From wine and chocolates to a 10 pence shopping bag – long time Chesterfield Wilko worker regales her time at the store

When Diane McGirr started at the town centre store in 2,000 it was still known as Wilkinson and employed over 140 people.

Staff arrived early ahead of their shifts to label items individually with pricing guns and two lorries arrived with fresh stock every day.

Every single till was manned and one year the Chesterfield branch was noted for taking £1 million in sales.

Staff received silver and gold awards for customer service and were rewarded with a slap-up meal at Chesterfield Hotel in 2009 – paid for by owner Tony Wilkinson himself.

On Sunday October 8 the Vicar Lane branch will close its doors for the final time after opening 34 years ago.

Diane, 52, remembers the store as a “fun” place to work where staff had “really good times” – however she says this began to change around 2015.

She said: “You could have fun – we used to have people hiding in boxes and jumping out on other members of staff and the managers would join in.

"That’s how it used to be, as long as you got your work done.

"The Christmas parties were excellent – there were raffles with really good prizes and every member of staff received a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates as a thank you.

"We used to have competitions with prizes to see which staff could come up with the best way to decorate the shop at Christmas – it was like a winter wonderland.”

However as the company became noticeably tighter with its staff rewards as each year went by workers realised the good times were coming to an end, said Diane.

The mum-of-three added: “It got to the point where we didn’t get anything apart from a Christmas card.

"One year we were offered a 10 pence carrier bag, which we had to sign for to say we’d accepted it – I told them to shove it.

"Around 2015 things really went downhill. They started not replacing people who left and then they cut double time for working Sundays.

"It became compulsory as part of the contract – then all of our assistant managers were made redundant.”

Diane believes when Wilkinson’s became Wilko the company “shot itself in the foot” by pitching its offering as more “upmarket”, compared with other brands such as Home Bargains.

She said: “They brought in things which were more expensive and I think that’s where they went wrong.”

In 2023 there are 40 staff remaining at Chesterfield’s Wilko store and Diane says all of them are “angry” and feeling “let down” by the company.

Diane, who lives in Dunston, said: “We feel like the company has just been run into the ground.”

However, she looks back over the years and remembers the good times – as do other workers who have in some cases worked at the shop for over 30 years.

"We all have lots of great memories and have made lifetime friendships,” said Diane.