Poundland hits back after Brits call for name change

Brits have urged Poundland to change its name after finding products on sale for more than £1 – but the supermarket has a response.

Taking to Reddit, one disgruntled customer shared a snap from a toiletries aisle inside one of the discount supermarket’s branches – which showed every item priced at £2 or more.

“Poundland… time to change the name?” the shopper wrote in the CasualUK subreddit. They claimed: “At this stage it’s just become a place where other shows dump their unsold and dodgy merch. Genuinely struggled to find anything someone would want for £1!”

The snap in question showed several branded haircare products, priced between £2 and £7.

Another user wrote in response: “They’ve been quite clever in keeping the name but ditching the £1 prices. The name and the way the stores look still makes people think they’re getting a bargain.”

A second said: “I feel like there’s been a lot of effort to keep it feeling cheap as well.” And a third added: “It was always a curiosity to me to understand how Poundland and others like it would maintain the concept of everything being a pound with inevitable inflation. Seems those days are firmly gone.”

A fourth wrote: “These guys are all about the loss leaders. There will be some advertised products that are genuinely the cheapest around, to get you in the door. Once you’re in there is all sorts of stuff that seems cheap, but like others have mentioned it will be smaller sizes or different product lines that can normally be had cheaper elsewhere.”

But Poundland has responded to the criticism, informing shoppers they can “still find plenty of items at £1” in their stores that always represent “amazing value”.

“Actually you can still find plenty of items at £1 or below but we haven’t been a ‘£1-only retailer’ since around 2017… eight years ago,” a spokesperson told the Express.

“We’ve been extending into loads of other areas since then ..clothes, chilled and frozen food, homewares…offering customers more chances to find items they need at better value than elsewhere. Whatever the price, it’s always amazing value.”

In a press release last month, the chain’s managing director Austin Cooke said: “We’ve worked hard over the last few years to revolutionise what we offer at Poundland, offering much more to make customers’ pounds go further.

“And that revolution has picked up pace in the last six months as we’ve now become the exclusive home for popular Pepco clothing and homewares – previously only available in continental Europe.

“We’re incredibly proud of those new ranges, proud of the hundreds of new grocery items we now offer – and of course, proud of the value we’re now able to bring right across the store.”