A SIMPLE slogan can stick so easily in the mind, sometimes long after its purpose has disappeared. So it is with the phrase “That’s the wonder of Woolies”.
The real wonder is that Woolworths is still with us, as I can recall obituaries being written 25 years ago for the chain, pointing out how grim its stores appeared compared to more sophisticated rivals such as WH Smith and Boots, which even had carpet in their stores.
A huge success in the US, having been started by Frank Woolworth, in Utica, New York State, in 1879, the founder sailed to Liverpool and opened his first British store just over 99 years ago in Church Street, on November 9, 1909.
In typical tub-thumping American entrepreneurial style, he proclaimed: “I believe that a good penny and sixpence store, run by a live Yankee, would be a sensation here.”
The formula of providing attractive and yet robust goods, at highly competitive prices, ensured it was equally popular with British shoppers.
By the 1920s, it had opened more than 330 high street stores and was soon regarded as a nationwide stalwart.
But that lineage hasn’t protected it from being more deeply credit-crunched than its competitors and the threat to this debt-laden high street institution seems greater than ever.
There is even the possibility that the firm won’t reach its centenary next year.
Unbelievably, the chain is in such a state that it is in talks to sell its 800 outlets for just £1, with its share price plummeting 40% to £2.36.
An approach from Hilco, which rescues ailing businesses (but is nicknamed “the retail undertaker”), raises the possibility that half the shops and staff could be axed to revitalise trading.
Another possibility is that Woolworths will go into administration and remaining stores will be sold off to trade under other names. Other Hilco involvement with famous names included Allders department stores and the MK One fashion retailer chain. Woolworths has already rejected a bid in September from Iceland boss Malcolm Walker.
Yet, in spite of it lagging behind long ago in the carpet department, I have a soft spot for Woolies. I had my first Saturday job there at its large Eastgate Street store in Chester, which paid rather well for the time, in 1974. It also had rather a good staff canteen, I recall.
I experienced clearing a store full of panicked shoppers during the IRA bomb threats of the time.
I also experience my first redundancy when I was laid-off just after New Year in 1975, as the firm trembled in one of its now familiar financial lurches and tried to stabilise itself through staff cuts.
In fact, the store itself only lasted a few years longer and was sold and transformed into a Next, then in its first full trendy rig under Liverpool-born “retail design guru” George Davies.
It was boggling to see the amount of what we call in the newspaper world “white space” (ie, filled with nothing) designed to create such an up-market ambience compared to how Woolies had crammed so much stock in.
Interestingly, the concept didn’t withstand the last recession either.
Big George left and Next underwent a transformation itself into a smaller space with much more stock, but not into pop singles or the pick ‘n’ mix sweets.
In the 1980s, Woolworths was the country’s biggest record retailer. It even had its own Embassy record label and was the first to sell Stevie Wonder singles here.
Will it go the same way as the 30 high street chains which have gone bust this year, including MFI, Dolcis and Rosebys? Such a fate somehow pulls at the heart-strings as another famous name is lost.
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