The Range fills the gap left by Stockton’s Big W

Graham Soult

Retail consultant, writer, blogger; helping retailers via CannyInsights.com and CannySites.com. Say hello on Twitter at @soult!

You may also like...

8 Responses

  1. The Shadow says:

    link The Range to open Portrack Lane megastore sponsored by deloitte..how ironic

    • Graham Soult says:

      link The Range to open Portrack Lane megastore sponsored by deloitte..how ironic

      That’s true! I hadn’t initially made that obvious connection between Deloitte sponsoring NE Business at the same time as overseeing Woolworths’ administration. Well spotted :)

  2. Graham Soult says:

    Thanks Adam!

    It’s unusual for TK Maxx to close a store, and I didn’t know about the Hartlepool site (shut in January last year, by the looks of it). There’s coverage at http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/TK-Maxx-set-to-axe.4855246.jp for anyone who’s interested.

    The interior of The Range at Stockton was fine actually – it didn’t feel overbearing or unpleasant, perhaps because there’s so much stock and colour on the shopfloor.

  3. Adam says:

    Just to run through a few of the points you raised. I can’t recall the store ever downsizing between 2004 and 2008. Although I seem to remember a fair chunk of the building was for stock and obviously not for the public.

    The ‘Big Cafe’ sign was definitely a remnant of the Big W days but that other sign looks like a Woolies one. I’d be interested to see what they’ve done inside, I have no problems with these ‘aircraft hanger’ type stores but the scale of the old Big W one mean it was an odd, and unappealing, shopping experience.

    On future locations, the former Byker Woolies was what first sprung to mind for me, I think the former M&S at the Metrocentre is just too out of the way. Others I can imagine are the former TK Maxx at Hartlepool Marina and the former MFI unit at Sunderland’s Hylton Retail Park.

  1. November 3, 2010

    […] since I paid a visit to the old out-of-town Woolies in Stockton back in July, Berwick-upon-Tweed (store #232) has been the only one of the 33 North East […]

  2. December 6, 2010

    […] both in-town and out – indeed, even B&M has just opened a Homestore in part of the old Big W at Portrack Lane, obviously seeing this as complementary to its Castlegate shop. Marks & Spencer in Stockton (16 […]

  3. May 22, 2011

    […] – was announced in January 2005. Where 14 of the 21 Big W stores – such as those in Stockton and Tamworth – were downsized and rebranded as Woolworths, the seven with permission for food […]

  4. February 22, 2012

    […] Marks & Spencer. It has also been taking retail park units, including (since my one-and-only visit to date) a portion of the former Big W in Stockton-on-Tees. Discount UK (former M&S), Rotherham […]

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.