Poundworld

[Mick F]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44891786
Yet another chain store dying.

[pete75]

Most of what they sell is imported from the far east. At a quid a time their business model must be low margins and high volumes. In the last two years the value of the pound has fallen about 10% against the Chinese yuan. That must hit margins hard when you are selling at a fixed price. The demise of Poundworld may well help Poundland to survive though.

[PDQ Mobile]

Most of what they sell is imported from the far east. At a quid a time their business model must be low margins and high volumes. In the last two years the value of the pound has fallen about 10% against the Chinese yuan. That must hit margins hard when you are selling at a fixed price. The demise of Poundworld may well help Poundland to survive though.

Call it Guinea World?

[richardfm]

Most of what they sell is imported from the far east. At a quid a time their business model must be low margins and high volumes. In the last two years the value of the pound has fallen about 10% against the Chinese yuan. That must hit margins hard when you are selling at a fixed price. The demise of Poundworld may well help Poundland to survive though.

Call it Guinea World?

If they called it Guinea World they would be drastically reducing their customer base. Everyone knows what a pound is but I doubt if many people under 50 know what a Guinea is

[PDQ Mobile]

If they called it Guinea World they would be drastically reducing their customer base. Everyone knows what a pound is but I doubt if many people under 50 know what a Guinea is

It still exists actually.
In horse racing and in some sales of rams and bulls.
It was the (pete's post) 10% devaluation against the Yen that made me think of it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_(coin)

[pete75]

If they called it Guinea World they would be drastically reducing their customer base. Everyone knows what a pound is but I doubt if many people under 50 know what a Guinea is

It still exists actually.
In horse racing and in some sales of rams and bulls.
It was the (pete's post) 10% devaluation against the Yen that made me think of it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_(coin)

Yep the 1000 and 2000 Guineas are two of the big five classics.

[al_yrpal]

I guess the demise of the £ stores opens things up for the likes of B&M, Smythes Toys, The Range, and in Cornwall Chris Pattons favourite shop - Trago Mills!

The people who are running £ shops dont seem to have the nouse to transmogrify themselves into businesses that remain cheap and make business sense. The daft thing is that the market still exists but the price point needs to be edged up for the businesses to survive. Its like all these failing restaurant chains - there is just too many of them, they kill one another. Personally I would rebrand as Quid+ and offer a better and wider range of stuff. You could mark cheap stuff with a £ symbol and the more expensive stuff with £+. The wider range of better quality stuff would draw people in just out of curiosity. Hard to believe the folk running these businesses have so little imagination.

Al

[PH]

It's hard to work out what those who started these businesses thought would eventually happen. Surely they didn't think they could maintain a range of pound items forever. Yet there doesn't seem to have been any plan to do anything else. Maybe there was so much money to be made while the going was good and they had no regard for the future. Now there's 5,000 people out of work.
I've been in a couple of such shops and bought some useful stuff, the majority of customers were buying multiple items. If it was my business it'd be called "Four for a Fiver" that ought to cover a few extra years, though when Brexit bites all bets are off.

[Cyril Haearn]

A lot of items could have been made smaller so they could still sell for a pound

[mjr]

If they called it Guinea World they would be drastically reducing their customer base. Everyone knows what a pound is but I doubt if many people under 50 know what a Guinea is

Type of furry pig, i'n't it?

[pete75]

A lot of items could have been made smaller so they could still sell for a pound

What like Brexit Toblerones???

[Cyril Haearn]

A lot of items could have been made smaller so they could still sell for a pound

What like Brexit Toblerones???

All sorts of things, socks could be shorter, cycle locks flimsier etc etc

[pete75]

A lot of items could have been made smaller so they could still sell for a pound

What like Brexit Toblerones???

All sorts of things, socks could be shorter, cycle locks flimsier etc etc

Nah you couldn't make Poundworld cycle locks any flimsier.

[Tiberius]

Just thinking about this thread......

My daughter has just sent me a text re the Poundworld closing down sale (Halifax West Yorks)

Apparently you could fill a basket for £4.00 or a trolley for £10.00

She said that it was utter carnage !!!.......

[Cyril Haearn]

Plenty of businesses are successful for a while and later disappear completely, I think *luck* is more important in business than one might suppose. Surely poundland could have spent some money on con-sultants to research the future

Did it have a store in Poundbury BTW?

Think of ratner who talked down his cheap jewellery, woolworth, schlecker drugstore in Germany had thousands of stores, when I saw some places with a schlecker but no foodstore I started to worry, now all the stores are closed
There are two more upmarket drugstore chains now, both expanding, will it end in tears? They do have half-decent cycle locks & bells

There must be some businesses that have gone and been largely forgotten, think of the hundreds of former yhas

Book shops and bike shops close and new ones open