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Wilko

Reviewed by a customer

Wilkinson, or "Wilko", is a shop which you are likely to see in the main street of any average UK town. It's a place known for hardware, but when you look into it further you find Wilko has a remarkably varied range of stuff on sale, things such as shampoo, luggage, toys, small electrical appliances, car accessories, gardening stuff, and xmas items, as well as the expected cans of paint, DIY tools, etc. It is an interesting mixed bag of lots of things you might need, and quite a lot of it is remarkably cheap. It's not so much that it's cheaper than another place by a bit, but more that it is puzzling how Wilko manage to sell the stuff so cheap and still make a profit. Some of it is cheaper than at the pound shop. Four ceramic mugs for £1, a radio-controlled doorbell for £4, an automatic electric jug kettle for a fiver, and 2000 basic saccharin sweeteners for 99p, these are just a few examples of things I've noticed there. In fact, there are a great many lines where Wilko is the cheapest in town.

It's no good being cynical and saying "you get what you pay for" and assuming the goods are poor quality, because when you examine them, they're actually quite good. If anything, it's not the products that have been skimped, but the frills and snazzy advertising. The shops are unpretentious, and there's no big fancy image being inflated to keep beliefs up on the telly. Instead the business seems to rely on customers getting to hear about the place and then going there to see what they can find. The evidence is there is you care to look for it.

I was quite chuffed to find Wilko's have now got an affiliate program. If you want to go shopping online at Wilko you can visit Wilkinson Plus. It's likely that the same wide range of stock is available and at the same sorts of prices. The difference really is that you get the shopping delivered to you rather than having to carry it home.