Wombwell Poundstretcher’s Andrex window display is not flushed with success

Graham Soult

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

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9 Responses

  1. Paultay says:

    As a former employee (thankfully) I came across this article and I agree 100%.

    Stock was always sent to us in bigger quantities than we could sell the stuff. This resulted in overfilled warehouses with nowhere for stock to go (I recall on several deliverys we had to unload the pallet outside in the street because it would not fit in the warehouse).

    Because they do not rely on each store’s stock list to send in what a store needs, you end up with deliveries of stock which cant go out on shop floor.

    An example of the stacking boxes on shop floor could be that they send in 10 big boxes of cushions, a member of staff takes that box from the warehouse to put out, they only manage to get 2 on the shelf before the shelf is full, but they know there’s no space in the warehouse to put the amount left in the box back.

    I looked at 1 of the store’s window display pics and actually thought that looked like 1 of the stores I worked in.

    I worked in several and they were all like that. The orders of putting stock in the window that way were direct from head office and area managers who visited the stores. It does make them look ugly.

    I agree with Steve, £stretcher are a cheap product retailer but they are seriously failing at that market, with recession times they still cant manage to be on top so really have no chance.

  2. Lee Dymond says:

    re Wombwell store following closure, the store became a Kwik Save store, when Kwick save moved into the large premises further up the road previously occupiued by Hillards/Tesco/Grandways the store became a Tates Late Shopper, then Ethel Austin then rebranded Life and Style

  3. Lee Dymond says:

    Hi soult. Not sure if you realised that there was a Woolworths in Wombwell, (store 1122) located next to the Wilkinson you took photos of.
    The store appears in the 1972 list, and must have closed between 1978 when I was born(my mum remembers how when pushing me through the checkouts in my pushchair and me picking up a ladybird book, only realising when we’d left the shop, and had to return it), and 1983 as it doesn’t appear in the list of closed stores between 1983-1995 in the 1995 store list.
    Here is a link to a picture of Woolworths situated next to the co-op which is no wilkos
    http://www.corpuschristiparish.co.uk/gallery/displayimage.php?album=74&pid=3829

    • Graham Soult says:

      Hi Lee, don’t worry, I got it! :) I still need to blog about that store, as well as the long-gone ones in Mexborough and Goldthorpe that I captured on the same day. Perhaps a task for this weekend!

  4. Steve Dresser says:

    I think you’ll see their warehouses full too, I don’t think stores will be getting more stock than they can store, rather it’ll be poorly bought product which clutters the store, slow moving or product not attractive to customers.

    The buyers are tasked with getting what they can and getting a return on it so shipping it to stores rather than having it sitting in a DC is what they want – ‘can’t sell it from depot’ after all.

    Naturally these sort of stores rely on stacks of product all over to drive their sales per sq ft metric upwards and squeeze a bit more out of the customer too.

    It doesn’t make for a good shopping experience I agree, the one near me features several stacks that you feel with one nudge would topple straight over.

    Like someone mooted on Retail Week earlier this year, if Poundstretcher can’t thrive in this ecomonic environment, one that presumably plays right in their hands. Then they’ve no hope of surviving longer term.

  5. Night Monkey says:

    My wife insists on visiting poundstretcher when we are near one. I hate it.

    They give me a cold sweat when I’m in one as they are dirty, grubby and horrible.

    Some of the older shops have serious health and safety issues, not just with the amount of stock cluttering the shops, but with shelving gondolas that are one knock away from collapsing. Have a look next time you’re in an old shop. Back panels (crucial to the integrity of the unit), missing all over the place along with other issues.

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