It’d be a pleasant change to see something positive happening on the high street . I guess there’s a slot available after the demise of Wilko, we shall just have to wait and see.
I’m sure many of us have fond memories of Woolworths in some way or the other, it was fishing tackle, records and paperbacks for me as a kid… happy days 
Airfix construction kit and a Kunzle Cake.Weekly pocket money gone.
Quarter of sweets?
It was F W Woolworths the Yank company that went broke in the UK, has Germany registered the name Woolworths? The Australian company of the same name had/has nothing to do with the US one.
In my rural market town, we used to have a large Woolworths shop in a prominent position in our High Street - when Woollies went out of business, the shop was taken over by Wilko, which was a reasonable alternative to Woollies.
Sadly, since Wilko went out of business, that shop has been empty.
Even worse, the shop next door to it was M&Co, which has recently gone out of business - so we have a two of the biggest shops on our High Street standing empty side by side. Next to that is the large old Post Office Building, which has been closed and unoccupied for a couple of years - it looks like a ghost town at that end of the High Street,
So sad.
Fortunately, the other end of our High Street is still thriving, with a good sprinkling of independent shops and an independent department store.
I was using a Woolworth’s orbital sander a couple of days ago - bought just before our high street shop closed. Used to buy cans of white gloss paint, small bags of general purpose compost, loads of useful things at a competitive price.
The main part of the article that jumped out to me is “nothing is imminent”. I can’t see them returning tbh. Big supermarkets took over most of the market, the rest went to the internet. Wilko lost their way too. Too much duplication for too high a price. Retail seems to be all over the place. Perhaps when the internet markets fall apart in a few years we will have a return to high street shopping. I’ve noticed cracks forming in the internet giants in the last year or so. Uncertain times.
Blimey!
You know something we don’t Annie? I think that they’ll just bodge up the cracks.
No, I’m not holding my breath on this one either. And as Bruce has already alluded to it’d be a very different kind of shopping experience to the original wooden floor type Woolies of days gone by. I can just remember a Woolworths with a wooden floor, only just. I’ve no idea where it was.
I have lovely memories of shopping in Woolworths,i always bought my moms mothers day gifts from there in the late 60s/70s.
Happy days indeed.
We were quite lucky to have three branches within walking distance. Two in Oxford Street and one in Marylebone high Street.
The older store in Oxford Street had a cafeteria, the more modern branch opposite John Lewis was a regular Aladdin’s cave. I used to buy compost and bits and pieces for our many window boxes and containers in our W.1 basement garden.
Yes, @brokenvows I remember buying Mothers Day gifts and @Chilliboot my dad always stocked up on Cuthbert seeds from Woolworths. We bought a set of bed sheets in 1970’s and I still have them.
They probably won’t return in our shopping centre, the rent is too expensive and companies are moving out, but it’s good to know that.
I don’t believe that British High Streets will ever be the same and I don’t just Woolies. Iven out of town supermarkets are going to decline. We, and many others, now get our groceries delivered and many other things to our door.
Seems to be 1960’s /1970’s nostagia not connected to real time 2023.
Nothing is made to last in this century. It’s a throw away life. Nothing wrong with nostalgia, or remembering when we got value for money!
Apart from house prices everything is much cheaper and more readily available than the 1960’s and 70’s. So today we get much better value for our money
