Soult's Retail View

Alworths fascia

…and it’s going to be in Cosham, a northern suburb of Portsmouth, Hampshire.

Due to open in February, this will be the first new Alworths store since the initially flurry of five stores that launched back in November. With a total of 22 stores slated to open during Alworths’ first year, one assumes that further announcements will be forthcoming over the coming months.

So … Continue Reading

Former Woolworths (now M&Co), Alnwick (23 Jan 2010)

I’m ashamed to say that in more than a decade of living in the North East, I’d never – until yesterday – paid a proper visit to the attractive and historic Northumberland market town of Alnwick – named by Country Life magazine, in 2002, as the “best place to live … Continue Reading

Shop Direct's Woolworths.co.uk

Just a quick post this evening, but I wanted to flag up a well-written and interesting article by Kiran Stacey in yesterday’s Financial Times, entitled “The fight to be Woolworths’ heir”.

The piece covers some of the same themes as my own blog posts about Wellworths, Alworths and … Continue Reading

Well worth it? Well, perhaps...

Back in September, you might recall me trumpeting the fact that I’d visited six old Woolworths in a day. Today, however, I must confess to visiting (and photographing) ten in one day – or eleven if you count the extra one that I passed on the bus but was too tired to stop at. Needless to say, you … Continue Reading

Former Woolworths, Consett (10 Oct 2009)

After Parts 1 and 2 of my former Woolworths photo gallery, it’s time to finish up – at least for the moment – with some more shots of old Woolies sites up here in the North East.

First up is the former store in … Continue Reading

B&M fascia

Barely a day or two after writing about Whitley Bay Woolworths still being empty, I now read that it’s going to become a B&M Bargains store – and will open on Thursday.

Relatively little-known before 2009, Blackpool-based B&M Bargains is definitely one of the biggest beneficiaries of Woolworths’ demise, picking … Continue Reading

Former Woolworths - now B&M Bargains - in Rhyl (25 Sep 2009)

Last month I posted photographs of eight former Woolies stores as far apart as Tamworth in Staffordshire and Perth in Scotland. Now, as promised, I’m pleased to present another collection, this time from my visit to North Wales … Continue Reading

Alworths in Amersham

Following in the footsteps of Dorchester’s Wellworths, Stornoway’s Wee W and even Wallsend’s Well Worth It, the latest ’son of Woolworths’ store – Alworths – opened the doors to its second store in Amersham, Buckinghamshire yesterday.

To date, the various Woolies ‘offspring’ have  tended to be one-off, locally-driven responses to the … Continue Reading

Woolworths Worthit logo

Wandering around the variety store Poundstretcher in Hexham yesterday, I was understandably surprised to spot lots of Woolworths-branded products on the shelves, including – among many other things – Worthit DVD players and laundry baskets.

Presumably, Poundstretcher has snapped up surplus warehouse stock that would have been destined for Woolies, had it survived. It struck me as quite ironic, given that Poundstretcher put its weak performance over Christmas down to competition from Woolworths’ clearance sale – selling off … Continue Reading

Wellworths store in Dorchester. Photograph by Nigel Mykura

I was interested to read on This is Money a few days ago that Claire Robertson of Wellworths fame is apparently in talks with “unnamed venture capitalists” (are they ever not unnamed?) over funding for expansion. The article claims that the Dorchester-based enterprise is hoping to open up three more former … Continue Reading

Former Woolworths store

Since my previous post three days ago, there have been several more announcements regarding former Woolworths sites that have found new occupants:

• Sandbach: WHSmith - full story
• Sheringham: Sainsbury’s - full story
• Taunton: TK Maxx - … Continue Reading
  

Closing down sale at Woolworths

There have been a few more announcements of new occupants for old Woolworths stores over the last couple of weeks:

• Alnwick: M&Co - full story
• Crouch End: Waitrose – full story
• Cupar: Pound-Mart (Glasgow-based discount retailer – you can see a photograph of their flagship store … Continue Reading
  

New (top) and old (bottom) Wilkinson logos

Over the last few months, you may have spotted the new Wilkinson logo – above – that has been quietly appearing on the retailer’s bags and own-brand product packaging.

I’m yet to read anything suggesting that the new logo is any more than a trial, linked to the testing of a new store format; certainly, the full rebrand seems to have been rolled out to … Continue Reading