R2OK!

SantaFefan · Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:20 pm Post subject:

plus of course the Global Warming crowd won't be impressed Laughing

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Johnnie Walker read out my message on Pirate Radio! Very Happy

13/8/07
I have heard how radio should be.

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Our Woolworth closes on Saturday. It's just the right size of store for a Poundland or similar, of which there are none at the moment in the Victoria Centre, although there's no shortage of them elsewhere.

Meanwhile The Pier, famous for heavy dark furniture, candles and pot pourri, has also gone into administration and its 49 stores, mostly in city centres, are closing down as soon as the stock goes.

The media are salivating over who's next on the list - you can probably bet on it if you're ghoulish enough. Whittards, chain of 130 shops selling tea and coffee gift sets, are the next most likely, because their Icelandic owners have been caught in the banking crisis there and they have been unable to find a buyer [at the right price] for the stores.
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Ron

MadeinSurrey · Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 5:01 pm Post subject:

Some sections of the media are like vultures - they could try a little more tact. (Some hope!)
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MiS

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

As a knock-on effect of the Woolies failure and the distribution halt - having been deprived of CD/media stock - looks like Zavvi have gone into admin now Rolling Eyes

MadeinSurrey · Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2008 11:47 am Post subject:

Sadly many more will follow. Let's hope that things pick up in 2009.
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MiS

Ian Robinson · Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2008 2:49 pm Post subject:

Mark Mayhew · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 2897

Sad news about Zavvi-I liked this music retailer.

nod · Joined: 24 Dec 2006 Posts: 3558

I think they'd been sliding downhill for a while, but then haven't the other CD outlets ?. HMV seems to have out CDs to the back of the shop to be replaced by DVDs & games etc.

Ar ewe seeing the end of CD music sales ?. Has x-factor etc killed music as we knew it ?

mark occomore · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 9955 Location: UK

Briant · Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 12:07 pm Post subject: W H Smiths'....

There is a multi-million new shopping development called Liverpool One in my home town, and it houses many of the top names including WHSmiths. However it is so tiny that two people browsing the magazines (as they do) block up the shop! Also it now houses the Post Office, but on the second floor, where pensioners and others find it hard to access! Rolling Eyes

Boy Perkins · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 128

Some of these new developments are going to have a problem or two over the next couple of years; surely a number of them will have to be mothballed?

For the next year or so we can expect a clear trend in which people only spend the money they have and not that which they hope to have.

The consequences of a stop to debt financing are quite significant; I don't think many have realised that .... maybe even the press are reluctant to go down that road?

Ian Robinson · Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 6:05 pm Post subject:

Boy Perkins · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 128

That's funny, I thought rumour, or it is alleged, or it is from a source, was all they did publish??

gfloyd · Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:11 pm Post subject:

Mark O is really Robert Peston Laughing

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His name was ernie ........ and he drove the fastest milk cart in the west.....

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

On the Xmas thread I said I had a CD-free and book-free Xmas (I declared my Christmas this year to be free of such things because when we were preparing this room for a new floor I had to move hundreds of CDs and books upstairs and realised so many CDs were rarely listened to and several books are unfinished reading)

But today the missus came back from Woolies with some bits and pieces including (another) book about 'Water Gardening' (ponds etc). Originally 6.99 but there was a yellow sticker on it saying Now £2 !

'A bargain' says the missus. 'But was it ever 6.99 in Woolies?' I asked suspiciously, having peeled off the Now £2 sticker to reveal underneath..... a £2 sticker !

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Very sad that the Woolworths store closures have now begun.

When I was a very impecunious teenager in the sixties, Woolie's often saved my bacon at present-buying time.

But maybe that was exactly its problem--it still had a sixties feel about it, when other stores had moved on.

Ian.

Boy Perkins · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 128

Bought my first pair of blue jeans from Woolies. They were 10/6d. You don't get value for money like that these days Laughing

SantaFefan · Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 4:05 pm Post subject:

The wife had to have a spending session in some clothes shops this afternoon Rolling Eyes

Bored stiff, I wandered into the Lowestoft Woolworth's store for the first time. Posters advertised "everything must go including fittings and equipment".
Very sad really.. not because I'll miss the store, I haven't bought anything from Woolworth's since the 80s, but I hate to see the final death throes of a once busy organisation.. but, as I remembered it to be, I didn't like the layout and the general feel of the store. It smacked of cheapness.
Most fittings had "sold to.." written on them and the remaining stock was strewn everywhere. I felt a little dirty to be honest, picking over the bones so to speak.
I waited outside, choosing to admire the Woolworth's architecture instead.
_________________
Johnnie Walker read out my message on Pirate Radio! Very Happy

13/8/07
I have heard how radio should be.

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

Boy Perkins · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 128

More like late 50's ... but I don't expect anyone to remember!!!!

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Alas, I remember the late 50s very clearly (born in 1948)!

Ian.

Boy Perkins · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 128

Number Six · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 439 Location: In the village

iknewdavidjacobsmum · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 336

Were they plastic and bright red?

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19382 Location: Cheshire

Boy Perkins · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 128

Aye, you didn't get much change from a ten bob note!!

SantaFefan · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:09 pm Post subject:

No, but enough for four Black Jacks or Fruit Salads Laughing

_________________
Johnnie Walker read out my message on Pirate Radio! Very Happy

13/8/07
I have heard how radio should be.

Boy Perkins · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 128

Personally thought the ha'penny chews were better than the 4 for a penny ones, but just my taste I suppose...

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

We knew it all along, of course, but it's interesting to see confirmed in print just who has made money out of the Woolworth administration
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/4110424/Woolworths-lenders-make-millions-in-penalty-fees.html
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Ron

mark occomore · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 9955 Location: UK

Boy Perkins · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 128

Sounds good, but why do supermarkets always talk about 'new jobs'?

People are not going to buy more food, and the more modern the supermarket the fewer the staff needed to supply that food. So everytime there is a new outlet the overall number of people employed in the sector will decrease?

Or is there another angle to this which eludes me?

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

Iceland have bought 51 stores at :

Alton, Barnsley, Belper, Bethnal Green, Bexhill On Sea, Bicester, Billericay, Blandford Forum, Bodmin, Boreham Wood, Bow, Braintree, Broadstairs, Devizes, Exmouth, Fraserburgh, Frome, Greenford, Hackney, Hailsham, Harold Hill, Haverhill, Herne Bay, Hexham, Highgate, Honiton, Kilburn High Road, Leyton, Malvern, Matlock, Mill Hill, Minehead, Monmouth, Morpeth, Morriston, Newtownards, Palmers Green, Pinner (Rayner's Lane), Palmers Green, Plumstead, Pontypool, Poplar, Portslade, Ringwood, St Neots, Stoke Newington, Strood, Sudbury, Swaffham, Wakefield, Wallington, Whitstable

The two stores in Coventry and the ones in Nuneaton, Kenilworth, Warwick and Leamington will remain empty then.