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Vergo Retail – the saviour of unloved Co-op department stores?
Co-op Department Store, Great Yarmouth, prior to Vergo Retail’s takeover. Photograph by Stephen McKay In the last couple of weeks, one interesting news story that has been easy to miss is the takeover...
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Photo gallery: more former Woolies around the UK (part 1)
Former Woolworths in Houghton-le-Spring Though I can’t claim to make a habit of visiting six old Woolies stores in the same day (including Houghton-le-Spring, above), I have managed to build up a...
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Woolies Winter Wonderland…
Shot from 1998 'Woolies Winter Wonderland' TV ad …That was the theme of Woolworths’ 1998 Christmas TV advertisement, in the heady, Tellytubby days when, as the ad reminds us, everyone wanted a Talking...
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Tamworth Market: the worst street market in Britain?
George Street, Tamworth (24 Dec 2009) Take a look at the photograph above, captured in Tamworth’s main shopping street just before Christmas. Now, from a retailing point of view, see if you can work...
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The Range fills the gap left by Stockton’s Big W
Main entrance of The Range, Stockton-on-Tees (31 Jul 2010) Yesterday I finally paid a visit – by car – to the former Big W on Portrack Lane in Stockton-on-Tees, having twice failed to find a way of...
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Peacocks flies into Tamworth’s Ankerside centre
Mall plan showing Peacocks (screenshot from 4 Aug 2010) I was interested to find out a few days ago that the fashion retailer Peacocks will soon be opening a store in my old home town of Tamworth,...
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One bus ticket – 11 former Midlands Woolies
Former Woolworths, Coalville (24 Aug 2010) Regular readers of Soult’s Retail View will know that I have something of a penchant for visiting lots of old Woolworths stores in a short time, usually – for...
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And Berwick-upon-Tweed makes 33…
Former Woolworths (now Home Bargains), Berwick-upon-Tweed (14 Aug 2010) Ever since I paid a visit to the old out-of-town Woolies in Stockton back in July, Berwick-upon-Tweed (store #232) has been the...
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Familiar discount names in Staffordshire’s former Woolies stores
Former Woolworths (now Sports Direct), Stafford (30 Sep 2010) The more former Woolworths stores I blog about, the more predictable it gets that I’ll be mentioning now-familiar discount names such as...
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Morrisons to acquire Tamworth’s Netto store
Morrisons store The Netto store in my old hometown of Tamworth is one of 16 sites that Morrisons is set to acquire following Asda’s purchase of the Netto UK business. The stores are among 47 that the...
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Is John Lewis coming to Tamworth?
John Lewis logo No, don’t choke on your cornflakes… that’s a serious question. My interest was piqued last month when the Tamworth Herald ran a story under the headline ”Striking design’ of unit to be...
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Work starts on converting Tyneside Netto stores to Asda Supermarkets
Netto, Old Fold Road, Gateshead (28 May 2010) Less than six months after the carve-up of the Netto estate was confirmed, the Danish supermarket fascia is well on its way to disappearing from the UK...
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John Lewis Tamworth takes shape
John Lewis Tamworth (17 Jun 2011) Following the confirmation, in April, that John Lewis will indeed be opening one of its ‘At Home’ stores in Tamworth, work on site seems to be proceeding rapidly ahead...
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Tamworth’s ex-Netto Morrisons is small but (almost) perfectly formed
Promotion for Tamworth's new Morrisons (17 Jun 2011) With a visit to an ex-Netto UGO in the bag, and one to an ex-Netto Asda in the offing, it seemed only fair to check out an ex-Netto Morrisons while...
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From Netto to Asda – checking out the Gateshead store’s transformation
Interior of Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011) While some communities on Tyneside – among them North Shields and Wallsend – still have to wait a little longer for their Netto stores to be turned...
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As Stratford City opens, I check out John Lewis’s answers to the lack of...
John Lewis fascia As the vast Westfield Stratford City opens its doors today, it’s little wonder that most of Twitter’s retail commentators seem to have decamped to east London. With 300 stores (though...
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Interview: Isabel Macdonald, Branch Manager, John Lewis at Home Tamworth
Isabel Macdonald outside her new store Tamworth’s new John Lewis at Home opened its doors on Wednesday (12 October), eight months after I broke the news of its impending arrival. The 42,000 sq ft shop...
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Lichfield gets a boost as Debenhams takes over city’s ex-TJ Hughes
TJ Hughes, Lichfield, prior to closure (19 Mar 2010) The confirmation that Debenhams will be opening up in Lichfield’s former TJ Hughes store in March 2013 is great news for the city, and should give a...
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New Jacques Vert concession launched as Tamworth Co-op’s department store...
New Jacques Vert Group concession at Tamworth Co-op (21 Dec 2012) Tamworth shoppers now have access to a raft of Jacques Vert Group womenswear brands, following the opening of a new upmarket outlet...
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Four North East stores to go in first wave of HMV closures
HMV, South Shields (18 Jun 2010) As you may well have seen last week, four North East locations are among the 66 loss-making HMV stores that will close within the next couple of months, following an...
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