Wilko's going bust!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Not the rock star, the time triallist or the rugbist, the one that's 21st century Woolworth's. Where will we get our budget disposable unwanted teetering piles of tat?

[andrewc]

You beat me by a minute!

[Kim]

Let me guess, viable business let down by a bad case of Finance?

Either that, or the switch to galvanised gear and brake cables drove all their customers away.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Probably. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/aug/03/budget-retailer-wilko-makes-administration-move-risking-12000-jobs

[rogerzilla]

Thievery is a big factor too, apparently.  When you're on tight margins, scratters stealing anything they can sell for drugs money quickly pushes you into loss.

[Deano]

The one in Darlo fitted self scan things and took them out again after a year or so, I'd guess cos of the amount of theft (there wasn't a scale or any way to check you'd scanned everything).

Luckily we still have Boyes up here, they have even more of everything than Wilko.

[grams]

I knew I shouldn't have stuffed those pick n mix screw bags so bulging full.

Wilko converted the manual tills to self-service by turning the screens to face the customer and putting the lightest veneer of friendliness on the staff PoS software, which was such an adorably bad bodge.

[Cudzoziemiec]

No self-service tills in either of the two Wilkos in central Bristol. I don't know if that means we're considered too thieving to risk it, too low down the priority list for them to have reached us yet, too far up the food chain to be downgraded to be deprived of menial service, too thick to work the tills, or what. Though the Tesco just down the road from one has just three manned tills and about 15 self-service so I guess it's just a question of capital expenditure.

It is noticeable that the more central and larger of the two is perennially poorly stocked.

[Kim]

I knew I shouldn't have stuffed those pick n mix screw bags so bulging full.

Wilko converted the manual tills to self-service by turning the screens to face the customer and putting the lightest veneer of friendliness on the staff PoS software, which was such an adorably bad bodge.

The one at Silly Oak retail park has one of these.  It's a big event when someone wanders in and wants to buy something, as the staff get the excitement of helping them use it.

[mrcharly-YHT]

the owners of Wilko, led by the Wilkinson family, took £3m in dividends in the 12 months to the end of February 2022.

So, the business was making a loss, but they could strip out millions?

When does business accounting become fraud?

[Wobbly John]

Mrs W used to work for Wilko but took redundancy (along with many other affected employees) when management started to run it down about 5 years ago.

There has been a systematic mismanagement of the stores for years, skimming off at the top, while not getting restock of products that sold well. It was clearly a decision taken, ages ago to take the money and run, as discreetly as possible.

When Mrs W first worked there, staff were looked after and it was a booming business. ‘Young Mr Wilkinson’ regularly visited the stores, and ran competitions between stores for quality of presentation and customer service (with prize money towards staff parties that he often put money towards too). The change came after daughters and team took over.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I thought I'd heard it was a decent place to work. Probably not now though.

the owners of Wilko, led by the Wilkinson family, took £3m in dividends in the 12 months to the end of February 2022.

So, the business was making a loss, but they could strip out millions?

When does business accounting become fraud?

I suppose it's not actual fraud until a law is broken. But it is greed. Either short-sightedly or, as per Wobbly John's post, deliberate mismanagement.

[peterc]

Wilko converted the manual tills to self-service by turning the screens to face the customer and putting the lightest veneer of friendliness on the staff PoS software, which was such an adorably bad bodge.

I recall my first time through thinking, gosh this UI looks uninviting before I made the same jump you did.
After all, if you are being your own checkout person why not use their UI, saves a ton of cash.

[Ian H]

Mrs W used to work for Wilko but took redundancy (along with many other affected employees) when management started to run it down about 5 years ago.

There has been a systematic mismanagement of the stores for years, skimming off at the top, while not getting restock of products that sold well. It was clearly a decision taken, ages ago to take the money and run, as discreetly as possible.

When Mrs W first worked there, staff were looked after and it was a booming business. ‘Young Mr Wilkinson’ regularly visited the stores, and ran competitions between stores for quality of presentation and customer service (with prize money towards staff parties that he often put money towards too). The change came after daughters and team took over.

Idiot grandchild syndrome?

[Basil]

I used to visit Wilko in Carmarthen fairly regularly, but I'm struggling to think of anything I bought there other than dog food¹ and wild bird seed.<sup>2

1</sup> I now buy dog food on line for the bulk buy discounts and the somebody else having to carry it.
² I stopped buying bird seed when I realised it was actually rat seed.

[andyoxon]

Don't suppose interest rates are easy for those companies who've had to borrow heavily.  Heyfordian buses around here just gone bust "We just faced too many headwinds with inflation, rising costs, driver shortages and having massive interest charges on our bounce back loans that it has become impossible to continue." OxfM

[Adam]

For my bike shop, I've been buying at auction various bike related things as a result of the distributors Moore Large going bust back in March. 

A consignment of 150 26" inner tubes (which ended up being far cheaper than I can get from other distributors) turns out to be Wilko branded ones.  So Moore Large had been supplying inner tubes to Wilkos.

Funny old world.

[ian]

Churning debt while the owners continue to receive dividends probably says all that is need to know.

[Paul H]

I shall miss it, there's nowhere else locally with the same range of household stuff I buy there, vacuum bags, cleaning stuff, kitchen bits... their own brand paint is reasonable quality too.
Where else are people buying this stuff?  I'm sure some of it'll be in the bigger supermarkets, I doubt I could take my typical wilco list and find it all in one place.

[rogerzilla]

B&M sell much of the same stuff but they're all out of town and it tends to be utter tat, and not even cheap.  Best to use Screwfix for DIY stuff.

[phantasmagoriana]

B&M sell much of the same stuff but they're all out of town and it tends to be utter tat, and not even cheap.  Best to use Screwfix for DIY stuff.

In my experience, it's Wilko that are out of town - I rarely visit these days for that reason, as they tend to be on the kind of vast shopping parks that are neither pedestrian nor cyclist friendly. I do remember Chester having a nice centrally-located one years ago, but alas, have never found anything similar in the >20 years since I left that part of the world.

B&M is ok for some things (it has a bewildering array of cleaning stuff, if you're into that sort of thing), but also has a lot of tat. The one closest to me doesn't have any paint, or any real DIY stuff, either. The big versions with a decent range, like Wilko, tend to be out of town.

I miss Barnitts in York, which sells everything and is actually in town, though it's not particularly cheap.

[Mr Larrington]

There was one a couple of doors down from the Gulag in central Bury St Edmunds.

[robgul]

B&M sell much of the same stuff but they're all out of town and it tends to be utter tat, and not even cheap.  Best to use Screwfix for DIY stuff.

ditto Screwfix - or son of Screwfix, Toolstation (prices often cheaper but fewer in-store stock items so "next day collection"

B&M here in SuA (morphed in the same building from Texas to Homebase to B&M) is great for paints and brushes . . . good enough and cheap enough for single use if oil-based paint or varnish is used as brush is cheaper than the white spirit you'd use to clean it.    Food is also pretty comprehensive and appears competively priced.   

The "plastic crap toys and stuff" aisles are frightening at Christmas . . 

[Woofage]

There was one a couple of doors down from the Gulag in central Bury St Edmunds.

Mrs W and I had business premises on the same street as the BSE Wilko. It was very convenient for printer paper and other consumables (eg chocolate for us & food for the visiting moggie). We haven't been there for a couple of years but even then I noticed empty shelves here and there so there were definitely problems. It's a shame as the staff were really friendly and helpful.

[Polar Bear]

We use Wilko for personal hygiene products, cleaning products and the odd bit of home and garden or DIY stuff.  I'm planning a bulk raid or two if they're going under as some things we can only get there in Rugby town centre.