By Linda Garrould · Last updated 4 September 2026
Ask anyone who grew up shopping on a British high street before 2009 what they remember about Woolworths, and the pick ‘n’ mix counter comes up before almost anything else. A run of clear plastic tubs, a paper bag, a little scoop, and the particular arithmetic of working out how many cola bottles your pocket money would stretch to. It was self-service sweets before self-service was really a thing anywhere else in the shop.
What actually happened to Woolworths?
Woolworths Group plc went into administration on 26 November 2008, and the closures that followed were fast and total. Deloitte, the administrators, closed all 807 UK stores in a six-week wind-down between 27 December 2008 and 6 January 2009, with the loss of around 27,000 jobs. There was no phased retreat and no rebrand — one Christmas the shop was there with its pick ‘n’ mix and its Ladybird children’s clothes and its pick ‘n’ mix counter, and by the January sales it simply wasn’t.
That total, all-at-once collapse is a large part of why the nostalgia for Woolworths runs as deep as it does — there was no slow fade to get used to, just a high-street-shaped gap that’s still there in most British town centres today.
Has Woolworths pick ‘n’ mix ever come back?
Briefly, and once. In December 2020, the online retailer Very sold a set of branded “Woolworths Pick and Mix” jars — four varieties, including a classic mix and a Dolly Mixtures-only jar — with profits going to the children’s reading charity Coram Beanstalk. It was a genuinely well-loved one-off, not the return of the brand or the counter itself, and it does not appear to be a standing product: it isn’t listed on Very’s site today, and we haven’t found a current UK retailer selling anything under the Woolworths name. If that changes, we’ll update this page.
There was an earlier online echo of the brand too: Shop Direct (now Very Group) bought the Woolworths name and ran Woolworths.co.uk as a standalone online shop from June 2009, but folded it into Very in June 2015 — so that version has also been gone for a decade. There’s no Woolworths-branded shop, online or on the high street, trading in the UK today.
The one live thread worth watching: the Woolworths name is now owned by a German retail group that continues to trade as Woolworths in Germany, and in January 2024 its boss told reporters a UK comeback was possible in the “mid to long-term future.” Nothing has been confirmed since. If a British Woolworths ever does reopen, we’ll be first in the queue — and we’ll update this page.
The nearest you can get today
Pick ‘n’ mix itself didn’t die with Woolworths — you’ll still find a proper self-service sweet counter in most branches of WH Smith, Wilko, and plenty of independent sweet shops and market stalls, usually stocking the same Barratt and Bassett’s lines (fruit salads, cola bottles, dolly mixtures, liquorice allsorts) that filled the Woolworths tubs. The counter survived; it was only ever the sign above it that changed.
Frequently asked questions
When did Woolworths close in the UK?
Woolworths Group plc entered administration on 26 November 2008. All 807 UK stores closed between 27 December 2008 and 6 January 2009.
Is Woolworths pick and mix still available to buy?
Not as a standing product, and there’s no Woolworths-branded shop of any kind — online or on the high street — currently trading in the UK. Very sold a branded set of Woolworths Pick and Mix jars as a one-off in December 2020; it isn’t currently listed for sale anywhere we can find. Ordinary pick ‘n’ mix counters are still common on the high street, just not under the Woolworths name.
Will Woolworths ever come back to the UK?
Possibly, eventually, but nothing is confirmed. The Woolworths name is now owned by a German retail group trading as Woolworths in Germany, and its boss said in January 2024 that a UK return was possible in the longer term. No stores, dates or online store have been announced since.
Why did Woolworths go out of business?
The immediate cause was the withdrawal of credit insurance for suppliers during the 2008 financial crisis, on top of years of declining profitability as the chain struggled to compete with supermarkets and specialist retailers on its core lines.
More Christmas nostalgia
Woolworths isn’t the only high-street institution we’ve gone looking for. If this took you back, you might also enjoy Remember Webb Ivory? — the charity Christmas catalogue that arrived through the letterbox every autumn — or our fuller collection in Christmas As It Was.
Sources: The Woolworths Museum, on the 2008 collapse; GoodToKnow, on the 2020 Very relaunch; Woolworths.co.uk on Wikipedia; GB News, on a possible UK return.
0 Comments