General Chat

The battle of the pound stores? It was really interesting telling about the battle to become UK's top pound store. The battle being between the 99p store, Poundland and Pound World. I am not sure if the family owned 99p store was Indian or Arabic owned as I missed that but the owner's name was Hussein, he does spot checks on his stores (one of them) every week and never lets them know when he is visiting, his stores are second most popular. Poundworld is American owned and is top at the moment, Poundland is owned by a family up north somewhere and is opening many new stores each week.

The programme showed how they sourced their goods and trained their staff and the Poundland staff seemed to be particularly well motivated.

Much of the stock is bancrupt stock, some sourced from China, some from America.

It was interesting. Gloucester has one of each of these stores, some people are really snobby about them but you would be surprised what they sell if you never go in them. One of them had packs of four tins of Heinz beans for £1.

I did Ann :-) Dan called down from his room that it was on, just as I was about to call up to tell him lol, anything to do with retail is of interest to us both :-D

I must admit I avoid the local Poundland, because they had a mouse infestation a couple of years back, which I recognised ( from the smell) before they did anything about it. I just can't bring myself to buy anything from there in the food line 'just in case'. But it, and the 99p store that opened last year in the centre are always packed.

We don't usually buy food as we go in on the bus and it would be heavy to carry, but we do buy electrical/IT bits, stationery, craft things, all sorts of things that you'd buy in a hardware store. Also garden stuff. It is my OH's favourite shop as he loves a bargain. We tend not to use the 99p store as it is usually too crowded with long queues to get out. Although he loves a bargain, he hates queuing :-D

There was another programme recently about these stores.

It seems you have to be a bit canny because some things may not be the bargain they seem.

I don't go in them much because I always come out with things I don't need which kind of negates the savings I make on the things I do do.

ib all my cleaning products there
saves a fortune on supermarket prices :-D

and baby satan loves them shops

I watched this programme and the other one Sharron is talking about.....

I know the weights and size of alot of the items have come into question on the likes of these stores.......

I was brought up on a market stall infact Dad still does it and it is hard hard work and many long hours, competiveness is always there wether it be from a shop or another market stall .....Compettion is healthy so Dad says :-)

I do go in shops and was amazed at some of items for the cost....when you think at the beginning of the buying the item can actually cost less than 30p before shipping.....

Yes, I saw that when they were showing them buying the stuff from China and America. The fellow from the 99p shop mentioned about sizes when referring to After Eights and that he only sold the smallest size. I think, as long as you realise that and realise you are still getting a bargain it doesn't matter.
We do still have two markets and a farmers market in Gloucester. One of the markets is indoors and all week, the others outdoors and once a week.

There have been disparaging remarks about Gloucester and the number of pound shops and charity shops. But I will give you three guesses (you will probably only need one) as to which shops are thriving. Oh and upmarket Cheltenham has its fair share of both too.

Ann the 99p shops are owned by an Indian family. When I was able to go out and about, I used to find certain cleaning materials, Imperial Leather soap, shampoos and cold cures all greatly reduced but same size as supermarket.

There was a show on about 4 weeks ago about the sizing of the 'bargains and in many cases it was in fact cheaper to buy the bigger sizes from any leading supermarket, but for many of us it is all in the phsycology (sorry know thats spelt wrong!) it looks like a bargain so we are programmed to believe it is.

:-(

As I say it is more to do with weight and the mount of items being sold, You can find certain things that are such a bargain they cannot be missed, I for one like Joy said the likes of the cleaning products are amazing value, but if you were to look at the likes of foods you have to look closley at the weight...

I.e Crisps ( certain ones) all same packaging , looks the same but has one less packet of crisp inside, the weight is different but for someone just looking at the packaging they think they then have a bargain.....

Lets just say there are certain tricks of the trade

Sometimes it may also be about available cash, or, if not in a car, how much can be carried. But, as I said we don't usually buy groceries.

Totally agree with you Ann....especially if shopping for one or two people its ideal