The death of the high street.

[hyphen]

crankedup said:

Visited our local Debenhams today looking to purchase a cocktail set and glasses. All they had was two ocktail shakers, both the same. No glasses or cocktail paraphernalia at all. Very disappointing, looked in a couple of alternative large retailers with no luck at all. Ordered online and delivery tomorrow. I would much rather purchase in the High St but the stock choice is poor to say the least.

John Lewis nearby? If not then ability to get delivered to nearest Waitrose can be useful too

[Carrot]

monkfish1 said:

Retail shopping is dead. Stop trying to save it.

This. Blockbuster learned the hard way.

[Red 4]

Dakkon said:

Red 4 said:

crankedup said:

Visited our local Debenhams today looking to purchase a cocktail set and glasses. All they had was two ocktail shakers, both the same. No glasses or cocktail paraphernalia at all. Very disappointing, looked in a couple of alternative large retailers with no luck at all. Ordered online and delivery tomorrow. I would much rather purchase in the High St but the stock choice is poor to say the least.

Debenhams is OK if you like/ need a perfume counter.

Other than that it is overpriced, unfashionable tat.

Anyhoo, another thing that boils my piss.

Why do people take their entire family food shopping ? I'm talking about Mum and Dad plus a mob of 5 or 6 unruly kids who wander aimlessly around the narrow aisles getting in everybody's way or form a cordon around the frozen food that the Metropolitan Police TSG would be proud of.

Parents are either nonchalant wkers or screaming and shouting wkers.
There is no middle ground. Ever.

Leave your spawn at home.
It's fking obvious they don't want to be there.
Or better still, use contraception.

Pricks.

Edited by Red 4 on Wednesday 19th December 23:41

It's a shame your mum said no to anal all those years ago.....

Yours didn't.

[Turn7]

FFS guys, why does evry fkn thread on here turn into simple insults ? Use some IQ and have a debate, dont default to abuse, its st.

[Earthdweller]

Carrot said:

monkfish1 said:

Retail shopping is dead. Stop trying to save it.

This. Blockbuster learned the hard way.

My 8 year old niece was explaining to me yesterday how years ago they had these discs that mummy used to stick in the dash of the car to play music !!

[monkfish1]

Carrot said:

This. Blockbuster learned the hard way.

Well, that and turning down netflix.

[crankedup]

hyphen said:

crankedup said:

Visited our local Debenhams today looking to purchase a cocktail set and glasses. All they had was two ocktail shakers, both the same. No glasses or cocktail paraphernalia at all. Very disappointing, looked in a couple of alternative large retailers with no luck at all. Ordered online and delivery tomorrow. I would much rather purchase in the High St but the stock choice is poor to say the least.

John Lewis nearby? If not then ability to get delivered to nearest Waitrose can be useful too

Yes that’s the sum of it, for a while I was back to having a walk in the town to shop. What was I thinking! my fault, left it late and forgot the high st is dead. John Lewis I agree can be relied upon for quality product. IMO, we will regret the death of the traditional shop.

[Murph7355]

Earthdweller said:

My 8 year old niece was explaining to me yesterday how years ago they had these discs that mummy used to stick in the dash of the car to play music !!

My 6yr old and his mate showed me last weekend how people used to write messages to each other on a phone in the old days (multi-presses of a key to cycle through the letters on the key). Bewildered doesn't even start to cover it

[Pesty]

Buying online isn’t all plane sailing though.

[miniman]

Tru, dat.

[egor110]

Pesty said:

Buying online isn’t all plane sailing though.

What’s been photoshopped into that red form down by the post office address?

[Red 4]

Anyone think it's been eerily quiet in the shops this year ?

I'm talking town centres and out of town retail parks ? I think it has - actually no busier than your average weekday or weekend.

By way of an update I had the misfortune to visit Home Bargains last night. (I know, I know, it's not the PH way and I should only shop at Harrods or at the very least Selfridges or John Lewis).

Anyway, I pick up what I need and am stood there looking at the DIY stuff.

The shop is practically empty. There is nobody else in the aisle.

Some middle aged, reasonably well dressed, seemingly normal bloke joins me in the aisle.
He stands about 10 feet away from me, looking at the tubes of silicone/ decorators caulk and stuff.

Then, what I can only describe as the stench from hell descended on my nostils.

I have no idea what this bloke had been eating but it would not surprise me if he had actually been eating his own st.

There was also a reasonable chance that he had followed through.

I looked at him. He did not make eye contact with me and appeared to be frozen to the spot, looking straight ahead, as if nothing had happened.

Unfortunately, Home Bargains do not sell gas masks or breathing apparatus and I could actually taste this guys little gift to me in the back of my throat.
I had no option other than to make a tactical withdrawal.

Not wanting to appear a total whimp I did mutter "Dirty bd" under my breath as I retreated.
I'm sure he heard me.

Anyway, my point is - why do this near to someone in an almost empty shop ?
It was pretty obvious this guy had been brewing this one for a while.
The shop was big enough and empty enough that if he had to drop his guts he could have done so in another empty aisle and, potentially, remained blameless.
He could have left a trail of arse gas along several aisles if he had carried on walking (and therefore the potential for shifting the blame increases exponentially) - although that may not have been his preferred choice in view of the severity of the fart and likelihood of needing a nappy/ change of pants.

fking weirdo.
Christmas shopping.
fking hate it.
I've had it.
I'm not doing it next year.
Everything will be bought online.
They can shove shops up their arse.
Some of the people I've had to share space with this year are either brain dead, lacking manners and/ or personal hygiene, are just plain ignorant or complete fking freaks.
Christmas - I'll be glad when it's over.

Edited by Red 4 on Saturday 22 December 12:56

[Seventy]

Cheery chap, aren't you!!

[Bullett]

Well, just returned from my Christmas shopping trip with Miss Bullett at the shiney and relatively new Bracknell Lexicon. Got into town around 9.30 and parked with ease, around 600 spaces available according to the sign out of I would think 1000.
Therefore, plenty of space and few queues. Most places had a sale. Walking into Bills for a quick brunch about 11.30 with no issue. Got most things we wanted and left without issue at about 12.30.
Very few spaces now (6 on our floor) and a short queue to get in.

[Pesty]

egor110 said:

What’s been photoshopped into that red form down by the post office address?

Nothing. Probably lighting I took that on phone in chopping board. I don’t posses photoshop or would fk about with it if I did to make a post on here. I angled the phone so it didn’t show too many Wacos around here.

[PBDirector]

Today, the last Saturday before Xmas, I went into town at 10am. No queue for parking, the four shops I went into I didn’t have to queue at the tills. Surely amazon are going to be reporting record sales...

(I get that these anecdotes are totally meaningless and that the plural of anecdote isn’t data.)

[grumbledoak]

PBDirector said:

Surely amazon are going to be reporting record sales...

(I get that these anecdotes are totally meaningless and that the plural of anecdote isn’t data.)

I would think so. Certainly I've done all mine online, and mostly on Amazon.

[miniman]

I ordered something for myself (not from Amazon) yesterday at 15:20 fully expecting delivery after Christmas - arrived at 09:03 this morning. Why would I go to the high street? It's not just Amazon that are changing the face of it - all retailers that want to be successful are recognising that the world has changed.

My item was best price available online, from highly rated seller, free delivery.

[eldar]

PBDirector said:

Today, the last Saturday before Xmas, I went into town at 10am. No queue for parking, the four shops I went into I didn’t have to queue at the tills. Surely amazon are going to be reporting record sales...

(I get that these anecdotes are totally meaningless and that the plural of anecdote isn’t data.)

Similar experience in Rugby. Expectation was it would be rammed, reality was easy to park, no queues, done in 70 minutes. Almost surreal.

[HOGEPH]

I went into the local town to get some photo frames needed for Xmas eve.

1st shop didn't have the size I wanted.

2nd shop didn't have any.

3rd shop didn't have them in the price range I wanted.

Sat back in car, ordered them from Amazon for delivery tomorrow, admittedly not as cheap as the ones the first shop didn't have, but then they didn't have them, did they.

Just reminded me of my resolution to avoid high street shopping in 2019.