All Of The 400 Wilko Shops To Close.

[nicebloke1]

So whats happened is the question? Is it because there are so many other shops selling the same goods like B&M, Pound shops, and the like of. Did Covid drag it down to no return, online sales drag it down. There could be many reasons that you could turn too.
The one that I seem to favor is maybe very bad management at a high level, and shop level. Why do I come to this conclusion? Well to have 400 shops for a start, and being in almost every town, or nearby, its hard to understand how they can fail, not to mention their buying power, and what I would think a massive turnover.
The other reason being their pricing policy, I went in many Wilkos and found them to be very expensive for basic every day items, cleaning products, personal health products etc, it was almost as if they had lost touch with prices elsewhere.
The other thing I noticed, that's been going on for many a year, is the sheer neglect of their house plants that they have always sold.
They would one week have a whole boat load of fresh plants delivered to the store, maybe up to a 100 or so, within a week or two these plants would be let to wither away for the sake of a drop of water, water that would keep them looking fresh and tempting to by, but know, dry as a bone and dead, whats the shop manager doing to let this happen? and the given excuse to head office for the loss of such plants, that had a retail value of £5 /£10 on sale now (dead) no chance of revival, 50p

You may think that this loss for a big company is a drop in the ocean, but when you multiply the loss over 400 shops its not., and if you have neglect in this area you can bet your bottom dollar the waste does not stop there.
It could be that they get so big that they just don't have the manpower to cope, its not to long ago that they opened a new one near me, massive shop, and why on earth do they install 20 plus checkouts when they know full well they are never going to staff them all. They must have known some time back that the company was struggling when they went forward with the opening of this store, and no doubt others. It could however be that there's been so much junk sold now that people have had there fill, because a lot of the house wear Wilko sold was of very poor quality in my view. Cheaper house wear products tend to attract young couples, first time house buyers, and that market is not great. So do you have a view of the above?

[Hymie]

evadora - The link below shows what you should get if your firm goes bust, and does not pay redundancy.

Pension contributions (and those paid in by your employer) should be ring-fenced, unless Robert Maxwell is running the pension scheme.

https://www.gov.uk/your-rights-if-your-employer-is-insolvent/what-you-can-get

[Lie-in King]

I've never seen a Wilko store, let alone been in one.

[bobbinwales]

Not even under ther old name of Wilkinsons lie in King?

[Buenchico]

^^^ Lie-in King only sees the Harrod's vans turning up outside his house :-)

[pastafreak]

I don't drive, and walking from the city centre to Dunelm and the Range is not something I'd do anymore. People like myself *need* city centre shops.
I've just recently ordered a few things from Dunelm...I had to trust what I saw on their website.
We have a B and M not far from the wilko site, so I doubt ours is one of the shops they are taking on.

[Lie-in King]

bobb - that doesn't ring a bell, no.
Buen - ha! :-)

[Maydup]

Locally the successful stores are not actually on the High Street but out of town. Wilko cannot survive where Debenhams, BHS and the like have failed already. While B&M stores, Home Bargains, The Range and Dunhelm etc have a relaxed feel, with parking and reduced overheads.

I shop online sometimes but I also shop locally in either the small town, markets, or out of town. However I never go to the large city and have no reason to.

[Peter Pedant]

por-kwar someone has asked

the family owned business made some really bad ( family) decisions ten or twenty years ago, and paid the price

like COles cranes ( biggest in Europe etc) did not embrace hydraulic crane technology ( honestly I am wasted on AB ) and went under

or ROlls Royce

[DTCwordfan]

They are to be re-branded to 'Will Go' or even 'Have Gone'....

[catswhiskas]

https://www.facebook.com/100068115074955/posts/pfbid02xtaF4eNioif1RbfKxrKvvQ9chp4nZDFNK4AToJv3YCUWb1fh8DRuubYSDoDD6cxxl/

[nicebloke1]

Reading the different posts it is looking like Wilko have been stuck in a rut, so all in all not so good planning, if any at all, from the top managers. I think many of these companies get so big that they lose sight of the basics of good business sense. The problem being when turnover and profits start to fall, they think they can fix the problem by buying even cheaper products with even a higher mark up. The latter can lead to an even worse situation. Most people know by now that, buy cheap, you end up buying twice. The other big advantage also that the other stores have like Wilko is they sell food products and the latter is always a good back up when other goods are not selling as well. Wilko missed that trick for sure.

[roadman]

why did woolworths shut down why do any of them sign of the times

[nicebloke1]

I dont really put it all down to that roadman. A lot of these managers are not picked for there business experience in a particular sort of bussiness. A bit like NHS managers. Its not what you know, its who you know to get a top job. That system will fail sooner or later.

[roadman]

i dont see how poor management is to blame when stock is on the shelves and there are people manning the tills they just arent making enough money that is what it comes down to

[DTCwordfan]

they are a proud people and will make their own decisions on who to invite. Given the current relations with Algeria, I'm not surprised - they were/are nearly at war with them over the sand war and then Morocco extnding diplomatic relations with Jerusalem......

[DTCwordfan]

wrong thread.....oops.

[nicebloke1]

Well I will leave you with this thought. When customers stop coming through the doors, you go out the door. There is always a reason why they stop coming, if like you say, the goods are there and the staff. Its down to managers to solve the problem, not let it fester.

[roadman]

unfortunately wilko is one of those stores that sells stuff you can get at the supermarket and the high street is still dying despite efforts so people dont shop about as they used to they just go to one store to save time and effort so instead of people popping to town and going to 5 different stores and wilko being one of them now they just go to the supermarket or just get stuff online i think

the managers cant fix that big problem

[DTCwordfan]

I've always found the stores to be sterile in atmosphere and the staff a bit ambivalent as to any cust. service - I'm talking about their Truro branch and maybe this is, or not, a reflection of their other stores.

[bazwillrun]

Its not just online killing the high streets, its greedy councils and their parking charges that kill a lot of businesses, its a double whammy.
Most if not all Wilkos are very big pemises, and theres very, very few retailers that now need such big properties, hardly any.
These big chain stores are a thing of the past...