Woolworths set for High St come back?

An interesting article date November 2008

"When Woolworths first flung open its doors in New York in 1879, it was the Victorian equivalent of the £1 shop, selling everything from stationery to dish cloths for just five cents"

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/nov/19/woolworths-retail-department-stores

Did they ever try to repackage themselves back then because all I remember (as said already) is the places looked tired.

I don't think they did.

Woolworths are still in business in other parts of the world, they are big in Australia,they own Hotels, filling stations etc.

They failed because they tried going up market.

Me and my mom used to go there for their cafe on Saturday morning when we went in to town and when I was walking through the store I always used to ask myself what was the real point of the place. To me it seemed to just sell a load of tat sort of like the owner got his hands on a load of stuff and he just tried to flog it in one shop.

That being said I was young and when they closed I wasn't that old either so a lot of the stuff they sold probably seemed pointless to a 10 year old me but useful to the normal 'grown up'

I was interested in the Pokemon cards they sold at the counter though

Woolworths are still in business in other parts of the world, they are big in Australia,they own Hotels, filling stations etc.

That's true but the Australian Woolworths Limited who own the national chain of supermarkets and Big W department stores are not connected at all to the UK/US F H Woolworths company.

They are a totally different company and different operation. It seems that the Woolworths we know never registered their trading name in Australia decades ago and so someone else took it.

Similarly the South Africa named Woolworth stores (which are actually more like an M&S) and petrol stations are the same thing. A totally separate company who just stole the name because of a legal loophole.

Really, these companies that remain around the world are not proper Woolworths and are totally different to the failed model we had over here.

An interesting article date November 2008

 

"When Woolworths first flung open its doors in New York in 1879, it was the Victorian equivalent of the £1 shop, selling everything from stationery to dish cloths for just five cents"

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/nov/19/woolworths-retail-department-stores

Yes, they were the original "five and dime" stores ,referred to in so many old American films.

---------- Post added 26-04-2017 at 16:44 ----------

Wonder if they would market Embassy CD's, you know a modern version of the crap records they sold with no name artists singing hit songs at a half crown cheaper than the real thing LOL

They failed because they tried going up market.

I think they rested on their laurels while Wilko (an obvious play on Woolco) and Home Bargains and B&M sneaked in and took their business.

With the amount of Pound shops dotted about these days, they might have to sell everything at 50p to compete.

Blimey- cannot believe it was 9 years ago that they folded.

With the amount of Pound shops dotted about these days, they might have to sell everything at 50p to compete.

Id be down with that!