Woolworths

How many people on here like me can remember going to wooly's as a child struggling to see over the counters to look at the 6d tin cars and all the other treasures that were stocked. Going to the caffeteria for that cake and  glassof orange from the machine with that  paddle that went round, going on the big weighing machine which used to produce a ticket with your weight. Wooly's has got to be one of the most iconic stores of our times together with Curry's, Halfords and many others. The news here day after day is busineses struggling, laying off people and others closing. The banks are very retisent to lend money out to any businesses who need an injection  to tide them over. Why is it I wonder that our Goverment seems quite happy to lend our banks billions, to sort out the mess they got themselves into and yet not lift a finger to help the backbone of our country i.e industry and shops.

When we first moved to Spain my wife always used to say " i really miss Woolies for the kids school things etc....."

I guess there will be many more saying this now, i am sorry to say the country started wilting a long time ago,it now seems like the institutions like this are on there way out as well.....

Its a bit pointless lowering vat if they won't rescue the people who are supposed to be reducing it,MFI going, B&Q in trouble,what next....

Woolies has suffered badly due to the changing pattern of shopping, they are located on major high streets and suffer the following.

Streets full of chavs, big issue sales people, beggars, drug addicts and every other type of low life that you can imagine,, be they black, brown or white.

Expensive car parking and pubic transport.

Most of the nice shops of yester year are now mobile phone shops, fast food outlets, pound shops, banks etc, etc. Most folk that I know park in John Lewis, walk to Marks and Spencer and then finish off their trip with a stroll around John Lewis and a coffee, they then get back in their car and drive home.

On the other hand the major suburban supermarkets can now provide for most of our needs, and you can park on their doorstep, also on line shopping is here to stay. 

Quite interestingly, a couple of weeks ago it was reported that Sir Alan Sugar had increased his holding in Woolies, I bet whoever gave him that tip has now heard the words 'YOUR FIRED'.

Anyone else remember the warm salted peanuts sold by the quarter??  Much nicer that those nasty dry roasted things.

I heard that Woolies don't even own many of their buildings now and most of their assests are just the stock.  Shame as they have prime high street locations. Always been the place to look if can't find it anywhere else but really suffered at the increase in pound-shops - and their awful staff (in my area anyway!).

Yes, I think they unfortunately sold all their shops off to some real estate company and then rented them back on 25 year leases with a MINIMUM rental increase of 2.5% p.a.  What a dam fool think to do ...  Doh!

 
Ah, the wonder of Woolies. When my Mum died I found a green glass 'pendant' I had bought her when I  was about 9 or 10 from Woolies.  At 15 I  had a Saturday job there and earned 10/6d for the day. I was on the haberdashery counter most of the time, this was when the boys all wore paper collars so I loved it,  but if I got put on the small veg counter I didn't have a clue how the big scales worked so goodness knows how much I lost them......happy days, can still smell the place.

Poppyseed,

That was my first Saturday job too. One and sixpence three farthings per hour!! Farthings were no longer legal tender but obviously Woolworths thought they were worth keeping in order to calculate the wages bill. 

The store was in the transition period between counter service and self service. Each day, when we went into work , we found that night staff had altered another section of the store and so we never knew where anything was or the price of it IF we found it. It was chaos!

The amount of blatant shoplifting was amazing too. Because it was a new concept , and because there were no assistants around, people were just walking off with stuff!

The confectionary counter was one of the last to be changed over, probably because all the sweets were weighed out. If it had remained it would have been my preferred counter!  I remember the young woman who worked on it wore a pink nylon overall, had fluffy blonde hair. She wore pretty make-up but with a little too much  'ice pink' lipstick. She reminded me of a marsh mallow, but I was so in awe of her!!

I worked there for about six weeks in the summer holidays, but left when  I  got a job in the restaurant of the local hostelry where the hourly rate was a massive half a crown per hour, PLUS a share of the tips!!   

Oh yes!! The Woolies warm salted peanuts, where the grease soaked through the bag. I think the electric bulb suspended above, that was always alight, kept them warm.

No other peanuts have ever tasted as scrumptious as those from Woolies!!

Everthing in my day was 3d. or 6d. To buy my toy pirate sword, it took 3d. for the scabbard and 6d. for the sword.

Must stop reminiscing. How different the world is today.