What if Tesco hadn't bought Quinnsworth?

its_steve116 · 05-09-2022 8:24pm #1

So this year marks 25 years since Tesco agreed to purchase Quinnsworth and enter the Irish market. Over the following four years the Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices stores gradually transitioned into Tesco ones, and in 2001 Quinnsworth was history. But what if Tesco hadn't purchased them? Would we still have Quinnsworth/Crazy Prices today? Or would another company have taken over?

Ubbquittious · 05-09-2022 8:28pm

We would have been able to hold onto another slither of the 90's. It would have been great. No winter of discontent, no global warming, no Ukraine war no doom staring us in the face, no covid. We would have been able to live in a parallel universe of 90s greatness forever. When Tesco came in thats when the world started going down the wrong path.

Leg End Reject · 05-09-2022 8:33pm

We'd still have Maurice Pratt on the ads.

Unless he retired/moved on/was fired obviously.

3d4life · 05-09-2022 8:54pm

If Quinnsworth hadnt been sold then it would have with the passing of a generation of the Weston family. Just as Selfridges ( includes BT & Arnotts ) was sold.

its_steve116 · 05-09-2022 9:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576521#Comment_119576521

No idea why they agreed to take over

05-09-2022 9:07pm

Wait a min.....was quinnsworth a supermarket of its own,and not superquinn

its_steve116 · 05-09-2022 9:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576729#Comment_119576729

They were completely separate companies, founded by different people who just happened to have the surname Quinn.

05-09-2022 9:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576744#Comment_119576744

Well Ive learnt something new tonight anyway... genuinely did not know this🧐

eggy81 · 05-09-2022 9:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576729#Comment_119576729

Yep they were great too. Used to have lifestyle sports as a concession inside some of them. Back when lifestyle sports sold class stuff like Riley snooker cues and top notch tennis rackets and not just tracksuit bottoms.

For Forks Sake · 05-09-2022 9:10pm

Maurice Pratt would've gone mad with power and installed himself as benevolent dictator

larchielads · 05-09-2022 9:11pm

Maybe superquinn and quinnsworth woulda merged into SuperQuinnsworth!!!

AMKC · 05-09-2022 9:19pm

We would still have Quinnsworth spreadable cheddar cheese I'm a jar just like marmalade or Jam. I used to love that cheddar cheese. No idea if it was actually made by or sold as quinnsworth I just remember it being in a jar.

Also I do not believe that Tesco coming here was the start of the world going down the wrong path. That's Bull. The World was in a good place then and improving. The cold War was over and Russia was becoming friendly with the west.

If only it could have stayed on that path instead of the one it is on now under a deranged dictator.

completedit · 05-09-2022 9:25pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576811#Comment_119576811

The world was spiralling towards the global financial crisis by then.

FunkyDa2 · 05-09-2022 9:28pm

Quinnsworth were the people who brought us the "Yellow Pack" concept...

Larbre34 · 05-09-2022 9:29pm

Maurice Pratt went up in the World and became CEO of C&C Beverages.

He then became a board member and at various times Chairman, of a whole host of Irish businesses and State bodies, including Uniphar and Bord Fáilte.

And yet telling us how much a Darth Vader action figure would cost our parents at Christmas, was the height of his fame!

Capt'n Midnight · 05-09-2022 9:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576744#Comment_119576744

Weren't there other other Quinn families with supermarket chains here ?

AMKC · 05-09-2022 9:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576856#Comment_119576856

It was another 15 plus years before that happened and that was Bush Junior de regulating things in financial stuff that caused that go happen.

Badly Drunk Boy · 05-09-2022 9:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576756#Comment_119576756

Yeah, I still have a fairly cool Slazenger tennis racquet that I bought in Lifestyle in my local Quinnsworth. Not that I've used it in the last 25 years...in protest of the demise of Quinnsworth or something. 😉

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576878#Comment_119576878

I was going to say the same thing. You still sometimes hear people using it when referring to something cheap and sometimes of inferior quality.

Dodge · 05-09-2022 9:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576878#Comment_119576878

Abandoned cruelly for the KVI brand when it changed from Quinnsworth to Crazy Prices

“Keenest Value in Ireland”

05-09-2022 9:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576982#Comment_119576982

Tbf,I'd have taught Bill Clinton repealing the glass-steagall act,and opening up wall Street to less regulation would be the 1st step??

Always felt alot of the hate towards his wife come from people ruined by the 08 crash,which could been traced back to him

05-09-2022 9:52pm

I still occasionally call Tesco Quinnsworth… cause that’s how I roll.

walterking · 05-09-2022 9:57pm

They could all have merged into Crazy5StarQuinnWilliams but probably have gone bust.

thedart · 05-09-2022 10:02pm

I see Aldi have is it every day essentials food now like the yellow packs.

Montage of Feck · 05-09-2022 10:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576928#Comment_119576928

Ruari Quinn ran a short lived communist supermarket. But the empty shelves, spam and Industrial grade vodka wasn't a hit with Irish shopper's.

Montage of Feck · 05-09-2022 11:06pm

I remember the Quinsworth lifestyle stores being a lot better than today's iteration.

knucklehead6 · 05-09-2022 11:07pm

Just a point of interest here, but lifestyle wasn’t a concession, it was a fully owned subsidiary of power supermarkets, who owned Quinnsworth/Crazy Prices.

Lewis_Benson · 05-09-2022 11:14pm

Quinnsworth, Lifestyle, Eircell Ready To Go, Oceanfree.net, telecom eireann, tinet, BP, Statoil, Jet, Nearbuy, Fat Frogs, Mr freeze, Stinger bars, Toyota Corrollas with the boot held closed with a piece of twine. Phone boxes, good weather.......................all memories of the 90s

Capt'n Midnight · 05-09-2022 11:31pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576928#Comment_119576928

H Williams was another Quinn family. https://www.dib.ie/biography/quinn-john-james-a9812

Was there another Quinn family that had something to do with 3 Guys / Gubay ??

Ubbquittious · 06-09-2022 9:47am

Tesco has started charging extortionate prices for certain items if the buyer doesn't use a clubcard. Similar to what Jeff Bezos is doing with Whole foods in the States. Data is analysed by AI Overlords in a subsidiary called Dunnhumby in order to entice you into buying sh1t you don't want. Pack of shnakes, bring back Quinnsworth !

Donald Trump · 06-09-2022 9:52am

One of the great philosophical questions of our time OP.

Up there with "what if JFK hadn't been shot" or "what if Hitler had been any good at painting"

ohnonotgmail · 06-09-2022 10:02am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576991#Comment_119576991

Key Value Item. If a customer sees KVIs as cheap in a store they assume that everything else is cheap.

enricoh · 06-09-2022 10:08am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578274#Comment_119578274

I know a vedg supplier who supplies Tesco, they wanted the names of everyone working lin the business n check database that each one was doing their weekly shop there. If they weren't they best start.

He was supplying one of their competitors previously and they wanted a photo of him in the field working away. No bother I'll send one in he says. No, we'll send someone out to take a few they says. A month later he gets an invoice for 400+vat for the photographer, some young one related to someone in head office. I think the promo was about backing local producers!

Gregor Samsa · 06-09-2022 10:09am

On a recent DMT trip, I actually entered the alternate reality timeline where Tesco didn’t buy them out. Trust me, we’re better off with how it turned out for us. The cyborg version of Maurice Pratt advertising "100% homeless meat sausages" on a video billboard hanging from a blimp over the irradiated slums of Old Cork isn't something I can unsee.

06-09-2022 10:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578400#Comment_119578400

100% you say?

Gregor Samsa · 06-09-2022 10:15am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578414#Comment_119578414

Yeah, and they tasted awful without any binding or seasoning. But with the Swiss navy's blockade entering it's 6th year, other ingredients were hard to get into what was left of the island.

Donald Trump · 06-09-2022 10:33am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578400#Comment_119578400

Back in the 80's, there wasn't a housewife in the country that wouldn't have been salivating at the thought of getting a 100% meat sausage from Maurice

corner of hells · 06-09-2022 12:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119577284#Comment_119577284

There is or was a Tesco branded vodka , rumored to be similar to paint thinners and able to run a small generator.

On a another note a school friend of was convicted of an arson attack in a Quinnsworth store at the age of 18 , he's now a manager in a Tesco branch.

ButtersSuki · 06-09-2022 12:13pm

What if Marathon didn't change it's name to Snickers?

Tom Mann Centuria · 06-09-2022 12:15pm

Quinnsworth? Tesco? No idea, sorry, Kilkenny doesn't recognise those names.

corner of hells · 06-09-2022 12:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119579020#Comment_119579020

And if Mars became snunderpants ?

neris · 06-09-2022 12:25pm

Back when Lifestyle Sports was an actual sports shop that sold sports stuff, now its just a clothes shop

Dodge · 06-09-2022 1:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119579082#Comment_119579082

lifestyle sold toys and games too so I wouldn’t be getting too nostalgic for their sport offerings

Leg End Reject · 06-09-2022 2:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119579082#Comment_119579082

At the time people only wore tracksuits etc, for sports, not as everyday wear. I don't remember anyone walking around with their hand seemingly stuck inside their grey tracksuit bottom either.

its_steve116 · 06-09-2022 2:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119579034#Comment_119579034

I'm not even from Kilkenny and I'm well aware of the company's absence from the Marble County.

L1011 · 06-09-2022 2:57pm

Would probably have been bought by either one of the other British supermarkets as an expansion - Sainsburys or Morrisons maybe- or by Walmart to merge to Asda; which I'd say was quite plausible. Walmart allegedly tried to buy Dunnes later on; and I believe may have sniffed around during the crash. They've now sold Asda so won't be back even if Dunnes was put on the block.

The owner (of Quinnsworth) wanted out of food retailing so it was absolutely going to be sold. They kept the little clothes brand on the side though - Penneys/Primark!

Tabnabs · 06-09-2022 2:57pm

In the 1980s world of Quinnsworth you could swap the price tags on Lego boxes to get the set you wanted for the amount of pocket money you had. So I'm told...

L1011 · 06-09-2022 3:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119580099#Comment_119580099

A few people have been caught doing just that in the modern era - with overprint barcodes stickers! (that is at least the third different case of that in the US I'm aware of)