Good old Woolies (Woolworths)

Member Name: Scooobydooo

Product:	Woolworths
Date:	23/01/04 (1256 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, nice layout, spacious

Disadvantages: let down by staff, not enough staff on, long queues

Come on how many of you used to get to Woolies on a saturday to buy records and would queue up for ages just to get the latest release.

For you younger people records were made of vinyl plastic with a hole in the middle that you could play on a record player. If you still do not know what I mean ask your parents. P.s. when they went out of fashion we would melt them over the cooker and make ashtrays lol.

F W Woolworths first opened its store in 1909 and built a steady industry until 1982 when it was bought by part of the companys that are know as Kingfisher, these include BandQ and Superdrug. In 1991 they bought MVC. In 2001 they demerged from Kingfisher but still kept onto superdrug.

The Store Layout
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The front of our store bears the Woolworths logo of a large red banner with Woolworths written on in white. The store inside is brightly lit and has wide aisles making it accesible to buggies and scooters. The floors are wood beech flooring, sad but I do look at these things, blame ciao. There are standalone aisles and also floor to ceiling shelves stacked full of goodies. The store is nice and clean and there are also bins situated near the exits.

They are split into different sections:-
Kids clothing - Ladybird
Gifts
Accessories
Homeware
Sweets
Books
Toys
DVDs/Videos
Mobile phones
Electrical items
Stationery

Kids Clothing
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Their own brand of clothing is called Ladybird and its label suprisingly is white with a red and black ladybird on it. They deal in clothes for children and aim up to around 11 years. They also do school uniforms and one of the biggest promotions is back to school. All clothes are very reasonably priced and are much cheaper than other high street stores.
The quality of the clothes are quite good and they start from birth.

Gifts
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This is where Woolworths comes into its own. Fathers Day, Moth
ers Day, Easter and Christmas. They specifically do gifts for each of these special events. At the moment it is christmas and their shelves are stacked to the roof with selection boxes, christmas trees, wrapping paper, baubles and accessories for the trees and paper plates for the day and candles. They do everything you want.

They do gifts for all the family like silly shampoo for dad and perfume for mum and smelly things in boxes for friends and children. Make up. Personally if you are ever stuck what to get someone for Christmas, get into this store they have allsorts and I mean allsorts to choose from. They have thousand and thousands of gifts to choose from and they start from as little as 50p

Accessories
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They do male and female accessories like gloves, totes, scarves, gloves, pjs, purses, socks. They have little gadjets that mum and dad could use and ties.
These can start from a couple of pound up to a maximum of £15

Homeware
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If you are starting up a home and on a budget then head off to Woolies as you can get plates, cutlery, bins, duvets, covers, pillows, curtain rails, cotton, Garden ware is also available in the summer. Everything you can want in the kitchen but as a general rule they do not do white appliances except for small items like toasties, kettles and microwave is the biggest homeware item I have seen them sell. They have a large selection on D.I.Y and home security. All the homeware is very cheapily priced and I feel that is one of the few stores that do not put their prices up by tons each year. Very economical products and are well lasting.

Books
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They have a large variety of books on offer and these sometimes cannot be beaten even by the larger supermarkets. They deal in interest books is what I would call them. Ok its not a massive library, if you want a selection that large then your in the wrong shop. The average price of a book there is around £5. r>
Toys
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They have great offers on toys and have a large variety of toys to sell at very competitive prices. This is good for parents who are on a budget. They sell toys called pocket money toys which is a range they do from 99p which in this day and age is quite good. The sell large toys and small toys. Now I do not know if you all have this is your woolworths but the last time I went in there was this like railway track on the ceiling but suspended and it had all toys pegged to it. Brilliant idea, just hope to god a toy does not fall on me head lol. A lot of people head to this store in Warrington as it is I think the only store that sells toys in the town centre, how sad. The nearest is Toys R Us but that is out of town and another opinion. Did you know Chad Valley toys is Woolworths own brand?

DVDs/Videos
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They have a large selection of DVDs and Videos and prices are varied as they have them on offers and sales all the time. Videos are normally from around £1.99 upwards as are the DVDs. They have a top 40 chart of all the DVDs. They also have their own counters for you to purchase these from. Great if this is all you want to buy and escape the masses of the other queues.

Mobile Phones
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They sell mobile phones on pay as you tarriffs and have special offers on all the time. They also sell the mobile phone accessories that you might need for the phones. The only problem with some of their phones is that every time I have gone to get one it has been out of stock and they never seem to know when the next delivery is in.

Electrical items
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They sell cameras, dvd players and hifis. These are normally kept out of the way of the public and are stored beind the record counter and displayed on the tops shelves away from Mr Shoplifter. Obviosuly I cannot tell you a specific price of anything as they are too high up the wall for me to see.

Stationary
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They sell birthday cards and cards to suit every occassion as well a well stocked pen section. How many of you remember buying lots of different coloured pens in the 80s and then the rubber craze. They sell pens, glue, paper, folders, everything that a young student would need for their education. It is reasonably priced.

Sweets
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What do they not sell, it is the bestest and biggest sweet shop in heaven. Chocolate galore. Branded names, cheap sweets, pik and mix 89p a 1/4lb. Crisps, pop, selection boxes, boxes of chocolates, crikes there is just to many mention. Prices are average and start at 10p for a mini pack of pastilles.

You can also put your lottery on at Woolworths.

Staff
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This is where the store is let down. I went in here a couple of weeks ago on a weekday and girl was talking to her mate totally oblivious to the fact that I was there and chewing gum. This hit a raw nerve as I cannot stand people chatting when there are people in queues waiting to be served and also chewing gum when she is speaking to me. It is neither professional or courteous and I did comment on it. I said please next time you serve me either pass me onto some one else or spit out your gum. At this point her eyes pointed daggers at me but I am sure if I got the manager I could bet your bottom dollar that they should not be chomping away while chatting to you and serving.

Anyway after that I still love the store but there is a lack of people on the floor and whilst they do have store detectives which you can spot a mile away they must loose a lot of goods to thieves, there are too many hidy corners for people to pinch.

If I was to advise some one to go and visit I would say go on a weekday as Saturday is hetic and the store becomes a bit of a tip as people rummage through things for the next bargain.

Would I recommend the store?
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Yes I would as no matter what it lo
oks like inside or how the staff behave, it is still good old Woolworths and its one of the stores I have grown up with and I will always go there to the bitter end like I did with C&A. It is competively priced.

Christmas just is not Christmas without Woolies. I loved their Christmas Advert a couple of years ago where they had stars going into their shops who had forgotten something... shame this years is a bit disappointing?

Whilst I am on the subject of ads, has anyone seen the coca cola ad yet? Holidays are coming, sorry, this has just got me back into the christmas mood.

Woolworths does need a revamp, to bring it into this century but who cares its a favourite anyway.

This is one of the last stores that are really child friendly and does not mind kids playing with things. Woolworths is a real frienly family orientated store.
Vist WWW.Woolworths.co.uk to see their site for offers on food sweets and what bargains are available and jobs and all sorts of other informaion plus the store locators.

Karen :0)