Dearly departed shops :-(
Discussion
Texas turned into Homebase - for a while it was called Texas Homebase (I used to have their loyalty card). C & A also have a store in Paris I believe - I remember the irony of chic Paris having a C & A...
Woolworths for me - I used to be a Saturday boy there in the early 80s for 2 years selling flat pack furniture and "hifi" (in reality, tower systems and "music centres" by Alba, Amstrad, Ferguson and the like...).
Also one that only people in Rugby would remember - George Over, a book and artists materials shop. 2 floors of books and a big section upstairs of paints and brushes, easels and all that. As business dwindled, the upstairs closed and the stock shrank accordingly. Then it died. The name survives as a printing company in the town, so I guess it must be the same family.
Woolworths for me - I used to be a Saturday boy there in the early 80s for 2 years selling flat pack furniture and "hifi" (in reality, tower systems and "music centres" by Alba, Amstrad, Ferguson and the like...).
Also one that only people in Rugby would remember - George Over, a book and artists materials shop. 2 floors of books and a big section upstairs of paints and brushes, easels and all that. As business dwindled, the upstairs closed and the stock shrank accordingly. Then it died. The name survives as a printing company in the town, so I guess it must be the same family.
CountZero23 said:
MVC. Many a college lunchtime spent at the listening stations.
Virtually all of the old vinyl stores. Were a couple in Oxford where I smoked fags and frittered away my student loan. Good times.
Stickers had two prices, right? Discount for the membership/card holders iirc.Virtually all of the old vinyl stores. Were a couple in Oxford where I smoked fags and frittered away my student loan. Good times.
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.
Didn't know Rackhams had gone - there was one in Altrincham next to C&A - just down from Woolworths.it was called "Brown Muffs"
beat that for comedy value !
It became Rackhams, which of course is no more either.
Beatties has been mentioned a couple of times & the one in Altrincham was in a little shopping arcade I'm pretty sure was called the "Red Balloon". Also in this little collection of shops was "Fanny's Fashions" which I believe is as good as your Brown Muffs
A recent one:
Borders. Great shops for an extended browse, and for finding books not stocked elsewhere.
A childhood one:
Toy & Hobby. Great high street toy shops - before out of town Toys R Us etc killed them off.
Doesn't quite count:
Boots in the late 80s/early 90s when it used to sell so much more (in the bigger shops) - including music. I still have some Boots CDs.
Borders. Great shops for an extended browse, and for finding books not stocked elsewhere.
A childhood one:
Toy & Hobby. Great high street toy shops - before out of town Toys R Us etc killed them off.
Doesn't quite count:
Boots in the late 80s/early 90s when it used to sell so much more (in the bigger shops) - including music. I still have some Boots CDs.
Jek Porkins said:
I remember a market stall in Cheltenham which used to sell quite cool things. The guy then got a proper shop in town: "Cult Clothing", the go to place for t-shirts and other stuff.
I was sad when it closed, but he's doing alright now. He renamed himself... SuperDry!
Yes, Cult clothing for jeans & hoodies. Used to be a big event getting the train/bus up to Cheltenham!I was sad when it closed, but he's doing alright now. He renamed himself... SuperDry!
CD shops for me, there are still HMV but only a few years back there was Woolworths, MVC, Virgin Megastores & Our Price.
We used to have a big Co-op department store in Ipswich. It was spread over several buildings with different sized rooms and corridors. I used to love the elevated walkways over the alleyways! More fun to explore and mess around in, rather than buying stuff...
It extended all the way down to the end of the blue fronted bits, and a fair way in the other direction as well.
It extended all the way down to the end of the blue fronted bits, and a fair way in the other direction as well.
RanchoGrande said:
Beatties, used to love visiting their Blackpool store when I was a kid, dreaming that one day I'd be able to get a Midnight Pumpkin remote control car, I did eventually get a Grasshopper 2 though followed by a Subaru Mudblaster. Still yearn for that Midnight Pumpkin... Sad to hear Beatties is no more, I imagine the market place for model stores has shrunk to the point where it's not worth having a physical store.
I discovered just yesterday that Midnight Pumpkins are still available online. I may have to treat myself.Ah but you can't pay with boxes of stamp books.
My dad had a village shop and all the wholesalers used to give out Green Sheild Stamps, we'd spend hours licking the damn things so we could hand in pallets of them in exchange for a toaster.
My dad had a village shop and all the wholesalers used to give out Green Sheild Stamps, we'd spend hours licking the damn things so we could hand in pallets of them in exchange for a toaster.
Edited by Chevykevv on Tuesday 10th November 16:10
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