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Waterlooville Wickes Refurbishment

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Depending how often you DIY, you may or may not not have noticed that during the prior two months that Waterlooville’s Wickes had been undergoing refurbishment?

I was invited by staff member Helen to pop along and take a guided tour of the revamped store; as someone who shops at Wickes on a regular basis the old store had, shall we say, become a little tatty.

A few of the changes include better overhead lighting, new heating, new floor, new kitchen/bathroom showroom, a click and collect area, and the size of the store has been increased. The revamped store is much improved and feels a lot friendlier, I’m told that many hundreds of additional products have been added due to the increase in floor space.

As some of you may already be able to tell, I’m a big fan of Wickes, so I’m pleased that this local store has received this investment (no, I haven’t been paid or rewarded to write this blog post, I just really like Wickes!).

Can you remember the celebrity that opened Wickes in the 90’s? Can you name him/her, and for bonus points, what was the year?

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Comments

  5. I was a regular, but it was “going downhill”, which was a shame as it is one of he last “real” hardware stores.
    Even B&Q has become more of a “dumbed down DIY supermarket”, like Homebase.
    I’ll make sure I pop in and take a look, I need backing paper and paint :)

  8. They should have spent the money on training staff instead. It’s taken 3 days of phone calls dealing with incompetence on a level I didn’t think possible to resolve the issues I’ve had with an order.

    Screwfix (behind Sainsbury’s) are far better for tools etc. and for building supplies anywhere but Wickes… you’ve got Goodwillies up past the Shell garage and they are FAR better for anything wood related.

  9. Although I do like Wickes and use it, it’s probably for the wrong reason… generally there are so very few customers which makes it a more pleasant shopping experience, although I’m certain the Wickes management don’t agree.
    It also seems rather extreme to do a complete refurbishment just to get rid of the half inch of dust that covered everything, if the youngsters who man the quiet tills were given a dust pan and brush and duster rather than standing around chatting to each other it would have been a lot better.

    So although I haven’t been in since the re-vamp I’m hoping they have at least got some new trolleys, they used to have a few motley looking, wonky wheeled ones which you had to prise out of the trolley park, it never seemed like anyone of the staff ever sorted the tangled mess out.
    Of course I understand it is a builders merchants but compare it to the likes of other large stores for customer experience, we are talking about a different planet.

    Over the years, lost new front door which was ordered which took hours being passed around on the phone to find it, when it did turn up it was damaged and had to go back to be exchanged, sent to Havant to get something Waterlooville didn’t have just to actually find Havant didn’t have it either.

    However the staff are pretty friendly and helpful when you can find one, the prices are good and a reasonable stock however stock control could be better managed, often an empty shelf.

    So I now wait in anticipation for my next DIY nightmare to commence, I’ll start at Wickes and then probably try the others as usual, compare prices and see where I end up, if it’s Wickes then lets hope they have got some new trolleys and there are not hordes of people using it now…

    • Bob when you are in store let me know and I’ll give you a tour I hope we don’t find the dust now! It’s been discounted.

      Ask for me Rob the store manager.

      • Started well but poor finisher over the ‘fences…’

        Went to buy three items, found them, two had no price ticket and friendly staff had to ‘radio’ in to find the price.
        “Yes, we still have a lot of tickets to put out” said the young lad… you would have thought after six months that was enough time..
        ‘Fence’ panels, I was interested but again the one I was looking at had no ticket price… and the plywood, the guy did go to get tickets made but should customers still be having to point this out.. battrries, right next to the till, no price…
        I’d just come from another well known diy store to compare prices, yes they were more expensive but at least I could see the price.
        At least there were a few trolleys this time… but do they take the new pound coin, I’ll have to try that next time.

  10. Anyone know what year Wickes opened in Waterlooville?

    Also, I’ve heard it was opened by someone famous. Anyone remember who it was?

    I’ve tried searching the web but alas, no luck.

  11. So I did venture into the new, re-vamped store, as promised, 6.30 pm Sat, I swear for ten minutes I was the only person in there… thank you, at least that hasn’t changed, and neither has the fact they have no shopping type trollies at all now… quite baffling really, has there ever been a woman in there dragging a flat loader behind her for a tin or two of paint… I doubt it.

    I found the rest of the store better than previous I will admit, but I have to be honest, still dismal, fine for tradesmen I guess, but not inviting to the Joe Public off the street, however sòmething I bought for £4.50 in B&Q was only £2.49 in there, so let’s leave it at that, Wickes are trying but someway to go.
    But at least no queues… yeaaa.