Wilko is 'on the brink of collapse: :(

Wilko's demise has been a long time coming. They have been plagued with poor ranging, stock availability, and poor store locations. I remember reading one of Wilko's longstanding business strategies was to range products which are not popular or easy to find in their stores, so that when customers need an item, they think of going to Wilko first. Unfortunately, with the shelves half empty customers have been let down, and that hard earned reputation is being destroyed. Once customers go there and don't find what they need, they will end up going elsewhere.

I think a lot of Wilko's problems lie with their store sizes too - I have seen newer, smaller branches but they also have a substantial amount of larger branches taken over from other retailers such as Woolworths, Safeway etc. The naturally higher rents that accompany larger spaces hurts a lot more when you have so many gaps in product range. I think a lot of 2 floor branches could fit all their stock on 1 floor based on how bad availability has been.

The family led ownership of Wilko have lost sight of what made the company successful and now it is too late to do anything. I think Hilco will take it over, or some other private equity asset stripper, and run it to the ground.

ClearPay is unregulated credit so no statutory enforcement/assistance route.

ClearPay has a shoulder-sloping dispute system that is intended to require zero input from CP:
CP even openly describes it as "self-service".
And good luck attempting to find any clear t&c / policy relating to how CP will (not) intervene / oversee any transaction dispute.

10 days since issue is beyond CPs self-proclaimed 7 days merchant response period so OP has option to self-serve:
help.clearpay.co.uk/hc/…ds-

"I would be interested to know why it's failing. Any theories?"

It's a privately owned family business - I got the impression from some early articles that perhaps there was some family bust up that affected the running of the company leading to mismanagement.

Mike Ashley swooping in to buy it in 5, 4, 3.........

That's depressing 😔

My city centre is going to be worthless.
We've lost loads of shops in the last few years.

we called this months ago when they changed to monthly payments to suppliers

Very predictable, ever since they started chargin £ 2.50 for a click and collect paid online order. The writing was on the wall.

Sad though. Businesses are run by beancounters these days ,it seems, and marketeers dont get a shot at deciding what wil sell or what people would like ot buy.

Allowing people to take their pets in there with them has stopped me going there.

Sad news
I will miss Wilko if it goes, my local store is good compared to the others in nearby towns and citites.
The gardening items are excellent and reasonably priced. (a bargain in the end of season sale)

@EnaHia tagging you in incase you dont see it on the news

I do like the cleaning wipes, and also their modular storage boxes.
I am a bit gutted if this goes ahead, as I have about 150 of the storage boxes for my Lego.
Haven't been able to buy any new ones for ages, as they are always out of stock.
Would hate to have to get a different type of storage.

I’m going to be raiding my local store, for garden stuff

Amazon. That's why.

I went into a Wilko store last year and they were selling mostly tat. The Range is better.

It never has any stock so I'm not surprised

I'll be sad if they close my local. The staff in there are helpful and a lot of their goods are a decent price. The last 6 months they had permanently closed the self service tills and I wondered if they had IT issues they couldn't resolve without spending a lot of money.

went into my local this afternoon and the shop was very busy. looks like everyone is hoarding stuff before they go they may actually end up making a huge profit from the panic raid (edited)

The sad part is, every single one of their shop-floor staff has at one point suggested an idea that would have prevented this, and was ignored.

The following 14 stores have been announced to close, some already have though.

Birmingham - The Fort
Bournemouth
Shipley
Stockton
Scunthorpe
Leicester - Narborough Rd
Rotherham
Skegness
Grantham
Merthyr Tydfil
Cleethorpes
Woolwich
Redditch
Llanelli

Though it does appear some of these stores have closed already, some quite a while ago as far as last year, so not sure where The Mirror is getting their list from?

Wilko closing down 14 stores days after devastating announcement - see full list - Mirror Online

I am chasing a refund for an item thats gone missing during home delivery. They dont have a phone number and im messaging them over social media. Its likely pulling teeth. 10 days later. Anyone else any advice?

Some of the staff is rude especially the older one and that is one of the reason for the closure. I always request a manager if i need them to search the back of the shop for an item which they suppose to have in stock.