Poundland to buy out 99p stores

[Martin Phillp]

I often wondered where these £1 shops manage to get their Duracell batteries? Back in the 90s, they didn't look as if they were the genuine article, sometimes packaged in generic packaging.

[Alexia]

Every night, a shady character with large ears and cymbals delivers them through the back door.

[Martin Phillp]

Every night, a shady character with large ears and cymbals delivers them through the back door.

And not the bunny? Shocked!

[bilky asko]

The real value (in any of the discount stores) is the short-dated stuff. 4 bottles of Frijj milkshake for £1? Yes please.

Ooh, I love those, but the best I ever see is buy one get one free or 50% off in the main supermarkets - works out about 65p each on such deals. Where was this 4 for £1 deal?

Heron Foods get them in sometimes, either 3 or 4 for £1. Last time I went, which was a few weeks ago, I saw some at 4 for £1.

I never thought I'd agree with you so wholeheartedly. They've sewn up that side of the market better than "Discount UK" or whatever it's called. And B&M have booze - so much booze.

Let's not forget Savers whilst we're on it - as well as the somewhat random addition of girly cheap booze in a shop selling mainly third rate cosmetics (lots of imitation lambrini and pre-mixed cocktails which ironically seem more popular with the special brew drinking middle aged male subhuman scrote type than the target audience), but their chilled soft drinks are amazing - genuine GB-stamped Coca Cola Company/PepsiCo drinks selling for 29p / can which are anywhere from 80p-over a quid at a 'real' shop)

Heron recently had 10 packs of Pepsi Max for £2, and they regularly do Poundland sized 500ml bottles for 45p each (and recently discounted to 3 for £1 with some old label design stock).

[Gavin Scott]

I often wondered where these £1 shops manage to get their Duracell batteries? Back in the 90s, they didn't look as if they were the genuine article, sometimes packaged in generic packaging.

Would you like to know what I paid for Energizer or Duracell Procell Brand AA/AAA batteries when I supplied to the entertainment industry (for mic packs etc)?

19p per battery. And I wasn't on the highest tier of discount.

When you see them in the supermarket for £3.99 for 4 (even when they do a "+ 4 free") you'll realise how much profit they're making.

[thegeek]

This is where calling your store "Poundland" and "99p" falls down....cos you're kinda tied to that. I guess it kinda works both ways in that they sell products that would normally retail for >£1 for £1.

Not necessarily - with a name like Poundland they could easily decide to be a "pound plus or minus shop".

I've noticed that the fascias no longer say "everything's £1" on them, so they may already be leaving their options open for a change in business plan:

[Alexia]

Are you Dave Gorman?

[WillPS]

Netto had Duracell PlusPower AAs and AAAs in 12 packs for £3 on my most recent visit. I normally go for the Kodak branded 'xtralife' packs available at poundland and tesco, normally 6 for £1, poundland had some 8 packs recently though. Either way, at one sixth or one eighth of a pound for an alkaline battery is pretty good.

[james2001]

Poundland/Poundworld also do HDMI cables, you can't tell the difference. A few years back I thought getting gold plated Scart's in Wilko's for around £3 were great.

To be fair, whether you truly see the benefits of decent cables on consumer-grade kit is highly debatable anyway. When I was in electrical retail I sold many £80 HDMI and SCART cables on the basis of their superior construction and connection quality, but the fact remains that all our equipment in store was connected up with bargain basement black plastic and aluminium leads and the customers were happy enough with the performance out of these leads to buy the equipment.

In 2009 when SCART had fallen out of favour on new equipment, the Ixos rep came round handing out what were ultra high-end £150 leads for free as Christmas presents to clear the stock - I still have one in service connecting up my PVR to my TV, and there is absolutely no appreciable difference between it and the cheap black plastic lead which connected it up before.

With HDMI, you're likely not to be able to tell the difference between a cheap and expensive one, as it's a digital signal, it's a case of either the signal gets through the cable or it doesn't, as it's just a bunch of 0s and 1s, as long as it gets through the quality will be the same whether you've paid £1 or £100 for the cable.

[Alexia]

With HDMI, you're likely not to be able to tell the difference between a cheap and expensive one, as it's a digital signal, it's a case of either the signal gets through the cable or it doesn't, as it's just a bunch of 0s and 1s, as long as it gets through the quality will be the same whether you've paid £1 or £100 for the cable.

Sssshh..... don't tell everyone!! Don't tell my other half who fell for my "we need gold-plated angled ones with noise-cancelling insulation, duckfeather lining, refractive sealant and a quadrative hydraxis maxifacilimator" dear.

[cwathen]

With HDMI, you're likely not to be able to tell the difference between a cheap and expensive one, as it's a digital signal, it's a case of either the signal gets through the cable or it doesn't, as it's just a bunch of 0s and 1s, as long as it gets through the quality will be the same whether you've paid £1 or £100 for the cable.

The argument for posh HDMI leads was that better cables with properly shielded conductors prevent cross talk so that you know that all of the same 0's and 1's are getting through rather than risk some being dropped/transposed along the way if you use a nasty cheap cable - never once have I seen any difference though!

As I said before, even with analogue connections like Scart and component I've yet to see any appreciable difference on consumer level kit - it was always very interesting to open such kit up and, for all the 'importance' on a decent cable, once you get into the unit you find that the connectors are internally connected to the PCB using thin wire with even thinner insulation that looked like it should have a 9 volt battery clip on the other end of it.