Aldi is eyeing up former Wilko stores and could hire employees from the collapsed chain as shoppers strip shelves bare in the last days before the retailer closes.
Aldi has said it wants to open 500 more stores in the United Kingdom after marking the opening of its 1,000th store in Surrey as part of its ambitious expansion plans, and UK and Ireland chief executive Giles Hurley said it could use former Wilko stores for new sites.
Asked whether it’s looking at ex-Wilko stores, Giles Hurley told a newspaper outlet that with an ambitious target of 1,500 stores, they would look at all the opportunities and that it came down to the availability and suitability.
His comments came as images emerged of the sorry scene in a Wilko store as a handful of customers wandered around the near-empty aisles picking the last discounted items off racks.
The days of Ashford’s Wilko store are numbered, and the scenes inside paint a bleak panorama of its approaching closure after more than 20 years.
Next week it will close its doors, along with three other Kent branches, following the chain’s collapse into administration.
Aldi recently said it was calling for staff impacted by the collapse of retailer Wilko to get in contact as it has about 6,000 jobs presently available across its stores.
Aldi revealed that it’s creating 800 positions in new stores over the coming months and said it hopes to offer these long-term retail roles to those who have lost their jobs as a result of the Wilko downturn, with a range of positions available from Store Assistant and Caretaker all the way to Store Manager.
Long-time Wilko customer Julia Halliday, from Ashford, can recall its days as a supermarket. She said that she’s shopped there forever, adding that she can remember when it used to be Sainsbury’s.
She said it’s been there for so long. Everything in there is good value and she buys all her pet stuff there. The home area is good, so now she doesn’t know where she will go.
She added that it was a nice shop. The staff there are nice and she’s going to miss it being there. She was quite shocked it was closing and very gutted.
Husband and wife Claire and Dave Drummond said the loss of Wilko was a blow for the high street, and that they were guilty of shopping online, but that was another gutting thing with more people out of work.
The good thing is that Wilko stores will be made into other shops and not made into apartments for boat people.
It’s such a shame that Wilko has gone into administration, and I hope that all their staff manage to get jobs elsewhere. I do like Aldi, although I wish we had one local to us. All I can say is that we all need a little bit of help in these troubling times.
However, Aldi appears to have done an excellent deal in cherrypicking some of the Wilko stores.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 