a Sainsbury's. I'm hoping the pub on the corner gets closed and bought up by Tesco so I can win at supermarket bingo every lunchtime.

It looks increasingly as if troubled high street chain Woolworths will be broken up and its stores sold off to a variety of buyers.

Aldi, Lidl, Asda and Iceland are all said to be interested in individual outlets, along with HMV, Boots and WH Smith.

Iceland tried to buy Woolworths' retail arm earlier this year but chief executive Malcolm Walker says it will not be making a fresh offer.

He said: "To run Woolies as Woolies, which is what we wanted to do, is now a lost opportunity."

The group's new chief executive Steve Johnson has also warned it faces "operational issues and strategic challenges".

Administrator Deloitte, which is hoping to find a buyer for the retail business, says it has received approaches from "a number of parties".

It says they have expressed interest in both the 813-store retail chain and Woolworth's E.UK wholesaling arm.

BBC Worldwide has been involved in talks to buy Woolies' 40% stake in publisher 2Entertain.

The betting is Wooworths will be sold to restructuring specialist Hilco - which is currently assisting Deloitte - and sold off piecemeal.

Hilco is said to have made an approach to buy the retail business for a nominal £1 and assume a large share of Woolworths' debt.

You've never actually had a customer-facing service job, have you Marcello? It is screamingly obvious.

If a customer storms into a shop and acts like a cunt then the old Gandhi rules don't apply. No one should have to put up with anything like that.

Well indeed. And it happens more often than youd think and thats WHY service staff can be surly or at least cynical. In my previous life on an internet helpdesk, I have among other pleasantries had a call where I picked up the phone to have a man scream - literally scream - that I was a slut and he would find out where I worked and tear me a new arsehole. I have also had clients try to avoid me helping them because "you're a girl, I want technical support you dont know anything". We've had policemen say they "know people" and would "make our lives miserable" because they couldnt work their fucking Outlook email.

And you know what? For $30k a year AUD it isnt fucking worth it.

Oh the joys of working in IT support. I've had people threaten to beat me up. People have threatened to "send the boys round and do the place over" (police got involved on that one, actually a funny story in the end). People making up all kinds of insane bullshit lies to try and get me in trouble with my boss. People screaming at me down the phone the second I answer a call... If I ever need to remind myself why I don't work in IT support anymore... oh wait, I never have to remind myself.

Its rididulous because in the end, its *just the fucking internet*, its not like anyone's lives are at stake.

Chat room instant diagnosis saves life of stroke victim

gordon lightfoot!

BF: HALP
GF: IANAD (but i work in a stroke rehab)
BF: KTHXBYE

Heh. Eh the people who scream the most abt their lost internet tho are all "BUT I HAVE EBAY AUCTIONS ENDING IN AN HOUR THIS WILL LOSE ME THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS AND I WILL SUE", when they're selling beanie babies and shit.

And why is VENTURE CAPITALIST HERO Theo "I Saved Rymans From WORSE" Paphitis not investing any of his hard-earned children's inheritance in getting Woolies back on track?

― Brother Belcher (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 27 November 2008 12:14 (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7757222.stm

Dragon 'might bid for Woolworths'

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45254000/jpg/_45254123_783964f8-8da9-4ae3-b134-b5e87b8f41df.jpg
Mr Paphitis is among a number of parties interested in Woolies.

Dragons' Den entrepreneur Theo Paphitis is among several potential bidders for Woolworths, the BBC has learned.

Deloitte, Woolworths' administrator, said there had been "substantial interest" in the firm.

Mr Paphitis is believed to be working on a plan to rescue some of the chain's most profitable stores and preserve the Woolworths brand.

i thought about buying woolworths when i found out it only costs£1

oh believe me i wasn't condemning their entire staff or whatever it's just that everyone was chipping in with their memorable wooly's tale so i thought i'd throw mine in. thing is that's the first thing that came to mind. it wouldn't have happened in BOOT's.

BOOT's !

We've got a new BOOT's! opening across the road from us at work soon. Though knowing my luck it'll be pharmacy only and no sandwiches...

I don't like to kick a company when they're down, but this tale of asbestos-related unpleasantness in Devon is pretty fucking grim. Would be greatly improved by a little more detail, eg who told the assistant manager she had to open the shop up, etc. Still.

You pay peanuts, you get cowboy contractors.

Same as it ever was.

Fears are growing for the future of Woolworths and its 30,000 staff after reports that administrator Deloitte has failed to find a buyer for the firm.

The BBC understands that Deloitte is due to announce a closing-down sale across all the company's 815 stores.

this is gonna be some sale

bagsy all the pick n mix

you have to nick from it, one last time.

Why no war on christmas this year? [Started by rogermexico. in December 2007, last updated 5 minutes ago by modernism] 16 new answers
I am going to Woolworths now [Started by jel -- (jel) in October 2002, last updated 8 minutes ago by Mark G] 6 new answers

There'll be a war in Woolworths today.

warrior, warrior, warri warri-errrrrr

I went to Woolworths, then.

Nicky Campbell voxpopping outside.

For a minute there I thought you said "Nicky Campbell bodypopping."

If only.

The nearest Woolies to my office appears to be at Elephant & Castle and frankly that would be too traumatic to even consider.

I bought my digibox from there.

the foot-stomping I AM THE CUSTOMER, I DEMAND THE BEST OR I WILL TAKE MY MONEY ELSEWHERE type provides the indifferent retail grunt with his entertainment for the day

― Glans Christian Christian christian Christian Andersen (MPx4A), 28 November 2008 14:57

truth bomb, the only thing that makes it worthwhile some days.

My office is in Fulham and as the crow flies the nearest Woolies to me is in Putney High Street which is much nicer to look at/walk through than the Elephant but the distance still probably speaks for itself.

i has the GIANT Woolies in Brixton at my disposal. if only i needed some of the unutterable tat it sells! (i've already bought this year's recommended quota of clothes horse/shit dvd/pick'n'mix/kids' birthday present)

Brixton Woolies is like John Lewis compared to the Elephant one.

Brixton is like Manhattan compared to the Elephant & Castle's, er, Elephant & Castle...

Apparently, there's big strops inshop, because nothing is any cheaper than last week's sale.

"WHADDYA MEAN IT'S NOT 50% OFF 50%?"

It's back ONLINE

http://www.woolworths.co.uk/

I can't see this being a hit.

now i can get some plastic containers and the latest uk chart singles and some pick n mix delivered to my home!

oh snap i really *can* get pick n mix delivered!

They hadn't done UK chart singles for years, outside of the 'megaselling quickbux' of the X-factor winner(s)...

That front page is terrible. I give them 6 weeks.

I doubt that they'd be bothered if it only lasted that long. It looks like a quick way of getting rid of stock - a lot of items are already labelled as unavailable.

Ah right. It was too horrible looking to browse and fuck pick'n'mix anyway tbh.

fuck pick'n'mix anyway tbh.

phrases that make you negatively judge somebody.

he deserves sb'd for that comment about pick'n'mix

owe him one anyway, iirc

Suggest bonbons

GUYS IT's JUST A WAY TO GET YOU TO PAY 5 TIMES OVER THE ODDS FOR PENNY CHEWS

your own proportional preference of penny chews, which are of a consistently better quality than prepacked, imho.

"Your bag is dangerously empty"

o_O
...oh and it'll stay empty, because not only are they exorbitantly overpriced, they are also the horrible cheap sweets that I hate. Just buy a bag of eclairs, a bag of sherbet lemons, and a back of pear drops, and you're done.

PENNY CHEWS

Remember when they abolished the halfpenny and the cost of Fruit Salads doubled overnight? My first brush with inflation.

i don't want a whole bag of eclairs, i want 3.

Glad to see snoball's got my back here, I was about to recant and beg for indulgence.

i'd rather be lonely and right, tbh

Slartibartfast: "I'd much rather be happy than right any day."
Arthur: "And are you?"
Slartibartfast: "No. That's where it all falls down, I'm afraid."

(xpost) Yeah, I remember when cheap sweets were actually cheap, thus at least partly justifying their crappiness. Fruit Salads excepted of course, because they ruled.

Didn't really like Fruit Salads but at least they weren't Blackjacks. Have Blackjacks been banned by the so-called Politically Correct Brigade yet?

I guess what I'm saying really is I will eat Pick'n'Mix but I am too tight to buy it.

remember when Wham Bars were 3 times the size they are now and actually had fizzy bits in them?

(said with yorkshire accent)

fruit salads are a good solid 7/10 effort, but a good lemon bonbon struts all over that shit.

i was going to mention blackjacks as a favourite, but remembered about the golliwog packaging just in time.

lololol I thought I remembered the golliwog on the wrapper.

The day they took the lit end off sweet cigarettes was when I knew the UK was fucked tbh.

yeah, how are you meant to know which end is which now?

I actually used to really like Blackjacks. They're still made.

http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/black-jacks-p-413.html

There's a newsagents near me that still has big feck off Willy Wonka style jars of sweets in the window.

Tons of places in Hull City and Environs where you can buy sweets from jars. There's also a super-dope sweetshop in York that make the sourest apple sours in the universe.

http:///www.aquarterof.co.uk

yeah, even better than pick n mix is getting some geriatric to climb a ladder for your confectionaries. especially when he sells them to you in weights that don't even exist anymore.

"i'll have a 1/4 troy of bullseyes, thanks"

One for noodle vague
http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/save_the_fountain.php

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/customers-in-a-fizz-over-sweetshop-favourite-1674736.html

i'm amazed that they still sell sherbet in any packaging- that stuff has to be some kind of nuclear waste

I can see a plastic tube working better cos the sherbet won't stick. Nostalgists are the worst.

A Quarter Of are great though. You can get mouth puckering acid drops from them!
check the link.

nostalgists have gone to shit

Also I like to mainline my sherbet cos fuck a licorice.

I hate licorice.I used to eat the sherbet and give my mum or dad the licorice

This is a good a thread as any to ask - that foam shit on the back of some Haribo's or those new Rowntree's Randoms. What is the fucking point of it?

(xxxpost) nostalgia isn't what it used to be...

whats your fave sweets on that site NV?

I'm actually not the biggest sweet-tooth in the world, but always got time for expensive jelly beans, mini Jelly Babies, fudge and anything cherry flavoured.

http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/fizzy-cherry-cola-bottles-p-66.html ?
http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/images/fizzycherrycola.jpg

shanemacgowansoldteeth.jpg

Seriously, looking at that picture is burning holes in my enamel.

Cherry cola bottles don't really taste of cherry tho, Neither do those cherry lips things half the time.

http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/images/mouthpuckering_canon.jpg

http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/images/fizz_wiz_cherry.jpg

fizzy cherry cola bottles were the best. i had to give them up.

LJ used that once^

I've got a bag of real cherries here so they win.

dip them in vaseline and sugar

Spoilt for choice with a comeback here

devastated so far, tbh

drinkin Cherry Coke right now

Dipping cherries in cocaine

sounds like the lead in to a contrarian ass mutha rap couplet

dippin cherries in cocaine, in the local woolies chain
pik n mix this shit then a fiz wizz before i split

sherbet dip?
fuxor that nu plastik tube shit
got cherry cola bottles
on a supa hype tip

got my mom and my pop to take the liquorice strip

which one of you is really Custos?

This'll work:

Woolworths could return to the high street under a plan by Shop Direct group, the owner of Littlewoods, to establish a chain of 200 stores.

The high-street institution closed this year, at the cost of 27,000 jobs, and left more than 800 empty premises. However, a year after Woolworths fell into administration, Shop Direct, which owns the Woolworths name, believes that there is room for up to 200 stores under the famous red fascia.

The home shopping retailer, owned by Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay, bought the name from the administrators and resurrected it online. It wants to hear from possible franchisees. It is not considering managing the stores itself.

Mark Newton-Jones, the chief executive, said: “In the new year, we will consider approaches from interested third parties. We believe it could be a successful chain of up to 200 stores, supported by the buying power of the Shop Direct Group.”

Shop Direct been selling through the Woolworths online store for a while so presumably they've got an idea where the demand is. I would have thought that getting franchisees to run them was relatively low-risk?