Woolworths - Well worth it? (Woolworths)

Member Name: dbarcl10

Product:	Woolworths
Date:	01/12/08 (245 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well known, sweets

Disadvantages: Expensive and disorganised stores

I'm sure you will no doubt have heard that Woolworths have gone into administration, potentially putting at risk 30,000 jobs, spread across 815 stores right across the UK.

We all remember Woolies from our youth; the famous pick 'n' mix, Ladybird clothing and music selections. However, something must have gone wrong with the chain for it to run up over £386 million of debt.

So why the demise of Woolworths? And could it happen to other stores?

Personally I have stayed away from Woolworths in recent years, finding their prices to be uncompetitive with other chains, and their stores generally stocking quite random items in a way that doesn't appeal.

For example, my local store stocks paint brushes and rollers, but no paint. Surely if you wanted to paint you would go to a store that stocks the lot, not think 'I'll go to B&Q for the paint then head to Woolworths for some brushes'.

Also the layout of the stores is very unorganised - homewares are stuck between clothing, a corner of the store sells luggage (all year round and I have never saw anyone looking at the cases even in summer). Toys are split between two floors, with no apparent order as to where toys are placed. For example, some Lego products are downstairs, with a different range upstairs.

A large section of the store is dedicated to entertainment (DVDs, CDs and books). Whilst they often do good offers on new releases, a lot of the older chart items are quite expensive, certainly compared to online stores, but also in relation to supermarket chains and even some well known music stores.

My local store does have a good range of older DVDs at quite reasonable prices, the problem however is that the shelves are disorganised, DVDs don't appear to be in any alphabetical order, or by genre. It appears that new stock goes on the shelf wherever there is space, resulting in a very confusing display.

Personally I also find their new adverts very cheap looking, the red border and white background reminding me of Tesco Value range. I suppose Woolworths was trying to reposition itself as a cheap store, but unfortunately nobody told the accountants who decided on the prices.

Woolworths also started doing larger household items from an instore catalogue (The Big Red Book). I have to admit here that I have never looked at this catalogue, so can't comment on the range of products and prices, but I'm sure Woolworths would have had to invest a large amount into setting this up.

My local store has order points where you can type in the catalogue number, enter your details and make payment by card, for the goods to be delivered to your house. Again I have never used these, and have never seen anyone using them.

Will I be sad to see the Woolworths name disappear from our high streets? Of course I will, but hopefully that can be avoided as much as possible. I can see the number of stores being cut drastically, with a move towards smaller stores going back to the roots of the firm - selling a focused range of goods at reasonable prices.

I hope Woolworths can survive the economic downturn; they just need to find themselves a niche in the ever changing marketplace.

Summary: Needs to find itself a new position in the market