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Re: Poundland to buy out 99p stores

Posted: Fri 11 Dec, 2015 00.01
by WillPS
jonathan wrote:
rdobbie wrote:
WillPS wrote:What about the "The Best" stuff? Was that just a brand which Morrisons used to create their own selection?
That's right, they only took "The Best" logo and applied it to Morrisons' existing premium range (can't remember what it was called) - but all Safeway's "The Best" actual products were deleted.

Same with Safeway's "Eat Smart" healthy range - they slapped that logo on the existing Morrisons' "Better For You" range. But with the cheapo range they stuck with Morrisons' "Bettabuys" instead of Safeway's "Savers".
And now the Savers brand has returned. They must regret some of their earlier decisions now.
The current fit out feels more like an evolution of the Safeway Megastore concept than it does the hideous stuff they were replaced with.

Re: Poundland to buy out 99p stores

Posted: Fri 11 Dec, 2015 22.00
by Adders
Neil DG wrote:Slightly OT, but I was in the Stretford B&M Bargains earlier - it's in a former Woolworth's unit (in a shopping mall). Looking around, I suspected that most of the fittings haven't been changed since Woolies' demise.
That seems to be an ongoing thing with B&M Bargains - their Sale store didn't change any of its fittings when it opened in the old QS Fashion/Big Label store. The Stretford store is a complete dump though, like most of the rest of Stretford Mall.

Re: Poundland to buy out 99p stores

Posted: Fri 11 Dec, 2015 22.04
by Finn
Adders wrote:The Stretford store is a complete dump though, like most of the rest of Stretford Mall.
Won't find me disagreeing there. Still can't understand why they don't tear it down and start again (rather building a big Aldi as an extension on part of the car park).

Re: Poundland to buy out 99p stores

Posted: Fri 11 Dec, 2015 22.23
by Philip Cobbold
B&M seem to be spending more money on their most recent store conversions. They took over a Homebase near to me, and that's been completely gutted, with new flooring, and the ceiling void sprayed white, so the place is pretty much unrecognisable now.

Re: Poundland to buy out 99p stores

Posted: Sat 12 Dec, 2015 11.30
by thegeek
meanwhile, the Stratford Centre now has two Poundlands, with about three shops separating them. The only way I could work out which one was the former 99p stores was the "amazing value everyday" (shouldn't that be 'every day'?) rather than "everything's £1" on the sign of the older store.

I wonder if, like Santander, we'll see two branches operating nearly side-by-side for an extended period of time, or if they're just waiting for the lease on one of the stores to expire?

Re: Poundland to buy out 99p stores

Posted: Sat 12 Dec, 2015 12.12
by Martin Phillp
thegeek wrote:meanwhile, the Stratford Centre now has two Poundlands, with about three shops separating them. The only way I could work out which one was the former 99p stores was the "amazing value everyday" (shouldn't that be 'every day'?) rather than "everything's £1" on the sign of the older store.
The former 99p Stores shop is the larger of the two. I hope it got a refit as it was a bit tatty, although by 99p standards was one of their better shops.

Re: Poundland to buy out 99p stores

Posted: Sat 12 Dec, 2015 19.02
by cwathen
Neil DG wrote:Still can't understand why they don't tear it down and start again
Going a bit off topic, but that's exactly what Tesco did with Plymouth Lee Mill about 10 years ago - the existing store was still sporting a 1970's exterior and an early 80's interior having seemingly been left off every refit programme ever and soldiered on until 2004 in that state.

When they finally decided to invest in that location and make it a Tesco Extra, rather than an extension and refurb of the existing building they instead opted to just build a brand new store on the car park, before demolishing the old store and making the cleared ground into the car park, thus the store moved from the left hand side of the site to the right. Also meant that there was almost total continuity of business, with the old store closing only a few days before the new one opened (don't remember what they did about the lack of parking during the time there were two stores standing on the site though)

Re: Poundland to buy out 99p stores

Posted: Sun 13 Dec, 2015 00.36
by WillPS
cwathen wrote:
Neil DG wrote:Still can't understand why they don't tear it down and start again
Going a bit off topic, but that's exactly what Tesco did with Plymouth Lee Mill about 10 years ago - the existing store was still sporting a 1970's exterior and an early 80's interior having seemingly been left off every refit programme ever and soldiered on until 2004 in that state.

When they finally decided to invest in that location and make it a Tesco Extra, rather than an extension and refurb of the existing building they instead opted to just build a brand new store on the car park, before demolishing the old store and making the cleared ground into the car park, thus the store moved from the left hand side of the site to the right. Also meant that there was almost total continuity of business, with the old store closing only a few days before the new one opened (don't remember what they did about the lack of parking during the time there were two stores standing on the site though)
That's not uncommon. Off the top of my head, Asda West Bridgford (which was purported to be among the first Supermarkets in Britain, incidentally, opening under the GEM banner) did that operating with a car park that was far too small for about 8 months (the old store had asbestos so took ages to come down).

The other, less common, strategy is to buy a pocket of land nearby, build a 'temporary' store about the size of a Tesco Metro and use that while the store is torn down and rebuilt from scratch. Some before and after shots here: http://www.risepark.plus.com/charles_and_tesco.html (although sadly none of the interim store). Tesco also did this in Slough, buying a nearby Co-op supermarket which was cleared so long as it was sold to another supermarket after they were done with it - Tesco actually demolished the store behind them and started building a trio of units, of which only one was to have food retail consent. The Competition Commission were not happy, and ordered Tesco to demolish the half-complete retail park and sell the site on as originally agreed.

I've also know for Sainsburys stores to shrink to accomodate a new store's footprint, then move in to that store - which I guess is a halfway house between the two strategies.

Re: Poundland to buy out 99p stores

Posted: Mon 04 Jan, 2016 17.41
by Martin Phillp
The Penge 99p Stores is closed until Saturday for the rebrand.

Plenty of workmen taking down 99p branding inside the store, but the majority of the stock is still on the shelves.

Re: Poundland to buy out 99p stores

Posted: Fri 08 Jan, 2016 14.31
by Martin Phillp
Penge 99p/Poundland which opens tomorrow.

Image

Re: Poundland to buy out 99p stores

Posted: Fri 08 Jan, 2016 18.53
by thegeek
It bugs me that it says "Amazing Value Everyday!" rather than "Amazing Value Every Day!"