...
One such opportunity is when I visit Wilkinson. Just to clarify, the shop is called Wilkinson, but their own-brand products carry the Wilko brand. Wilkinson has probably been around for getting on for 20 years now, but has only become a prominent name in the high street in the past ... Read review
...carry the Wilko brand. Wilkinson has probably been around for getting on for 20 years now, but has only become a prominent name in the high street in the past 3-5 years. It sells just about everything! Departments within the store include a basic range of clothing, home and kitchen ware, garden equipment and furniture, tools, paint and DIY, toiletries, children’s toys, stationery, cards and confectionery. I would not, however, define it as ... .../>
My personal experience with Wilkinson is largely based in the toiletries department. As well as carrying their own Wilko brand for many products, they stock the majority of well-known brand toiletries, but at prices generally at least 10-20% cheaper than those to be found in Boots, Superdrug, or even Tescos. For example, my L’Oreal Elvive shampoo sets me back around £2.29 in Boots (although admittedly I try to take advantage of BOGOF offers, ... more
As anyone who has read my opinion on Norfolkline will be aware, I am a snob. However, I also like a bargain, which means that I end up using a lot of cheapy products and services, giving me more opportunities than most for snobbery.
One such opportunity is when I visit Wilkinson. Just to clarify, the shop is called Wilkinson, but their own-brand products carry the Wilko brand. Wilkinson has probably been around for getting on for 20 years now, but has only become a prominent name in the high street in the past 3-5 years. It sells just about everything! Departments within the store include a basic range of clothing, home and kitchen ware, garden equipment and furniture, tools, paint and DIY, toiletries, children’s toys, stationery, cards and confectionery. I would not, however, define it as a department store, as it normally only occupies one floor, and the space for each section is pretty small. It is more like the non-food section of a large supermarket.
My personal experience with Wilkinson is largely based in the toiletries department. As well as carrying their own Wilko brand for many products, they stock the majority of well-known brand toiletries, but at prices generally at least 10-20% cheaper than those to be found in Boots, Superdrug, or even Tescos. For example, my L’Oreal Elvive shampoo sets me back around £2.29 in Boots (although admittedly I try to take advantage of BOGOF offers, which they do regularly have in Boots) but can be found for just £1.44 in Wilkinson. Similarly, Tampax Compak retails for £2.69 in Boots, and just £1.99 in Wilkinson. Other bargains I have recently picked up in this department include a couple of shower puffs for 39p each – compared with £2.50 in Boots – and a couple of plastic butterfly clips for my hair for 29p. Even somewhere cheap like Claire’s Accessories would probably charge £2 or so for these. They also sell some medications, such as painkillers, and anything else that you can buy in a chemist without having to ask the pharmacist. Even these come in for the own-brand treatment, and I recently picked up a week’s worth of Wilko’s hayfever tablets for £1.29.
I have had a quick look through the other departments, and similar bargains can be found. A colleague recently bought Wilko’s own version of a large Pyrex casserole dish for £4.99, and we bought some certificate frames for work at just 99p each.
The quality of the own-branded products is as you would expect for the prices: not fantastic, but certainly not complete rubbish! I would personally steer clear of the own-brand toiletries though, as I once bought Wilko dental floss as no others were available, and the quality was very poor so I had to throw it away. When branded toiletries are so cheap, it seems silly to take a drop in quality for only a slight saving.
So, how do Wilkinson’s keep their prices so low? Well, I would assume they do this in two ways. Firstly, the shops generally seem to occupy sub-prime locations within the town. The one in Bournemouth Town Centre is tucked away at the back of a recently refurbished arcade, next to Lidl and downstairs from Peacocks. In Eastleigh and Boscombe, two smaller shopping locations which I occasionally visit, Wilkinson is part of the main shopping centre, but neither of these towns are popular or fashionable shopping destinations, and each of the centres contain a similar range of “cheapy” shops – T. J. Hughes, Peacocks (again!), Lidl (again!), Mark One, Poundstretcher and the like.
Just in case that last paragraph was not snobby enough for you, here’s the other reason they can keep their costs down. The shopping experience in Wilkinson is not pleasant, and somewhat basic to say the least. Despite the Bournemouth store being no more than a couple of years old, all the shop fittings look like they came straight out of the 1980s – metal checkouts with non-moving conveyor belts, and shelving units that are shabby and basic. I would not be surprised if these had actually been acquired second hand from a more well-known chain who have refurbished their stores, and loosely rebranded as Wilkinson (i.e. adding a touch of red!) They also have very outdated tills, and all products are priced with labels, as opposed to barcodes and on-shelf pricing. The whole of the shop has a very warehousey feel to it and décor is minimal. Staff in the store are few and far between, and there are relatively few checkouts in each store, meaning that queuing time can be quite lengthy at busy times. Most staff that I have dealt with have been pleasant and polite, however. For some reason, the store also seems to have an above average number of staff announcements – I am rarely in there without hearing at least one or two. Credit cards are accepted in the store, although staff are required to initial the credit card receipts, which I do find slightly strange.
Something else I’ve noticed is that some of the branded toiletries come in slightly different packaging from those you would buy in Boots or the supermarket chains. I have no idea why this is, but perhaps they are ends of ranges or stock from other countries which they can pick up cheaply, thus passing on the savings to their customers.
Now for my piece de resistance on the snobbery front, so brace yourselves. Something else which ruins my shopping experience in Wilkinson is… the other customers. During the week, this is not too bad – at least not in the Bournemouth store. The majority of customers are people like myself – office workers on their lunch break who don’t like paying inflated prices for branded goods and are prepared to endure the shabby interior of the shop to save a few pounds a week. However, I had the misfortune to shop in the Boscombe store at a weekend and let’s just say that I was very pleased to make my purchases and leave, as most of the other customers were loud, rude and generally unpleasant. I won’t say any more, for fear of offending someone, but I am sure most of you will get the gist! There is a running joke in my office that whenever anyone comes back from lunch with a Wilkinson carrier bag they must hide it under their desk as soon as possible in case someone realises they shop there!
I definitely recommend Wilkinson, but with the proviso that you will not have a pleasant customer experience in the store, and you will not carry the bag proudly down the high street after your visit. You will, however, get some branded goods at excellent prices – and can anyone honestly say that’s a bad thing?
Advantages: Sells most small things for the home Disadvantages: not very helpful staff
You can always tell a Wilkos, short for Wilkinsons with the yellow banner outside and glass plated windows that are large and the amount of things that are packed tightly into the store.
I first came into contact with this store in the late 80s when I lived in the Greater Manchester Area and a new little version had opened in Sale. I swore by this shop then as I do now, but somewhere down the line it has lost its customer service.
I am going to ... ...point out that most of the stores are the same that I have visited.
The Layout of the store
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every shop in our areas have lino type industrial flooring and the shops are very very brightly lit. The stores seemed to be stocked from ceiling to roof which is not much help if the item you are looking for is 15ft high out of reach. There are alsorts of racks that take products from floor to ceiling, this could be square baskets full ...
BUBBLES171 27.12.2003
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Wilkinson (Shop)
Advantages: All that stuff, under one roof Disadvantages: As Above
Wilkinson’s (or Wilko’s as it was previously known) is as tempting for shoppers as a shiny piece of jewellery is to a magpie. Very. For those of you who don’t know it, Wilkinson’s is bit like that shop in Open all Hours (you know with a very young David Jason) it really does sell everything (unfortunately the customer service is often on a par with Ronnie Barker’s!) My first experience of Wilkinson’s came about ... ...and subsequently needed things to put in it. Important things such as glasses, cutlery, cooking implements and stuff like that. Now I used to be quite snobby about Wilko’s, but now I go in there with great regularity, handily I have to walk past one on the way back to my car each and every day and can often be seen snatching up the bargains.
A little bit of research has taught me that Wilkinson’s has been gracing this planet since 1930, ...
josarah 14.06.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Wilkinson (Shop)
Advantages: All sorts of everyday items at very competitive prices Disadvantages: 'jack of all trades, master of none'
...Wilkinsons:
You will find a Wilkinson store in most Town Centre High Streets and suburban shopping areas. The down side is that the shops do not tend to provide their own car parking for customers so you may have to carry bulky goods for quite a distance. On to the shop itself:
The stores have fairly standard aisle layouts with reasonable circulation space for prams and people. Internal signage is not brilliant so you can spend quite a bit of time ... ...staff are helpful and have a good knowledge of the location and availabilty of products Various staff are trained to given specific on advice on certain products such as paint.
Checkouts do tend to get busy but waiting time is never too bad. Not much room between checkouts for bulky items or prams though.
Because of the huge range of goods on offer, there is quite a limited choice of each product. But if you want a good value product and you're ...
bball 21.03.2003
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Wilkinson (Shop)
Advantages: range and prices Disadvantages: layout
...offer goods of dubious quality, Wilkinson offers a significant number of recognisable brands at low prices, and an own brand range of quite respectable quality.
Range of products: That I have seen - household ware, baby bedding, toiletries, gardening stuff, wicker baskets, clothes, furniture, glassware, paints, wallpaper, toys, ornaments - they don't do much in the way of food, but in terms of hosuehold items, they do almost anything you can think ... ...so if you see something you like, don't hang about as you might never see it again. Some of their items, most notably the ornaments, are of dubious quality, while others are superbly good -generally it leans towards the good though. Their own brand toiletries are very good indeed, and even if you don't want anything else, its worth shopping at Wilkinsons for deodorant, shampoo, baby wipes and the like.
Worthy of special note: Wilkinsons are to the ...
Bryn_Pearson 28.11.2002
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Wilkinson (Shop)
Advantages: see opinion Disadvantages: see opinion
When Wilkinson's first opened in Basildon I took little notice. Then my Dad said his builder friend (who is know for being frugal) said they were a great place to shop so I wandered in. Now I'm a real bargain lover, tell me you bought a designer suit for just £200 and I won't be impressed, tell me you bought 5 suits for £200 and you've got my attention!
~~~ The Motto ~~~
Yep, Wilkinson's have a motto its "Low, Low Prices Everytime". They live up to this motto in their everyday prices and also offer regular discounts on a highlighted item, currently this is 25% off all Wilko hand tools, locks and latches. You always know what's going on at Wilkinson's as they insert small (16 page) catalogues in your local papers. I love this catalogue, it always makes me want to rush down there and bag some bargains!
~~~ The Store ~~~
Our ...
Advantages: Cheap, Good Quality Goods Disadvantages: Long Queues, Always Changing Layout
I have never been a very loyal shopper, or a very happy one come to think of it, flicking awkwardly between the main five Supermarkets to buy my Groceries, depending on which one has annoyed me the least over the previous few weeks. There are however a few Shops that I do visit fairly regularly and one of these is Wilkinsons.
With over 250 different Stores scattered throughout the UK there is a pretty good chance that there is a Wilkinsons Store somewhere near you. In Sheffield, where I live there are four different Stores. The largest of these is located in the City Centre, as you might expect with the three other Stores taking up positions in large suburban, out of town Shopping Centres.
The main distribution centre for Wilkinsons is only a few miles from where I live and for many years I mistakenly thought that the Company had ...
Advantages: good value seeds Disadvantages: prices going up , variable quality
Wilkinson's the hardware shop is a Worksop based chain that are lovingly known as Wilko's .I used to work for them and I am a fan of this shop but less so than I used to be .
They have branches in such places as Nottingham , Shipley , Barnsley , Huddersfield , Sheffield , Chesterfield and Middlesbrough but are opening more down in the South of England.
The shop prides itself on it's low and good value prices . However I have noticed that the prices have discreetly crept up over the past 18 months and now there is little difference between them and say Woolworths in many products.
Wilko's stock all manner of products . They range from screws , nails , compost , seeds , bulbs , shrubs , pet food , kitchen products such as brillo pads , kitchen towels .
They also sell a lot of decorating stuff such as paint , emulsion ...
