“Why Wellworths” Pt2
In my store at the time, we stayed pretty upbeat, we were not going to close! Woolworths was a High street institution, we would all be fine. Wouldn’t we? There were many big names linked with trying to save us namely the then Sir Alan Sugar and Theo Paphitis, but they seemed to walk away quite quickly. Woolworths was a very complex business and it seemed that people were not interested even in picking up the good parts of the business. This is when in store we started to worry. If no-one wanted to save us than it was looking like the worst possible senario! On the 11th December 2008, jobs had started to be axed from head office and on the 17th we started a closing down sale. This was the hardest process at store level I have ever had to go through. Trying to keep my staff upbeat and keep them doing their jobs, not only knowing that it looked like we would be losing our jobs, but because it was Christmas. We were all heartbroken, this was OUR store and we felt a part of it, I had a couple of staff who had worked in the store for over 30 years and a number who had done over 20! This wasn’t just about Woolworths it was like breaking up the family. I know this was the same feeling echoed across most of the 811 stores up and down the country!
I will never forget the phone call I got on the 5th December….