R.I.P. Woolies

I dont know why Brits could not follow aussie model.. but down here Woolies is the strongest grocer/super market in the land.

How strong do you want them? Between Coles and Woolies they control about 85% of the grocery market in OZ. They have driven down prices fron growers, and tied them up with long term contracts. Many supplers aren’t covering costs, then they go on the shelves for high prices cutting out the middle man. The grower only recieves a tiny percentage of purchase price, something like 3% They are narrowing choice of product, pushing there own generic crap. To put goods on their shelves they require, something like $10,000 plus a big slug of percentage for each line of goods. They have driven out smaller operaters and the prices are still high, all in the name of dividends for shareholders, still the MD only gets millions. You could do without such a model of business there. Look after your independant smaller operators, if you don’t there won’t be a choice.

Well, I got a lot of stuff last Saturday in the 50% off, and then get to the till (On some items) and got another 50% off. I got some toys, a DVD, a bog brush & holder (Don’t ask) for 25% of the marked price. Lots of other stuff was the standard 10/20/30% off as per ticket.

I’ve always liked Woolies and will miss them. (Although I never used the pick and mix because having foodstuffs open to the public is just an invite for nose pickings/dandruff/scabs/general dirt and “Stuff on hands”.

It’s official — it’s over for Woolworths:

Business Week Europe

December 11, 2008, 11:56AM EST text size: TT

Britain’s Woolworth Chain Is Closing Shop

Failing to find a buyer, the iconic retailer will shutter its 815 outlets, some possibly before the end of this month

By Paul Vallely

“The biggest sale ever,” read the huge signs plastered all over the shop windows at Woolworths yesterday. Sadly, there will be an even bigger sale today.

At 4.30pm yesterday, the managers of the chain’s 815 outlets received an email from head office telling them that a buyer had not been found for the great icon of the British high street which went into administration on 26 November with £385m of debt. From today, it told them, they were to launch a closing-down sale.

“Low everyday prices” had just got even lower. Inside the Woolies branch in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, south Manchester, shortly after the news came through, a pimply youth in a red sports shirt—Woolworth’s uniform—began sweeping red boxes from one of the shelves with a cavalier movement of the arm. Customers looked up. The word had spread. Perhaps he was taking it out on the stock.

But no, he was merely clearing the empty boxes from which the 2009 Woolworths diaries had sold out. The future is clearly high on a lot of people’s agendas in Manchester’s trendiest suburb.

“Sorry to hear your news,” said a woman bringing a £12 heavy cotton-lined wicker linen basket to the till. “The staff were just told 10 minutes ago that all hope is gone,” said the young man at the till, with heavy melodrama, demonstrating a sense of irony you might not have anticipated from a shop assistant at Woolies.

Like the rest of the 25,000 staff he had been told by the firm’s administrator, Deloitte, that if no offers for Woolworths were forthcoming, it was “possible that some stores may close before the end of December”. So closure was not yet entirely definite but the closing down sale was.

At the next till, an overweight man was struggling with a vacuum cleaner in a big box. “Can I bring it back, if it’s not the right one?” he asked the young woman at the cash register.

“Certainly, sir, if you keep the receipt,” she replied, though she was probably mentally adding the caveat: “but you’ll have to be bloody quick, mate”.

Some of the customers looked as shocked as the staff. “I’ve come here for the past 20 years,” said Joanna Jones, a 63-year-old in a bobble hat. “I buy bits and pieces—things like tights and kitchenware and birthday cards. I like it because it’s cheaper than other places but there’s a good choice and it’s a good price.”

Bits and pieces is part of Woolworths’ problem, according to the retail analysts. To the shopper, it sells DVDs, stationery, toys, bathroom fittings, towel rails, glasses, pans, children’s clothes, electrical goods and DIY. To an analyst, that looks like a terrible lack of focus in a world of increasing specialisms.

All around the store are shops with a more singular sense of purpose—a Belgian beer and chocolate shop, specialist stationery or—and here’s a rarity—an independent bookshop. Pick ‘n’ mix is out of fashion.

Its customers are loyal. “I’ve been coming here 25 years,” says Joan Fletcher. “The staff are so lovely. I put the Lottery on or buy a tin of paint. I’ve come in the car, so I could have gone somewhere else but I’ve always used Woolies. You just pop in.” But not often enough, it seems. Justin Marks, 38, has come for a present for a child. “I like it here because they have a decent range.

“I come for birthdays and Christmas, once or twice a year. I usually shop at the Trafford centre.”

Casual sales are not enough. And there is a limit to the number of sound-activated self-switching-on electrical plugs the average family needs at £19.99 a throw.

Sentiment is not enough to sustain a retail model, though there is plenty of that about. “I feel gutted,” says Mary Scott, a masseuse in her forties. “It’s one of the worst bits of news of the year. The Government is paying out billions for the banks; why can’t it keep Woolies open? It’s a great shop. I’ve been using Woolies since I was a kid. It’s a real shame to see it go. I’d have used it more. if I’d known it was under threat.” Which is not what the staff, now packing up for the night, want to hear. “I want to support local shops. I know it’s a big chain but it feels like a big corner shop.”

But corner shops stay open late. It is 5.30pm and the manager is bringing in the sandwich board from the roadside as his staff bring the shutters down. “It’s shut,” says a besuited accountant, Henry Fergus, to his twin brother, equally pinstriped. They have walked from their office to get a late birthday card and what Austin Fergus describes as “a DIY item”.

“I suppose I’ll go to Qualitysave,” says Razwanna Ullah, dragging a bewildered small boy behind her. “It’s the end of an era—like C&A,” she adds.

In the toy section, the Woolworth Superstore Set has been reduced from £49.99 to just £19.99. For that, you get an electronic cash register, a conveyor belt and a supermarket trolley. It also comes with a sign saying: “Woolworths sale—half price”. And from today you could pick up the entire shop for that.

Note: another story states that there will be a 50% clearance sale and that the whole chain will close on December 24th.

There are aviation connections to this thread, albeit oblique and remote, but interesting:

F.W. Woolworth had a granddaughter, Barbara Hutton, dubbed “the poor little rich girl” by the press. “Rich” because she inherited $50 million during the Great Depression, about a billion in today’s money. “Poor” because of her morose and very public private life, highlighted by seven marriages and seven divorces. Also, she nearly died giving birth to her only child, son Lance Reventlow, in 1937.

In 1942, she married movie star Cary Grant. Although the marriage soon soured, they remained together in part due to the wartime housing shortage. That may explain why Howard Hughes lived with them during much of the war. They saw little of him because he preferred to work at night and sleep during the day. The couple divorced soon after the war ended. Grant was the only one of her husbands who didn’t take a penny from her. He remained close to Lance.

Lance was involved with racing and sports cars for a while in the fifties and sixties, the Scarabs and Chapparels I believe, before shirting his focus to real estate development. He and five others died in 1972 in the crash of a Cessna 206 while scouting for properties in the Colorado Rockies. The NTSB concluded that the greenhorn pilot at the controls flew into a box canyon and stalled the plane while trying to climb out. Ironically, Reventlow, who was not at the controls, was a pilot with an instrument rating and several thousand hours in his logbook. Grant arranged for a plane to fly Reventlow’s widow and friends to Colorado.

Although they were semi-estranged, Lance’s death devastated his mother, who became reclusive and lived mainly on diet soft drinks. She died in 1978. By then, she had squandered her fortune on jewelry, houses, and husbands, and was living off the sales of her possessions. Accounts differ as to the amount, but she died with something like $1800 to $4000 in the bank.

woolies

thanks for the many replies and background information on the company history.
Woolies use to have a delicattesen department that was very proiftable and for some reason in the eighties the company decided to stop selling food which was clearly an errant decsion, i hope a buyer is found who can ressurect the decline and save some of its personell from the scrapheap.

Interflug62M:

Glad you found it useful.

I’m still positive that we saw a Woolworths store in Majorca Spain in the 70s, do you anything of a Spanish offshoot?

A Google search found a reference to a “short-lived” Spanish subsidiary started in the 1960s. It could have lasted into the 1970s, possibly under different ownership but with the Woolworths name.

I’ll miss you Woolies! Got the Airfix bug from them many years ago….anyone else remember the pale blue “pegboard” display of made up Airfix kits that used to be mounted above the toy area?

Yes, the first Airfix kit was the Spitfire, it arrived in the stock room when I worked there in 1956.
It was my first job and I was paid the princely sum of 4 quid a week.
It was only a month before I moved on, to a string of jobs at around 2 to 2 pounds 10 shillings a week, but I have no regrets!

Some clarification:

The F.W. Woolworth Company — better known as Woolworth or Woolworth’s — was established in the United States in 1878 and later expanded abroad. In 1962, it founded the Woolco chain of discount department stores. Kinney Shoes was purchased in 1963 and that led to the founding of several chains of more specialized footwear stores, notably Foot Locker in 1974.

During the 1980’s, the company’s traditional operations started to suffer from competition from the likes of Wal-Mart and Kmart and the company began shifting its focus to sports and specialized footwear. The Woolco stores in the USA were closed in 1983. About a decade later, the Woolco stores in Canada were variously sold to Wal-Mart or Zellers or were closed. In 1997, the company changed its name to Venator and closed the last of its traditional Woolworth’s and Kinney stores in the USA and Canada. It vacated the landmark Woolworth Building in New York City the next year. The corporate name was changed to the Foot Locker, Inc., in 2001. It remains in business as the operator of specialized stores such as the Foot Locker and Sports Champ.

As for its operations elsewhere, the UK branch was sold in 1982 and the subsidiary in Germany and Austria was sold in 1998. The Mexican subsidiary was sold at some point as well. These continue to operate under the Woolworth name or a variation of it.

The Woolworth companies in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa took their name from the American company, but never had any corporate ties to it.

Thanx for that info, I knew very little of Woolworths history apart from the U.S connection. I’m still positive that we saw a Woolworths store in Majorca Spain in the 70s, do you anything of a Spanish offshoot?

Some clarification:

The F.W. Woolworth Company — better known as Woolworth or Woolworth’s — was established in the United States in 1878 and later expanded abroad. In 1962, it founded the Woolco chain of discount department stores. Kinney Shoes was purchased in 1963 and that led to the founding of several chains of more specialized footwear stores, notably Foot Locker in 1974.

During the 1980’s, the company’s traditional operations started to suffer from competition from the likes of Wal-Mart and Kmart and the company began shifting its focus to sports and specialized footwear. The Woolco stores in the USA were closed in 1983. About a decade later, the Woolco stores in Canada were variously sold to Wal-Mart or Zellers or were closed. In 1997, the company changed its name to Venator and closed the last of its traditional Woolworth’s and Kinney stores in the USA and Canada. It vacated the landmark Woolworth Building in New York City the next year. The corporate name was changed to the Foot Locker, Inc., in 2001. It remains in business as the operator of specialized stores such as the Foot Locker and Sports Champ.

As for its operations elsewhere, the UK branch was sold in 1982 and the subsidiary in Germany and Austria was sold in 1998. The Mexican subsidiary was sold at some point as well. These continue to operate under the Woolworth name or a variation of it.

The Woolworth companies in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa took their name from the American company, but never had any corporate ties to it.

It’s a yank outfit.

IIRC Woolworths in britain was bought out from the yank woolies in about 1984.

I’ll miss you Woolies! Got the Airfix bug from them many years ago….anyone else remember the pale blue “pegboard” display of made up Airfix kits that used to be mounted above the toy area? I always wanted MY BEA Trident and
Vanguard models to look like those….they never did. And I can also remember being taken to our Woolworths to buy the Airfix BOAC 747 kit when it came out, it seemed enormous. Personally I still use our local branch and would like to see the enterprise rescued in some shape or form. Best of luck to the staff whatever the outcome. I’m sure back in the mid 70s that there was a Woolworths in Palma Majorca.

Wilhelm’s “third world” remark is sadly not unfair.

I’m glad you’ve taken it as such. It is always a pity when these things happen.

My wife worked for many years in SW London with a famous retailer with the family name going since the late 1860’s. Since she left about 9 years back now, it has been sold and is out of their hands. But at least it is still operating under its original name…

It will be a great shame to see Woolworths go under – I still do a fair amount of shopping there. But they have definitely failed to keep up with the times and to maintain their image. The Dunstable branch has been the tattiest “large” shop in the town for some time. Wilhelm’s “third world” remark is sadly not unfair.

I dont know why Brits could not follow aussie model.. but down here Woolies is the strongest grocer/super market in the land. In fact government is forcing them to stop expanding so they do not monopolise market.

I think success of Aussie woolies is the decision to focus on Food products.. as their logo here is “the fresh food people”… i mean you can still buy some other crap there like toileteries or hygine products.. but 80% is food.. and great variety of it, from most afordable to very expensive. This way they do not compete with kmart, BigW and Target for other cheap rubbish 🙂

The Woolworths in Australia is not the British Woolworths, but rather the South African Woolworths which was started in Cape Town in 1931. It is owned by Woolworths Holdings Limited, which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the Australian Stock Exchange. They have stores in South Africa, Africa, the Middle East, and Australasia.

It is an upper end retailer, akin to the Marks and Spencers brand from years back. They do not compete with the major cheaper retailers such as Tesco, ASDA or Sainsburies and their South African equivalents such as Pick’nPay or Checkers or Shoprite. The South African Woolworths, as in Australia, would most likely be comparable to Marks and Spencers. They sell better quality and packaged products than the general supermarkets, for a small premium of course.

I was horrified when I, unknowing of the above, went into a Woolworths in England for the first time about 10 years back….. It was like a third-world family-owned corner shop.

Either way, I hope the employees and families do not suffer this Christmas. Unfortunately, the consolidation in the retail sector has been ongoing for quite some time and will not change. It is the nature of the business…

I feel sorry for the 30,000+ people that will be celebrating Christmas wondering if they will have a job at the start of next year, that must be a horrible thing to have to go through…

Interestingly though, not sure if anyone else watched it but on Question Time (BBC1) tonight Justin King, CEO of Sainsbury’s plc, as well as being a competitor Woolworths were in fact a supplier (he didnt specify exactly what products!).

Isn’t it a bit ironic that Woolworths has been forced into administration, ok not in full but partly, by one of its own customers, albeit an internal one?

Also, I wonder how many of the 30,000+ people that do sadly end up loosing their jobs with Woolworths will end up working for the likes of Sainsbury’s, Tesco and other similar companies?

I dont know why Brits could not follow aussie model.. but down here Woolies is the strongest grocer/super market in the land. In fact government is forcing them to stop expanding so they do not monopolise market.

I think success of Aussie woolies is the decision to focus on Food products.. as their logo here is “the fresh food people”… i mean you can still buy some other crap there like toileteries or hygine products.. but 80% is food.. and great variety of it, from most afordable to very expensive. This way they do not compete with kmart, BigW and Target for other cheap rubbish 🙂

I don’t think your Woolworths is the same outfit as ours. I’ve been to Woolworths in NZ and it is a supermarket, with a large emphasis on food but with a small range of other household products.

The Woolworths here doesn’t sell food like our supermarkets so isn’t competing on the same level. The Woolies here just sells….stuff? I’ve not been in it so long I can hardly remember. I think our Woolies is best described as the NZ Warehouse.

I accidently drove past a Woolworths here and was actually shocked that they were still around. This was a few weeks ago before the current situation of course.

I’ll give you three good reasons why that model wouldn’t work in the UK: Tesco, Sainsbury and ASDA.

There simply wouldn’t be room in the market.

Poundland, 99p World etc etc….

True … too much competition 🙂

Not just competition, but very aggressive competition with excellent connections with all of the major UK political parties.

True … too much competition 🙂

I dont know why Brits could not follow aussie model.. but down here Woolies is the strongest grocer/super market in the land.

I’ll give you three good reasons why that model wouldn’t work in the UK: Tesco, Sainsbury and ASDA.

There simply wouldn’t be room in the market.