Steven Smith: The Poundland Story

Rather than play on my bike with my friends I used to love to go to Bilston market in the West Midlands with my Mom and Dad, this is where the idea for poundland came from. Any items that came out of their original packaging was put into a cardboard box and sold for 10p. This box took more money than anything else on the stall. In 1990 the pound coin had just been redesigned. My dad said why don't you sell everything for one pound, i said "thats a great idea"

People said "It will never work"  I opened the first Poundland shop on 13th December 1990 with 648 products

The market place is now worth over five billion pounds.