Wednesday 26 November 2008

Warrior in Woolworths

The BBC ran an article at the end of last week called What is the point of Woolworths? which spawned a Diamond Geezer post on the subject where he visits three of his local branches, one of which is also my local branch.

Interesting, for one thing, because so many of the comments are talking about the competition from Tesco or online retailers and so on, and I don't think anyone's mentioned Wilkinsons, which is - I realise now I think about - the chain I tend to end up in when I'm looking for cheap *stuff* with an emphasis on kitchen equipment or other house-based or DIY things. Or, in other words, the sort of thing I might once have into Woolworths for.


Interesting, also, as people point out the (fairly obvious) fact that a catch-all shop like Woolies has most benefit in small shopping areas - I've probably used the branch in Whitby, where I've stayed for a handful of four-day visits, far more often than the branch in the large shopping centre that I've lived near for eight years.

It's a small town thing, a suburb thing (in the UK rather than the US sense of the word), a 'we've got to get out of this place' kind of thing*. And yet, it serves a purpose. Or it did ...

*subject line for this post is from the X-Ray Spex song of the same name.