Woolworths in administration

[damian_steele]

But what about the important ones?


Poor old Wuh and Wooly!

[rokins_toys]

Although sad to hear about such a long standing store hitting such hard times, I doubt they will close down. As mentioned, there will be other people interested in buying Woolworths out, maybe keep the name too as it is such a well known and respected name.

However, Woolworths could use an overhaul to some degree. Current owners have got somewhat sloppy in the day to day running and have made mistakes. They withdrew the sale of CD singles, ok, fair enough, due to the internet and downloading which saw CD single sales go down, but not everyone in the country owns an MP3 player, laptop, desktop PC or a mobile phone capable of storing songs, so there are still CD single buyers out there. When you consider how many Woolworths were selling, add that up over ALL their stores, that's a lot of profit they've done themselves out of.

I have a Woolworths store by me. It's quite a big store, maybe half the size of the Sainsbury's that's just a minute down the road, and if a lot of their stores are the medium sized ones like that, they cost a fortune to run and stock. Probably £60k per year per store before you've even opened the door, not inlcuding stock either!

But I find my local woolworths store didn't have much stock, what was on the shelves was basically all they had in stock, so for toys, people were haivng to shop elsewhere. Every time I went in, the toy shelves were always almost half empty because they just don't have the storage capacity at this particular store, so have to rely on deliveries every other day to keep the shelves stocked. So if this is the same story for a lot of stores, then they've lost a lot of profit from not having stuff in stock.

Throw in the current financial issues, consumer spending down on top, it's bound to create problems. Woolworths debt is in real terms, not much compared to the billions the banks have had to have to bail them out.

Luckily for me, I'm looking to opening up a shop on my local high street which is where the Woolworths is that I'm talking about, bit to big for me, unless I go into the distribution side of toys as well, but can't quite afford that, and in the time scale we're talking, I wouldn't be able to get any financial backers in time anyway to take that Woolworths store over and turn it into Darth Reapers Realm retail and distribution, because before I can do that, no doubt, Woolworths will be taken over and the store will remain as it is in a popular spot.

This goes for a lot of types of businesses, while times were good, they spent, spent, spent, just like the government has done, and now we're hit with hard times, brought on by bank recklessness, no one has the money saved to see them through the bad times - bad financial management by all involved.

The thing I also find with Woolworths now, they stock a lot of stuff that is slow moving that sits on their shelves for Force knows how long. They've invested in certain types of stock that are only available from selected places, including online, we've seen all the adverts on TV for all these different kids of devices, they tell you they're available from Woolworths and other places, but most will pick them up online direct from whoever the company is, can't think of them. But they do kitchen devices, oven mitts things and all other crazy stuff, that although good, most are buying them online rather than going to places like Woolworths to buy them.

It's hard to run a store the size of Woolworths, especially when you have so many of them being medium to large, it takes a lot to fill them with stock and have an appropriate number of staff too. So I'm not surprised they've got into trouble. During this current financial issue, there will be victims, first it was banks, now it's spreading to other sectors.

I doubt Wal*Mart would buy out Woolworths, they already have ASDA, but I wouldn't be surprised if another popular chain in America or even Europe buys them out. In theory, Woolworths is a good place, as long as it is stocked well and run properly, like not filling the shelves with stuff that takes months to sell! Woolworths made the mistake of not following in HMV's footsteps and setting up stations for people to download music! So that has had to hit their profits hard over the past few years. DVD sales aren't exactly brilliant either, and charging £15-£20 for a new release is a bit expensive when they could easily sell a lot more by knocking them out for under £10. Ok, the profit margin is shrunk, but at least it provides more regular sales to keep things ticking over.

And the one reason I'm looking to open a shop on the same high street is because I know how poorly stocked my local Woolworths is for Toys like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Dr Who, Bratz, Barbie etc and they do not even sell Stargate action figures. ANd my nearest competition besides Woolworths is Solihul and Birmingham city centre, which not everyone wants to go to these places to shop. Collectors of Star Wars are buying less from Woolworths because of the security tags stuck on the back, as a collector, it devalues the figure's card, and damages it if you were to remove it. And collectors of Star Wars are also shopping less online with Toys R Us because 90% of the time, their items arrive poor condition or with minor damage because of lack of due care in protecting things appropriately for transit, so collectors are turning to shops like mine now.

The biggest problem, which is Woolworth's own fault, is them expanding into doing a full catalog online, doing garden furniture, household furniture etc, that was a bad investment by woolworths when there are so many others doing it, who are well established now, Woolworths has not been able to compete with Argos, Tesco etc who have been doing it longer than Woolworths have, so that was a bad investment, and most of their debt will have most likely come from investing in that and buying the stock for it. Because less face it, I looked for some shelves, Woolworths, Argos, Tesco, Homebase, B&Q, all had them, and they were priced the same in all of them, but because Woolworths didn't have sometihng else I was looking for, and Argos did, I got both items from Argos! Woolworths should never have invested in doing cookers, washing machines, TV Sets, household and garden furniture - they would have saved a fortune if they hadn't, and I think ultimately, it's this that has backfired on them combined with the current financial climate and slow down in consumer spending.

[ElegantScraps]

Their website is now down to bare minimum too! Only CDs, DVDs, books, video games and mobiles. Darn...had my eye on a toy for my daughter too, just yesterday...waited too long!

[kengillam]

I went into my local Woolworths today before I heard this, wanted the latest Mama Mia DVD, they had dozens on the shelf, took the box to the checkout for them to pull up the actual disk to put in the box, Sorry sir we've sold out. Then how come they have dozens of empty boxes on the shelf then, what happened to the contents. If that is the wayy they run the business it's hardly suprising they have problems.

I agree the diagonal aisles are stupid, I don't want to go on a maze when shopping, also they seem to stock anm awful lot of junk that you can buy in Poundland and discount style shops if you know what i mean.

[LunabuAllsorts]

I'm sorry to see Woollies go
We don't have them in Ireland, but I I knew them when I grew up in Germany and when I lived in London. Always go to them when I'm in the UK for CDs and stuff and have a look around.
Hope someone buys them out and doesn't let the name go down the drain.

[playtowin]

I went into my local Woolworths today before I heard this, wanted the latest Mama Mia DVD, they had dozens on the shelf, took the box to the checkout for them to pull up the actual disk to put in the box, Sorry sir we've sold out. Then how come they have dozens of empty boxes on the shelf then, what happened to the contents. If that is the wayy they run the business it's hardly suprising they have problems.

I agree the diagonal aisles are stupid, I don't want to go on a maze when shopping, also they seem to stock anm awful lot of junk that you can buy in Poundland and discount style shops if you know what i mean.

if you havent got the mama mia dvd yet- check asda- £7.00

[damian_steele]

Hope someone buys them out and doesn't let the name go down the drain.

According to the BBC, buyout plans failed about six hours ago.

[littleburpy]

I am sure I heard a long while ago that Kingfisher bought Woolworths, and it was agreed that they kept the name!...

[playtowin]

I am sure I heard a long while ago that Kingfisher bought Woolworths, and it was agreed that they kept the name!...

kingfisher group also have b&q - not sure if its still the same but a few years ago the gift/shopping vouchers bought in woolworths could also be used in b&q a sthey were all kingfisher

[damian_steele]

I am sure I heard a long while ago that Kingfisher bought Woolworths, and it was agreed that they kept the name!...

Kingfisher group demerged with Woolworths Group PLC back in 2001.