Re: Reckon you can follow all this? Then I'll begin...
@AC: "The UK Woolies was spun off as an entirely separate business from its US parent during the 1980s"
IIRC (I was a Saturday lad working for them around this time) Uk Woolies was bought by 'The Kingfisher Group' which owned a few other highstreet (well, out of town megashop) brands, like Comet, and B&Q etc. This spelled disaster for the classic Woolies stores. When I started, Woolies sold everything, from Pick 'n Mix and cigarettes at the front of the store, kids clothes, records, computers, TV, 'HiFi', (in quotes 'cos we sold Amstrad), Watches and Jewellery, cameras and photo processing, bicycles, lighting and electricals, furniture, there was a cafe, soft furnishings and curtains, toys, hardware and tools, a butchery dept, and groceries. But as some of these items were sold by other outlets the same group had, they were removed from sale at Woolies (someone didn't understand the soap powder paradox*) and we had far fewer lines in store. Then they ended up with sweets, toys and records, and of course, eventually went bust.
(* There are many and various 'brands' of detergent, but only a few manufacturers, so when a customer changes 'brand' the more brands you have in the marketplace, the more likely you are to retain a customer. So a 'lost' sale isn't really a loss, if they back on another of your brands. Woolies didn't understand this, that a highstreet outlet, and an industrial estate outlet covered two markets, and therefore doubled their chance of a sale.)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
