Woolworth’s

Some overviews

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._W._Woolworth_Company

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolworths_(United_Kingdom)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolworths_Supermarkets

Origins

https://youtu.be/A0JlIKnVIT4?si=1ktfV8DtHosxIY3h

Changing consumer habits

Obviously ordering online changed the game, but one other factor has increasingly impinged … the downside of city centres and shopping malls … the main reason I don’t go to town now to shop … safety.

For me, it’s not the carparking issues, nor plod on the roads, nor the traffic today … it’s not those … not price, not laziness.  It’s safety. And I list safety under these headings:

Imports from other cultures

This completely changes the shopping experience … wariness about sudden physical attack, esp. when aging and not driving. For me to walk into our town, once a pleasurable experience … it’s now fraught, requiring eyes in the back of the head, constant scanning, auto-defence-reactions of a ‘no beg pardons type’ … we get one shot at this, needing to disable as many as poss in the first seconds … no fun whatever.

The poisoned sky

Maybe I’m the only person in Britain to feel sick after having gone out, then returned home … throat, eyes, ears, stomach … not good if out for more than thirty minutes, plus I need a loo within range which is not public … for reasons of hygiene, plus what one finds in there now.

Customer service

You wot?  From trying to take money for faux charity to queue length, the only alternative is those bleedin’ auto-checkouts … no way.  Ditto with pubs, if you can still find a good one.

Plus one more thing … if you look at the Woolworth’s philosophy of customer selects and pays at the till … knows the price and quality are what they are, with no hidden rip-offs, plus friendly, indigenous staff … stores can’t do that now, esp. in city centres with high ‘visiting’ cultures … it’s dangerous for stores now, dangerous for indigenous customers.

Is online safe and straightforward?

Until mandatory Q codes, digital ID, all the rest of the bollox.  When all that comes in, then new solutions must be found.