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?

[anneasquith]

It would appear nb, given your experiences the shops won’t be missed .

[nicebloke1]

Very true ann, but yet another black hole in our town centers.

[evadora]

I think it was the management and the lowering standards of the thinks they sold. My friends daughter has worked for them for 12 years and now is having to look for another job. There is no news of what is happening to her pension contributions and if she will get any redundancy money (very unlikely) as the company has folded. What a worry in a part of the country that is not crying out for workers.

[nicebloke1]

^ Sorry to hear that hope she gets something, payment /and job.

[ToraToraTora]

The main issue is now that customers buy stuff on line. The high st is dying, has been for years.

[brainiac]

Many millions of pounds taken out recently in dividends can't have helped

[nicebloke1]

The high street is suffering TTT due to online, but it don't seem to be affecting B&M they are expanding in the high street. but it does appear that B&m is well managed.

[evadora]

My local Home Bargains seems to be doing very well - always plenty of people in there.

[nicebloke1]

Thats why I favored the lack of good management in my OP evadora.

[douglas9401]

We got through C&A, Woolies, Debenhams, BHS etc etc, we'll get through this.

Roger, Wilko, over and out.

[ToraToraTora]

Fair comments about the management etc but in the end it's footfall that matters and that's being curtailed by Amazon et all.

[nicebloke1]

brainiac Didn't know about that. what I do know is that back a few years if you were in charge of a shop, or an area, such as plant sales, and you let them die, there's every chance you would be sacked.

[pastafreak]

I always found my wilko to be pretty good value with products that lasted. I've got gotten sheets and bath mats that have lasted years...though I suspect more recent versions would not be as sturdy.
Every September mobs of incoming uni students would fill the store, fitting out their student digs.
I've always bought house plants there too...the care given in store has been quite variable though. Last year I asked an employee about watering, and was told that due to health and safety issues, watering was always done after hours. More likely not at all.
Still, I'll be said to see them go, though our shop is not yet on the imminent closure list.

[nicebloke1]

Pastafreak. The news I heard this morning is all shops will close, but wait and see ifs its true?

[brainiac]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/29/wilko-owners-dividends-losses-emergency-funding-sales

[nicebloke1]

Thanks for the heads up interesting^^ they knew what was coming then by the looks of things.

[pastafreak]

I read that yesterday...at the same time it was being said that B and M were still committed to acquiring 50 of them.

[nicebloke1]

You don't really know if some of these media sites are just looking for click traffic so until i hear such on main evening news???

[evadora]

Pasta - I read that as well. They will take over but not keep the Wilko name but be a B&M store. However we already have a large B&M and Home Bargains so our Wilko looks as if it will be empty for a while or longer.

[Buenchico]

>>> " . . . but yet another black hole in our town centers"

That's the problem though. To drive to Wilko I've got to drive 9 miles into Ipswich town centre, possibly contending with heavy traffic, and pay anywhere between about £1 and £3 to park (depending upon my choice of car park). If I've got heavy shopping to carry out of Wilko, it'll be awkward to get it back to my car. If Wilko are out of stock of what I want, I've wasted my money getting there because there are no similar shops nearby.

To get to The Range though, I've only got to drive 6½ miles to an easily accessible site, with free parking. If they're out of stock of what I want B&M and Dunelm are right alongside anyway, so it's unlikely that I'll have a wasted journey and, irrespective of which store I ended up shopping in, I could get my purchases back to my car easily. (There's actually a B&M store even closer in the other direction, although I would have to pay for parking there).

It's Wilko's determination to trade almost exclusively in town centres, rather than to follow the general trend towards edge-of-town shopping, that's cost them dearly.