When the Castel group paid some £40 million for the Oddbins chain a lot of people felt they had paid over the odds for this " enfant terrible ". Subsequently, the chain began to lose money and some unwise french man decided the best thing to do was to either close them down or turn them into Nicolas. It is incredibly sad to see this pioneer of new world wines disappear from our high street. Some one told me yesterday that there would only be 4 left in London. 4! I run a Thresher in Southfields and was saddened to see my local Oddbins turn into a Nicolas over a three week period. Funny thing was, one of the shop fitters or members of staff decided to pour concrete down the drain which went off and caused this lovely new shop to flood . They are still closed to this day with a notice in their window blaming " environmental " issues! If some one from the Castel group had done their research they would have remembered when they opened a Nicolas in Southfields some 5 years ago that lasted only 6 months. That would be too easy. Raise a glass for all those scruffy Oddbins managers who now have to wear chinos and polo shirts. RIP Oddbins.
1 comment:
Shame on them! Oddbins was the best thing the UK had in terms of a local good wine store (sorry Pad, Threshers is far too formulaic) We'll be off to wimbledon wine cellars if we ever return. And with all the rain you guys had - did they really need concrete down the drain to make a passable flood??
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