Wilkinsons-the best that man can do...? (Wilkinsons)

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	Wilkinsons
Date:	07/12/08 (277 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap and plentiful

Disadvantages: Not the best locations

In the great Californian gold rush it was the guys selling the shovels that got rich, better to be certain of a sale than leave it to good fortune, which is why the budget stores like Wilkinson's are doing so well in recession. Until recently middle-class people wouldn't be seen dead in discount stores but now they have no choice but and are secretly enjoying the value, if you were to ask me. In fact the likes of Lidl and Netto plan huge store roll-outs off the back of their new growth from the better healed customer. So sharp is the recession in the likes of Waitrose and M&S that even those irritating idealistic shoppers that have been telling us they know better and we should all buy fair-trade to save the poor people of the world have, you guessed it, stopped buying fair-trade. Apparently saving the world's poor falls under the luxury cutbacks brackets. There's no fair-trade Cous Cous in Wilkinson's. I think these budget stores are great news and the chance for the white-collar classes to get off the crack habit of buying brands to make themselves feel better and more superior to other people.

In my hometown of Northampton, Wilkinson's doesn't make the prestige of the main high street to target that allegedly more affluent customer. But the Wilkinson's people didn't do their homework as our high street is a very depressing experience and rarely frequented by those white-collar classes. When the underclass are up and about coming off their fix and hang-overs they sweep through the centre of town at lunch time like an open sewer, the main thoroughfare unfortunately the signposted route from the bus station to the benefit office. If you want to see the decay of British retail then Northampton is the template.

Recently we have lost chains as big and chunky as the ones around their Doberman dogs collars, Littlewoods, Dolcis, Jessops, Dixon's, Mark One, the COOP and, of course Woolworth', all gone in the last two years. And however much cheap publicity reality big mouths Theo Pathitis and Alan Sugar want to milk off Woolworth's demise it wont be saved by them.

Woolies had to go from our high streets because Wilkinson's stepped in and took away their core business, the supermarkets picking off the rest, with no fight back. Woolworth's started out as the original pound store-every thing for a sixpence back in the day- and ended up as a non entity no one really knew what the brand name was for anymore. I equated the shopping experience there to a load of market stalls under a proper roof, minus the fruit and vedge callers. I'm not worried about the job losses there as these guys will walk into retail jobs elsewhere, as will their admin people, one employment sector that always has vacancies. Woolies had to go as their retail model was broke and that's the end of it. That feeling is born out from the fact you lot only reviewed Woolworth's on dooyoo when it went bust! They did have a brilliant fire sale last week though. Movie and music chart products were 50% off!!! Monday morning offers bigger cuts guys!

Northampton has gone downhill for many reasons; its massive transient immigrant population (the highest outside London) not exactly loaded, joining the ever increasing unemployed and student population here looking to save cash to live. Even the Poundland store closed down and reopened as a '99p Store', we are that broke here. But stores like Wilkinson's are what that brassic shopping demographic want and they are here to serve those masses.

The likes of Wilkinson's have been able to grow off the back of the benefit culture up north and spread their wings down south on that ethos of failure as we too become a low wage and idle economy, New Labors only booming industry if we are honest, as we have seen with the odious Karen Mathews benefit baby machine, babies that will only ever vote Labor. The fact that 50% of the people working up north are now on public service wages it's inevitable that these stores chains can only get bigger. With one-in-five of us of working age not in employment at any one time then there's money to be made from poverty. If you can get most of the things these guys and girls want under just the one roof then you make serious money, the massive growth of those pound stores testaments to. Wilkos is the king of that particular castle down south.

As I say our Wilkinson branch is not on our main shopping street and they will have to go against an established 99p Store and the first ever pound store if they do move, both opening recently, one replacing Anne Summers of all people, the naughty underwear place, rather ironic if you think about the standard of crumpet in the town! It never used to be this bad. For crumpet or shopping. Bizarrely, La Senza, its big rival, has just opened on the other side of Poundland. I presume La Senza is the 'bottom end' of the market, if you excuse the pun.

-The Stores-

The Northampton store is on Gold Street, the traditional cheap shopping street in the town centre for as long as I can remember. The pokey entrance channels you through the female 'smellies' first up (that's deodorants and shampoo not the shelf fillers), then hurried on to baby products. You are asked to pick up a basket by a small notice at the said entrance point, not because it's the law but because they want you to fill it up. You feel it's the law and you will be 'eyed up' as a shoplifter if you don't pick it up. Everybody looks like a shoplifter in Wilkinson's so I don't pick one up. The men's smellies are on the first right, squashed up with the pet food and accessories section, another example of Wilkinson's diversity. I purchased two 'Menzones' spray deodorants for 49p each here! The Wilkinson's own brand of 'Wilko Wild Wind' for 75p a can didn't appeal. Always pick the spray products from the back of the shelf as we all like a free spray, some of the customers in Wilkinson's in serious need of it. It's best not to offer to administer the free spray to your fellow shopper or they will punch you though the toilet roll stacks (family pack for 99p!).

Their growing tin and packet food sections suggest they could slot into Wollies old sites quite snugly. If they start BHS style restaurants then they could be a very big name on the high street. Those canned and dry foods are plentiful and you can get the entire end of that family shop cheap here. They also have the cheapest Custard Creams in town at 25p!
Wilkinson's are also great for D.I.Y. bits and bobs, now that those traditional hardware corner stores have been forced out of business by the likes of B&Q and Homebase. They do everything from telephony cables, all manner of screws and nails, to curtain rails and a good paint range to keep the men occupied. With a pretty good selection of gardening tools and logistics the shop is more masculine than feminine.

It's Christmas, of course, so you go through Santa's grotto as the checkouts near, 50p tin foil decorations and all manner of shiny plastic bourballs and trinkets for your plastic tree, which lingers at the end of the aisle for $9.99. You can risk your house by buying Christmas lights that wont work and then spark and burn down the house or play it safe with some party balloons and streamers, or maybe take an eye out or two with dodgy party-poppers from Thailand.

They are cheap stores so the staff is too, no pretty students or six formers here matey, a perfunctory mix of single mums and 40 year old grandmothers with smoky croaky voices on the checkouts ready to serve. But with their bodyweight equal to the obvious burden of tinny jewelry upon their torsos, offering you your change incase you didn't actually want it for some reason, they are always fun and up for a bit of mindless banter. And now the experience is over you have saved money on your shop and that's what it's all about.

= = Departments = = = =

Dry and tinned food 3/5
Seasonal decorations 4/5
Toys3/5
Garden supllies3/5
Women's Toiletries 4/5
Men's toiletries 3/5
Stationary3/5
D.I.Y 4/5
Pet accessories 4/5

= = = = = = = = = = = =

Service 3/5
Product availability 4/5
Product range 3/5
Product durability4/5
Price/4/5
Parking1/5

= = = = = =

Open 9am - 6pm weekdays and Saturday and 10am-4pm Sundays

Summary: Discount is the new black!