Wilko Collapses Into Administration

[HeHasRisen]

4 minutes ago, Resident said:

There is (or was) one at Parkgate Retail Park near the Tram park & ride. 

Can't be many others out of town. 

Even in Sheffield it was in the wrong place really, the old Market area is on its arse. 

[Resident]

4 minutes ago, HeHasRisen said:

Can't be many others out of town. 

Even in Sheffield it was in the wrong place really, the old Market area is on its arse. 

TBH it's a business that failed to react and move with the times. 

As you say very few OOT locations to match with shopper habits and even in towns/cities they've stayed staunchly in areas where footfall has dropped dramatically. 

In Rotherham their main footfall was due to Tescos being on the opposite side of the river. When Tescos moved to the new location, opposite end of the town centre footfall died, and that's before COVID. At the time that Tesco announced the plan to move the old Woolworths store (now B&M) was vacant and bang in the centre of town. Fore thought would have suggested that moving into that vacant plot would have kept the footfall levels. 

Staying where they were, they were literally the only big retailer, on the opposite side of town to everyone else and B&M moved into the old Woolies meaning there wasn't much that you couldn't get without traipsing  all the way over. 

The closure of Forge Island Car Park sealed their fate imo.  

[El Cid]

5 hours ago, Jack Grey said:

It's a shame.....i love Wilko's

 

I can see Mike Ashley buying it and then asset stripping it

Its already been stripped, the shelves are empty 

[redruby]

I popped into Wilko in town on the day they announced they were going into administration.  I went in specifically for one item which I knew was near the back of the store so walked straight there.  Presumably this is super suspicious as a Security guard hovers around me a lot. The shelves are looking a bit bare so it takes a while to find it but eventually I do and pop it in my basket along with a couple of other small items I decided to get.  I pay at a staffed checkout.  Leaving the store, there’s another of their employees wearing s headset lurking just outside the door as I walk out.  Maybe I’m being paranoid but that’s not a nice shopping experience and if they regularly make paying customers feel they they look criminals it’s not surprising they have gone bust!

On a recent visit to the Meadowhall Wilko though a teenage lad suddenly started punching an ironing board like a punchbag and then mucking about throwing a dog toy hard on on the floor.  No security guards or Fisher Price undercover cops to deal with that though.  Sad.

 

[hackey lad]

 

4 minutes ago, redruby said:

I popped into Wilko in town on the day they announced they were going into administration.  I went in specifically for one item which I knew was near the back of the store so walked straight there.  Presumably this is super suspicious as a Security guard hovers around me a lot. The shelves are looking a bit bare so it takes a while to find it but eventually I do and pop it in my basket along with a couple of other small items I decided to get.  I pay at a staffed checkout.  Leaving the store, there’s another of their employees wearing s headset lurking just outside the door as I walk out.  Maybe I’m being paranoid but that’s not a nice shopping experience and if they regularly make paying customers feel they they look criminals it’s not surprising they have gone bust!

On a recent visit to the Meadowhall Wilko though a teenage lad suddenly started punching an ironing board like a punchbag and then mucking about throwing a dog toy hard on on the floor.  No security guards or Fisher Price undercover cops to deal with that though.  Sad.

 

I have now been told the one in Haymarket is definitely closing .

If this is the one you're on about , its plagued with shoplifters . That's why there is extra security .

[HeHasRisen]

Is the Post Office still at the back of the one on Haymarket? 

[Axe]

The shopping channel Ideal World has also collapsed and gone into administration.   Ideal World was not on the high street unlike Wilko.  It is a really hard time for retail whether on the high street or not on the high street in the current climate.

[hackey lad]

2 hours ago, HeHasRisen said:

Is the Post Office still at the back of the one on Haymarket? 

Yes 

[geared]

10 hours ago, Axe said:

The shopping channel Ideal World has also collapsed and gone into administration.   Ideal World was not on the high street unlike Wilko.  It is a really hard time for retail whether on the high street or not on the high street in the current climate.

 

Not on the high street, but they still had pretty large overheads and operated in what must be a diminishing market.

[crookesey]

As an ex retailer (commenced 1962) I am apportioning blame for the demise of so many ‘Household Names’ to one area, this being us, we simply stopped using them for one reason or another. Perhaps if they could waive a magic wand and all relocate to off centre retail parks they would have have made the decision to come to us, rather than us going to them.