Woolies have pick & mixed too much

Hello again to the readers of this blog. Hope everyone is having a good week so far. I had a rare day off from work today and while I was catching up on a few chores at home, I happened to have the news on and heard that Woolworth's appear to be the latest victim of the current economic crisis with the administrators likely to be called in.

My initial reaction to hearing of Woolworth's plight was to feel a little sad, for nostalgia purposes mainly. Probably in common with a lot of people around my age, I can recall the early years of my childhood being trawled around Woolies with my parents, particularly when it came to Christmas and the late night shopping. Fast forward a few years to my teens and when I first started buying music, I quite often bought it from Woolies. In fact if my memory serves me right, I think the first album I recall buying was purchased from Woolworth's in Brighton in 1995. The album in question was "What's The Story Morning Glory" by Oasis, purchased on tape as I didn't have a CD player at the time! If I kept the receipt, it might fetch a few quid on the Antiques Roadshow in 30 years time.

Nostalgia aside though, I cannot say that I am hugely surprised to hear of Woolworth's demise. The retail market has changed massively in the last 5-10 years, particularly with the advent of online buying taking away a lot of customers in what were traditionally Woolies' core product areas, namely CDs, books and DVDs (or VHS previously), while other items that they sell can just as easily be bought elsewhere on the High Street, often for greater value for money, such as greetings cards, children's toys and kitchen utensils.

Woolworth's as far as I am aware has never had an online presence, or if they have, they certainly haven't publicised it. They may feel that they didn't need one, but when you look around, many of the products they sell are often easily available via the Internet. "Clicks and mortar" businesses like Amazon and Play.com are now well established and there is no longer a prevalent stigma attached to ordering online, as there are now far more secure transaction sites and the "Watchdog stories" of consumers ordering goods online and them never turning up are few and far between, even if I do have an amusing experience to recall of a botched delivery of fancy dress goods. I'll elaborate on that another time. Back on topic though, not only do these goods get despatched swiftly, but they also are invariably cheaper to purchase online rather than buying in the High Street. Unless a customer wants to have the product instantaneously, they are prepared to wait 2-3 days given that they will save a pound or two in the process.

Because people as a rule lead more hectic and pressurised schedules now compared to, say, 15-20 years ago and so many striving to find that elusive work-life balance, convenience becomes more important when it comes to making purchasing decisions. This is where supermarkets have been particularly savvy in the last few years. Tesco's, Sainsbury's and ASDA have all realised that they can stock a selection of other products that they haven't traditionally sold in their supermarkets as an added extra to their core products. So, when people go to Tesco's or Sainsbury's to do their weekly or twice weekly shop, they can load their trolley with all the groceries as per usual, but can also grab a new paperback, a DVD of a film they have been meaning to buy for ages or a chart CD from the bargain bucket. Supermarkets usually have a car park and so the heavy bags can be deposited in the boot of the car, rather than carry a bulky bag around the shopping centre.

The thing is that all of these supermarkets realise what their core product is, namely groceries, but they have carefully chosen the product lines to go down. So Tesco's, Sainsbury's etc. will have in stock the current chart CDs and DVDs as well as a selection of discount CDs for popular artists. This is not far removed from Woolworth's original line of thinking so far as product lines go, but from what I have observed of their retail outlets in the past few years, their product and brand positioning has become more and more confused, so that their customers don't really know what to expect. The shop that has always been known for its Pick & Mix confectionery has pick and mixed rather too much with its other products.

If you were to ask 100 people in the street what WH Smith primarily sold, although it sells stationery, magazines, greetings cards and CDs, most people I would expect will identify it as a book shop. Ask 100 people in the street what Boots primarily sold, although it sells items for the home, photography material and DVDs, most people are going to identify it as a chemist/toiletry seller. Ask 100 people in the street what Woolworth's primarily sells and I think you would get a mix of answers. Some would say CDs, some confectionery, others might say toys.

This I think is symptomatic of the difficulty Woolworth's has now got itself into. People don't quite know what Woolworth's sell, they believe they can get the products for a better price elsewhere and often for better quality and so people either buy these products online, from specialist chains, or as mentioned a couple of paragraphs up, they buy them when doing the weekly supermarket shop.

I recently visited the Woolworth's store in Croydon while on my lunch break. I did not go in for any particular purpose other than to browse the CDs, just to kill a few minutes time before walking back down to the office. That few minutes had been pretty much killed just trying to find the location of the CDs. They were right at the back of the shop and the store had no signs up saying where anything was.

I've heard it said that there is a saying in retail that "placement is everything" and this particularly relates to where items are located within a shop. What struck me about the Woolworth's I visited in Croydon was how shoddy the layout was and also how narrow the gangways were. Although the shop was not overly busy when I was there, it was noticeable that quite a few people who were in the shop at the time were mothers who were pushing buggies or who were accompanied by young children. It can't be a lot of fun for them having to negotiate the tight aisles around Woolworth's in search of what they went in for. It would make sense for Woolworth's to put items such as toys and children's clothes near the front of the shop so that there is less distance for parents and their children to travel, yet these items are often towards the back of the shops.

The layout in Woolworth's is a nightmare, possibly only Boots and Superdrug can compare for their dishevelled layouts. I think much of this is down to their overinflated product range, meaning that shelf space is at a premium and also the placement strategies get rather blurred. Woolworth's have a whole section of their stores devoted to crockery and home/garden equipment and tools, yet these do not seem to sell well. They take up a lot of space and do not generate much revenue. It is true that places like Next and TK Maxx have sections that sell similar products but they take up a relatively small amount of the store and really they are novelty products at those stores. Ultimately, they both know that their stores are clothing outlets and so the clothes take up the lion's share of the store. People go into Woolworth's to get something relatively simple, say a pack of batteries, but by the time they have found them, they have forgotten what they went in for.

Then there's the staff. I remember Jasper Carrott once remarked in one of his live stand-up shows that people working in Woolworth's were "people who had failed the Argos test". Obviously, you can generalise too much and there are plenty of staff who work for them who are very good. But I can recall certainly a couple of occasions where I've shopped at one of their stores and found their staff unhelpful either in their manner or by virtue of the fact they didn't seem to have a clue about what they were selling. On one occasion, I went to the counter to buy a new CD. After several minutes of the checkout staff person opening and closing every drawer behind the counter I presumed in search of the elusive CD and them ringing the bell for another staff member to go and look out the back, I was informed that I could not buy the item I wanted because "they had run out of display cases". Way to go Woolies, I just went down the road and bought the same CD from HMV for the same price. On at least one other occasion, I've been to buy goods from their shop, got to the counter and been told they have sold out, with no-one having put up a sign to say they are temporarily out of stock.

While other shops have adopted a more professional manner to dealing with their customers, Woolworth's have not moved with the times. Those DVD/CD drawers behind the counter are a classic example. Do you ever get the impression that there isn't exactly a semblance of organisation to what items are likely to be in what drawer? You would think that if you are going to stop people from buying the items that are on the display shelves, the replica items that could be bought would be catalogued by some reasonable means of organisation, such as alphabetical order of artist/movie etc. Yet, given the way that shop assistants go tearing through the drawers when they are serving you, that would suggest that such a filing system is not widely used.

It is also noticeable how few tills seem to be in operation in their stores. Back in the days, they would have tills for the CDs/DVDs, a till for lottery tickets, a till for the stationery and confectionery and then another till for toys, clothing and books etc. Now, you are likely to have one set of tills in the store which has a queuing system much like the one in a bank or post office, which is fair enough if all the tills are manned, but often I've noticed there can be only 2 or 3 tills open at any one time.

Times have changed so far as retail and business goes and Woolworth's seemingly have not adjusted to this, they have not been proactive to the market and their consumer's needs. Consequently, consumers are taking their custom elsewhere where they can buy any of the products they are likely to find in Woolworth's, they are likely to find them quicker because the shop signs are better, and they are likely to get better customer service. Everyone else has moved on but Woolies have not done so, meaning they get plenty of window shoppers but plenty of people leaving their shops empty handed.

So while it will be sad to see a major name disappear from the High Street, the powers that be at Woolworth's only have themselves to blame for their plight. I cannot see anyone stepping in to save the organisation because it is a business model that is going to be nigh impossible to turn around. It would require almost a complete brand and product overhaul and for any potential investor, it is hard to see what the return on their investment would be for the significant amount of work they would need to bring about. So get in quick because the days of Pick & Mix are going to be numbered.