General Retailer, 1909 – 2009
Everybody (who is old enough) will remember Woolworths, or Woolies as it was better known. Originating in America, for some reason as a nation we took the shop to our hearts until the while thing went bankrupt about 15 years ago and it was very sad to see it go.
As this is a blog concerning my memories I’ll jump right in to the Woolworth’s story at the point which I enter the world, the 1980s. At this point Woolworths UK business had become independent and the shops rationalised what they sold which as I remember was Music and Video, Sweets, Toys, Homeware and Children’s Clothes.
My local Woolworths store was a decent size considering it was located not even within a town centre but the shopping precinct built alongside the housing estate on which I lived. By its eclectic nature if you were after something non-food then Woolies would likely be the place you went.
Woolworths was particularly good as a shop for buying presents the variety of what it sold meant you were likely to find something decent for everyone. So naturally everyone received at least one present from Woolies every Christmas.
Woolies also made a success of music and video, succeeding where the traditional record shops really struggled. Someone at Woolies must have recognised that the VHS tape and later the DVD would be strong sellers and I remember that the range in even the smallest stores was always huge. Back then even the largest supermarkets usually only stocked a very limited range of CDs and videos.
Home video was so important that the company got into distribution which, ultimately resulted in its downfall. As MP3s took the music sales away and cheap DVDs that could be bought from the likes of Amazon meant there wasn’t much future for that core part of what Woolworths did by this point. At the same time the cheap and cheerful shops like Poundland were eating into their sales. Woolies was inevitably doomed.
I got this far and I haven’t even mentioned the thing most people think of when they think of Woolworths but not so for me. Perhaps I wasn’t allowed pick and mix all that often I’m not sure, I do remember the variety of sweets that spanned a plastic ‘island’ but my fond memories are based elsewhere.
When I was small I had my fair range of Ladybird clothes and plenty of Woolworths stationary. But when I came of age it was Woolworths where I went for CDs, DVDs and some Playstation games during my brief attempt at being a gamer. I’m even fairly sure that I got my Nokia 3330 mobile phone from Woolies just as everybody started getting connected.
By the time Woolworths went under I had moved away and the one thing that strikes me is in both the area I grew up in and London, there were Woolies everywhere, even in areas where there was just a small parade of shops, that’s probably why the nation held Woolies so close to their hearts and also probably why the business ultimately failed.
Every so often there are news reports (and once even a full blown hoax) that Woolworths could be returning – but it won’t. A combination of cheap shops like Poundland, Home Bargains and B&M have seen off any chance of that. In recent years Wilko largely filled the same void in town centres but that company too has suffered a similar fate as Woolies.
More about Woolworths:
Woolworths Museum
Woolworths Buildings: Then and Now
Ben remembers... 
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