Woolies - closing down sale tomorrow (11/12/08)

pingu

Jnelhams wrote: »

Woolies product buyers are to blame really, the overpriced junk in recent years, meant that Wilkinsons are now what Woolworths were in the good old days.

yes very true just to add to the above post!

photome

Jane_Cane wrote: »

But surely it is not a day out I would expect to buy new toys from Woolies, not something that has been pawed over during a family 'trip'.

Have you got a family or kids and do you ever touch ( I mean paw) anything before you buy it????

Debt_Free_Chick

a11waysindebt wrote: »

It does make you think who exactly was running the place.I think a good management and a reduced number of shops would pull them through.

Problem is that they were stuck with the leases. When Woolies was sold off by Kingfisher in 2001, the shops were sold and then leased back. Woolies had no option but to stick to the leases, as agreed by Kingfisher.

All the Woolies staff transferred from "old Woolies" in 2001, but there have been new directors (previously Woolies was run by the Kingfisher Board).

High leases, an identity crisis (they never worked out "what is Woolies?"), poor stock control (lack of investment in technology) and a pitiful margin are to blame. Kingfisher kept them going for years, otherwise Woolies would have been gone long ago.

Woolies only made money on Easter Eggs and Christmas, but that used to be enough to show a profit for the year. Too much competition now for those times of the year and Woolies never figured out how to market itself - or, indeed, what it stood for!

A shame, but it's been on the cards for some time.

Doobdonk

Jane_Cane wrote: »

But surely it is not a day out I would expect to buy new toys from Woolies, not something that has been pawed over during a family 'trip'.

So the manufacturers put a 'touch me to try me' button on dozens of electronic toys for what reason exactly?

If you have kids you'll understand the value of letting your kids try before you buy, rather than buy and let it sit in a corner unused all year round.

If you're worried people might have touched goods you're considering buying there's always argos.

chickadee_cymru

withabix wrote: »

They can, but they won't.

Limiting supply (of Wii Fits for example) ensures that demand will be extended and MORE people overall will buy Wii products for longer, as they will be seen as desirable, due to their apparent scarcity.

This will ensure that Wii continues to be a top selling product until the HD Wii comes out in about 3 years time.

This is clearly Nintendo's chosen business model, so that when compared to Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles, which are normally available in quantity everywhere, Wii is seen to be scarce and therefore more popular than it actually is.

Bizzarely it may be this kind of business sense that means Nintendo will stay afloat through market downturns whilst other businesses fold. By only making what they want and not stockpiling (see pictures in the papers of stockpiled unsold new cars) they have not exposed themselves to too much risk. They have also not taken on loads of extra staff to make things that may/may not sell, so by strictly controlling this they have kept jobs more secure and their money tight to their chests.

I won't claim to be an economics expert but if more companies only made what they knew they could sell (or less) and then only employed the right number of staff for this then we wouldn't see so many jobs going when items can't be sold. I know people will have different views on this and like I have said I am not an economist, so please don't shoot me down for my viewpoint.

northern_lights_3

Morrisons have got stock of a lot of good titles ... i work there and they have been fairly quick in replacing Entertainment UK (part of Woolies that went bust) with another supplier.

Games titles DS, Wii, PS3 etc.. are alright in supplies coming through at the moment.

Dsgwagen

It amazes me that a ds game is in short supply,nintendo must be losing fortunes through piracy on ds and they can't even supply a game to people who want to buy it.

Baby_J_2

Doobdonk wrote: »

If you're worried people might have touched goods you're considering buying there's always argos.

You'll be lucky, the staff love playing with the toys in the stockroom! (Used to work in Argos and the toys were always going off because of the staff playing!)

newsgroup_monkey

I could have sworn that I was on the Grabit forum.

Can someone either move this to another forum or please start posting bargains?

I do feel sorry for the staff and the reasons why the demise and everything, but I didn't think this is the place?

I'm not having a go at anyone in particular, just requesting that we can get this back on topic please?

marvin

rattla wrote: »

I think it's true that certain shops can't get more stock in WHS, the supermarkets etc as they were supplied directly by EUK (the distribution company that was part of Woolworths group.

This wouldn't be linked directly to the Professor Layton game itself, and other stores who don't rely on this distribution chain (such as GAME) will still be getting stock..... albeit not much it seems

That may not be strictly true If the manufacturer has agreed a sole distribution deal with one wholesale distributor then they will supply all distribution wholesalers with the product.

Not saying this is the case with this product but it sounds as if it may be. Often the way small manufaturers go as it saves them money.

I work in distribution for Mr Sainsbury and we have several arrangements with wholesalers for this particular purpose.