Wilko goes into Administration
- Thread starter nam
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Think the gf would leave me!
Criminal.
Not really, no. And that was a big part of their problem.
Wilko was a "home supplies" shop from the past. It mainly sold DIY products, minor fittings and furnishings (bedding, lamps, mirrors, curtains, rugs, etc) and cleaning products (for houses and for people). Quality was reasonable, prices were reasonable. The shops were reasonable for shopping, with an adequate amount of space to walk around in and some degree of display of goods.
Which was fine in more prosperous times and when "the high street" was one of the main ways to buy stuff, but not now. What works in "the high street" now is jamming as much stuff in as possible and selling some of everything and all of it as cheap as possible. Pile it high, sell it cheap. Make every aspect of shopping barely functional with one exception - throughput at the tills has to work better than that because you need a lot of customers. Sell anything you can sell for cheap, having bought it for even cheaper. Quality is not a relevant factor. It can't be when you're competing with online and out of town retail estates with useful parking.
I shop in Poundland and B&M quite often. They're OK if you're not at all fussy about the products or the shopping conditions. Except for food other than stuff like biscuits, stuff that's packaged and from recognisable brands. The rest is atrocious. Fancy a cold damp slimy flavoured fat sandwich? Me neither, but that's what they sell. It might say "chicken" or whatever on it, but it's flavoured mayonnaise between cold damp slices of bread of the lowest quality. Wilko briefly tried to compete with that, but it didn't work.
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Wonder which company will be next.
They used to be reasonable but became more expensive and ditched a lot of branded better products in favour of their own. Add to that they hiked up delivery costs and did away with free click and collect it sealed their fate imho as they made Amazon a more attractive proposition.
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My money is on John Lewis. They seem to be on a slow decline to failure.
Good shout.
Its impressive they are still going. And richer sounds too.
I would/will purchase my next tv from RS though. Somehow they still have a good reputation.
RS are really helped by having such tiny shops. Their range is fairly small and they're focused on demoing a small range of kit to sell expensive gear.
Compared to Wilko having an enormous aisle to sell £1 paint brushes... yeah. I reckon RS have probably got a fair bit more life left in them.
I guess same With John Lewis. Huge shops. Often in expensive rent areas. Does seem to be these large shops going. I guess councils are going to have to start charging less for rates. Because there's going to be so much floor space unused at this rate.
expensive white goods, like tv's , wash machines - there's still a sentiment that having a physical store for any warranty issues is useful ie. RS/JL/Hughes/Curry's
but haven't bought those recently so maybe I'd succumb get a tv from Amazon. (one reason I see owning a tesla as problematic, too)
Guess companies that use franchises cocsta/starbucks are safe , it's just the franchisee who says no more,
the starbucks in town always seems empty, costa, maybe has a few more, and was re-fitted(at whose expense?)
but haven't bought those recently so maybe I'd succumb get a tv from Amazon. (one reason I see owning a tesla as problematic, too)
Guess companies that use franchises cocsta/starbucks are safe , it's just the franchisee who says no more,
the starbucks in town always seems empty, costa, maybe has a few more, and was re-fitted(at whose expense?)
I went to Currys to look at some TVs. A couple in front of me were querying the picture quality of two TVs and the salesman was like 'It's simple, do you consider the picture between this TV and that TV worth £150" or whatever the difference was, barely looking up from his phone.
From my online research I was aware one of the TVs badly needed manual calibration.
I was thinking I could ask a sales person complex technical questions about VA/IPS panels, software, video playback compatibility, etc, and realised at that moment this was not the way.
John Lewis is basically Debenhams but with less stores, so I suspect they will go the same way.
The Starbucks drive-thru around here has massive queues pretty much all the time. Personally, I don't even drink coffee lol.
I think it's pretty much over for the high street. They're converting parts of shopping centres and stores into low income housing, largely occupied by migrants. The town centre near where I live is now a local playground for kids of said demographic rather than a shopping centre.
From my online research I was aware one of the TVs badly needed manual calibration.
I was thinking I could ask a sales person complex technical questions about VA/IPS panels, software, video playback compatibility, etc, and realised at that moment this was not the way.
John Lewis is basically Debenhams but with less stores, so I suspect they will go the same way.
The Starbucks drive-thru around here has massive queues pretty much all the time. Personally, I don't even drink coffee lol.
I think it's pretty much over for the high street. They're converting parts of shopping centres and stores into low income housing, largely occupied by migrants. The town centre near where I live is now a local playground for kids of said demographic rather than a shopping centre.
You are part of a very slim minority who would never typically seek shop assistant support.
They seemed to get p[etty competitive on what online deals were. SHopping about doesnt show that much of a difference these days.
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I shop online at JL a LOT, but almost never in store. So if they wind up their bricks and mortar operation (I think they will maintain some at least), I hope they keep an online presence.
Yeh, I guess they could survive online still. I think they will eventually ditch their physical presence.
how is next doing these days? I’ve not bought anything from there for years. Their clothing ranges are utterly dire for men these days. They seem to be buying up a lot of failed brands but I’m not sure if it’s out of desperation or if there is a plan.
The other obvious one is M&S, their customer base is slowly diminishing and their clothing business hasn’t made a material profit in years.
John Lewis tends to attract a younger crowd compared to M&S.
The other obvious one is M&S, their customer base is slowly diminishing and their clothing business hasn’t made a material profit in years.
John Lewis tends to attract a younger crowd compared to M&S.
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IIRC John Lewis actually own a lot of the properties they use, or have very good long term leases. For example I think they were one of the original investors/primary leaseholders for the MK Centre.
From what I understand at one point Woolies were in a very good position, they owned something like all but one of their shops outright (it had been their policy), until they were bought out by IIRC an investment group that split Woolies into the retail business, what had been their property management department into a separate property business that charged the retail side top whack and syphoned the money out. Effectively Woolies went from a company that only had maintenance as it's cost for property to one that had to pay a high rent and didn't get the maintenance done.
I imagine they're heavily subsidised by waitrose so I can't see them disappearing. It's similar to M&S, had neither stretched into the food side of retail I imagine they both would have gone years ago.