True Business- real life for small businesses

Do you run a shop? Read on, then…

As I write, it appears that Woolworth’s, staple of the high street for 99 years, is to be put into administration.

For fans of slightly soggy pick’n'mix- or sweets with a strange rubbery patina from the fingers of 50 other small children, this is bad news.

I genuinely sympathise with the enormous number of people whose livelihoods depended on jobs there.

But this deserves closer examination. Officially, corporate rescue house Hilco had been mounting a bid to rescue the ailing retailer; and puts the blame firmly at the door of the banks who are refusing to lend Woolies any more money for restructuring.

Usually, I’d jump at the chance to criticise the banks- they’ve closed their doors to many genuine businesspeople, and having squandered so much of our money have now suddenly decided to become risk-averse.

But there’s a difference between taking risks and routinely sticking your head in a crocodile’s jaws. I’m afraid that in my personal and ill-informed opinion, Woolies is dead on the slab. If I was a bank, I wouldn’t put my money in Woolies.

The problem is, the store has never moved with the times. They lost market share throughout the 90′s as their reputation as a supplier of music became worthless- kids get their music online now, and chart music sells thousands rather than millions of copies.

The sweets are still there- but they’re in Tesco and Sainsburys too; and we go to supermarkets every week for our main shopping.

Then there’s the endless range of toys and aisles of other frankly uncategorisable merchandise. It seems that Woolies was an Aladdin’s cave of possibilities, which is great except for the fact that one goes to a shop for a reason, not on the off chance of finding something interesting.

The few stores I have been to are also shabby. The aisles are stacked high (great!) but badly lit and badly signposted, all again contributing to the Aladdin’s cave feel. Woolies is also the only store I recall where merchandise was invariably – invariably - scattered all over the floor. Compare this to the effort put into displays by fashion brands: crisp, sharp, bright and cool.

I suspect that rather like those cases of soldiers emerging from the jungle many years after the war is over, there may be diligent Woolworths employees in store-rooms up and down the country who only emerge into the sunshine from a pile of unsold goods in 2018.

Retail is a tough game (it certainly scares me…) and this downturn is going to see casualties. Woolies inspires love and irritation in equal measure, like a dear old relative whose Christmas visit has extended into February. To do retail right, you have to invest- often. You have to stay fresh. You have to give the customer exactly what they want, and you can’t rest for a moment. Doing what you did yesterday just won’t do- and Woolies has trodden the same path for almost a century.