IT’S a store chain that has gone from the “the wonder of Woolies” to the blunder of Woolies. Few national institutions have hung on as long as the famous high street name of Woolworths, with reports of its demise often premature.
Finally the “permanently closed” sign is about to go up on the doors of the chain, which changed Britain’s shopping habits when its first store opened in Liverpool almost exactly 99 years ago.
But the Liverpool flagship store on Church Street – across the road from the first – was an early victim of a previous crisis and closed in 1983, after 74 years of trading.
That drastic move 25 years ago was prompted in an attempt to raise £90m by selling 25 stores nationally. Seven years later, Woolworths did return to its birthplace with a smaller store in St John’s Centre, but that optimism has not been sustained.
Yet there were wobbles in the empire even earlier, back in the 1970s. I had my first paid job as a Saturday assistant in Woolworths’ Chester store in Eastgate Street, in autumn 1974 – and was laid off early in New Year 1975.
By that stage, Woolies had certainly fallen behind those other stalwarts WH Smith, Boots, British Home Stores and the seemingly untouchable Marks & Spencer.
Unlike rivals, the atmosphere in Woolworths big, rambling store was brash. Woolies was the home of the cheap and cheerful end of the market, with its pop singles and pick ‘n’ mix sweets.
One particular moment sticks in my mind. It was a time of frequent IRA bomb hoaxes during which the mass clearance of the store could become slightly hysterical. As soon as the alarm sounded tills must be closed.
I can vividly remember arguing with a female customer who insisted on trying to pay for a pair of tights as the tills were being cleared. On such threads can your life hang. She didn’t get her tights, but neither were we blown up.
The current crisis is the antithesis of Woolworths rapid establishment in Britain. A huge success in the US, founder Frank Woolworth’s first store was in Utica, New York State, in 1879.
On a fact-finding visit to Britain, he regarded our shops as being in the dark ages. He reported back to his board: “I believe a good penny and sixpence store, run by a live Yankee, would be a sensation here.”
Within 16 years it opened more than 330 high street stores across Britain. A return to such glory days are now unattainable for a company sinking under debt and dented popularity, in the ruthless world of retailing.
