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Re: MFI and Woolworths

Posted: Sun 08 Feb, 2009 18.28
by Nini
AWT wrote:It makes me cry. It is appalling, to be honest... I am furious that the banks didn't support me.
You're furious the banks didn't support you? Fuck me sonny, you are running a business and not one people depend on where support should be given. Your business went under just like many others, they unlike you do not have a sizeable fortune and second line of work in which to bounce back on so run on sunshine, your whining isn't appreciated.

Re: MFI and Woolworths

Posted: Mon 16 Mar, 2009 13.41
by Sput
I am confused. My local Zavvi was one that got bought by Head entertainment (*snigger*) but is now having a closing down sale. Why would that be?

Re: MFI and Woolworths

Posted: Mon 16 Mar, 2009 14.21
by Nini
Reading up on it, it does seem a bit convoluted what with Zavvi barely lasting a year and now some new company with an equally terrible name coming up to take over the branches that weren't sold to HMV or shuttered. I'm going to guess with Zavvi on the way out and Head coming in (stop giggling Sput) they're going to have one just as my local Virgin Megastore had one before it became a Zavvi though it wasn't more than a refit. Rite of passage if you will, I just really hope they don't use Head as the actual name, doesn't seem too highstreet friendly.

Re: MFI and Woolworths

Posted: Mon 16 Mar, 2009 14.33
by cdd
What I'd like to know is how does HMV's business model differ from the failure that was Zavvi?

Re: MFI and Woolworths

Posted: Mon 16 Mar, 2009 14.39
by nwtv2003
cdd wrote:What I'd like to know is how does HMV's business model differ from the failure that was Zavvi?
I went in Zavvi (Liverpool), the weekend after Christmas and the guy infront of me in the queue asked the guy on the till, what went wrong. The guy replied in saying that they used Woolworths' Entertainment UK division, and the major thing that seperates it from HMV, was that everything they bought was on credit, or something on the lines of.

Re: MFI and Woolworths

Posted: Mon 16 Mar, 2009 14.51
by Sput
As I understand it, Woolworths collapsing meant they had to grab all the money owed to them at once and of course Zavvi being as it was in debt to them (not necessarily a debt that was unreasonable in the time they thought they had to pay it off) it couldn't get stock.

Re: MFI and Woolworths

Posted: Sat 13 Nov, 2010 04.15
by Chie
In 1990, Woolworths made an internal presentation inspiring staff to maintain the momentum of Christmas all year round. Opening with an adaptation of the song 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day' reworked with the lyrics 'Every day should be like Christmas at Woolworths', the video features motivational talks by the directors of Woolworths interspersed with optimistic thoughts from staff and customers.

Part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzJDhtUk5mA

Part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87YIq8st5sE

Re: MFI and Woolworths

Posted: Sat 13 Nov, 2010 10.13
by steddenm
Pontins have filed for bankruptcy today...

Re: MFI and Woolworths

Posted: Sat 13 Nov, 2010 13.28
by WillPS
Chie wrote:In 1990, Woolworths made an internal presentation inspiring staff to maintain the momentum of Christmas all year round. Opening with an adaptation of the song 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day' reworked with the lyrics 'Every day should be like Christmas at Woolworths', the video features motivational talks by the directors of Woolworths interspersed with optimistic thoughts from staff and customers.

Part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzJDhtUk5mA

Part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87YIq8st5sE
Jeeeeeeeesus!

Re: MFI and Woolworths

Posted: Sun 14 Nov, 2010 03.03
by cwathen
Jeeeeeeeesus!
OMG that brings back memories! I remember the black ADS-Anker tills that they still had until the late 90's. Also quite telling that many/most Woolworths stores still had that shopfit and signeage up to when they closed down 2 years ago - kindof makes you realise how tired they had become, and why it wasn't a complete surprise that they fell.

In the section by the MIS guy I found their shiney new 'back office PCs' which they were rolling out quite interesting - especially when they appeared to be shown generating sales reports and showing stock analysis - how on earth were they managing to do this with no EPOS system at the time? Did some poor soul have to manually enter all this data in so the computer could analyse it??!!??

Re: MFI and Woolworths

Posted: Sun 14 Nov, 2010 10.59
by WillPS
Woolworths was effectively run down by Kingfisher ready for the takeover of ASDA. If that had happened, you'd have got George clothing in every Woolies along with a whole host of other stuff - it would have been a lot more useful in short.

Big W would have seemed a bit less pointless if it had food too.