Goodbye Woolies?...

This was the scene at Woolworth's store in Tonbridge only about half an hour ago; it must have been even busier earlier on today because, from what I saw many of the shelves were half empty. They were fifty deep at the tills and people were behaving like it was the church jumble sale rummage stall. I'm not entirely sure what it says about the mentality of some of the people of Tonbridge or for that matter the rest of the country because this scene has reportedly been mirrored from Cornwall to Aberdeen. I think it's sad though that a once great stores group can fall so spectacularly; it seems that no one is safe, but then again why should they be? But it's even sadder, in my view, that, when the mighty have fallen, the hyenas are sure to move in; I'm not talking about the corporate hyenas but more about everyday, normally sane people, in short the likes of you and I. We love a bargain, we just can't help ourselves. I will stress however, at this juncture, in order to sort of defend my precarious position, that, in the words of actor Bill Nighey on a more unsavoury topic, I was only doing it for research purposes, honest! One thing's for sure though, Woollies in Tonbridge alone, will have taken more in sales revenue in the last couple of days than my modest little bookshop does in a whole year. Now just think about that for a second. How can a store which can generate that amount of sales be about to go under; what must their overheads and staffing costs be like? How could they have gone so badly off track? Where's the long term strategy for the business? Yes, I'm sad to see them go, if indeed they don't miraculously get bought out by someone on the cheap like Alan Sugar at the eleventh hour, but you can't really say that they don't deserve it. My old MD used to say to me that Business changes, and you have to change with it! Woolworths haven't....