Woolworths: Zero Hour

Our local Woolworths closed today. You would need to have a heart of stone not to feel some sadness walking round the battered shelves knowing that all those who worked there would be without a job at 5.30pm. What began over 99 year ago is now ending. A shop that in its prime was valued by millions of Britons. Although it declined since then and no longer offered anything that other shops couldn't offer better, it is still part of the fabric of the British town with branches in over 800 towns.

Over two hundered Woolworth branches closed today. The remainder will follow in the next week or so.

The atmosphere in our local Woolworths was both sad but resigned. The staff seems remarkably cheery. It is good that they seem to be able to keep things in perspective. One can only hope that they are offered a job by another shop or go onto better things. Our local Woolworths like many others occupies a "prime" location on the High Street.

When Napoleon dismissed Britain as a "nation of shopkeepers" it was meant as an insult. What he failed to realise was that many Britons saw it as a compliment. A shop, amongst other things, is a place of service and community.

The photos below were all taken today and record the passing of a British retail institution:
By the end prices were 90 % off everything. However there was little to buy.

Battered shelves

Empty shelves

A scene of desolation in the heart of a British retail institution

Even the shelves are all fittings were for sale

Everything has been sold

There is not much left apart from the notices

Prime retail real estate on the High Street

A cold dreary day just after Christmas sees the end of Woolworths

Last orders

The day started with 70 % reductions. By the end it was 90 % off everything

The shelves that have sold greetings cards marking occasions for most of the last century are finally empty

Woolworths just missed it's 100th birthday. It goes after 99 years on the British High Street.

The slow death of a corporation

A forlorn shelf in a forlorn shop on the brink of closure. This is not a scene from some developing country in an early stage of development. It was the scene today at our local Woolworths.

Woolworths is closing down which will leave 815 gaps in British high streets and 30,000 people without a job.

Walking around our local Woolworths today, it would have been hard not to feel a bit sad. This is a shop with a presence on British high streets for 99 years. Everyone knows Woolworths and it is known affectionately as "Woolies".

However Woolies has lost its way of late so although sad, its demise cannot be seen as wholy unexpected. Twenty years ago Woolworths was the place a lot of people would go to buy nails, a tin of paint or a new lamp. In fact its strength was that it really stocked most things. Of late it has focused on confectionery, CDs and DVDs, toys and children's clothes. These are all areas in demand but they are also areas that other shops do a lot better. There was no special reason to go to Woolworths. It had no area of particular strength.

It was a tired old giant trading on its name and former glories. However in the face of the gathering storm it has crashed to the ground, like a rotten tree in a forest.

I actually heard someone in my office this week, saying they hoped the government would "bail out Woolies". The mania for bail outs seems to know no limits.

While it is sad that an old chain of department stores is closing, that is not reason enough for the government to commit more millions (and probably billions) to support a business that has failed to supply anything that anyone really wants anymore. Of course those that lose their jobs may feel differently but that is to overlook the thousands who have gained jobs in Woolworths' competitors over recent year. In a free market, the price of failure has to be closure or it would cease to be a free market. If badly managed businesses cannot be allowed to fail, then there is much less hope for well managed businesses.

On a similar theme, but a much bigger scale, the fate of the "big 3" American auto companies should ultimately be determined on the basis of whether they are capable of providing products that people would really want to buy in a free market. While I would feel tremendously sad if any of the three companies failed (I once worked for the European operations of one and my Father worked for another), they should not be bailed out to postpone the inevitable. Otherwise money is being wasted that could be invested in other businesses with futures.

The free market is hard on failure but it is the free market that has allowed businesses such a Woolworths to flourish for so long. If they fail now, they are not failing solely as a result of the recession. They are failing after years of decline. Their death is not sudden but has been slow. They are only actually dying now because the recession is the wind in the forest that gets rid of the rotten trees. Only if we allow that wind to work its course will there be a fair chance of strong new trees growing in years to come.

This weekend I felt like I was bidding a sad farewell to a shop I have known all my life. The gloomy shelves scattered with rubbish and tacky products are a sad shadow of the Woolworths that once was so relied upon by millions of Britons. There is no pleasure in its demise but its management have been the authors of its decline. Where business is concerned we should not seek to protect failures but focus on how best to encourage future successes.