Hands up anyone who’s NEVER been to Woolworths? No one, right? This store is located in so many towns and has been around for so many years that it’s part of the fabric of society. Trouble is, during the nineties that fabric was looking distinctly dingy, and we began to desert ... Read review
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My local Woolworths only has a small selection of stationery and I’m afraid it’s rather overpriced. Just up the road there’s a discount stationery store that sells everything Woolies sells and more at much cheaper prices.
CDs and Videos
Oh dear. This bit really lets Woolworths down. They have a decent selection of CDs but the prices are ridiculous. They’re considerably more expensive ... ...utensils).
What Woolworths do have going for them big time is convenience. They are perfectly situated in just about every town in Britain. What they need to do now is stop taking that for granted and work hard on their pricing and their image. Their good name has slipped in recent years and if they want to get the punters back they’ve got to start giving them the quality other stores have led them to demand at the prices that ... more
Hands up anyone who’s NEVER been to Woolworths? No one, right? This store is located in so many towns and has been around for so many years that it’s part of the fabric of society. Trouble is, during the nineties that fabric was looking distinctly dingy, and we began to desert it in droves.
Now, however, Woolies is attempting to bounce back. So, when nipping into the local FW’s for my usual bar of choccy in my lunch break one day last week, I decided to spend some time and give it a thorough looking-over to see if it really is full of wonder again.
I work in a small town in Stoke-on-Trent and the local store is hardly the ‘flagship’ that we have in the city centre, being just one floor. But as so may of Woolies stores are found in small towns and of similar size, I thought it would prove a good representative of the general state of the stores countrywide.
General Looks and Layout
They’ve definitely neatened things up a bit lately. The store appears brighter and cleaner than before, though things do get rather untidy on the shelves and no one comes along to straighten them up again. This is a real shame because it could make a real difference to the image of the place.
Layout-wise I can’t find fault. Access is through very large but easy to push doors and aisles are wide, so it’s suitable for wheelchair users and anyone with mobility problems.
Shelves are mostly not too high, meaning you can reach most stuff without assistance, and goods are clearly labeled.
Checkouts and products are clearly signposted, so it’s easy to find what you want.
Products
Woolies pack a hell of a lot into their stores, from home and garden products to children’s clothes to toys to car accessories to periodicals to the famous pick ‘n’ mix. Whatever you’re after for day-to-day living (food excluded), chances are you’ll find it here.
Home & Garden
There is a huge range of homewares on display, including saucepans, kitchen utensils, bedding, garden chairs, luggage and haberdashery.
Quality is medium-good and prices are medium-low, making it come out very good value overall.
I bought a bath towel and a couple of mugs. The towel was of comparable quality to say Wilko or Bhs and came in at a price between the two. It performs its function perfectly adequately and has washed well. The mugs were £2.50 each, again cheaper than Bhs and dearer than Wilko, and again they do their job and are also dishwasher safe.
Chocolates & Sweets
Woolies really come into their own here. They sell all the usual chocs you’d find anywhere else, but also stock some more unusual brands from different parts of Europe. These are more expensive than the normal chocs but still good value considering their higher cocoa content. Pick ‘n’ mix wise there’s an excellent selection and prices are comparable with what you’d pay in most supermarkets.
Stationery
My local Woolworths only has a small selection of stationery and I’m afraid it’s rather overpriced. Just up the road there’s a discount stationery store that sells everything Woolies sells and more at much cheaper prices.
CDs and Videos
Oh dear. This bit really lets Woolworths down. They have a decent selection of CDs but the prices are ridiculous. They’re considerably more expensive than competitors such as Our Price and Andy’s Records, and compared to internet CD and video sites they’re astronomical. I really don’t know why anyone would buy their CDs here, unless they go for the ‘bargain basement compilations’ that Woolies seem to specialize in, such as all-time rock’n’roll/soft rock/jazz/disco favourites and best-ofs by some distinctly dodgy artists such as Roger Whittaker, Val Doonican and similar cardiganed crooners.
Car Accessories
Polishes, windscreen wash, ice-scrapers, window sponges etc. etc. Woolies has a good selection at a reasonable price.
Children’s Clothes
Famous for its ‘Ladybird’ range, Woolies has a reasonable stock of kids clothes at prices slightly cheaper than stores such as Mothercare. They do try their best to keep up with toddler fashion and there are some funky little items of decent quality. I have in the past bought a couple for their things for my nieces and nephew and I believe they’ve lasted and washed quite well.
Toiletries
A very poor selection indeed in my local store – not much more than a few (sometimes leaking) plastic bottles of fruity bubble baths and body lotions. Uninspiring, often badly packaged and not appealing at all when compared to Superdrug or the over-priced but high-quality Boots.
Overall
I think Woolies is trying, but it needs to try harder.
Though the shop is pleasant, the staff let it get too untidy for my liking, which does put me off as I don’t want to buy stuff that other shoppers have pawed at and nonchalantly discarded in a heap.
I also think that they ought to sort out their CD pricing policy if they want to stay in with a chance in today’s internet-driven market. Ditto the toiletries, which are almost an embarrassment.
I do like the choccy section and the recent introduction of newspapers and magazines where there is a very wide selection to suit all tastes.
As far as kids’ clothes go, a bit less drab would be good but the quality seems fine for the price.
Where they really come into their own for me is in the home and garden products. They are of consistently high quality and are reasonably priced. Everything I’ve bought from this section has been more than fit for its purpose and often pleasant to look at too (which is often as far as I get with kitchen utensils).
What Woolworths do have going for them big time is convenience. They are perfectly situated in just about every town in Britain. What they need to do now is stop taking that for granted and work hard on their pricing and their image. Their good name has slipped in recent years and if they want to get the punters back they’ve got to start giving them the quality other stores have led them to demand at the prices that the internet has led them to seek out.
Which leads to my last point. I recently completed a survey asking what I thought of the idea of Woolies introducing their own brand of across-the-board high-quality, slightly more expensive goods. I for one would certainly be interested in taking a look at these and think it could be their big chance to stave off the predicted recession.
It would be a terrible shame to see this great institution fade away.
Advantages: Good selection Disadvantages: Hopeless staff
...far back over many years, Woolworths has grown to become a famous high-street name. I don’t have many complaints, but there are a few things, which I would change if I were the big guy at the top. But let me tell you about the store.
Competitors...
Woolworths doesn’t really have a great amount of competition from one specific store – it’s main rivals are probably the individual stores themselves, so things like Virgin are ... ...and household items.
However, Woolworths doesn’t always stick in my head, and when I need individual items I often don’t think of going there – merely because it specifies in nothing, so I guess my brain doesn’t group it with any other type of store – it just floats. Get me?
But I do make quite a few visits to Woolworths, because I often find that the specialist stores don’t really have what I need. The problem ...
danieletheridge 10.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Woolworths (Shop)
Advantages: cheap, sells nearly everything Disadvantages: slow service
...A town without a Woolworths is like a remote without a television……
There are several different departments in Woolworths:
Sweets/Confectionary;
Big part of Woolworths, always situated at the front of the store so you can just nip in and get a can of drink (if there are no queues). They have a wide range of sweets, boxes of chocolates which grows round about Easter and Christmas time. The Pick ‘N’ Mix is also here where ... ...films (videos and dvd’s). Woolworths have their own music and film charts so they don’t coincide with what you hear on Radio One on Sunday nights! It’s all about the same though. This department also contains mobile phones and more recently video and dvd players and televisions.
Toys:
Where not to go for a peaceful shop. Always full with kids running around dragging everything out on the floor. This department at the end of the ...
annette_tr9 26.07.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Woolworths (Shop)
...of heaven, so I guess Woolworths is my little bit of heaven.
For those of you who have never been in a Woolworths (where do you live...mars?) it’s a large, friendly store where there really is an amazing range of products. Obviously I can’t list them all but it saves me visiting; the music store, the newsagent, the kitchen shop, the garden centre, the bookshop, the toyshop, kids clothes store, etc etc, as all those things are sold in Woolworths...convinced ... ...part of todays Woolworths.
Woolworths stores come in various different sizes and chances are, as there are over 150 stores, there is one on the high street of the nearest town near you. They even have about 18 warehouse sized stores called the Big W which although I’ve never visited (as there isn’t one near me) it sounds like you can buy literally anything there! They advertise that they stock over 55,000 products under one roof. As all the stores ...
Little_Raven 23.10.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Woolworths (Shop)
Advantages: Great store Disadvantages: Not as magic as it use to be
...years.. Back then Woolworths was the store you had to look in for your Christmas stuff, all the other big chain stores had yet to hit Belfast. The main store was your local Woolies and for me it was situated in Belfast City centre in High street. The store has lost its appeal for me over the years, who knows maybe it’s just me getting older or maybe it’s people who have changed and not the store. Inside the store you have all the clothes ... ...buy your kids clothes in Woolworths let me know what you think of the quality. I head over to the music and computer games section which I think is well set out but I hasten to add that the old store no longer competes with the like of the Virgin Megastore in this field. The sweets section, now over the years this bit of the store has remained at No.1. Woolworths has a great range of sweets and you just make your own selection up. The happy times ...
art1954 15.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Woolworths (Shop)
Advantages: Good value, excellent range of products, good quality of products Disadvantages: Demerger threatens to change prices, goods not always in stock, queues can get long at peak time
...shops dotted around Europe) into Woolworths Group PLC (consisting of Woolworths (obviously), MVC and Streetsonline.co.uk) and the rest has shaken up the whole chain of stores, and could lead to the shutting of many branches and the sacking of many people.
However, if you realise just how big a business Woolworths is, and recognise that thousands of people still rely on, and still shop at Woolworths every week, because, fundamentally, its aims are ... ...to get the latest in entertainment across all media for a long time into the future.
Oh, and by the way, I do work for my local branch of Woolworths now, but my opinion of the chain of stores has not changed immensely since joining some 5 months ago. ...
craigy_baby_2000 04.09.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Woolworths (Shop)
Price
Value for money
Selection & range
Quality
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Advantages: Something for everyone at great prices` Disadvantages: Some stores stock more than others.
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I must say that nearly every xmas since I can remember I have ended up buying some gifts in woolies for someone and it is always something nice and non expensive. It helps as money isn't always there to be thrown around. Especially when you have two children.
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