What Every Woman Wants (retail chain)

What Every Woman Wants (sometimes abbreviated to WEWW, and later styled as What Everyone Wants) was a British chain of discount stores. In 1971, it was founded by Vera and Gerald Weisfeld in Glasgow, and became a national chain in 1990, after being sold by the Weisfelds for £50 million to Brown & Jackson.[1]

What Every Woman Wants
IndustryRetail
Founded1971
FounderGerald Weisfeld
Defunct2003
FateMerged
HeadquartersGlasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

History

Over 130 stores[2] were opened in Britain, in towns such as Blackburn, Leyland, Ormskirk, Hartlepool, and Swansea.[3] Openings for What Everyone Wants and Brunswick Shoes in Accrington were planned, but never happened. Their television commercials used the hook from the song by Status Quo of 1979, "Whatever You Want".[4]

In 1990, the Weisfelds sold What Everyone Wants to Amber Day, a company run by Philip Green.[5][6] After selling, the Weisfelds founded a new discount department store in Glasgow, named Weisfelds, in 1994. Located in the old Goldbergs buildings (Goldbergs having closed in 1990), it had a similar style and range of merchandise to their original WEWW business. However, the venture failed to repeat the success of the original and closed in 1999; the buildings eventually fell into dereliction and were purchased by Selfridges who later sold the site.

The 130-store What Everyone Wants chain was sold to Tradegro in August 2002, but went into administration the following month.[7]

It underwent numerous change of owners, including Philip Green, before Brown and Jackson took ownership at the end. When Brown and Jackson sold it to Tradegro Daan Venter took on the role as CEO and changed the name to Everyone Wants and used the slogan 'Value, Style and Quality'. They eventually closed all stores during March 2003, after no buyers offered enough money for the administrators to agree to sell.[8]

One of the first stores to close was the main store in Argyle Street, Glasgow, and one of the last was in Irvine, North Ayrshire

References
  1. "BBC News | The Company File | What Everyone Wants - profits". news.bbc.co.uk.
  2. "What Every Woman Wants founder dies aged 79 after long-term illness battle". Daily Record. 13 January 2020.
  3. "Gerald Weisfeld: Founder of What Every Woman Wants chain dies". BBC. 14 January 2020.
  4. "What Every Woman Wants tycoon dies at 79". The Herald. 14 January 2020.
  5. "Emperor in New Clothes: In the glory days Amber Day boss Philip Green could talk the City into anything. When deeds fell short of the words, suddenly no one was listening. Chris Blackhurst and Martin Tomkinson on the fall of a whizkid (CORRECTED)". The Independent. 27 September 1992. Archived from the original on 10 December 2018. Philip Green [..] the chairman and chief executive of Amber Day, the store group that [..] now owns the What Everyone Wants budget shops [..] he bought What Everyone Wants in May 1990 from the Weisfeld family for pounds [sic] 47m.
  6. "Gerald Weisfeld". The Times. 15 January 2020.
  7. "What Everyone Wants finds no takers". www.telegraph.co.uk.
  8. "Historic 'What Every Woman Wants' store in Glasgow demolished". BBC. 22 November 2019.

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