What if Tesco hadn't bought Quinnsworth?

its_steve116

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

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

We'd still have Maurice Pratt on the ads.

Unless he retired/moved on/was fired obviously.

3d4life

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

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

No idea why they agreed to take over

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

its_steve116

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.

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

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

eggy81

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

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

larchielads

Maybe superquinn and quinnsworth woulda merged into SuperQuinnsworth!!!

AMKC

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

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

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

FunkyDa2

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

Larbre34

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

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

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

AMKC

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

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

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”

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

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

walterking

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

thedart

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

Montage of Feck

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

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

knucklehead6

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

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

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

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

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

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.