Dearly departed shops :-(
Discussion
'Music Hitman' in Newport, Gwent. Spent my youth making special trips there on the Newport Nipper bus on a Saturday afternoon to get whatever the latest crap I was listening to then.
Also the old ABC (later Cannon) cinema in the town centre - in the days when a town's cinema was only in the town centre.
Also the old ABC (later Cannon) cinema in the town centre - in the days when a town's cinema was only in the town centre.
Westy Pre-Lit said:
Might have missed it but not seen this place mentioned yet.
Where I had one of my first jobs shelf stacking. I'll never forget walking round a corner catching a fellow stacker drinking out of a large coke bottle then putting it back on the shelf to be sold. To this day I still check that every bottle top is sealed before I buy it.
Not sure if this is just a Scottish shop, there was a supermarket called William Low. Our local one turned into a Tesco in the end, not sure if they all did.
Woolco. This was like a supersize Woolworths, but as well as the normal Woolies stuff it sold clothes and was a supermarket too, with a separate wines and spirits counter and a deli counter. It became a Gateway. Not sure if they bought Woolco, or if they just moved into the shop when Woolco vacated it.
Malcolm Campbells which was a chain of fruit&veg shops. I don't know how they lasted so long only selling part of what all supermarkets sold. Again might have been purely a Scottish chain.
Fine Fayre is another long defunct supermarket, and Safeway became Morrisons. Alldays was a chain of convenience stores that were much better than the Co-op convenience stores that replaced them.
Also a shortage of electrical stores with the closure of all Scottish Power shops, and of course the demise of Comet. Which leaves only Currys/PC World. Are Dixons online only now?
I'd also forgotten about MVC until someone mentioned it earlier, and Virgin was much better than HMV too. John Menzies retail business bought by WH Smith. I think Menzies still survive as a wholesale supplier.
Index were an Argos rival which disappeared. Can't ever remember buying anything from them though. I think Littlewoods owned them.
And as someone mentioned there are hardly any shoe shops left. My local town centre used to be full of shoe shops and electrical shops. Barratts shoes were the biggest shoe shop in my area, and had a big choice.
Found this link on wikipedia after racking my brains at some of the names I couldn't quite remember. A few names from the past here
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Defunct_r...
Edited by ch108 on Wednesday 11th November 21:03
SydneyBridge said:
I worked in Woolworths when I was a teenager and was in charge of the pic' n mix' - great place to work, although everyone wanted to work on the record counter..
The shop were I worked (Bognor Regis) was later damaged by an IRA bomb
Fellow (former) Bognor resident here. I remember the IRA bomb as I heard it go off from my lounge about a mile away. The shop were I worked (Bognor Regis) was later damaged by an IRA bomb
Used to spend a lot of time playing on the games consoles in Dixons and Boots (do I remember this right? Boots used to sell games, CDs, etc?), browsing the wares in Our Price and staring longingly at the Commodore Amigas in Bits 'n Bytes that I couldn't afford.
Oh, and Gamley's toy shop. I bloody loved that place.
In reality, Bognor was a s
thole then and visits back to see my folks suggest that it's even worse now. 
northwest monkey said:
It's either a bookies, a discount shop or a charity shop now.
The same can be said of most High Streets nowadays - everything seems to be one of these, especially in the larger towns near me such as Walsall and Lichfield.TJ Hughes - used to work in their store in Lichfield when I was a student, that one's now a Debenhams and I thought TJ's had gone bust but was surprised to see a new store open in Walsall.
Bakeries in the Midlands that I remember from when I was a kid include Firkin's and Three Cooks, no doubt all these are now Greggs. Also do Walter Smith butcher's shops still exist? Used to love their blue and white livery on everything.
Beatties department store has been mentioned - I think the one in Wolverhampton clung onto the name until fairly recently before becoming House of Fraser, and everyone in Birmingham still calls the one there Rackhams.
Another Birmingham department store was Lewis's - my mum talks about that one a lot. I believe it is now the Square Peg (a Wetherspoons) and some more smaller shops inside an arcade.
Wimpy burger bars - they still exist, I'm fairly sure the one at the bowling alley in Tamworth was still a Wimpy the last time I was there (a few years ago now mind you) although it didn't look very salubrious.
As others have said, one of the saddest things for me is the almost complete demise of music and hi-fi stores, as well as independent clothes/fashion shops. Another victim of the download/online culture, killing off individualism one iProduct at a time.
Happily though there are plenty of independent shops remaining in a couple of the smaller towns near me such as Chasetown and Brownhills, including a cycle shop (Sanders) which has been there for many decades and I believe has had the same bicycle hung outside for advertising since it opened, and a lawnmower repair and sales shop in Brownhills that is like a museum, complete with white-haired owner in his dark-stained engineer's coat who looks like he hasn't moved from his workbench for about 30 years.
Everywhere else is either a supermarket, a Gregg's, a pound shop or similar.
Westy Pre-Lit said:
Might have missed it but not seen this place mentioned yet.
Where I had one of my first jobs shelf stacking. I'll never forget walking round a corner catching a fellow stacker drinking out of a large coke bottle then putting it back on the shelf to be sold. To this day I still check that every bottle top is sealed before I buy it.
I remember a Rainbow supermarket, my mum worked on the checkout there and Darth Vader opened it (well someone in a DV costume) I was never clear if this was local or a chain. I think it got taken over by the co-op or was a rebranded co-op.
Peterborough Beatties for me, big RC section upstairs.
Peterborough Beatties for me, big RC section upstairs.
We had a Prestos in Folkestone that changed to Mainstop, then to Safeways I believe.i remember being 6or7 and every Friday was shopping evening, after the shop my parent where packing what they had bought I used to go play in the area that was full of boxes, used to meet up with other kids and we would build forts and chuck smaller boxes about.
austinsmirk said:
It won't mean anything to most of you, but in Bradford, there used to be a massive, posh department store.
it was called "Brown Muffs"
beat that for comedy value !
It became Rackhams, which of course is no more either.
I was too young when the switchover happened to have known how amusing the name was. I still remember their light brown wrapping paper with what I think must have been black men in little caps running with Brown Muff & Co. ribbons. The toy department was in the basement and at Christmas they had a little shop for children to buy presents for their parents with their pocket money. We got 10p a week. I saved and spent two weeks' worth on each. My brother saved less and bought my Dad a 6p screwdriver. it was called "Brown Muffs"
beat that for comedy value !
It became Rackhams, which of course is no more either.
The "posh" table service restaurant was on the top floor and served Knickerbocker Glories. We were always served by a waitress called Anna with red hair. We never went into one half of the restaurant and I never understood why. It was only later that I realised there was a mirror the length of one wall.
Seen most of them mentioned already,
Hillards in Batley, where we did most of our supermarket shopping until ASDA started up in Morley,
Carters in Bradford, where I got my model railway stuff.
MB Radio in Leeds, down by the station, a treasure-trove of surplus electronics kit.
Thoughts and Crosses in Heckmondwike, had a huge stock of computers and games in the early boom days.
Laskys in Manchester Arndale, got most of my student Hi-Fi from here.
Then I moved to Stoke so obviously Mike Lloyds.
Ninja edit: Route 66.
Hillards in Batley, where we did most of our supermarket shopping until ASDA started up in Morley,
Carters in Bradford, where I got my model railway stuff.
MB Radio in Leeds, down by the station, a treasure-trove of surplus electronics kit.
Thoughts and Crosses in Heckmondwike, had a huge stock of computers and games in the early boom days.
Laskys in Manchester Arndale, got most of my student Hi-Fi from here.
Then I moved to Stoke so obviously Mike Lloyds.
Ninja edit: Route 66.
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