Business reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n BBC business reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n BBC business reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sharon Carroll once shopped so much at her local Poundland that her friends described her as “Mrs Poundland”. <\/p>\n “I’d just buy so many things,” says Sharon. “I’d spend \u00a340 to \u00a350.<\/p>\n “When everything used to be \u00a31 it was a big attraction.”<\/p>\n But when the company began to change its pricing strategy<\/a>, increasing the prices of some products from \u00a31, the 45-year-old says she cut down on her purchases.<\/p>\n “The quality of the products was also going down and you were paying more for things.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Other shoppers also told the BBC that they were put off when the retailer started putting its prices up.<\/p>\n This week, the struggling budget chain was sold for (appropriately) \u00a31<\/a> by its owner Pepco to a US investment firm, Gordon Brothers. Up to 100 stores are at risk of closure.<\/p>\n The \u00a31 promise was Poundland’s “most compelling proposition”, says Howard Lake, a retail consultant at Kantar.<\/p>\n “Removing this identity alienated its core shopper base.”<\/p>\n The company clearly agreed. After it raised some prices from \u00a31 in 2017, earlier this year it said it was returning to its roots, increasing the number of products<\/a> it offered that cost \u00a31 or less from 1,500 to 2,400, almost half its range.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Poundland has 825 stores in the UK, with around 16,000 staff.<\/p>\n Many of those shops are former Woolworths or Wilko branches, which it hoovered up after the two brands collapsed.<\/p>\n Poundland became the biggest occupant<\/a> of ex-Woolworths stores after the retailer went into administration in 2009, taking on 93 of its stores, more than 10% of the Woolworths estate. In September 2023 it took over the leases<\/a> of 71 former Wilko stores.<\/p>\n Often, these stores were in the kinds of small towns where other large retailers do not have a presence.<\/p>\n “They might have had a Woolworths, a bank and a charity shop,” says Jonathan de Mello, a retail analyst and the founder of JDM Retail.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Gray loves going into her local Poundland in Bangor, Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n Recently, she found a pair of small ceramic houses in the store, which were a copy of a design she had seen at Zara. “We don’t have a Zara near where I live,” she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Poundland’s presence in small towns has been crucial to fostering a sense of customer loyalty, says retail psychologist Kate Nightingale.<\/p>\n “Simply being present in people’s daily rituals is one of the strongest ways to build interdependence.<\/p>\n “Presence plus reliance are some of the most important qualities of loyal relationships and it is no different to relationships we build with brands.”<\/p>\n But de Mello says when Poundland expanded into small towns, not enough people went in, which hit their bottom line.<\/p>\n “In the small locations that they’ve opened multiple stores in, I feel the volumes aren’t there in terms of footfall, unfortunately.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 2016 Poundland expanded into fashion, beginning the roll-out of its Pep&Co clothing range, but this soon faced problems.<\/p>\n![\"Sharon](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/231f\/live\/3bd30fb0-4865-11f0-9471-e380f647874e.jpg.webp\")
Sharon Carroll<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nSmall towns<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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![\"Elizabeth](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/3d3d\/live\/d8372030-486a-11f0-9f24-97c88ed29f15.jpg.webp\")
Elizabeth Gray<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nIncreased competition<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Reuters](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/7b5e\/live\/870ae0b0-4861-11f0-83bd-e5b5d0a69992.jpg.webp\")