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Save woolworths - sign now

...saving 30,000 jobs and the 700 high street stores that have been serving the public for 99 years. The rescued People's Woolies will be a bulwark against the worst effects of the recession, employing local people, buying from local producers, easily reached by public transport, and providing the goods and services that people on low incomes need. We ask the government to do this as a matter of urgency, before Woolworths assets are stripped without any public benefit.

I'm as sad as the next person to see Woolworths go, it's the largest store in the high street of the small market town I currently live in, but is Galloway's "People's Woolies" realistic ? Surely every retailer in Britain has cast their eye over the business and decided it simply wasn't going to turn a decent profit ? :hrmph:
 
Save Woolies? Why?

It's crap - as one of the signatories says, "Woolies is closing because NO ONE SHOPS THERE!"

It's been going steadily downhill for about twenty years. I can't remember the last time I went in a Woolies and actually *bought* something instead of walking out empty-handed because they didn't have anything I wanted. By about 1990 it had become a place to wander into only if it was raining and you'd just missed a bus at a stop where there wasn't a bus shelter.

And a petition created by George Galloway MP, with a pie-in-the-sky idea of creating a "People's Woolies" for those on low incomes, blah, blah, looks to me like just an opportunist move to shove his rapidly fading name in front of the public. Hasn't he heard of Poundstretcher, or the Pound Shop, or whatever it's called in your local High Street, just as accessible as Woolies?

Stuff Woolies, I say - though I have no doubt that umpteen people of the type who "read"(?) The Sun instead of putting it to its intended purpose, cleaning your backside when you forgot to buy enough loo roll, will sign it.
 
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If Woolies was realistically saveable, one of the many retail experts who looked at it would have taken the plunge.

I'm sorry to see it go, but tbh there's nothing in there that can't be bought elsewhere, and the stuff it used to be really good for (music, DVDs etc) it's was crap for recently.

Aside from which, if the retail experts can't save it, I doubt the government could. So we would end up will a loss-making business being paid for by the tax payers ad infinitum.

No signature from me
 
I certainly won't sign. They moved out of Lancaster when they got a very generous price so the council could develop the site into a brand new precinct. It took them twenty years to come back when they took over the Co-op building.
Woolies? No thanks!
 
Everything Woolies did, either Amazon or Tesco's (or any other big supermarket) did better, and there wasn't room for them any more.
 
Too late to sa ve Woolworths.

Sorry, it's much too late to save Woolworths now; if we had known about their predicament a year ago, there would have been a slim chance of saving them.

Our local Weston-super-Mare Woolworths has already closed down.
 
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l Woolworths opened in our Town about 1946 the sign above the store stated it was a 3p and 6p store and it sold everything you can think of Food Furnishings Paint Electrical items .It did a roaring trade then Now it sells things that other stores sell a lot cheaper. In our Town now we have three Pound stores and they are the shops that are always packed with shoppers all year round . I buy my filter coffee in one , 500gm pack for £1 in Tesco`s the same pack is £2.67p .
 
In our Town now we have three Pound stores and they are the shops that are always packed with shoppers all year round

Yes, and that's where George Cloud Nine Galloway's "People's Woolies" idea falls flat on its face, isn't it?
He talks of "buying from local producers" and of "providing the goods and services that people on low incomes need". Anything that comes from local producers will not be cheap compared to the Pound Shops, because they will not be able to knock it out at the same low price as the imported stuff, and people on low incomes, while they might care just as much as those better off about dodgy overseas working conditions and ethics generally, simply cannot afford to be fussy - if you only have £2 in your pocket, the Pound Shop has something you need two of at £1 each, and the People's Woolies has what is, to the end user, the same thing at £1.99 each, you have to shrug your shoulders and use the Pound Shop, don't you?

I usually use either Kensal Rise or Queens Park for the train from here - but if I'm going to Willesden Green instead, I always stop and see if the charity shop have anything I want at a good price. That's where people shop when cash is tight, the Pound shops and the charity shops, not some ethically-minded but comparatively expensive "support the local economy" shop.
 
Agree with all the others above, I'm sorry to see them go - especially for all the staff, but their brand has been tarnished for awhile, stock was often overpriced and there was rarely any reason to buy anything in there anymore. They no longer had a niche. I stopped going inside their stores some years back.

This does have an upside though, High Streets face stiff competition from the big supermarket chains and the remaining shops may see a natural balancing of trade improvement as a result of Woolies departure.
 
This does have an upside though, High Streets face stiff competition from the big supermarket chains and the remaining shops may see a natural balancing of trade improvement as a result of Woolies departure.

This recession is the best thing to happen to Tesco et al in years and probably the worst thing to happen to the high street.
 
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I agree.

Firstly, pound shops and charity shops excepted, independent High Street shops cannot compete with the supermarkets on price, largely because the supermarkets get a far larger discount from the wholesalers, as is normal when buying in bulk. The corner shop where I used to live did a roaring trade, because the owner had sussed out his customers and his philosophy was "keep the bread and milk cheap even if you're only breaking even on it, and customers will come in, picking up other things while they're there for convenience without worrying about the price difference", but what he had to pay for things from the wholesaler was far more than what the supermarkets paid.
So much so that if, say, he was running low on spuds in late afternoon, the greengrocer's delivery not being until the next morning, he would happily just jump in the van and go round to Tesco's to buy a load more - their retail price was no more than the wholesale greengrocer's price. It also meant, of course, that regulars knew that if they called in on their way home from work, the corner shop would have their normal range in stock, no "Sorry, we're out of them until tomorrow", so the regulars didn't have to worry and, to save lugging things round on the bus and tube, would leave it until they'd got off the bus on the last leg home - a customer who gets what they want will come back again.

Secondly, a lot of people do their "big" shop at the supermarket, but visit the High Street for the odd specialist bits and pieces that the supermarket doesn't sell, and/or for various "nice" but not "essential" services. While they are there, they are quite likely to spend a few pounds in shops that they didn't specifically go there for.

When money is tight, the shopkeeper who cannot compete with the supermarket on price loses out, because customers think "Do I really need that right now or shall I wait until I go to the supermarket, where it's cheaper", the ladies in the family think twice about how often they have their hair done in that nice friendly salon in the High Street, so don't go there as often, etc., etc.

Result? You can see it in many towns already where the loss of a major industry which the whole economy of the town depended has resulted in massive unemployment - boarded up shops, a bleak and almost empty High Street, and the only things doing a good trade are the giant supermarket out on the ring-road and the bus that takes people there.
 
Tesco's et al, are actually CHEAPER than the wholesaler for many products; one of the reasons we only go once a month instead of the once a week we used to 5 - 10 years ago.

Woolies big problem was that it went from selling cheap, well made, basic items of clothing, toys etc, to selling expensive, badly made tat.

Other than keeping warm/dry, the ONLY reason for going in to Woolies was the pick-N-mix.
 
I agree.

Firstly, pound shops and charity shops excepted, independent High Street shops cannot compete with the supermarkets on price, largely because the supermarkets get a far larger discount from the wholesalers, as is normal when buying in bulk. The corner shop where I used to live did a roaring trade, because the owner had sussed out his customers and his philosophy was "keep the bread and milk cheap even if you're only breaking even on it, and customers will come in, picking up other things while they're there for convenience without worrying about the price difference", but what he had to pay for things from the wholesaler was far more than what the supermarkets paid.
So much so that if, say, he was running low on spuds in late afternoon, the greengrocer's delivery not being until the next morning, he would happily just jump in the van and go round to Tesco's to buy a load more - their retail price was no more than the wholesale greengrocer's price. It also meant, of course, that regulars knew that if they called in on their way home from work, the corner shop would have their normal range in stock, no "Sorry, we're out of them until tomorrow", so the regulars didn't have to worry and, to save lugging things round on the bus and tube, would leave it until they'd got off the bus on the last leg home - a customer who gets what they want will come back again.

Secondly, a lot of people do their "big" shop at the supermarket, but visit the High Street for the odd specialist bits and pieces that the supermarket doesn't sell, and/or for various "nice" but not "essential" services. While they are there, they are quite likely to spend a few pounds in shops that they didn't specifically go there for.

When money is tight, the shopkeeper who cannot compete with the supermarket on price loses out, because customers think "Do I really need that right now or shall I wait until I go to the supermarket, where it's cheaper", the ladies in the family think twice about how often they have their hair done in that nice friendly salon in the High Street, so don't go there as often, etc., etc.

Result? You can see it in many towns already where the loss of a major industry which the whole economy of the town depended has resulted in massive unemployment - boarded up shops, a bleak and almost empty High Street, and the only things doing a good trade are the giant supermarket out on the ring-road and the bus that takes people there.

:-) Thats pretty much what I was thinking when I wrote that one line, but couldn't be arsed to actually type. Thanks!!
 
:D You're welcome - I needed a break from sorting out a tangle of divorces and people who used one name in official records but a different one in announcements in The Times etc. in one branch of the family history that I'm currently typing up anyway! ;)
 
whew... that's a mouthful sentup.custard. but like akbray, i agree too.
 
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