The demise of Wilkos is the first shop going under that has actually encroached on my world i get all my garden stuff from them as its cheap and good , the shops for the most part always seem to be busy but now we dont go out much i shop online , maybe thats the problem the generation that uses it is aging out of the retail world . I suppose thats whats happening everywhere , its not that people just want to shop online its that its been decided somewhere up the food chain that its what we will all do . Maybe thats why theres so much tagged clothing at the jumble sales? nobody can access a changing room anymore , so you order more than one size or a different colour , ordering a different size or two the same size doesnt mean it will fit , theres no quality in clothing these days whatever the label . So as the tumbleweeds wander down the UK high streets , painting pretty pictures on the boarded up shops isnt helping matters and i have no solutions to give .
Himself hasnt been into a shop for years , hes no concept of the price rises and hes driving me steadly mad with his wants , hes dragging me off to Grimsby on Friday to visit the butchers he doesnt understand that it will be no cheaper and it will be out of our price range still i will go through the motions . Its not a case of being unable to afford food its just that our choices are pretty limited , the garden is helping big time, but its the daft stuff , you cant buy a cheap loaf within 15 miles , its £2 plus for a white Hovis , £5 for a little bottle of olive oil , toilet roll is creeping up week by week and dont even get me on the subject of Lincolnshire Coop for a shareholder owned social enterprise they are taking the piss and you have to remember for a lot of people they are the only shop they have access to . Have you noticed the government has stopped mentioning that they allow £12 a week for food and self care if you are in receipt of benefits, i wonder why ?
Wilkos filled the hole left by Woolworths. I wonder what is going to fill the hole left by Wilkos.
ReplyDeleteFood deserts are a thing, especially in some estates where there isn't a place selling decent food for miles. I've got a few shops within staggering distance but there's no fresh stuff unless I take half an hour to walk to the Co-op with their prices. It's not just the walk, though, it's the carrying! I'm lucky in that I am in a good position and understand supermarket deliveries - and that they all deliver here. It's very worrying.
its 5 miles to a shop and its not on roads that are safe to walk on , theres no footpaths and big ditches down the sides , fresh stuff is a nightmare , we have a village hall market with a veg stall every couple of weeks but i cant afford their high quality organic veg or the organic sourdough etc, without a vehicle it would be hard work as its a 2 mile walk to the bus stop in the next village , road closures for the next 3 month mean we now have a 30 mile trip for anything that was local
DeleteI saw somewhere that B & M are having talks to take over Wilko. Our Wilko in Scunthorpe closed a while ago. I asked if they were going to sell off the stock cheap. I was told no, it will be shipped to other stores. We will have to wait and see what happens next. I used to get cat food on special offer there. Now it's very hard to find any special offers anywhere.
ReplyDeletewhat gets my goat is the Councils like Lincoln who charge £3.60 an hour to park then dont understand thats the delivery for most items is the same price
DeleteI was quite tearful when I heard the sad news about Wilko - I buy most of my dog food there - The other day another retired customer was saying that she had shopped at Wilkinson's since childhood - The assistants were worried but hopeful someone may buy the business x
ReplyDeletei hope they do find a buyer
DeleteI used to work for an academic who refused to believe that rural poverty was a thing - I think perhaps she thought of those issues as belonging to 'History' or an imagined version of 'The North' or something and thought that where I lived in 'The Countryside' was some kind of bucolic idyll, untroubled by the realities of life and social issues. I was explaining how lucky I am to be able to [just about] run a car whereas many neighbours and families from our primary school couldn't. Which meant that some folks needed to do about 25% of their top-up type shopping in our expensive village happy shopper and make the decision whether their money would go further if they spent a portion of their weekly food budget on the bus fare to the closest town where they could use a small supermarket where the remaining money could buy more, or if they'd be better off walking a couple of miles and back to use the Co-op and spend that £5/6 on food there.
ReplyDeleteShe literally rejected the idea that people lived that close to the wire. Idiot. "Buy you have some looovely farm shops out your way, surely you all use those?!". Yeah, we're all big fans of the farm shop artisanal organic goats butter on our toast on the rural council estate, Helen. Ffs.
I seldom use Wilkinsons as I seldom go into town because, similarly to the above and echoing everyone else, the parking charges are extortionate so to use high street retail requires an immediate investment of the best part of a tenner just to be in the space. I'm certain that if Wilkos took on units in out of town shopping misery parks they'd be thriving - there's no parking charges, they're open till 8, and they're usually grouped with supermarkets and on handy roads to avoid town centre traffic so working people can get all their needs met on one trip with minimal fuss. Non-local car-less people still lose out though.
I hate shopping in those places, but I do what I need to do.
I suspect that B&M/ HomeBargains and the like have done for Wilkos. That said, my closest B&M is a garden centre one and is, imo, really good for seeds (not consistently though), compost, pots, fleece, bedding plants, shrubs, etc and the DIY/hardware stuff is really good value with a great selection. Terrible for cat food though.
You're totally right about the donated tagged clothes: if they're cheap enough it's worth taking a punt on something you're not sure about, and cheap enough to outweigh the faff and hassle of finding a post office that hasn't been closed down, is open when you need it and not too far away, to return the thing if you bought it online, and taking it back to a shop in a town would absolutely cost more than its worth!
Sorry to go on, these issues are my pet peeve.
im not the only one then?
DeleteYou have to be well off to live frugally.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.goodreads.com/quotes/72745-the-reason-that-the-rich-were-so-rich-vimes-reasoned
Bulk buying flour, using the bread maker to save electricity, means the wholemeal loaf, with no nasty additives, costs 55p.
sadly they wont eat it out of a breadmaker ive had 3 now
DeleteI totally agree there are food deserts. Fortunately, we are doing ok at the moment, but I fear that online delivery and Amazon will fuddle that up, just as Walmart caused many of our mom and pop shops to close , as well as Woolworths , Zellers, Fields and many others. In Canada , many rural and First Nations reserves are forced to shop at expensive stores, as the food must be flown in. Someone discovered you get get free delivery with Amazon Prime and started buy groceries cheaper on line and having them delivered. I think that some providers have put a stop to that one, .. I still keep a stocked pantry and freezer due to so many supply chain issues over the years. Right now we have had a 5 month strike at Windsor salt and right at canning season there is not a box of salt to be found...what next? Barb
ReplyDeleteive spent a months grocery money at the butchers today but it will last till spring , huge vat of pie filling festering at the moment
ReplyDelete