Hopefully this article won't start a tirade of negative comments but that's a risk I'll have to take. Yes it's a shame that Woollies is no more, but that's hardly the new enterprising owners fault now is it. No doubt they won't be paying full whack for the lease but good luck to them for being able to negotiate it, albeit only until September from what TonbridgeBlog hears. There I was walking past the shop this morning without really the time to go in and have a good look; so I thought that I'd just pop in to see if it was as bad as some people, including some commenters on this blog, had made out. Ok it wasn't Harrods, or even M&S for that matter, alright not even Robert Dias but was it really all that bad? Any worse than Poundstretcher? or those other cheapo shops down most High Streets these days? They have actually got hundreds, if not thousands of different lines, mostly for a quid! It's almost impossible to go in there and not buy something. I had absolutely no intention of spending anything at all in there and even a tight sod like me still came out minus a fiver. So I won't go in there every day or even every week, but shops like these do have their place; and anyway where are the up market retailers queueing up to take on the Woolworth's lease? It'll probably be quite a few years before that happens. What did I buy? well, very boring, but I needed some bubble envelopes for the shop. In the Post Office, where I bought some recently, a pack of 5 will set you back £3.59. In Woollies Pound Emporium they were, yes you've guessed it, one pound. There is a PS to this story and it's a good job I don't embarrass easily: when I handed over my tenner to pay I was met with a "Sorry Sir but we can't take this!" on closer inspection I'd tried to pay with an old style, out of date £10 illegal note. So that's it, the slippery slope: I've been refused service in the Tonbridge pound shop!!..
12 comments:
That shop is just so shit
I was hoping for something a little more constructive than that!
I really dislike the shop - it has a seedy feel to it. They only take cash too which is fine if you want to buy a couple of £1 items. But, if you were to buy 10 boxes which I wanted to do it really is useless. I went down to Poundstretchers and used my debit card so £1 Alley Shop lost out on my custom. All £69.90 of it.
I absolutely agree with anonymous and their feelings on the shop and although there is always a place for a penny bazaar type of place with cheap rubbish we have too many now. It lowers the tone of the High Street which was pretty low already and now is definitely rock bottom. I hate it when you walk in and the people behind the counter are talking in their own foreign language. If any more of these types of cheap and nasty shops find their way into Tonbridge I shall be selling up and finding a different town or probably village.
Yes i agree with you Anoymous June 26 10:41pm it fells horible in that shop, it looks like the sort of shop that should be in the east end of london and i agree tonbridge is really shit now
I'm always a bit suspicious of shops that don't accept cards as a means of payment. To my mind it shows a "penny-pinching" attitude on behalf of the owners.Either that or they are operating on extemely tight margins.
The card companies, such as Master Card and Visa, make a charge to business owners for the convenience of paying by card, and also for the services they offer - such as transfering the cash from the customer's acount into that of the business-owner. For Debit Card transactions this is usually a fixed amount (it was 25p when we had our shop). Credit cards, on the other hand, are usually charged at a percentage of the total transaction- around 2.5% I believe, and it is interesting to note that some businesses will not accept credit cards, but are happy to do so in the case of debit cards (Lidl's is a good example of this).
To not accept any form of plastic though is ultimately self-defeating, as nowadays most shoppers like the conveneince of paing by card. When we had the Cask & Glass, a significant part of our turnover was on cards, and like most businesses offering this service we had to absorb the charges as part of our normal business costs.
I would guess that the owners of the new Tonbridge Poundshop, by not offering card payment facilities, are operating on extremely tight margins. It will be interesting to see just how long they last, especially once the novelty factor has worn off!
Paul Bailey: I understand that the lease only runs till Sept this year so that probably explains why they don't take cards...
No Tonbridge Blogger thaey dont take cards because these people are greedy, they dont do their acounts and they dont want to pay bank charges. You dont no what your talking about Tonbridge Blogger i work in retail so in know more than you and get your facts right this shitty shops lease runs out in january so there!!!!
This Anonymous agrees with the last Anonymous post. These people are greedy. After my plastic box experience I will not set foot in there again. Their goods were actually no different in price than the other retailers in the town - my boxes cost 6.99 at Pounstretchers and I may be right in writing that they cost a few pence more. So why buy at the horrible place and give the greedy owners your money. They are really no more than a market inside a shop. Beware Tonbridge I saw this happen in the East End when I lived there. It is a very very slippery slope. The market, the cheap shops, Pounstretchers and Robert Dyas sells exactly the same stuff so don't be fooled by there 'FEW' bargain basement prices. You may do better going elsewhere and find it far more convenient.
To say that the lease for the new Poundshop only runs until September, is still no excuse for them not accepting cards. I'm sure you know Tonbridge Blogger, that it doesn't take long to set up a merchant account that is capable of handling card transactions. Even if they are only trading until the autumn, that still leaves two to three months where they could be accepting plastic!
I agree with the last commentator that this is just "a market inside a shop". I also wonder what they are paying by way of business rates? Whatever way you look at it they are not operating on a level playing field, and as such are unfair competition for the more established traders in the town.
How would you feel TB if they started selling books at giveaway prices?
well I like the shop - it has as you said an amazing range of product at rock bottom prices including plenty of things it is had to find anywhere else. and the shop window decoration is refreshing change from the clip-art of other high street shops. Good luck to them.
There certainly is an optimist amongst us. But I am afraid that this new market/shop (as others rightly call it) is absolutely nothing to be optimistic about. I have actually had a look and they sell nothing that you cannot find in many of the other shops and stores in Tonbridge, unless it is a nice bit of fake cheap tatty Meissen to adorn your fireplace. As for the refreshing window displays. They are hilarious. Very badly done by a total amateur, which of course is fine if you are doing a school display or asking the cleaner to have a go at being creative. The brush work is soooooooooooooo bad and the cut and paste no where near as good as my 6 year old can muster up. Oh come on it looks a joke, looks cheap and nasty, is ridiculous and quite frankly embarrassing for locals. Once people realise you only get what you pay for as their bin bags split and their kids have OD'd on the E numer in the cheap ocnfectionary they will have disappeared out of Tonbridge after everyone has bought their cheap and nasty stocking fillers that end up in the dustbin or charity shop. Come on Tonbridgeoptimist - get real! Or do you have such bad taste you just don't know.
Hi all, its bit shame as a customer point of view that they dont take cards, but as a business owner no bank will give you their credit card terminal for few months, and even if they rented it the charges will be not less then 50p per transection, and as we all know that he sells some very cheapy like a pound a go, i think so not any business man can afford it. so prob that might be the reason because by the time shop keeper will explain customers what are the transection charges are their lease will be over.
I understand that its a shame about these kind of shops in high streets like tonbridge, but guy do we all know what are the rents on tonbridge high street... minimum starts from 35 to 40k and you cant even think about business rates... and thats the one big issue which all the good and posh high streets are facing,, in credit crunch and competition even big super stars cant even cope with it. otherwise for some big super stars its just the nuts to take over that lease.. but noo.. and thats the only reason why we have so many charity shops on high streets. i know that they are for good reason.. but the fact is that they dont pay business rates or at low rate.. only those charity compnies can afford the rent and rates on tonbridge high street..
even i was looking for one at one stage and i had to close that chapter just because of sky rated rents and rates...
so i think so at least that shop looks better than closed woolie,
and shame is council even dont want to compromise on business rates. they prefere cloased shop then giving out at reduced rate..
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