You know, it’s around this time of year that I really ^really^ miss Woolworth’s

[Jux]

Desperately sadly! We’ve got a Factory Shop, but it’s crap in comparison. We used to have a Rainbow, but that’s long gone too. Woolies was the best.

Did anyone else have an In-X-Cess (or however it was spelt) or just our town? It was amazing for cheap weird stationary, Christmas decorations, pet items, that kind of thing.

Yes. And I really miss wilko too.

Woolworth's, BHS, Wilko and Debenhams

Miss them all

I can’t think of anything specific about Woolies that I miss tbh but I do miss Wilkos all year round. Sigh. None of the other similar kinda shops match up for me somehow.

I miss Woolworths too, and I loved wandering around the Christmas section in BHS this time of year.

Woolies was great for chocolate. In December I was in a queue at Woolies one time and a lady was being asked had she got too much chocolate by her friend and her answer was there is no such thing as too much chocolate.

I’ve never lived in a place which had local BHS, Wilko or Debenhams, but if I had I’m sure I’d miss them too, *@Gingernaut! So I suppose I’m actually lucky that I’ve only ever been close enough to Woolies to miss it now, else I’d be missing all of those too. As it is, I would have had to get a train to go into the city to use any of those shops. In fact, I’d never even heard of Wilko until dd went to Uni 7 years ago and was getting things from there. But I could always just wander into Woolies when I was grocery shopping locally. I miss that. And cheap but nice enough knickers.

As a former Woolies employee I can tell you that B+M, Poundstretchers and Home Bargains pretty much sell exactly the same as Woolies did.
Obviously they don't have the Ladybird clothing but Primark and the supermarkets have taken that market.
Woolies was famous for its "Entertainment Department" (Cds, DVDs etc) but if they hadn't gone bust and were still around that department probably would have fizzled out because people don't buy hard copies so much now.
Woolies has gone....but the products they sold are just sold by someone else now.

Yes I want to buy DS a specific type of sweet and can't find them easily. Was just saying to DH that I bet Woolworths would have them in their pick and mix! They were great!

@Needmorelego many many Saturday afternoons were spent hanging out at the album/tape section by most of the teens in my area during the late 60s/early 70s. I’d forgotten that! If you got a bit bored with what was going on at home you just went and hung out at Woolies’ records. If you fancied a guy but had never met him and had no idea who he was you could well find him there and engineer a chat….

We used to have a caravan holiday in Norfolk and used to take the children to Woolworths to choose a toy and get pick and mix. The pick and mix went in a bowl on the table and the children could help themselves and didn’t have to ask !!

All these shops had something in common, not enough people used them.

I suspect many of the people who lament Woolies only visited a couple of times a year.

Def miss wilcos being in town here (Bath) - we don’t have a B&M or a Homebargains’ within 8 miles so and would have to make a trip out rather than on doorstep - same with Aldi by the way - we don’t have one for about 8 miles. We have tons of ‘nice’ things but only really Poundland at that wilcos type level -

I miss it too, it had a very particular smell that I just loved as a child when my grandad used to take me there.

I remember going into a branch of Woolies when it had launched it's closing down sale and everything was reduced.
(I didn't care about reductions I just wanted the next size up baby onesies for my baby).
The place was full of people and several times I heard things like "This is nice....I didn't know Woolies sold things like this".
So they only went in when they thought they'd get something cheap 😡
However the main reason Woolies went bust was because they owed to much money to suppliers not lack of customers.
I never met a branch of Woolies that wasn't heaving with customers. When I was working there we often had to literally shove them out the door at closing time.
I think Wilko had a similar issue.

Woolworths is very nostalgic. I remember being allowed to pop to our local shops from when I was about 9 to do my Christmas shopping and buying all my bits for family and friends in Woolworths. But it feels a long time ago.

I do actively miss Wilkinson’s. If I’m in the local town centre I have to walk past the old building (with all signage still present) when I’m coming from and to the bus stop. I always think ‘aww, I miss Wilkinson’s.’ It was always handy for so many little bits and bobs and the cafe was good for if I had half an hour to fill.

I have found my tribe!!!!
Woollies was the best! I was exactly like the customer in the advert - I would go in for one thing and come out with 5! It was brilliant for school uniform and always had things you never even knew you needed. I was always very careful with money but Woollies was my Achilles heel 😂

Oh yes! They’d be on the adverts on TV and the catalogue would be out. There was a definite vibe about it!

@Letsgoforaskip
In the early 00s they came up with a whole concept around how the stores and products were laid out which was all about impulse buys.
It was clever/sneaky. We had to do special staff training on it.

@Needmorelego Well it worked on me 😀 No regrets though; the products were decent value and saved me driving to a bigger town.

I've still got Christmas decorations from Woolworths that come out every year. Lovely memories of that place.

Wilkos for me. I miss it so much! We have not one but two B&Ms - they don’t compare

Do you have The Range? I find they have a very similar vibe to Wilko and the same sort of products. Kind of "a bit of everything" shop!

The Range actually bought the Wilko name and a load of their unsold stock.
Some Wilko stores have reopened but the owner is the same as The Range.

I loved BHS at Christmas as a child. They had lots of fine gadgets and toys. It was the only time of year I went shopping there.