Metropol

bilky asko wrote:

robschneider wrote:These are what I'm talking about... http://www.ramarketing.co/products.html

This is what I'm talking about:

I wonder exactly how big a market for a 96 hour deodorant there is? Would someone who thinks it acceptable to not wash for 4 days be the sort of person likely to wear deodorant?

Apart from people who may enjoy outdoor pursuits, I'd say most people treat it as simply a way to compare the effectiveness of various anti-perspirants.

Ask Dave Gorman.

Alexia wrote:Ask Dave Gorman.

Oh, him? He reminds me too much of Welsh railway workers.

bilky asko wrote:

Alexia wrote:Ask Dave Gorman.

Oh, him? He reminds me too much of Welsh railway workers.

Don't know any of them. Plus not many sideburns on the railway any more.

99p Stores in Penge has Woolworths style 'STORE CLOSING' and 'EVERYTHING MUST GO' signs up.

Now either Poundland want a clean slate by closing the store before a refit and rebranding exercise or are closing shops. Penge doesn't currently have a Poundland.

Martin Phillp wrote:99p Stores in Penge has Woolworths style 'STORE CLOSING' and 'EVERYTHING MUST GO' signs up.

Now either Poundland want a clean slate by closing the store before a refit and rebranding exercise or are closing shops. Penge doesn't currently have a Poundland.

At Paignton the 99p store was rebranded to a Poundland overnight a few months ago (not long after it got the updated 99p store branding either).

At Torquay there are still both a 99p store and a Poundland within 30 seconds walk of each other. Personally I reckon the Poundland will eventually close and the 99p store will be rebranded since the latter only opened last year (in the old HMV unit) and so will likely have a lease harder to dispose of than the Poundland which has been in the old Woolworths unit since 2009/10ish.

I had a look at the 99p Stores store finder and they're showing existing stores and converted Poundland stores of which there are three in a ten mile radius from me.

After asking locally, it appears Penge will have a refit and rebrand in January after trading for Christmas, although apparently the refit will take a week, rather than overnight. (It's an ex Woolies with not a lot of TLC given since 99p Stores took over).

Martin Phillp wrote:I had a look at the 99p Stores store finder and they're showing existing stores and converted Poundland stores of which there are three in a ten mile radius from me.

After asking locally, it appears Penge will have a refit and rebrand in January after trading for Christmas, although apparently the refit will take a week, rather than overnight. (It's an ex Woolies with not a lot of TLC given since 99p Stores took over).

Penge evidently ranks more highly on their store estate to be treated to a refit then...Paignton was the same deal, an ex-Woolies, the 99p store 'refit' was nothing more than a new sign, hacking the Woolworths logo off the door handles, and bringing in new racking and till pods, otherwise it's still an early-90's Woolworths shop fit (they even still have bits of Woolworths turquoise and the tatty old Woolworths laminate floor which had seen better days even before Woolies shut).

When converting to Poundland they literally just replaced the sign and any other visible branding, then knocked everything up by a penny and re-opened with no other improvements to the store. It was all done overnight (actually a Sunday afternoon IIRC)

cwathen wrote:Penge evidently ranks more highly on their store estate to be treated to a refit then...Paignton was the same deal, an ex-Woolies, the 99p store 'refit' was nothing more than a new sign, hacking the Woolworths logo off the door handles, and bringing in new racking and till pods, otherwise it's still an early-90's Woolworths shop fit (they even still have bits of Woolworths turquoise and the tatty old Woolworths laminate floor which had seen better days even before Woolies shut).

When converting to Poundland they literally just replaced the sign and any other visible branding, then knocked everything up by a penny and re-opened with no other improvements to the store. It was all done overnight (actually a Sunday afternoon IIRC)

That's interesting, thanks. I'd wondered for a while how this was going to play out.

The main wave of Woolies-to-Poundland conversions were done to a very high standard, with units almost stripped back to the brickwork. Sometimes even the Woolies metal window & door frames were replaced with UPVC ones in the Poundland green, seemingly just for aesthetic reasons. But, as you say, the Woolies-to-99p Stores conversions were done on an absolute shoestring. Even now, some have remnants of Woolies in place like the 'Staff Only' signs on the doors.

So it's surprising to learn that Poundland aren't converting 99p Stores to the usual Poundland standard.

I wonder if the actual stock was changed in the Paignton store, or whether they continued selling 99p Stores own-brand stock*, or what remains of it, for £1.00?

*(it's all "phantom" branding but is recognisable by the NN4 4DB postcode on the back; Poundland's is B2 2FQ)

I'd honestly never noticed the quality of the Woolworths > Poundland refits until you mentioned it! In my mind I'd jumped to the conclusion that when they converted the one in Ipswich they didn't do it that well, but thinking about it (and looking at it on Google Maps), the only reason you'd know it used to be a Woolworths was if you knew there used to be a Woolworths there! In comparison, when 99p stores replaced QD, whilst they did repaint the window borders in blue, the till pods are just repainted versions of what QD had, around the back where there's a small car park the windows that QD had covered up still have the QD logo on them, the bit above the logo on the shopfront is still QD red, and where QD used to have those half-door sized swingy barriers to stop people leaving through the entrance, they've simply removed the door-bit of the barrier, but the pole thing that the door-bit was attached to is still there.