Wilko in Financial Difficulty and Could Face Administration

Wilko used to be much better than it is now. As you say the prices aren’t as good as they were. Would still be a shame to lose it though. We don’t have a B&M in Worthing. We’ll have nothing left soon.

This is old news. Wilko has been in trouble for a while.

I used to shop a lot with them until they started charging for C&C. I think that they've changed it back now, but too late for me

Not surprising really. The high street is dead. I went to my local town the other day and even the Poundland store had gone.

We ran out of shops to browse around as all that’s left is coffee shops, hairdressers and charity shops.

Yeah Yeovil’s is massive, sadly the whole town is suffering, when I was a kid Yeovil or Dorchester was the place to shop before the out of town places were built and took over. I hope they can save Wilko as it become like Woolies where you’d always come out with something

It is a struggle with rent and rates and everything else rising

I liked Wilko and went there every time I went into town but they closed my local shop last Christmas so I haven't shopped there since then! I would be sorry to see it go altogether though.

I used Wilko a lot when I used to walk through Hillsborough,I started using the Meadowhall one when we are there & use the Hillsborough one if shopping around there..

I would be sad to see Wilko go,bought everything from Cat Collars to Cleaning Products there,got all my Simple Skin Care products half price every few months for our daughter. I bought my Original Source Shower Gels from there as they were on offer every few week..

Staff were always friendly & helpful too.

Wilkinson is my go to for many projects and much prefer it to Home bargains and B&M plus it’s more convenient for me to get to. I would be very sad to see it go.

I think some stores look busy at the tills due to the fact they are understaffed and only have a couple of tills open. I think that is the worse thing about shopping, queuing.

Echoing what others have said, it’s definitely sad but also not surprising. Unfortunately you can get most of the stuff they sell online for cheaper and it will be delivered

The sad side of all this is we are becoming more isolated from the world around us. Before Covid (BC isn't that ironic) I would go into town at least once or twice a fortnight, now it is more like once every 6 months! I am not a lover of online shopping but have succumbed, buying groceries, shoes, gardening and home items even though I inwardly rebel at doing so. Human contact is minimal. But with the cost of fuel, car parking and even time wasted, online seems to make sense.

Everything can be done from home now and there no longer seems to be any purpose in life, especially if you live alone.

My local Wilko has been very poor for the past few years now and surprisingly is in a shopping centre that has seen increasing footfall in recent years I think the free parking helps, always low on stock with big gaps in the shelves, notice today they have removed some of the shelving from my local store now and spaced out free standing items , shame to see it go but simply not the store it was 4-5 years back

This is sad to hear I do like wilko

Everytime I go in there isant that many people in will be ashame for another good store to close its the rates they charge far to much I worked in a store and the rates were shocking no wonder all the stores are closing

When Wilko's first started it offered different and cheaper than alot of stores, now home bargains etc offers the same deals but cheaper. Wilko's is a good store but prices have increased too much and often the shelves look empty.

I do like to have a wander around now and again and I do prefer to get my painting & decorating stuff from them. I'd miss them for that if they went under but like a few others have said their prices aren't as competitive as Home Bargains. Where I live I have those 2 and a B&M all together so if I don't need DIY stuff it can be easy to ignore

I wasn't aware of Wilko financial difficulty. Years ago before Covid, I could buy a bag full of reduced items in all departments for less than a pound. I am going there tomorrow and buy more than I need to buy to help save it.

My local Wilco is the one on Yeovil. We used to buy gardening pots, the really large ones, as they are super cheap. i still find a lot of their things cheap. Their compost was always super cheap and judging how good my plants looked it must be good. It’s no cheaper than most other places now. What put me off was them closing the rear entrance and you can’t park out the front. I hope they don’t close

Hmm, sadly not a surprise - if my local is anything to go by Wilko have been having 'stock issues' for months and months on certain items and what stock they do have is starting to be spread out Poundstretcher style, which may not be the best thing. I feel for the staff - the ones in my local are great, which is likely part of why it's so busy in there, along with it being a one stop shop for items you may struggle to get elsewhere; I had to get a new modem cable recently (for example) - after looking around, my options were Wilko or Amazon, and Wilko was cheaper!

I notice some people have be mentioned B&M and Home Bargains - hmm, maybe. My local Home Bargains is a well run operation to be fair, but it's ridiculously out of town and is actually quite small (compared to Wilko) so... yeah. As for B&M - my local is MASSIVE, but somewhat out of town, and is (I have to say) a bit grubby and overcrowded I find. Not helped by the fact it has only 4 tills total, and you have to be practically queuing halfway down the store for them to open more than the 1 till. The B&M in the next town over though is slap bang in the middle of town, huge, shelves bursting with stock, and has plenty of tills too, so if I need something specifically from B&M I tend to go to it instead.

Thats a shame ! I love wilko online ...they have great deals ..hope they can be saved .

I always bought at Wilko but their prices are not very good they had posters on the window saying 100s prices reduced but even with that they didn’t compare with Home Batgind

Oh to have a Wilko, B&M or Home bargain, my high street is charity shops, coffee shops and barbers, it's a bus ride or couple of stops on the train for better selection of shops

That's a shame our local wilko is always busy and I frequently pop in for household items. B&M and Homebargains are quite far out of town, so I don't use them as much.

I had heard this some time last year and have been noticing lots of empty shelves in my local.

You used to get some really good bargains in Wilko a few years ago. Sadly it has gone downhill since Covid. I have a Home Bargains and Dunelm near me and a new B&M store opening up in a few months. So I won’t need to travel into town to Wilko.

Wilko have great offers and they’ve brought back free click and collect. I recently stocked up on toilet rolls when a pack of Andrex was reduced from £3 to £1.25. I hope they start making a profit and save staff jobs.

Can't say I'm surprised with how much they have put stuff up my local one hardly has anything in there now I used to go in alot but don't anymore

That’s shame I love wilko they have great products at great prices

When shelves start going empty that often means Wilko's supplier's have lost confidence in their ability to pay so they struggle to to get stock which then means less is sold and profits are less or losses are greater. These suppliers could be abroad and so might lack financial protection when a uk retailer goes under.

Anyway I hope they sort themselves out and keep going.

Saw the news today about Wilko and it doesn't look good. 12,000 jobs could be lost but also jobs lost for nearby shops to Wilkos that will face a reduced footfall for their stores and a knock on effect to profits. It can be a domino effect. The government just seems to let the market dictate what happens and as yet has come up with no policies that rebalances taxation with more onto online businesses. Online is hugely wasteful of resources, extra packaging, additional journeys and much more waste and un-necessary purchases as people can't see the true quality of products until delivered. It makes no sense for the UK economy or global warming to just let high streets be destroyed. Countries like Japan have healthy local stores because that is where taxation is less and people are in the habit of buying close to their homes.

I used to shop at Wilko quite a lot, but I don't find it that cheap anymore. So it's very rarely I buy anything from them.

Bad to hear such a news. After pandemic everything is going like this. Not a good sign

Be gutted if wilko closes its a good store and a shame for all those that work there

Unfortunately Wilko has been going downhill since Covid, prices increased, offers disappeared, and stock on the shelves starting getting less and less .Last winter our local store didn't even have any have heating on staff were in there with coats and gloves on. I hope I'm wrong but I think it's probably gone too far down now to be an attractive proposition for a buyer, it will probably end up being sold off in pieces to other retailers, with some sites closing altogether.

I must admit it has gone downhill but I still shop there on a weekly basis. I do feel sorry for the staff, the ones in my nearest store have been there for years, the same ones.