The Wonder of Woolies (was that it survived so long.)

99 beloved years on our unrelenting shopping streets and now Woolworths has become the latest victim of the all-slaying, no-prisoner-taking Credit Crunch. The collapse of Woolworths has proven to be one of the largest Retail failures of this year, symbolic of the current High Street woes.

In 2006, Woolworths reported widening losses and sliding sales, blaming a ‘tough market’ for its problems. Like-for-like sales,which ignore the effect of new stores, fell 8.3% in the beginning half of that year, with losses widening to £64.9m from £20m the year previous.

Indeed a tough market. We jaded, indolent consumers are allured by malls and supermarkets like Woolworths which condense a substantial mass of manufactured goodies all under one roof. However, despite selling everything from entertainment, to confectionery to clothes, Woolworths lacked identity and lost focus.

Retail giants such as Tesco and Morrisons were continuously able to inject fairly updated novelty into their branding by producing more credible, lower priced merchandised ranges, not to mention hiring a plethora of celebrity representatives. In our fame-thirsty society, Tesco had employed Spice Girls to sell their 2007 Christmas range. And Woolworths? Emblazoned with a colossal, blood-red ‘W’ on their virile chests, Woolies’ new-fangled spokes‘people’ came in the form of… a puppet dog and sheep.

As for entertainment, enter internet-shopping phenomenon epitomised by none other than Amazon.com. Nothing more proverbial needs to be said.

Competition aside, Woolies sequentially held the World Cup and even the scorching heat wave of 2006 summer accountable for slow sales. Two years later, the Cup’s been lifted, the Sun has vanished into this wintry torment and Woolies is yet to be resuscitated.

Okay, enough, it’s time Woolies takes responsibility. Yes, you’re reading correctly, for once I’m defending the credit crunch! Our dwindling economy didn’t trigger Woolworths’ agonising demise, Woolworths did.

I do realise I may be offending an erupting throng of Woolies legions. Such as BBC viewers Pete from Bracknell who was saddened by its closure because he ‘grew up with it’ and Natasha from London whose fondest memory is being taken every week for pick ‘n’ mix as a child. We all find little resistance in embracing earnestly the warm feelings of nostalgia and comforting reminiscence Woolworths humbly evokes. Unfortunately, this doesn’t outweigh their failure to deliver a product range that was adequately distinguished or better quality than their competitors.

I feel it’s my duty to bestow the appraisal they rightly deserve, and on behalf of student bargain-hunters and sweet-toothed school truants, we indeed salute you Woolworths. It’s the end of an era for this iconic chain. But, as embodied by London Metropolitan University Retail Lecturer Jeremy Baker’s standpoint, ‘you feel a loser going into Woolworths’, and right now this isn’t the way to stimulate our troubled consumer expenditure.

Comments

[mandy]

have a bit of respect for woolies, i for one will miss it a great deal ,as my daughter is big for her age and i could always rely on woolies ladybird clothes to fit her and now it looks like adams is going the ame way, soon my little girl will be walking around in rags!

[Tina]

Hearing about the downfall of Woolworths was intially disheartening, especially because I am one of those people who reminisce about the good old days of Pick 'n' Mix, but in retrospect they really don't have anyone to blame but themselves. If the puppets weren't a giveaway then what was? Yes, they had a legion of loyal customers but that really wasn't sufficient enough to encourage any growth in their brand or production of low-price-high-value merchandise. So I totally agree GAAPweb... and those throngs of Woolies fans? They didn't seem too sad about it during the fire sale!

[Dale]

Oh how I admire the fearlessness of this author... it's about time people stopped boo-hooing about the end of this store. Granted, I'm originally from South Africa so I never really understood the hype surrounding Woolworths and never will. Either way it was nothing but a waste of space and I found better quality goods, not to mention more helpful customer Services assistance at Asda.
This blog gets my kudos.

[Panda]

Woolies did lose heart, there really seemed no effort in improving it or making it better or finding ways to promte it, its hard to blame them though, and its just the beginning, Dixons Group (currys pc world etc...) are reporting a massive loss and will probably have to close their stores too, people can find everything online and cut out the middle man too!
Very well written article.