This shop sums up Southport for me really. As much as it might think it's all modernised and well to do these days, it's still an old lady's town with strange shops in even stranger places and those old ladies aren't going to loosen their grip on it without a fight. You arrive in Southport via train. You wander out, expecting either tourist traps full of rock and candy floss or high street shops. You do get high street shops, to be fair. But directly on your right is a giant, utterly superb Wilko.
Ohh how I love Wilko. I love everything about it. It effortlessly combines a huge amount of DIY stuff with the eclectic likes of chocolate biscuits, stationery, crisps and soft drinks, giant tins of sweets, huge tubes of Pringles... it's like Home Bargains and B&Q had a steamy affair and produced this strange half-breed lovechild. I used to visit the Wilko in Salford Precinct regularly as a student as it was great for decorating the student digs. Yes, I wasn't allowed to put solid pictures up or paint the walls, of course. But Wilko offers solutions for EVERY home. I was able to brighten up my little flat with special peel-off stencil stickers in lovely flower shapes, and before I knew it I had the nicest gaff in the block.
You can get EVERYTHING here, from quilts to patio furniture, barbecue accessories to paint, wallpaper to Christmas selection boxes, kids' stuff to extension leads, fuses to light bulbs... I could go on but you might wind up in a household product coma.
I'll conclude with the fact that you get all that, ALL those things, and we're talking branded produce here... for peanuts. It's so amazingly cheap in this shop you'll wonder why you haven't shopped here all your life. read more