Have they tried existing exclusively in airports and ports?
I used to work in a Martin’s (same company) as my first Saturday job many years ago (2007 I think), was an interesting experience.
I’m not surprised given how expensive they are.
Maybe they should have tried a bit harder to force me to buy chocolate every time I went in.
There’s a McColl’s at the end of my street, not even 50m away. I’ve lived here 6 years and I’ve only been in less than 10 times (mostly to use the post office there). The prices are outrageous, £1.80 for a loaf of bread that only has one or two days left, £2.00 for 2 litres of milk, chocolate being double the price of supermarkets, etc etc…
McColl’s C-suite should have cut back on avocado on toast.
I thought they were a franchise with individual owners on common branding.
I would imagine if they go tits up assuming someone doesn’t straight up attempt to take-over/merge with them, the few good locations will quickly get snapped up by the other smaller chains (Premier, Spa, Nesa etc) because a third of McColl’s locations are also post offices.
I will often skip past McColls if I know there’s any other convenience store nearby because they are usually the priciest. Surprised it hasn’t happened sooner tbh.
The one here was branded morrisons daily not long ago. Didn’t morrisons take them all on?
I have never heard of McColls in my entire life. I don’t think I’ve seen one in any of my nearby cities (Midlands). Is it a richer version of a Nisa/Londis?
I was a store manager for McColls for a short time. I took over a store that was shite and had literally one staff member because they sacked everyone else before bringing me in. I worked my arse off to get it a store that’s worth actually visiting (ie: not dirty and out of stock for everything). It had a main post office at the back so the footfall was there, but no one ever stopped to buy anything because it was so inconsistent before me. I literally worked 5am to 7pm 6-7 days a week as a necessity, and on top of that worked all night a bunch of times to refresh the store as best I could. Oh and I was commuting from a different city for £18k (2016).
Anyway, they didn’t do a stock take when I came in as a new manager which they should have. There were some major discrepancies with the lottery stuff (hard to explain how it worked, but basically the site bought its scratchcards from the post office within the store, because the post office were the designated retailer by Camelot). Anyway I brought this up to the area manager consistently, and was brushed off.
Then they randomly do a security visit and lo and behold, something isn’t right. Iirc they did it to show a new Area Manager how things are supposed to be done, it never would have happened otherwise. They suspended and sacked me and basically accused me of stealing £7k or something.
It’s obviously sad for any company to go under for the good people that work there and will lose their jobs, but aside from that, fuck McColls.
Mine is dirty and grotty, poor stock. It’s only surviving because it had a post office which is now done purely at the till. Manager is horrible.
Lucky I’ve got supermarkets nearby, the only convenience store worth going to is a Tesco express. The co-op, one stop, premier, mace are just dross.
Dirty, outdated and selling overpriced stuff.
Every McColls I’ve seen is now a Morrison’s Daily. Assumed they had bought out the company
There’s still a Happy Shopper in Harrow.
There’s still a Happy Shopper in Harrow.
I usually walk in these stores and think to myself , if this wasn’t branded I would presume money laundering. It’s like they didn’t even try to stay in business.
Not usually one for this but torch and pitchfork time, how did McColl cope during the pandemic or more specifically how did they handle their workers during the pandemic? If they were twats then karma is a bitch, if they weren’t then karma is a bitch after reading of some of the prices being charged…
This is no surprise to me.
The prices are ridiculous, verging on scalping, and every shop looks like it hasn’t been refurbished or touched since 1992.
A mate of mine is an area manager for Mccolls and a few months back he bought a new house for about 600k. Missus does not work and he always struggled financially living in a 3 bed semi but suddenly bought a big detached. Anyway he was explaining that he was spending 200k extending it and getting value up to million since he always wanted to be a millionaire.
I asked him where he is getting the money and he mentioned wooden dollars. I have googled but cannot find am explanation anywhere. Best guess is the employees are skimming some of the profit of the takes.
There was a mccolls near me but it became a mini Morrisons. It’s very popular.
Half our small co-ops turned into McColls a few years back and since then half of those have shut, with nothing moving into the properties. Really bad shopping experience in my opinion.
Plus they did some kind of deal with subway, so several of the stores had a subway in the back. It was weird, and I bet expensive to do but they were all gone last time I checked.
Perhaps they could save money if they stopped sending all that guff through the post. I seem to get whole booklets from them once a month.
Yeah one in my town has airport prices, it’s essentially a corner shop with a newsagents bolted onto it. It’s pointless when Wilko is nextdoor, B&M over the road and WHSmith a 2 minute walk away. I swear people only use it as there’s a free cash machine outside
Honestly I didn’t realise they were still going. Not seen one for years.
27 comments
Have they tried existing exclusively in airports and ports?
I used to work in a Martin’s (same company) as my first Saturday job many years ago (2007 I think), was an interesting experience.
I’m not surprised given how expensive they are.
Maybe they should have tried a bit harder to force me to buy chocolate every time I went in.
There’s a McColl’s at the end of my street, not even 50m away. I’ve lived here 6 years and I’ve only been in less than 10 times (mostly to use the post office there). The prices are outrageous, £1.80 for a loaf of bread that only has one or two days left, £2.00 for 2 litres of milk, chocolate being double the price of supermarkets, etc etc…
McColl’s C-suite should have cut back on avocado on toast.
I thought they were a franchise with individual owners on common branding.
I would imagine if they go tits up assuming someone doesn’t straight up attempt to take-over/merge with them, the few good locations will quickly get snapped up by the other smaller chains (Premier, Spa, Nesa etc) because a third of McColl’s locations are also post offices.
I will often skip past McColls if I know there’s any other convenience store nearby because they are usually the priciest. Surprised it hasn’t happened sooner tbh.
The one here was branded morrisons daily not long ago. Didn’t morrisons take them all on?
I have never heard of McColls in my entire life. I don’t think I’ve seen one in any of my nearby cities (Midlands). Is it a richer version of a Nisa/Londis?
I was a store manager for McColls for a short time. I took over a store that was shite and had literally one staff member because they sacked everyone else before bringing me in. I worked my arse off to get it a store that’s worth actually visiting (ie: not dirty and out of stock for everything). It had a main post office at the back so the footfall was there, but no one ever stopped to buy anything because it was so inconsistent before me. I literally worked 5am to 7pm 6-7 days a week as a necessity, and on top of that worked all night a bunch of times to refresh the store as best I could. Oh and I was commuting from a different city for £18k (2016).
Anyway, they didn’t do a stock take when I came in as a new manager which they should have. There were some major discrepancies with the lottery stuff (hard to explain how it worked, but basically the site bought its scratchcards from the post office within the store, because the post office were the designated retailer by Camelot). Anyway I brought this up to the area manager consistently, and was brushed off.
Then they randomly do a security visit and lo and behold, something isn’t right. Iirc they did it to show a new Area Manager how things are supposed to be done, it never would have happened otherwise. They suspended and sacked me and basically accused me of stealing £7k or something.
It’s obviously sad for any company to go under for the good people that work there and will lose their jobs, but aside from that, fuck McColls.
Mine is dirty and grotty, poor stock. It’s only surviving because it had a post office which is now done purely at the till. Manager is horrible.
Lucky I’ve got supermarkets nearby, the only convenience store worth going to is a Tesco express. The co-op, one stop, premier, mace are just dross.
Dirty, outdated and selling overpriced stuff.
Every McColls I’ve seen is now a Morrison’s Daily. Assumed they had bought out the company
There’s still a Happy Shopper in Harrow.
There’s still a Happy Shopper in Harrow.
I usually walk in these stores and think to myself , if this wasn’t branded I would presume money laundering. It’s like they didn’t even try to stay in business.
Not usually one for this but torch and pitchfork time, how did McColl cope during the pandemic or more specifically how did they handle their workers during the pandemic? If they were twats then karma is a bitch, if they weren’t then karma is a bitch after reading of some of the prices being charged…
This is no surprise to me.
The prices are ridiculous, verging on scalping, and every shop looks like it hasn’t been refurbished or touched since 1992.
A mate of mine is an area manager for Mccolls and a few months back he bought a new house for about 600k. Missus does not work and he always struggled financially living in a 3 bed semi but suddenly bought a big detached. Anyway he was explaining that he was spending 200k extending it and getting value up to million since he always wanted to be a millionaire.
I asked him where he is getting the money and he mentioned wooden dollars. I have googled but cannot find am explanation anywhere. Best guess is the employees are skimming some of the profit of the takes.
There was a mccolls near me but it became a mini Morrisons. It’s very popular.
Half our small co-ops turned into McColls a few years back and since then half of those have shut, with nothing moving into the properties. Really bad shopping experience in my opinion.
Plus they did some kind of deal with subway, so several of the stores had a subway in the back. It was weird, and I bet expensive to do but they were all gone last time I checked.
Perhaps they could save money if they stopped sending all that guff through the post. I seem to get whole booklets from them once a month.
Yeah one in my town has airport prices, it’s essentially a corner shop with a newsagents bolted onto it. It’s pointless when Wilko is nextdoor, B&M over the road and WHSmith a 2 minute walk away. I swear people only use it as there’s a free cash machine outside
Honestly I didn’t realise they were still going. Not seen one for years.
They have gone bust now.