Woolies Will Be Missed

Woolworths has closed down in the UK. Our branch closed on January 5th 2009 (I think some closed earlier).

It will be missed by a lot of people, though when I searched on Google to see what others were saying, there was a certain amount of ‘putting the boot in.’

A question that was asked more than once was “when did you last buy anything good from Woolworths, and can you remember what it was?”

Some items weren’t of best quality and you found out what to avoid, but I bet it was a great resource for students and pupils. They could buy budget-price bedding, mugs, sweets, CDs, stationery, stamps and batteries. They could top up PAYG phones. Luggage and storage items were available there, along with newspapers and magazines. We sometimes bought the Radio Times. Some said Woolworths offered a ‘strange mixture’ of products, but I saw nothing strange about it. Lots of shops offer a mixed selection. I mentioned in an earlier post how I went into a PC World store which had stationery, and then went into a Staples store nearby which had computers and software. You wondered which one you were in.

Anyway, since people were wondering what others found of interest there, I’m posting photos of some of the things we bought in the last few months, weeks and days of Woolworths. We bought more than is pictured, but gave things away at Christmas and the New Year. I remember an absorbent blue floor mop; a set of stainless steel storage canisters; a plastic storage basket for bathroom or kitchen; a luxurious faux fur bed throw; a wine opener.

I taught myself (I hope!) how to post smaller photos that you click to enlarge. If I got it wrong and it causes problems, I apologize… tips appreciated!

Our most recent purchases from Woolworths

I persuaded Mum to let me include some of her purchases. She owns the marzipan fruits, stainless steel trivet and storage rack (there are more in the kitchen), one of the packs of pens, the three sharpeners, the three red pens, the three bottles of Coca-Cola (do you think three is her lucky number?) Actually we got six and drank two; the other was in the fridge.

The rest are mine, including:

CDs: Glen Campbell, Chris de Burgh, Elton John (bought for Rocket Man and Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me).

DVDs: Tears of the Sun, Castaway, The Chronicles of Riddick, Pitch Black, The Wizard of Oz, Casino Royale (starring Daniel Craig).

Four posters: Prince Caspian, Tinkerbell, two Golden Compass posters. I looked for Wall-E but he must have been sold out by then.

The two Toblerones were a random gift from a neighbour.

The last few laundry hampers were pink… which suited me fine! I could imagine the last person buying a blue hamper thinking ‘ha ha, I got the blue!’ but they’re welcome to it. Though if they put it in a charity shop, I would probably snabble it.

Mum also bought some shop fittings to use as cat-dish stands.

Shop fittings from Woolies

For stationery junkies, I’m including a closer view of the notebooks, notepads, pens, blue sharpener (the other two were hiding) and two ‘flexible’ rulers! I was trying not to get the notebooks or the Signo gel pens, but in the end I couldn’t help myself. The big patterned notebooks will probably be personal journals. The littlest pad with the sticker across the front was the last one in the store. It was lying in a box of assorted things for clearance, and I felt sorry for it…

My Woolies stationery

Something spooky happened… note that our branch of Woolworths closed on Jan 5th. At home I have an electronic singing bird which twitters Christmas carols (such as ‘Jingle tweet, jingle tweet, jingle all the…’ or ‘God wish you merry gentletweet’). It had been chirping right up to the 4th or 5th. Then I took it down on Jan 6th and tried to get one last song out of it before we put it away, and it was silent. The batteries were dead. It didn’t seem a good idea leaving it with batteries which might leak during the year, so I opened up the battery case and found….

You’ve guessed it. Woolworth batteries.

Loss of Consumer Confidence

Noticed a newspaper column claiming the company I had issues with (see this earlier post) has reported a loss.

Hmm. I mean, when losses are reported these days, the assumption tends to be that people have tightened their purse strings and aren’t buying anything anywhere. But I wonder how many of these companies are reporting losses because their staff are treating the customers shabbily?

There was a second issue I raised in my email to that company: the product description on their site was so inaccurate that I actually wondered if I would be receiving what I thought I was buying. They’d given the name of the model I was looking for, but the picture was of a similar but different model, and the information was wrong for both the model in the picture and the model in the title.

Perhaps that’s why they were so peeved. “Here’s this woman daring to tell us we got our stuff wrong. What a cheek.”

I read around last night to see what other people had to say about that company, and a frightening number of them said they didn’t receive the item they ordered. They also said that the staff knew nothing about their products; if you asked them questions, they were stumped or gave you wrong information… or simply tried to interest you in something they were aiming to clear off the shelves. Some of the staff were rude (probably unhappy; doing jobs they weren’t really fitted or trained for). I’m sure it depends a lot on the individual staff members, but it’s largely the same issue I had with that company… rude, dismissive staff and a lack of knowledge about what they were selling.

I was still brooding about it the other day, and said to Mum, “I think companies are afraid to admit if there’s something wrong — they don’t realize that often we’re looking for reassurance (which means proof that they heard what we were saying). I was hoping they would give me a reason to go ahead and make the purchase. I can’t imagine a staff member in a shop (as opposed to a website) waving casually and saying, “if you want to know more, go over there and read the blurb.”
Mum (shaking her head sadly): “That was bad. May get the sack for that.”

According to some of the other reviewers, though, they have been treated like that in the stores. It’s no wonder this company is reporting a loss. It can’t all be down to customers tightening belts!