Wilko may be going bust

[cwhaley]

If they do collapse, I feel for the 12k staff out there.

Wilko is one of the few shops I'll go to and buy things from (because I don't like shopping). Always find bits I need at decent prices, and always seems to have plenty of (admittedly older) customers in.

Wilko homeware chain on brink of collapse

The retailer, which employs 12,000 people, blames mounting cost pressures at its 400 UK stores.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Sad but unsurprising, they seem like something from a bygone era.

Most of their shops are within pedestrianised town centres. I don't go shopping there as I don't want to pay the council £2-odd to park ages away then have a long walk. I can just park outside B&Q, Dunelm or whatever. Perhaps they may charge a little more but it works out cheaper. Town centres need mostly turning into housing, big chain stores were just a blip in history that's no more.

Plus of course the online thing.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

Always bad to see established family owned firms closing.

But think this has been coming for a few years. They reduced staff heavily in store, and sales fell accordingly, to the position where they couldn't afford more staff.

Must be a difficult balance to keep expenses down and maintain enough staff and service levels. But if you run a retail brick and mortar type shop, it depends totally on the staff, service and stock levels for sales and therefore profitability

 

[cwhaley]

Sad but unsurprising, they seem like something from a bygone era.

Most of their shops are within pedestrianised town centres. I don't go shopping there as I don't want to pay the council £2-odd to park ages away then have a long walk. I can just park outside B&Q, Dunelm or whatever. Perhaps they may charge a little more but it works out cheaper. Town centres need mostly turning into housing, big chain stores were just a blip in history that's no more.

Plus of course the online thing.

I think town centres will revert to having large numbers of people living in them (as it was in the 18th Century) rather than rows and rows of shops. I don't see it as a bad thing, I just see it as an evolutionary change. Town centres are already seeing a growth in entertainment/leisure venues and people are moving back ino them.

I like WIlko. It is a bit old-fashioned (like M&S and Boots) but they sell things people need. Got to be a generational/online thing.

 

[Diver Fred]

Sad - but not to surprised. Was in one of their stores last week, mouse traps double the price they were some months ago, very few Twist Bits (drills) on the racks, none of the size I was after.
The centre the store I was in is in a shopping centre which has recently lost other big chain stores, Wilko's in the only store with a big unit in the shopping centre active, the other 2 are now empty and many of the small shops are closing or changing brands almost monthly.
Maybe they should follow people out to the out of town locations.

Notably same town has just changed the way it taxes people for parking in the town from cash machines to needing a smart phone app - there was very few cars parked in town and very few people out and about shopping. The market stall holders were complaining that their trade had dropped; the stall that sells fresh baked goods (bread, cakes) was at 14:30 giving most of his goods away to (obvious) OAP's and charging the rest what he'd paid for the goods. I guess it may revert to more numbers eventually but it can't be helping the towns shopping trade.
Another town under twenty miles away has not increased the car parking charges but has actually has an added uncharged bays which encourages people to visit for short periods (30 or 45 min's). That town centre has lots of interesting shops along with big chains. Bet the trade increases.

 

[Londoner2]

Went into my local a few weeks ago, lack of stock, plenty of spaces on shelves, a few tils only and the whole place looked empty n vast.

 

[JohnD]

They took over the gap left by Woolworths

B&M might be doing better.

 

[motorbiking]

Once these sort of rumours are out, they are basically done for.

Poundland/poundstretcher have punched up in to their space.. They now occupy a very thin market between them and the likes of the Range.

 

[blup]

Not a retail expert but dunelm mill seems to show them all a clean pair of heels in that sector

Blup

 

[Brigadier]

Not a retail expert but dunelm mill seems to show them all a clean pair of heels in that sector

Blup

The Range.

B and M

Home Bargains

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

All of their competitors are mostly in out-of-town shops you can park outside. Wilko are mostly still wasting their time trying to run shops from precincts selling to skint bus-catching doleys on their way to Iceland (another that's surely on borrowed time).

At one time, every high street had a Currys, they cleared off to a metal shed well over a decade ago and are still trading, among many others that saw the way it was going and evolved as necessary.

They've failed to move with the times, so have died as a direct result of poor management.

 

[motorbiking]

The one that bucks the trend is RicherSounds. If I was PM I would pass a law that every town should have a RicherSounds and Amazon would be forced to amend Alexa to reply when instructed to play some music.. "I'm sorry but my ability to play music is likely to be an assault on your ears".

though to be fair, given the price of an Alexa they aren't terrible.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Went into my local a few weeks ago, lack of stock, plenty of spaces on shelves, a few tils only and the whole place looked empty n vast.

I go in the local, very occasionally, for a wine kit. I've had more and more problems recently finding the kit on their shelves - this might explain it. I now need to find out where, Wilko source the kits they sell, moving forward.

 

[Brigadier]

I go in the local, very occasionally, for a wine kit. I've had more and more problems recently finding the kit on their shelves - this might explain it. I now need to find out where, Wilko source the kits they sell, moving forward.

I'll look up some of my old recipes, Harry: no kits needed, and not difficult to turn out a good quantity of decent wines

 

[Dork Lard]

Wilko's own brand of sensitive toothpaste was the only one that worked well for me, dissapeared off the shelf months ago.