Tweet
It was founded as just one single hardware shop in Leicester back in 1930; its headquarters are in Worksop in Nottinghamshire, and now at the age of 93, the company is showing old age at last as a result of the odd problem here and there, and to cut a long story short, the company has fallen into administration because no one has come up as a buyer. It tried to be Woolworths in many ways and tried to be a successor, and just like Woolworths, it seems like it doesn't have such a rosy future, and it even purchased a few Woolies stores in 2009 when they bit the dust so close to reaching their century. They didn't have a strong advertising campaign like their Wooly rivals; limiting to slogans such as "where's there a Wilko, there's a way". Even I wasn't too familiar with Wilkinson as it was then called when it opened one of the Nottingham branches in 1989; taking over an old Co-op supermarket in the City Centre. I didn't even know how national the company was and thought that it was East Midlands only for many years.
As a customer, I must have spent thousands of pounds over the years on toiletries to make me feel nice and almost pamper myself into the bargain; stationary pens for school; toys when I was younger such as a toy boat which I used to a "Zeebrugge" with it on Saturday nights in the bath; blank videotapes in which Maxell E240s were sold there as recently as 2015; and other things for the home - oh, and batteries for my DAB radio as it seems to use them up every five minutes (the ones that look like a montage pattern of baked beans wrapped around the batteries - I never knew why they did that and chose that pattern). The large plastic transparent storage box which I got last year to store all my copies of The Times and Daily Mail which covered the news of HM Queen Elizabeth II death and HM King Charles III's ascension as our new monarch, (not to mention the latter's coronation coverage earlier on this year), came from a local Wilko, and is stored in a corner of the living room. As it sold decorating and of course tins of paint, it meant that some elderly customers were prohibited from taking their shopping home on the bus unless the five litre tin which they had just purchased was in a carrier bag and not just one tied along the handles, in which a lot a local newspapers report on from time to time. It happened to my parents in Woolworths in 1995.
Wilkinson and Wilko ran along aside each other for many years; the Wilko name was mentioned on the price stickers where Wilkinson was too long a name to be included on them, and by the mid 2010s, it was officially named Wilko. I was in a local branch as recently as last Friday, probably for curiosity reasons, and I almost felt as if I was visiting a sick friend in hospital, but one needn't have worried; it seemed to be business as usual, although one or two stores did have red "sale" posters on the front windows; something which I wouldn't usually associate with the stores. After getting three items; something that makes rooms smell nice; some liquid hand gel next to the bathroom sink taps which I had to walk around the store three times in order to see them on a shelf; and a towel, I actually thought that this could be my very last visit to the store. If, or when I see the shutters down for the last time, and the front windows looking like a blackboard in a classroom sans chalk, I know that they would have bit the dust. The irony that Wilko and Hilco rhyme as well.
I suppose that I will miss it if it did go as it has been part of the fabric of our local High Streets for decades; one would put supermarkets such as Tesco within the mainstream, while Wilko is a store which is within Boots; Superdrug; Savers (which I often confuse with Superdrug - very similar store); B&M Bargains; Home Bargains; The Range; pound shops; and a lot of the stores which replaced Woolworths on their old sites. The shelves were full of Mum anti-perspirants; Head and Shoulders shampoo; Lil-lets with wings; Glade air fresheners and fashion and non-optician sunglasses will probably be a thing of the past. We get nostalgic about Woolworths; Allied Carpets; MFI and other defunct stores, and just like Rumbelows and other TV rental stores of the 1970s and 1980s are often misty-eyed nostalgia to those who remember them. Indeed, Rumbelows seem to be the first company to come to mind when thinking about this subject, as I remember from an old Digital Spy thread. And Mrs Moore cannot pay any more, anymore either.
I do hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for Wilkos, and I think that they have a chance of getting a buyer. Saying that, it is still the eleventh hour and anything happening soon will make a difference in a good or a bad way. I hope that they will pull through.
As a customer, I must have spent thousands of pounds over the years on toiletries to make me feel nice and almost pamper myself into the bargain; stationary pens for school; toys when I was younger such as a toy boat which I used to a "Zeebrugge" with it on Saturday nights in the bath; blank videotapes in which Maxell E240s were sold there as recently as 2015; and other things for the home - oh, and batteries for my DAB radio as it seems to use them up every five minutes (the ones that look like a montage pattern of baked beans wrapped around the batteries - I never knew why they did that and chose that pattern). The large plastic transparent storage box which I got last year to store all my copies of The Times and Daily Mail which covered the news of HM Queen Elizabeth II death and HM King Charles III's ascension as our new monarch, (not to mention the latter's coronation coverage earlier on this year), came from a local Wilko, and is stored in a corner of the living room. As it sold decorating and of course tins of paint, it meant that some elderly customers were prohibited from taking their shopping home on the bus unless the five litre tin which they had just purchased was in a carrier bag and not just one tied along the handles, in which a lot a local newspapers report on from time to time. It happened to my parents in Woolworths in 1995.
Wilkinson and Wilko ran along aside each other for many years; the Wilko name was mentioned on the price stickers where Wilkinson was too long a name to be included on them, and by the mid 2010s, it was officially named Wilko. I was in a local branch as recently as last Friday, probably for curiosity reasons, and I almost felt as if I was visiting a sick friend in hospital, but one needn't have worried; it seemed to be business as usual, although one or two stores did have red "sale" posters on the front windows; something which I wouldn't usually associate with the stores. After getting three items; something that makes rooms smell nice; some liquid hand gel next to the bathroom sink taps which I had to walk around the store three times in order to see them on a shelf; and a towel, I actually thought that this could be my very last visit to the store. If, or when I see the shutters down for the last time, and the front windows looking like a blackboard in a classroom sans chalk, I know that they would have bit the dust. The irony that Wilko and Hilco rhyme as well.
I suppose that I will miss it if it did go as it has been part of the fabric of our local High Streets for decades; one would put supermarkets such as Tesco within the mainstream, while Wilko is a store which is within Boots; Superdrug; Savers (which I often confuse with Superdrug - very similar store); B&M Bargains; Home Bargains; The Range; pound shops; and a lot of the stores which replaced Woolworths on their old sites. The shelves were full of Mum anti-perspirants; Head and Shoulders shampoo; Lil-lets with wings; Glade air fresheners and fashion and non-optician sunglasses will probably be a thing of the past. We get nostalgic about Woolworths; Allied Carpets; MFI and other defunct stores, and just like Rumbelows and other TV rental stores of the 1970s and 1980s are often misty-eyed nostalgia to those who remember them. Indeed, Rumbelows seem to be the first company to come to mind when thinking about this subject, as I remember from an old Digital Spy thread. And Mrs Moore cannot pay any more, anymore either.
I do hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for Wilkos, and I think that they have a chance of getting a buyer. Saying that, it is still the eleventh hour and anything happening soon will make a difference in a good or a bad way. I hope that they will pull through.
Comment