96

 

blimey, i think i remember that

 

You saying that makes me laugh! Tapes were so cool back then...

 

I did, I was involved in the implementation of Amex as a payment method into the existing payments system.

Have to say, the IT dept at Woolies had the best change control I have come across, all interested in getting the job done without impacting the production systems, other places pay lip service to it or as a forum for ego's to come to the fore. They made good use of whatever was bought unike other places for example a certain law enforcement institution in Manchester where I saw 30k spent on a piece of backup hardware only for it to be left gathering dust because they saw something more exciting to buy with taxpayers money, luckily my new boss resurrected it and saved wasting 30k of Manchester's tax money.

I think anyone with SAP skills shouldn't worry too much

 

They have 800 stores and owe £400m roughly. So for just £400m you could get 800 large retail premises, with back office space, in prime high street locations throughout the UK. For just £500k each (is my maths right?)

So why don't Tescos or one of the big retailers jump in?

dl

 

Cos nobodied be able to park their precious automobile David

- No, they would prefer to bleed the high-street dry from without

 

A valid point BUT......

Round our way Tescos are taking over smaller supermarkets, without big car parks, and turning then into Mini Marts or whatever they are called. And future plans could well include a number of out of town park and rides with regular "green buses" running customers to their stores.

I suppose HMG could buy them out and solve the prison population problem at a stroke dl

 

I have bought ample plastic toys for kids (when they were little) from Woolies. My last buy from Woolies was a gazebo for an outdoor event in summer this year. It was not a cheap one, but just one kiss of wind crumbled the whole thing What a piece of tat! Needless to say I took the damn thing back. Woolworths is good to buy Bostik glue. They sell it a few pennies cheaper there. Well, at one point they did. They stock an awful lot of gimmicy stuff now too e.g. battery operated bulbs, tacky massage chairs, and substandard, not so durable cack. The store looks like a undercover privatised market (similar to the outdoor ones) IMO.

 

David, you haven't thought that one through, they don't own most of the premises, otherwise do you not think a hostile takeover would have happened by now and all the branches would be Starbucks, Costa's or McDonalds etc ?

 

Well it's Sunday - you can't expect a deep thought process, even in NSR

But I bet they own a few or have long leases? But a typical store would be a bit on the large side to sell a few cups of coffee

d

 

Yes, would probably be many more of those godawful Tesco Metro shops.

 

thing about woolworths is that its never seamed to have a proper purpose, you go in most shops and you kind of know what you are going to find inside, but woolys seamed to want a bit of everything, while specialising in absolutely nothing ?

 

Apparently they sold their freeholds to many city centre shops and they now have to rent them back.

 

Well that's my other cunning plan up the Swanee then

I was going to suggest that someone buys them as a job lot and franchises them out under a "John Sergeant School of Dancing" label

The Woolies I remember all had nice wooden floors and plenty of space so simply a case of a bit of a scrub up and polish and away you go

dl

 

Thats freaky, Steve, if your move was less than 2 years ago, I may have spoken to you regarding the web sales!

Although this thread is kind of worrying in that the company I work for is in negotiations to replace Woolies server that deals with the web sales.

 

They have no niche thats the problem you may go in there on the off chance but rarely because you intended to. Bought a few Xbox games and dvds there only because I was browsing and it must be said the range of games was poor.

Oddly enough I can see Tescos going that way in future trying to do everything but all badly.

Always found the staff at Woolies very helpful far cry from Tescos so I hope they survive.

Its a tough time for loads of companies at the moment, i work for DSGi and saw our charge price hit under 10p !


AllanB

 

I am afraid, due to their really bad Customer Service and attitude, they could well disappear.

John Lewis does not have to be the cheapest, only the best - for example.

DSGI need to look long and hard at their Policy of total disreagrd for the customer.

 

I believe that Woolies own Entertainment UK which distributes media to WHSmith,Asda,Morrisons etc but not to Tesco, more in a moment on that. The stores made something silly like £3m profit and EUK made £150m profit, the stores are not that profitable anymore and the distribution side is a lot cheaper to operate.
As far as Tesco is concerned they tried to bully EUK and got told to p""" off. Tesco said that they couldn`t survive without their business and wanted to tie them into a very one sided contract, EUK said no and subsequently got a few more better paying ones to make up for it. Tesco had to buy another company, Handleman I think, sp that they could keep supplying their stores.
Thats what I seem to remember but it was quite a heavy night when this was all relayed to me

 

Steve is Burgerking, I myself moved in about May 2006.

 

Hope they keep going.

Les

 

Good i hate tesco's with a passion, i don't work for them but we do work under them, biggest bullies in the business world, and probably a large reason why farmers are pulling out of the uk.

 

I cant stand Tesco's either, I hate our local massive one, they put a mezzanine floor in and its really packed in, some of their business practices stink but I suppose they must all do it, trouble is for Woolies, most of their sites are High Street and a lot of people drive to a Tescos and get their groceries there, along with DVD's, Gmes etc which is Woolies core business.

 

i got caught stealing in woolie's with a mate when i was about 12/13 she had done it the week before with a friend and then took me along the following week!! we stole make up, was the most humilating experience of my life , just about to leave the store when someone grabbed us as we stepped out of the door! we were taken to a room upstaires until the police arrived, our parents were called and came to collect us at the station and were set free with a caution!

they never did get the eye liner and mascara i put down my umberella!!! just the stuff we had in our pockets!! lol god im bad!

certainly learnt my lesson though!

 

Totally agree, they could do with specializing in a certain sector and moving on from there.
Our local Woolies is totally out on a limb and its crammed full of the most out date rubbish no one needs.
Not even the games and CD's are cheap comparable to most places.