Woolies - is it any Wonder?

Woolworths have been a significant part of English high streets for almost a century and the demise of the stores is a sad and significant event too. Significant that is in both economic and psychological terms. With 807 stores, most towns of any size had one and they were part of the retail landscape. But no more. Although some of the stores have been sold and will be occupied by other companies and at the time of writing there is still a small chance that 125 or so may be rescued, the bulk are gone for good and the jobs that went with them.
They will be missed, particularly by those who recall them from their heyday. We grew up with them. They made sixpence pocket money go a long way! (That’s 2.5p in the dull and diminishing currency we have today). Their exterior image changed - not for the better in my view over the decades and it has been particularly sad to see the state of their shops in the morbid scramble for suspected if not actual bargains in recent days. Solihull Woolworths closes on December 27th and Birmingham expires on January 6th.
Some years ago Woolworth’s became part of another group here and were done no favours from that deal although others profited. The money mercenaries who have got their hands on so many of our assets these days care nothing for household names. The original Woolworths in the United States was founded by Frank Winfield Woolworth in 1879. You may rember the store's 'Winfield' own brand (I recall in particular the Winfield cheaper substitute for Brylcreem!). In the United States, F.W. Woolworth was closed in 2001 and, as we have so often to say nowadays, it ‘re-invented’ itself as the not-so-inspiringly entitled Foot Locker Inc. If you are in New York, one place to go to see is the lovely Art-Deco Woolworth building (the exterior only - for some reason visitors not allowed even into the lobby) in lower Manhattan. It is a reminder of more inspiring times and architecture.
As suggested, the reasons for Woolworths’ demise are not solely due to the recession, but the recession - soon to be depression - has played its withering part. There has been much comment recently about what the depression signifies. There are many columnists defending capitalism in the predominantly right of centre press (no surprise as the owners of the press are seeking profits themselves) and one or two who say that the case is proven for a much larger and permanent role for the state. Both are wrong in my view and both miss the key point. The Church of England in its comments has been nearer the truth. And of course it is not a choice between extremes - our society is a mixed economy as it has been since the workhouses closed.
I take the view that there is and always has been an important role for the public sector in strategic areas such as fuel, transport and water. The only ‘crisis of capitalism’ is in fact the ethical vacuum in which it has been allowed to operate - an ‘anything goes’ variant of the system that built up western economies is now what is dragging them down. The contemptuous exploitation of people by value-free businesses, especially in the financial sector, has done immense damage. The leaders of these outfits need moral re-education - they clearly had deficient upbringing. Rather than re-education, let’s call it training - they foist enough of this stuff on their employees. ‘Introduction to Values for Bankers’, ‘Rudiments of Prudence’, ‘Basic Social Responsibility’, ‘Essential Valuing of People and Country as well as Profit’ and ‘Home Truths about Globalisation’ would be good courses for starters - along with a compulsory practical element on living on the minimum wage.
Without this ‘cultural revolution’ of our own, I fear that efforts to teach financial skills in schools will in practice be made to fail by the profiteers who change the system and/or the way that they take advantage of it. Incidentally I recently saw a report on such courses in schools and had to point out that the word ‘saving’ was not used at any point. I fear that unless there is a thorough and lasting moral re-education of boardrooms, the same crisis affecting both the financial sector and the real economy - with retailing an early victim - will happen again in less than twenty years. I can’t say that I’m any too optimistic about this though. Meanwhile let's hope that the list of retailers following Woolworths into administration does not grow ever longer.