High Street chain collapse sweepstake

[bilky asko]

Can't stand B&M generally though, it's full of rubbish I don't want or imported food and drinks.

Have you ever seen a big one? If you do, give it a go, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[Zimba]

Can't stand B&M generally though, it's full of rubbish I don't want or imported food and drinks.

Have you ever seen a big one? If you do, give it a go, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Yeah, honestly hate them.

First aisle is just processed foods mostly, then it's just a warehouse of mostly poor quality goods imo. Prefer the bigger Home Bargains personally and locally they're much busier than the local B&M's which recently are pretty dead aswell.

Never really liked them though. Find Wilko much much better quality, even known it probably comes from the same factory in China which no doubt supplies B&Q aswell.

[thegeek]

I like Wilko for the same reason I like AmazonBasics stuff - generic stuff, but you at least there's a level of quality control you might not get elsewhere (particularly with the stuff with the random jumble of letters that's cluttering Amazon these days)

[bilky asko]

I like Wilko for the same reason I like AmazonBasics stuff - generic stuff, but you at least there's a level of quality control you might not get elsewhere (particularly with the stuff with the random jumble of letters that's cluttering Amazon these days)

That's where Wilko excelled - I got a nylon coated tape measure from there out of their own-brand range for £12. And their Christmas lights used to be a step above many other places, without actually being higher in price.

B&M has aped this to a certain extent, but with the Wilko items it was very rarely a gamble.

Can't stand B&M generally though, it's full of rubbish I don't want or imported food and drinks.

Have you ever seen a big one? If you do, give it a go, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Yeah, honestly hate them.

First aisle is just processed foods mostly, then it's just a warehouse of mostly poor quality goods imo. Prefer the bigger Home Bargains personally and locally they're much busier than the local B&M's which recently are pretty dead aswell.

Never really liked them though. Find Wilko much much better quality, even known it probably comes from the same factory in China which no doubt supplies B&Q aswell.

Home Bargains is much the same in terms of having lots of snack items, energy drinks, and the like, so I don't get that criticism. And I've found the furniture items to be very keenly priced, and very good quality for the price. Yes, not everything is to my taste, and (for example) the bedding is a bit cheap - covered nicely with a Silentnight brand licence - but the same is the case at Home Bargains in terms of what I'd buy.

The nearest Home Bargains to me is really big - it's an ex Toys R Us - and even has a cafe. But I still remember the first Home Bargains I went into - very much a step back in time. And it's still much further away than any of the B&Ms, or even the Wilko.

[Martin Phillp]

I seem to recall that Wilko initially had tons of that Prime crap cluttering shelves which it was first released, but no longer stock it.

As others have mentioned, the Christmas stock is usually decent quality and I also have their Christmas lights which are still working.

I didn't realise just how much I've bought from Wilko still in daily use from toilet brushes to food boxes.

The stock checker by the way is complete nonsense, I wanted to buy some back brushes which the stock checker claims there are 15 in stock. They were sold out. While I could have gone to B&M on two buses, I ended up buying one on Amazon.

Incidentally I don't know the retail term for them, but those promotional bins/basket squares have been removed from the wide aisles. Gift cards stopped being sold on Thursday.

[BBC TV Centre]

I find that Home Bargains attracts dawdlers in the aisles, and their checkout staff are not trained to be fast.

They need an express checkout, for people like me that don't want to buy every single piece of tat and love laugh live signage and just want to be in and out quickly, carrying my bog roll, washing up liquid and Milka bar in tow.

Wilko did try cost cutting/margin inflation in previous years, I remember that they replaced the own brand copier paper with some awful Chinese sourced tat and hiking up the price.

[WillPS]

Wilko did try cost cutting/margin inflation in previous years, I remember that they replaced the own brand copier paper with some awful Chinese sourced tat and hiking up the price.

More likely that was a case of their own-label paper supplier refusing to work with them on the same payment terms - happened across many categories where own brand products disappeared, including stalwarts like bleach, adhesives, pet food; even the lottery.

Mad to think that Robert Dyas might end up outliving Wilko.

[Martin Phillp]

B&M are one of the bidders for the business according to The Telegraph.

[bilky asko]

It seems to be B&M, The Range, Home Bargains, and Poundland who are interested, but only one of them would be interested in keeping the name.

[Martin Phillp]

Some stock has been delivered to my local Wilko today, but it is gradually being run down with shelves removed, other empty shelves filled with no-brand kitchen towels, promotional posters and display units being removed as I was in the store.

Today was the quietest I've seen the store since it opened, yet I expect it to get busier if the Administrators start the liquidation pricing.

[WillPS]

Some stock has been delivered to my local Wilko today, but it is gradually being run down with shelves removed, other empty shelves filled with no-brand kitchen towels, promotional posters and display units being removed as I was in the store.

Today was the quietest I've seen the store since it opened, yet I expect it to get busier if the Administrators start the liquidation pricing.

Could be months before liquidation begins - BHS continued to trade for a month and a half before closure was finally announced (then took another 3 months to complete that process). Debenhams managed to go over a year, albeit in very unusual historic circumstances where they couldn't open their shops.

As you note the business is starved of stock and I imagine that situation is major issue when it comes to any prospective buyer.