Woolworthless

The news that Woolworths has entered administration is hardly a surprise; the chain had ceased to be relevant in today's crowded high street.

I remember visiting Woolworths as a child and being struck by just how much tat can be crammed into one store at any one time. Its strength in days of yore became its achilles heel in the modern world: variety of product lines.

Woolworths is the retail equivalent of a 'jack-off-all-trades, master-of-none'. Schizophrenic in the extreme. It sold everything at once and - as we've found out today - not much at all. Competitors in all of its chosen markets - DVDs, books, clothes, homeware etc - typically did it better, if not cheaper.

It is all too easy to get sentimental about brand names. Yet if a business is not a going concern, then what can be done? Times change. The high street moves on.

The likely job losses so soon to Christmas are the real shame in all of this. For all the rubbish it sold, Woolworths employed a massive number of people - 25,000 according to reports. Let's hope as many of those can be saved as possible. Or that those who lose their jobs - as seems inevitable for many - manage to find new employment soon.