This is the tale of the first Poundland that has set up shop anywhere near where I live. Just before Christmas, the popular budget shopping chain set up a Christmas version of their store. I presume it was to test out whether or not the citizens of Woking would take to them with their recession-bled hearts. A few months later and Poundland is now a permanent store in a town where shops seem to be closing left, right and centre (Woolworths, Whittards, Rothby’s, Adam’s, Marks & Spencers, Zavvi and a few smaller stores have all closed in the last four months).
You can tell that it is a popular store. Every Tuesday before I head on my train to university I pass through the shopping centre it is located in it is by far the most popular store as shoppers move about as slowly as it is possible to. Last week, en route to London for a gig and star-spotting at the BAFTAs, I made my first foray into the store…and I was shocked by what I saw. You know why? Go on, have three guesses. If your guesses were that an item was over a pound or they played some bad music (bizarrely they played Fleet Foxes!) or that it was a health hazard then you’re wrong.
The answer: it’s Woolworths Mk 2. Think about it! The general mess of the place as customers just dump things they no longer want in the wrong place, the sulky and depressed demeanour of the employees…even the products that they sell are almost all the same that Woolworths sells! Though the main difference in that department is that they are either better quality or actual household brands that you can recognise and trust.
However, despite this, I can definitely see why this is a popular store and I can’t see its popularity diminishing anytime soon. Unlike the store it so often resembles, you actually would want to buy something from there. There are a lot of things that make me want to hate it but I just can’t. The fact it has camping items for cheap prices (which might be useful come Reading festival) has won me over. So, in summary, long live the Poundland empire for the entirety of the recession. One beggars the question though: what happens to it when the economy picks itself up again?
