Soult's Retail View

Swindon’s former Woolworths store – past, present and an uncertain future

Graham Soult September 15, 2011 Property, Retail History, Woolworths 4 Comments

Tags: Aquascutum, BHS, BHS Furniture Clearance Outlet, CACI Retail Footprint, Debenhams, Forward Swindon, GVA Grimley, House of Fraser, House of Fraser Outlet, Hugo Boss, John Lewis, John Ryan, Marks & Spencer, McArthur Glen, Next, Swindon, Swindon Designer Outlet, TJ Hughes, Tommy Hilfiger, Woolworths

Former Woolworths (now temporary BHS), Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

If you saw my earlier post about the shiny new BHS in Swindon, you might be wondering what happened to the retailer during the 18-month period that its old store was being redeveloped. Well, rather … Continue Reading

Swindon’s BHS provides a taster of what Newcastle and Hartlepool can expect

Graham Soult September 15, 2011 Brands, Fashion Stores, Property 3 Comments

Tags: Arcadia, BHS, Exeter, Hartlepool, John Ryan, Middleton Grange, Newcastle, Northumberland Street, Reading, Retail Week, River Island, Sir Philip Green, Sunderland, Swindon, TJ Hughes, Woolworths

New BHS, Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

While visiting Swindon’s out-of-town John Lewis at Home, I also managed to spent some time exploring the town centre.

The open-air Parade shopping centre has the distinction of hosting one of the UK’s few (as … Continue Reading

Newcastle’s Calvin Klein Underwear and Urban Outfitters stores take shape

Graham Soult August 17, 2011 Fashion Stores, Property 3 Comments

Tags: Calvin Klein Underwear, Envy, Grainger Street, Grainger Town, Harvey Nichols, Hobbs, Jaeger, Jigsaw, Kookai, Selfridges, TJ Hughes, Urban Outfitters

CKU window poster (8 Aug 2011)

While the rescue of Newcastle’s TJ Hughes store ensures that the value stretch of Grainger Street retains its retail anchor, work is also progressing well on the more upmarket developments at the street’s Monument end.

In the unit freed up by Kurt Geiger’s move to Eldon Square, … Continue Reading

Newcastle’s TJ Hughes is saved – but Middlesbrough’s is to close within days

Graham Soult August 13, 2011 Department Stores, Property, Retail History, Woolworths 8 Comments

Tags: Bainbridge, Benross Group, Binns, Bury, Captain Cook Square, Derby, Eastbourne, Glasgow, Grainger Street, House of Fraser, Lewis's, Lewis's Home Retail, Lichfield, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Nuneaton, Sheffield, Sunderland, TJ Hughes, Widnes, Woolworths

Newcastle's TJ Hughes (8 Aug 2011)

There was good news for Newcastle city centre earlier this week, with the announcement that the TJ Hughes store in Grainger Street had been sold, preventing the loss of 76 jobs. However, the … Continue Reading

Newcastle retail in good health as design of 114,000 sq ft Primark is revealed

Graham Soult July 28, 2011 Fashion Stores, Property 5 Comments

Tags: 3DReid, All Saints, Barratts, BHS, Blacks, Calvin Klein, Clas Ohlson, Cotswold Outdoor, Currys, Debenhams, Eldon Square, Foot Locker, Grainger Market, Grainger Town, H&M, Hollister, Hotel Chocolat, Jaeger, Kurt Geiger, Mmm..., Newcastle, Next, Northumberland Street, PC World, Peacocks, Primark, St Andrew's Way, Start Cycles, Tiso, TJ Hughes, Urban Outfitters

3DReid's proposal for the remodelled Primark/ex-BHS building

Interesting retail things always seem to happen on Tyneside while I’m on holiday! This time, I returned from Slovenia yesterday – hence the lack of recent blog posts – to find that the planning application for Newcastle’s new Primark flagship has been submitted while I’ve been away.

While the news of Primark’s … Continue Reading

Habitat, HomeForm, TJ Hughes: why is it H-H-Hell on the high street?

Graham Soult July 01, 2011 Economy, Fashion Stores, Home and DIY, Property 7 Comments

Tags: Best Buy, Comet, Dixons, Dolphin, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Eldon Square, Ethel Austin, Focus DIY, Habitat, Heals, HMV, Home Retail Group, HomeForm, Ikea, Jane Norman, John Lewis, Kesa, Kitchens Direct, Life & Style, London, Middlesbrough, Moben, New Look, Newcastle, Peacocks, Primark, Sunderland, Thorntons, TJ Hughes, Waitrose, Wilkinson

Habitat, Bristol (22 Feb 2011)

It’s hard to dispute that the last couple of weeks has been a torrid time for the UK high street, with a succession of well-known names either announcing bad news or collapsing into administration.

While HMV has a stay of execution for now, other retailers in that section of the alphabet – Habitat, … Continue Reading

Familiar discount names in Staffordshire’s former Woolies stores

Graham Soult January 10, 2011 Department Stores, Market Towns, Shopping Centres, Variety Stores, Woolworths 5 Comments

Tags: B&M Bargains, Burton upon Trent, Cannock, Debenhams, Friarsgate, Home Bargains, Lichfield, Midlands Co-op, Peacocks, Poundland, Rugeley, Sports Direct, Stafford, Tamworth, Three Spires Shopping Centre, TJ Hughes, Woolworths

Former Woolworths (now Sports Direct), Stafford (30 Sep 2010)

The more former Woolworths stores I blog about, the more predictable it gets that I’ll be mentioning now-familiar discount names such as B&M Bargains, Home Bargains, Poundland or … Continue Reading

One bus ticket – 11 former Midlands Woolies

Graham Soult November 02, 2010 Market Towns, Property, Woolworths 13 Comments

Tags: Alworths, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Atherstone, B&M Bargains, BHS, Burton upon Trent, Coalville, Costa, Hinckley, Leicester, Nuneaton, Swadlincote, Tamworth, TJ Hughes, Woolworths

Former Woolworths, Coalville (24 Aug 2010)

Regular readers of Soult’s Retail View will know that I have something of a penchant for visiting lots of old Woolworths stores in a short time, usually – for better or worse – by bus.

Back in August, I took the opportunity to undertake another such jaunt, bringing in 11 former Woolies sites … Continue Reading

Visiting Sutton Coldfield’s former Woolies – one of 300 still empty across the UK

Graham Soult August 25, 2010 Property, Shopping Centres, Woolworths 1 Comment

Tags: Gracechurch Shopping Centre, H&M, Primark, Sutton Coldfield, The Local Data Company, The Mall Sutton Coldfield, TJ Hughes, Woolworths

Former Woolworths, Sutton Coldfield (23 Aug 2010)

On Monday – the day that The Local Data Company published new figures on the number of vacant Woolies sites remaining across the UK – I paid a visit to Sutton Coldfield, in the West Midlands, and one of those still-empty shops.

I remember visiting the Sutton Coldfield Woolworths as a child, and … Continue Reading

Woolies Winter Wonderland…

Graham Soult January 04, 2010 Property, Retail History, Shopping Centres, Woolworths 15 Comments

Tags: Alfreton, Amber Value, Big W, Burton upon Trent, Chester-le-Street, Coopers Square, Derby, Dumfries, Heanor, Lighthouse Charity Shop, M&S, Marks & Spencer, Ripley, Tamworth, TJ Hughes, Ventura Park, Westfield, Westfield Derby

Shot from 1998 'Woolies Winter Wonderland' TV ad

…That was the theme of Woolworths’ 1998 Christmas TV advertisement [broken link removed], in the heady, Tellytubby days when, as the ad reminds us, everyone wanted a Talking Po.

This festive season, the incessant snow and ice has certainly made it a Winter Wonderland in the various town centres that I visited. However, 2009 has, of course, been the first Christmas without … Continue Reading

Former Woolworths stores – status update

Graham Soult July 27, 2009 Fashion Stores, Property, Supermarkets, Variety Stores, Woolworths 8 Comments

Tags: Alnwick, Argos, Crouch End, Cupar, Derby, Kenilworth, M&Co, New Look, Pound-Mart, Spalding, The 90p Store, TJ Hughes, Waitrose, Walsall, WHSmith, Woolworths

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[broken link removed]
Cupar: Pound-Mart (Glasgow-based discount retailer – you can see a photograph of their flagship store … Continue Reading

Swindon’s former Woolworths store – past, present and an uncertain future

Swindon’s BHS provides a taster of what Newcastle and Hartlepool can expect

Newcastle’s Calvin Klein Underwear and Urban Outfitters stores take shape

Newcastle’s TJ Hughes is saved – but Middlesbrough’s is to close within days

Newcastle retail in good health as design of 114,000 sq ft Primark is revealed

Habitat, HomeForm, TJ Hughes: why is it H-H-Hell on the high street?

Familiar discount names in Staffordshire’s former Woolies stores

One bus ticket – 11 former Midlands Woolies

Visiting Sutton Coldfield’s former Woolies – one of 300 still empty across the UK

Woolies Winter Wonderland…

Former Woolworths stores – status update

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