Half price seeds

Had a trip to our local Dobbies near Dundee, half price seed sale so I picked up a few bargains for next season.

 

All seeds were half-price in my local Wilkos this week, too. Not a huge selection but I have always found what they do have, very reliable - good germination, varieties, etc.

 

Wandering off topic a bit, But the Wilkos in my town is just that, in the town, you have to pay to park and put up with the traffic jams to just get anywhere near the place, I think time has overtaken their thinking, and little wonder they are failing.

 

My visit was made before the announcement of their financial woes - but I did wonder why the branch I visited was so poorly stocked, with lots of empty shelves. I'll miss it if it goes, it's a handy sort of store with reasonable prices, a bit like Woolworth's used to be - but of course that succumbed long ago to market forces, too!

 

Wilko will have 10 days to secure a deal after announcing their intention to appoint administrators. I feel for those who are employed within the company as I will be very surprised if anyone comes in with a rescue package.

I very rarely venture into their stores, they class them selves as a budget chain but I find then to be a bit on the pricey side. As for gardening, they did seem to offer a larger range of products, plus they always had a good selection of seed potatoes, onion sets etc etc compared to other discount stores.

 

Wilko garden range is so much cheaper than my local garden centre.

 

I have found Wilko products to be of poor quality. When I bought a polytunnel for my tomatoes, it was so flimsy I took it back, and their pots and pot saucers are weak and crack easilly.

I find it a depressing store too, with dark maroon walls and miserable staff.

 

I still think you only get what you pay for, pay top price and get rubbish, then you can complain, go for the cheapest and you know what to expect.
Having said that everything should be fit for purpose.
Cant really comment on Wilko quality as I've never bought much there, as I say, just an awful place to get to.
Location
Location
Location
Comes to mind.

 

All the Wilkos around here are quite accessable but so depressing.
The one in Carmarthen was quite large but they've partitioned half the floor off and everything they have is now in half the space they've got.
There's a nice cafe in the Carmarthen one though and a large car park outside it. It's in the old Tesco store.

 

I'm not really bothered what the store looks like if it saves me money.

 

TBH, I couldn't tell you what places are depressing and what arn't but I see Wilko as mostly a general store selling a bit of everything and in that I think we need more.
I just think they have missed the boat and not kept up with the times.

 

It's just that I think if a place looks bright and welcoming more people will be attracted to it. I don't think a place with dark walls and miserable staff is very appealing to most people.
Yes you can get bargains there but such a place isn't very nice to browse through, and lots of people like browsing in shops.

 

Town centres only have themselves to blame, excessive parking charges and created congestion, they need to die and be buried IMO.
They do their best to alienate shoppers.
Just shows what happens when you start to make life as difficult as possible for anyone driving a car.

 

I'm obviously missing something here. If you have no problem parking why would you need a bus home and if there is a decent bus service the car parking is irrelevant.

 

Down here the council have just demolished an aging car park and have no money to redevelop the site or a developer to do it.
The town centre is so run down even the charity shops have closed down.