Poundland East Dulwich soon to be replaced by Tesco Express

[David Peckham]

30 minutes ago, Sue said:

I was mainly buying them for the nice plain boxes, so now I just put other tissues into the old Waitrose boxes 🤣)

I used to buy a brand of olive oil called 'Il Casolare'. It was unfiltered, often on offer in Sainsbury's and came in a really nice bottle with a stopper.

When it was finished, I'd soak the label off, fill it with Morrison's own-brand vermouth and use it for cooking as it lasts longer than keeping wine open. One night there was very little else left to drink, so we got into it - I told people it was a difficult to find artisanal brand I'd brought back from Barcelona and that it should be pronounced 'Vermut'.

People loved it.

I gave away a couple of bottles as Christmas presents the next year.

[Penguin68]

As Occado source from Waitrose, and were their only deliverer at one stage, and as Waitrose do now deliver it may be they feel their reach in ED is sufficient to mean having a local outlet would not gain them sufficient additional sales to be cost effective. The movement to delivery rather than physical shopping during Covid has I believe substantially changed the grocery economics. So it may be that the High Street dynamic for physical shops has now changed. 

[David Peckham]

Ocado stopped sourcing from Waitrose a few years ago. They now source from M&S and general brands. Waitrose have their own delivery service now. I don't know how well served SE22 is by it.

Ocado offers for new customers are, or certainly were, really good, particularly in the run up to Christmas. I think I got 20%/15%/10% up to a maximum of £100 spend off my first three deliveries with no delivery charge or commitment to sign up for further deliveries.

There wasn't a time limit, IIRC, so it was a great way of restocking heavy store cupboard basics and stuff for the freezer.

[Insuflo]

I’m not sure home delivery will replace physical supermarkets. I got the impression that they’re generally loss- making for the retailers and they’d much prefer to encourage customers back to the shops.

I read somewhere that the typical Ocado order was around £100 but costs Ocado £120 to fulfill. It works for M&S because they have roped Ocado into a contract where Ocado carry the bulk of the loss.

[Sue]

4 hours ago, David Peckham said:

Waitrose have their own delivery service now. I don't know how well served SE22 is by it.

I'm off North Cross Road, and they deliver there.

4 hours ago, David Peckham said:

Ocado offers for new customers are, or certainly were, really good, particularly in the run up to Christmas. I think I got 20%/15%/10% up to a maximum of £100 spend off my first three deliveries with no delivery charge or commitment to sign up for further deliveries.

There wasn't a time limit, IIRC, so it was a great way of restocking heavy store cupboard basics and stuff for the freezer.

Ocado do have good offers, and yes obviously they are great value if you can stock up on things which keep.

After doing some calculations, I just couldn't make it financially viable, even with what seemed like a very good offer.

I think there must have been a minimum spend, and I couldn't find enough I wanted to buy from Ocado  to reach it, even though my Waitrose delivery is often pushing £100 when I'm stocking up on things.

I'll try again at some point if they haven't given up on me.

I used to spend ages comparing prices of things between the different supermarkets, until I belatedly realised that my time was worth more than the relatively  miniscule amounts I was potentially saving 🤣

Edited July 27 by Sue

[ianr]

On 19/07/2025 at 14:57, Cameron Chiu said:

Does anyone have an update on if this is happening?

ED is included in the 17 August closure set (or just possibly 15 August, depending on which part of the page you trust more) listed at https://metro.co.uk/2025/07/25/full-list-25-poundland-stores-confirmed-close-august-23753048/.

Here incidentally are some snippets from their annual reports, at
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02495645/filing-history.

2022: " during the period we opened 41 stores and closed 43 loss-making/under-performing stores.  At the period-end we were trading from 821 stores in the UK, IoM and ROI.
...
"We renogotiated 82 leases in the year, saving on average 45% versus the prior lease agreement..."

2023: "We also continued to improve our market footprint through sourcing better store locations, opening 53 and closing 51 stores during the year."

2024:  "The ex-Wilco stores acquired in the prior year have formed a core part of this strategy to expand our store network.  We favour quality over quantity and during the period we opened 84 stores and closed 71 loss-making/under-performing ones."

Edited July 27 by ianr

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

21 hours ago, Insuflo said:

the typical Ocado order was around £100 but costs Ocado £120 to fulfill. It works for M&S because they have roped Ocado into a contract where Ocado carry the bulk of the loss.

Supermarkets have massive volume and tiny profit margins. If this were true Ocado would be dead by the end of the week, surely.

[Insuflo]

2 hours ago, Dogkennelhillbilly said:

Supermarkets have massive volume and tiny profit margins. If this were true Ocado would be dead by the end of the week, surely.

I can’t remember where I read that figure but this article in the Grauniad from 2023 discusses Ocado results from 2022. The average shopping cart fell to £118 from £129 the previous year. But Ocado lost £500m that year on approximately 20 million orders (circa 400k orders per week). So, averaging out to £25 lost per order.

Ocado pauses building new warehouses as annual losses balloon to £500m | Ocado | The Guardian 

Obviously, the £500m loss includes various factors. But Ocado has existed for 25 years and only made a small profit in a couple of those years. The rest have been huge losses. Yet it continues to raise funds and speculation sends the share price up and down. In that respect,  it’s like the UK version of Tesla.

Meanwhile, the main growth in the supermarket sector has been for Aldi and Lidl, who do not deliver.

Edited July 28 by Insuflo
Link added

[David Peckham]

20 hours ago, Sue said:

 

I used to spend ages comparing prices of things between the different supermarkets, until I belatedly realised that my time was worth more than the relatively  miniscule amounts I was potentially saving 🤣

Would you like a copy of my spreadsheet?

It's hours of fun.

[Sue]

3 hours ago, David Peckham said:

Would you like a copy of my spreadsheet?

It's hours of fun.

No thanks, I've got enough spreadsheets of my own 🤣

But thanks for the offer 🤣

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

5 hours ago, Insuflo said:

Ocado lost £500m that year on approximately 20 million orders (circa 400k orders per week). So, averaging out to £25 lost per order.

Ocado pauses building new warehouses as annual losses balloon to £500m | Ocado | The Guardian 

Crikey. You're right.

[Cancerian]

Thought the Poundland chain had been saved but this branch seems to have come a cropper just a while after it opened and is now definitely closing. A hive of activity today as I went past with everything stripped out. 
 

[Sue]

19 hours ago, Cancerian said:

Thought the Poundland chain had been saved but this branch seems to have come a cropper just a while after it opened and is now definitely closing. A hive of activity today as I went past with everything stripped out. 
 

As I understand it, Poundland itself  has been saved (and is reassessing what it sells and its pricing strategy) but nevertheless is getting rid of a quite a few stores, including the ED one.

There was a thread on here about it before it opened, and Lordship Lane always seemed to be a very odd choice of location for what used to be called a "pound shop".

[NicholasC]

When will this be happening if anyone knows? The shop looks to be closed for a month now 

[ianr]

Following on from Sue's post, this document looks useful as a single information source about the continuation of the Poundland brand:

  https://www.pepcogroup.eu/media-news/pepco-group-completes-sale-of-poundland/.  From it I get that Pepco, the pre-sale parent company of Poundland, will have a minority share in the business (the CH record for the acquiring company seems to me consistent with that) and that

"Under this new ownership, the business will be led by Barry Williams, currently Managing Director of Poundland. The business will continue to operate under the Poundland brand in the United Kingdom (and under the Dealz brand in the Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland)."

Edited September 25 by ianr

[Scottfield]

An Iceland would be good. 

[Dulwich dweller]

1 hour ago, Scottfield said:

An Iceland would be good. 

Is the space big enough for that? From memory it's quite small.

[Sue]

9 hours ago, Dulwich dweller said:

Is the space big enough for that? From memory it's quite small.

There used to be an Iceland where M&S now is.

I doubt they would move back. I presume the change in the local demographic was the reason they left in the first place.

Anyway, there is one in Peckham, plus they deliver to East Dulwich.

And I thought this was going to be a little Tesco?

Edited 7 hours ago by Sue

[bobbly]

Dont want a Tesco..will not be using it. Poundland moved due to low footfall. We can decide which shops survive, and which shops dont....

Edited 5 hours ago by bobbly

[Angelina]

A Waitrose would be good - I just don't think they want to come 😞

[Sue]

59 minutes ago, bobbly said:

Dont want a Tesco..will not be using it.

I don't suppose that will influence Tesco's decision one way or the other 😂

[CPR Dave]

If this Tesco drives the final nail in the coffin of the co op, Waitrose might fill that space.

I doubt they would do it in the current economic climate though. It’s a terrible time to be opening a business and it’s only going to worse when the November budget hammers the economy even more.

[Sue]

10 minutes ago, Angelina said:

A Waitrose would be good - I just don't think they want to come 😞

With M&S just over the road,  it wouldn't be an ideal site for them, apart from the size, I imagine.

 

[Angelina]

I don't think that's the reason they aren't coming.

M&S is not really competition.