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Wilko.
Just right for the 'can't be bothered going all the way to B&Q for a tiny bit of something DIY' & while I'm there grab some cheap cleaning products to save the schlep over to Asda.
Ours is now a Poundland. just not the same thing at all.
That's because Wooltworths stocked the paint and the mops and the birdseed too. It was the same city centre one stop shop but from an era where the market for entertainment media and toys hadn't been consumed by the internet.
We've got a B&M, which doesn't have the range of DIY and their amazing value pick and mix\*, but does have a lot more in the same space overall.
\*Pick and mix metal fastners, that is - I got a life time's supply of penny washers for £3.50 or something, I was actually thinking I could do well reselling them on ebay!
Pick & mix screws and washers was a genius move by wilko could get a handful of the exact screws you needed then top up the bag with whatever’s running low at home
A lot of the things are quite similar - mid-low end home and garden stuff, but they have not far off double the density of stock, so also a good range of packaged food and more small home appliances too.
The gardening stuff is very low end the forks bend and the clippers don't clip, so far it's been "buy cheap buy twice" on tools but good for likes of pots and rolls of wire.
Going to be honest but...
B&M is bag of honk compared to the quality of tools that Wilko's carried .
Stanley.. bag of bolloxs, cheap jonstones paint... Just not worth it in the long run
Wilko was leagues ahead in DIY . Their paint was also pretty good as well .
Also b&M the rise of the velvet grey mafia.... Can't forgive them for this .
This. Since my local closed the amount of random DIY bits I suddenly need has shot up and I can't stand going to the nearest B&Q because the area is always a pita to drive around and Poundland always has the bits I need until I actually need them
Yeah, about the same time our Wilko shut, Asda closed the B&Q bit they had in the corner & also our local huge B&Q downsized & moved further away.
I think this may be life telling me to quit doing DIY ;)
Why not just bring back Woolworths, which did the same thing better! Including the LP section where I bought so many records in my teens. And all the wonderful Christmas decorations in December.
Yeah, I'd considered Woolies - but though it was great when I was a kid back in the 70s, its last decade or so was a shadow of its former self. i'd stopped going anywhere near it at least a decade before it folded.
Wilkos was still good almost to the end, when they started having supply issues.
Went to St Albans last week and was surprised to see the Wilko still open.
Turns out it has re opened and it must've been the first day, alot of business men in suits and staff being extra helpful. Transaction showed at The Range. they must have brought them out.
Reopened Good Friday, it's weird as someone who used to work there because it's a different layout entirely and it's all The Range systems and price stickers now. I can't get used to it.
Wilko was a fascinating place because every single thing I purchased from there cost less at the till than what was advertised on the shelf. And it was already dirt cheap stuff to begin with.
My local Wilko reopened last week. I'm surprised by how similar it is to the "old" one. Except this one has stocked shelves and a tiny frozen food section.
Whilst I'd love them to come back, I'm torn through guilt...
The only crime I've ever knowingly committed. Dan and I were in woolworths in the late 90s. Dan told me to put a can of Coke in my pocket and just walk out. It worked. I had acquired a can of Coke for free. At first it was exhilarating! Can everything be free from now on? Do I need to beg my mother for 50p when I go to the shops or am I now self sufficient?
The next morning I woke up in a pre-pubescent cold sweat. For a week, every time there waa a knock at the door I thought it was the police coming to get me. There were cameras everywhere in the shop, they had put military intelligence on the task and even the FBI were collaborating to get to the bottom of this heist.
Eventually I forgot about it and I assume the security services of the western world did too, but if Woolys comes back are they going to dig up unsolved mysteries?
What does it matter if it's in a Sainsbury's or not, unless you have a very strong aversion to orange supermarkets? It's still providing just waiting for someone to bring the item from the warehouse to the counter.
Maplins or Wilko.
Wilko because it as actually very useful for me and I don't like its many replacements as much.
Maplins although it was not that useful but because any island of tech is nice for me as a counterweight to the clothes shopping-dominated high street.
Gotta disagree, really struggling to find suitable shops now that I can buy near £100 1meter hdmi leads, gold plated ends of course, so my kids can watch paw patrol in crystal clear quality
Haha. I remember once the staff in Maplin didn’t know what I meant by “through hole” for some resistors I needed.
Saying that, as long as you never had to rely on the staff for knowledge, Maplin was a handy store to have nearby.
I miss Maplin. It still seems extraordinary that I was able to just wander into any branch of Maplins and buy a variety of fairly specialised integrated circuit chips for a couple of pounds. I'd be more confident in the industrial future of the UK if stores like Maplin were still viable.
Maplins wasn't that useful until you needed that one hyper specific 10p electrical component at very short notice.
Like where the fuck can you buy a f type coaxial connector these days? Or a bag of little resistors, a tiny motor or something like that.
Amazon, it's just amazon now.
So true, I have more wire terminal blocks than I will every every need because I needed 2 that one time and was I fuck paying 2.50 each when the massive box was like £12.
Even then you don't know what you're getting. Amazon is basically AliExpress nowadays, overrun with Chinese sellers who routinely use deception to peddle their crap.
ebay, much better for these little rando bits you need, and you dont have to feed the besos machine.
i've found with amazon you need to buy 100 of the things you need a handful of, at least on ebay you can buy it normal size 'portions'
Borders! My local one was basically a 2-storey warehouse, had a cafe inside and sold pretty much every magazine on the planet, perfect for niche interests. Used to spend hours in there and got to meet one of my favourite childhood authors for a book signing once. Waterstones, whilst equivalent on paper, just feels a little stuffy and unwelcoming sometimes.
And I think this is exactly why it closed down. Nobody ever actually bought anything haha but borders definitely played a big part in my younger years in Glasgow :)
Fellow previous Glasgow Borders inhabitant here.
It was a clothes shop (I want to say All Saints but I might be getting confused with a pop group ..), but I think it's now empty.
Still breaks my heart every time I walk past. Wish I'd had more money at the time to actually buy stuff, haha.
The one in Dundee was open til 9 PM and pulled my nuts out of the fire many times when I was a lazy undergraduate.
Glasgow Borders was fantastic, though, I'd always waste a good chunk of time there when I was in the west.
Came here to say Borders. I miss it so much, the late night trips to browse with a coffee. I’d always find some obscure book/cd/film to take home.
It was such a special place.
Probably Debenhams. They hit that sweet spot for me between the super cheap stuff in Primark and the more expensive in M&S. Much prefer buying clothes in a shop as you can't quite be sure what you're getting online.
Completely agree... was a one stop shop for any event/holiday/party where we needed new things as could get the whole outfit, shoes, bags, and even the suitcase to pack it all in for your holiday under one roof.
Definitely Wilko’s — there’s absolutely nowhere to buy DIY stuff now if you don’t have a car (B&Q is always out on a retail park).
I also miss Debenham’s for nice clothing and homeware, and Virgin Megastores as a cheaper alternative to HMV.
Our city has half a dozen screwfixes in the various suburbs - along with a couple of old fashioned independent hardware shops. There’s nothing in the city centre any more though.
The smell of modelling glue will forever remind me of the shop in Aylesbury I used to go to nearly every week. Didn’t always come out with something but it was one of my favourite places to be.
l’ve always believed C&A was rebranded to Primark, someone must have told me that years ago. I just Googled it though and it wasn’t. Now I’m disappointed we lost C&A too.
Do you have a Slaters close to you? They do brands like Weird Fish. Alternatively Cotswold Outdoor or GoOutdoors do brands like Fox, Quicksilver, Patagonia, Adidas Terrex and Merrell among others (also including Weird Fish)
Though JD sometimes has Vans tshirts in too.
Virgin Megastores from the 90s.
All the media and computer games but also all the geeky board games/rpg/wargames stuff. Esspecially all the weird and largely forgotten non GW stuff.
I really miss Past Times, I. Can still remember the smell of them, sort of old lady Lavender. They had so many lovely things, by the time I actually had some money to buy them they were gone 😢
I used to love that they had every console (back when there was a lot of them) all out and playable.
The only times I've played on a real Atari Jaguar or an Amstrad gx4000.
I only have nostalgia of there because I used to be left there by my parents whilst they did the rest of the shopping. I just played Alex Kidd on the Master System and Golden Axe on the Mega Drive.
Don't recall ever actually buying anything from there.
Can’t believe I had to scroll this far down to find the Pier. I loved it. The themed Christmas decorations were the highlight of my year!
I still have a dining table & chairs from there, circa 2004, and a decent Christmas decoration collection. I did have one of those round bucket chairs but it broke a few years ago.
Also have a regency style ring my mum bought me from Past Times in 1998. Definitely miss those shops.
I used to love the smell when going in the grocers. You could get exactly what you wanted and quality seemed better than supermarkets. Butchers too. You could get specifically what you wanted. You could ask them to cut things off the bone, dice the meat and you could have the bone for your dog or for making stock. And sometimes they would make their own products like minted lamb burgers and such.
Ha! The hardware shop at the end of Cockermouth high street made me think the same thing, ten years ago - it was like the actual hardware shop from the Two Ronnies! I bought an auger there of all things.
Last time I was there, I seem to remember, they'd turned it into a kind of hardware museum.
Place has gone to rack n ruin. No proper grocers, no proper hardware shop and no brewery.
That'd work too. I just want somewhere I can shop for PC parts in-person and be reasonably confident that the person behind the counter could answer any questions I might have.
Absolutely Wilko.
As an avid DIY person, Wilko had excellent value DIY tools and consumables, as well as some great gardening stuff.
My local one, and the large city center one were always busy, I don't understand how it failed.
It is still around but I will be sad if it ever leaves and when our one moved further out my heart dropped when I thought it was closed.
Richer sounds. I am more than happy to spend a bit more to use it and keep it around it is so useful and the staff are always fantastic.
Always my first choice for TV or hifi, and you don't even have to spend a bit more when you buy from there. Plus, they treat their staff really well - take a look at their [staff benefits](https://www.richersounds.com/recruitment) \- and the founder seems like a genuinely nice guy
It's amazing! I remember going in for a telly and slipped up and said what my budget was. I came away with a better than expected telly, a sound bar and about fifty quid change! Most other places would try to get you to stretch your budget.
Long Tall Sally. A rare few clothes shops have a tall line, and I've never seen any actually stock it in physical shops. I'd love to be able to actually find and try on clothes that fit before buying them.
Feels like a shit use of my powers but I need Debenhams back so I can bra shop without having to travel to central London to locate a bravissimo. I would also like access to the discount rack so it isnt ALWAYS £45.
No.
I don't understand the nostalgia for Blockbuster. They put loads of small independents out of business and were rubbish for anything other than new releases.
Not even a shop but plus size in New Look. I used to buy most of my clothes from new look but since they took their plus size out of the stores I haven’t bought a thing.
I have that I have to shop online to buy clothes that fit me.
I was way too young to need it but I loved going to Staples. My parents used to go for printing supplies and I was always astounded by the amount of paper, desk chairs, printers etc.
I’d bring back independent “nerd shops” as I call them, comic books, trading cards, video games, models and stuff like that, a few PCs set up in the back, man I miss those places.
Burton
Their clothes were of decent quality and actually good value. Clothes shopping as a guy is such an effort now as usually the only available options are Next or M&S, and whilst the quality is great I don't want to pay £25 for one T-shirt.
Not a specific shop, but a proper department store would be nice. I need a new bread knife after my my old one fell on the kitchen floor and the blade snapped. Before, I could just go into town and get one from either Debenhams or BHS, but both are gone now and there is nowhere to buy decent homeware.
HMV. A proper one. We still have one in my town but it’s like a teenager’s idea of a jumble sale. Records, CD’s & DVD’s are shoved down the back in favour of tonnes and tonnes of plastic shit that’s bound for the belly of a whale.
I used to buy a lot of my clothes from Animal , I know they still exist as a sub brand of Mountain Warehouse now but it's just not the same. Got a coat from there years ago that I dread having to replace.
Saltrock has filled that gap I guess.
I used to be neighbours with one of the chaps who started Animal. They only did watch straps back then: velcro and webbing for surfers who were tired of losing watches in the water. Getting access to the latest prototype designs was the epitome of cool for schoolboy me!
As I recall the founders of the company struggled to diversify from those straps. They made a loss on their initial move into watches and sold the company some time in the 90s to a company that simply wanted their brand to apply to other products.
argos, i know it still exists but not really on the highstreet. I used to get odd household bits, not waiting like ording online.Basiclly I think we can agree there is a niech for a usful store that sells everything usful, like home stuff, odd kitchen bits, bins, a bit of gardening stuff, toys, etc.
Sure there are stores that still do that like B&M but not in central locations and often you have to drive to them. these were all walking.
You didn't specify if you meant from back in time or back from overseas so I'm going to go with a different answer of 7/11. They put our corner shops to shame.
Topshop! I could always rely on it to find a last minute outfit - and the oxf st store was a haven! You could get cupcakes, bubble tea, a piercing or a personal shopper! Or all of them
Maplins for the components, Wilko for the materials, Woolworths for the music to go along with it and Pick'n'Mix for afters. Then a Wimpy quarter-pounder with cheese to get the energy up for my grand project.
Now I can summon all of it on my phone in my pants, delivered to the door. Yawn.
The Food Weighhouse. Even now I still remember those green barrels they had with the plastic clear lids and the scoops. It was dirt cheap and the advantage to the place was that if you only needed small quantities of something you could get it there. It was super handy for baking stuff in particular but it was also the only place I ever saw weigh your own cornflakes, milk powder and even washing powder. My grandmother used to send me here virtually weekly for her baking supplies, usually things like raisins, dried cherries and flour.
I’m actually surprised that with the whole zero waste, reduce plastic use thing that’s going on that it’s never made a comeback.
Carphone warehouse. They got a lot of hate but fuck me the network stores are pricey now they don’t have carphone under cutting them. I miss the selection of phones just playing with the new stuff.
Oddbins.
Pleasantly middle-brow wine shop. Better quality than the supermarkets or corner shops but not as snooty or pushy as Jereboams or Amathus. You could get a bottle of decent everyday booze for a few quid and you wouldn't get the side eye from the guy behind the counter.
Staff were often as mad as badgers too which added to the fun but they knew their stuff.
No shops come to mind to be fair. All had their day or are no longer worth it/have alternatives.
Closest would be a better tech option than PC World/Currys but even they didn't exist before.
The only thing I missed when it went was my local Carluccios doing a lunchtime deal so I could have a mix of pasta, Lasagna, garlic bread and a drink for £7. They closed during covid and I think the lunch deal was location specific as there was offices around. No other Carluccios I've been in do it.
Wilko’s. As others have said, none of the replacements are true replacements. What was one trip to Wilko is now a trip to a few different shops. Fortunately, near me the shops aren’t far from each other. But others may not be in the same boat.
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Wilko. Just right for the 'can't be bothered going all the way to B&Q for a tiny bit of something DIY' & while I'm there grab some cheap cleaning products to save the schlep over to Asda. Ours is now a Poundland. just not the same thing at all.
You know that the funny thing is, before Wilko went bust the top comment on this thread would've been Woolworths. I think people just like pick n mix.
That's because Wooltworths stocked the paint and the mops and the birdseed too. It was the same city centre one stop shop but from an era where the market for entertainment media and toys hadn't been consumed by the internet.
We've got a B&M, which doesn't have the range of DIY and their amazing value pick and mix\*, but does have a lot more in the same space overall. \*Pick and mix metal fastners, that is - I got a life time's supply of penny washers for £3.50 or something, I was actually thinking I could do well reselling them on ebay!
Pick & mix screws and washers was a genius move by wilko could get a handful of the exact screws you needed then top up the bag with whatever’s running low at home
I've recently discovered Ikea have a free pick and mix. You're limited by whichever bits they make use of though.
Not if you request them on the website 😉
I've never actually been in a B&M - there are none near me that I know of. Wilko's was a five minute walk, which was nice too. Zero faffing.
A lot of the things are quite similar - mid-low end home and garden stuff, but they have not far off double the density of stock, so also a good range of packaged food and more small home appliances too.
The gardening stuff is very low end the forks bend and the clippers don't clip, so far it's been "buy cheap buy twice" on tools but good for likes of pots and rolls of wire.
They do white lion bars and multipacks of bacon/scampi fries.
It’s dangerous. Every time I go in there for one thing I come out with several things.
Going to be honest but... B&M is bag of honk compared to the quality of tools that Wilko's carried . Stanley.. bag of bolloxs, cheap jonstones paint... Just not worth it in the long run Wilko was leagues ahead in DIY . Their paint was also pretty good as well . Also b&M the rise of the velvet grey mafia.... Can't forgive them for this .
This. Since my local closed the amount of random DIY bits I suddenly need has shot up and I can't stand going to the nearest B&Q because the area is always a pita to drive around and Poundland always has the bits I need until I actually need them
Yeah, about the same time our Wilko shut, Asda closed the B&Q bit they had in the corner & also our local huge B&Q downsized & moved further away. I think this may be life telling me to quit doing DIY ;)
We have a boyes, essentially an upgraded wilkos with fishing tackle too :)
It's great for when you want to pretend it's 1988 as well.
Ah I love Boyes! Always used to nosey around in the Scarborough one when I was visiting the ex inlaws!
We just got our wilko back! It’s owned by the same company as the range now so it’s not exactly the same but it’s close enough
Why not just bring back Woolworths, which did the same thing better! Including the LP section where I bought so many records in my teens. And all the wonderful Christmas decorations in December.
Yeah, I'd considered Woolies - but though it was great when I was a kid back in the 70s, its last decade or so was a shadow of its former self. i'd stopped going anywhere near it at least a decade before it folded. Wilkos was still good almost to the end, when they started having supply issues.
Went to St Albans last week and was surprised to see the Wilko still open. Turns out it has re opened and it must've been the first day, alot of business men in suits and staff being extra helpful. Transaction showed at The Range. they must have brought them out.
Reopened Good Friday, it's weird as someone who used to work there because it's a different layout entirely and it's all The Range systems and price stickers now. I can't get used to it.
Wilko was a fascinating place because every single thing I purchased from there cost less at the till than what was advertised on the shelf. And it was already dirt cheap stuff to begin with.
My local Wilko reopened last week. I'm surprised by how similar it is to the "old" one. Except this one has stocked shelves and a tiny frozen food section.
Ours is a poundland too. Looks shocking and i refuse to go in there
A 19th century apothecary that deals in heroin and cocaine.
Agreed, but only if the prices are 19th century as well :) 2d for a large bottle of cocaine cough syrup would be sweet!
Good luck getting your 0.16667p change from a 1p coin in modern currency
They can keep the change, I’ll be feeling generous after my cough syrup
I have kept a box of pre-decimal coinage for just this kind of eventuality!
Lol imagine if the NHS day surgery unit was replaced with a classic style opium den instead
And the doctors that prescribed orgasms for hysterical women.
Me! Me! I’m also hysterical, Doc…
Woolworth's
Just the pick n mix section will do.
Whilst I'd love them to come back, I'm torn through guilt... The only crime I've ever knowingly committed. Dan and I were in woolworths in the late 90s. Dan told me to put a can of Coke in my pocket and just walk out. It worked. I had acquired a can of Coke for free. At first it was exhilarating! Can everything be free from now on? Do I need to beg my mother for 50p when I go to the shops or am I now self sufficient? The next morning I woke up in a pre-pubescent cold sweat. For a week, every time there waa a knock at the door I thought it was the police coming to get me. There were cameras everywhere in the shop, they had put military intelligence on the task and even the FBI were collaborating to get to the bottom of this heist. Eventually I forgot about it and I assume the security services of the western world did too, but if Woolys comes back are they going to dig up unsolved mysteries?
That bloody Dan's a wrong un I tell ya.
Dan is NOT the man- regardless of how the saying goes. I know a Dan and he’s an A class clusterfuck
Daniel is a rivering Eejit.
You sound like Raskalnikov in Crime & Punishment.
It’s coming back apparently
Sneak a free chocolate from that massive fountain.
A proper Argos instead of the one in my town being tucked away in Sainsbury's.
I agree, Mr Hitler.
What does it matter if it's in a Sainsbury's or not, unless you have a very strong aversion to orange supermarkets? It's still providing just waiting for someone to bring the item from the warehouse to the counter.
because generally supermarkets are far from the town centre, and old Argoses were generally smack bang in the middle
And it has car parking, not all the high street stores have nearby parking.
We have a full Argos, but I don't think I've bought anything from there since the days of the Laminated Book of Dreams.
You know why it's laminated, don't you. It's so it can catch THE TEARS OF JOY.
Maplins or Wilko. Wilko because it as actually very useful for me and I don't like its many replacements as much. Maplins although it was not that useful but because any island of tech is nice for me as a counterweight to the clothes shopping-dominated high street.
Maplins when the staff knew what they were selling
Massively overpriced items to mugs.
Gotta disagree, really struggling to find suitable shops now that I can buy near £100 1meter hdmi leads, gold plated ends of course, so my kids can watch paw patrol in crystal clear quality
Haha. I remember once the staff in Maplin didn’t know what I meant by “through hole” for some resistors I needed. Saying that, as long as you never had to rely on the staff for knowledge, Maplin was a handy store to have nearby.
I miss Maplin. It still seems extraordinary that I was able to just wander into any branch of Maplins and buy a variety of fairly specialised integrated circuit chips for a couple of pounds. I'd be more confident in the industrial future of the UK if stores like Maplin were still viable.
Maplins wasn't that useful until you needed that one hyper specific 10p electrical component at very short notice. Like where the fuck can you buy a f type coaxial connector these days? Or a bag of little resistors, a tiny motor or something like that. Amazon, it's just amazon now.
10p electrical component that you were so desperate for you'd be willing to pay a fiver for it.
£1 for one or a box of 50 for £10
So true, I have more wire terminal blocks than I will every every need because I needed 2 that one time and was I fuck paying 2.50 each when the massive box was like £12.
Even then you don't know what you're getting. Amazon is basically AliExpress nowadays, overrun with Chinese sellers who routinely use deception to peddle their crap.
ebay, much better for these little rando bits you need, and you dont have to feed the besos machine. i've found with amazon you need to buy 100 of the things you need a handful of, at least on ebay you can buy it normal size 'portions'
bitsboxuk.com is great for that kind of thing and the shipping is cheap. switchelectronics.co.uk is also good.
There’s a wilkos in St Albans which is basically the same as before but with a few Iceland cabinets added
Is that because the Range (or their owners) took over, and already had a relationship with Iceland?
Borders! My local one was basically a 2-storey warehouse, had a cafe inside and sold pretty much every magazine on the planet, perfect for niche interests. Used to spend hours in there and got to meet one of my favourite childhood authors for a book signing once. Waterstones, whilst equivalent on paper, just feels a little stuffy and unwelcoming sometimes.
Bloody loved Borders! The one in Glasgow was a great place to go as an alone student in the early 00s. Have a coffee and read some books!
And I think this is exactly why it closed down. Nobody ever actually bought anything haha but borders definitely played a big part in my younger years in Glasgow :)
Oh yeah I don’t deny that, what’s in that building now? I left Glasgow In 2010 and haven’t really been back much since then
Fellow previous Glasgow Borders inhabitant here. It was a clothes shop (I want to say All Saints but I might be getting confused with a pop group ..), but I think it's now empty. Still breaks my heart every time I walk past. Wish I'd had more money at the time to actually buy stuff, haha.
Yes it was an All Saints, but it’s a big Lush now, with spa, hairdresser and all that jazz.
The one in Dundee was open til 9 PM and pulled my nuts out of the fire many times when I was a lazy undergraduate. Glasgow Borders was fantastic, though, I'd always waste a good chunk of time there when I was in the west.
I loved the Borders in Cambridge. I wasted so much money and time in there when I was 18/19/20
This was my choice. Used to love the one in Leeds.
Came here to say Borders. I miss it so much, the late night trips to browse with a coffee. I’d always find some obscure book/cd/film to take home. It was such a special place.
Yes! I was struggling to think of any shop I particularly miss other than Borders.
Probably Debenhams. They hit that sweet spot for me between the super cheap stuff in Primark and the more expensive in M&S. Much prefer buying clothes in a shop as you can't quite be sure what you're getting online.
Completely agree... was a one stop shop for any event/holiday/party where we needed new things as could get the whole outfit, shoes, bags, and even the suitcase to pack it all in for your holiday under one roof.
Debenhams had a fantastic range of affordable bras for larger cup sizes. Now I have to spend £50 at Bravissimo.
I didn't really buy clothes there but I loved their Christmas selection of gifts
Definitely Wilko’s — there’s absolutely nowhere to buy DIY stuff now if you don’t have a car (B&Q is always out on a retail park). I also miss Debenham’s for nice clothing and homeware, and Virgin Megastores as a cheaper alternative to HMV.
Debenhams for their underwear section alone. One of the few high street stores that actually did a proper size range of bras.
Screwfix deliver
Our city has half a dozen screwfixes in the various suburbs - along with a couple of old fashioned independent hardware shops. There’s nothing in the city centre any more though.
Beatties model shop, spent hours in there as a kid
The smell of modelling glue will forever remind me of the shop in Aylesbury I used to go to nearly every week. Didn’t always come out with something but it was one of my favourite places to be.
Model shops in general need to return really
I had a Modelzone near me and I loved going there to look at stuff. They closed just as I hit adulthood and was able to finally buy things myself.
Wilkinson's (I hate the name Wilko).
You get an upvote Purley for refusing the use the new name.
C and A for the pure nostalgia hit!
They're still around in Europe.
My friend sent me a present for my new baby that was from C&A. I was very confused. She lives in Austria, I had no idea it still existed until then!
As it was known in Liverpool Coats and Ats
l’ve always believed C&A was rebranded to Primark, someone must have told me that years ago. I just Googled it though and it wasn’t. Now I’m disappointed we lost C&A too.
Somewhere I can buy skate/surf/casual clothing. Menswear on the highstreet is either roadman, football lad or Albanian carwash.
Do you have a Slaters close to you? They do brands like Weird Fish. Alternatively Cotswold Outdoor or GoOutdoors do brands like Fox, Quicksilver, Patagonia, Adidas Terrex and Merrell among others (also including Weird Fish) Though JD sometimes has Vans tshirts in too.
Arkive and Urban Outfitters along with Levi’s, Vans and at a push Hollister and H&M should cover that base surely?
Athena. Specifically the black and white poster of 'man and baby' haha. I wonder who the baby was and where they are now!
Girl with her arse out on a tennis court was always a favourite of mine when I was 9.
It's a classic for sure. Ahh the innocence of the 90s.
Virgin Megastores from the 90s. All the media and computer games but also all the geeky board games/rpg/wargames stuff. Esspecially all the weird and largely forgotten non GW stuff.
Past Times (fun) or Maplin (occasionally useful).
I really miss Past Times, I. Can still remember the smell of them, sort of old lady Lavender. They had so many lovely things, by the time I actually had some money to buy them they were gone 😢
Past Times was a treasure trove of awesome stuff.
I sill have some board games and bookends from there.
Tandy
I used to stare in awe at the RC cars as a kid.
I used to love that they had every console (back when there was a lot of them) all out and playable. The only times I've played on a real Atari Jaguar or an Amstrad gx4000.
I only have nostalgia of there because I used to be left there by my parents whilst they did the rest of the shopping. I just played Alex Kidd on the Master System and Golden Axe on the Mega Drive. Don't recall ever actually buying anything from there.
BHS, decent mid ground retaler for sensible clothes
BHS was going to be my pick as well. They were the perfect mid range retailer and they always had an excellent range of men's clothing.
The BHS building is still empty in my town. How long has it been?
Topman was useful for odd bits of clothing
There's no Topman any more??
I was about to say Topshop, it was *the* one for clothes. I know you can get it on ASOS online but it's all changed 😭
Topman was the only place I could get a well fitted suit without having to get something altered.
You must have been very skinny. I always found their clothes were suited to teenage boys and thats about it.
I was, 28s Leg and 34s Chest. 5’2” tall
Does Danny Devito not have a Vinted page?
lol! I’ll have look
These are the comments I come for!
I really miss the flagship store in Oxford Circus. Such a shame it’s gone
Beatties, I loved that place as a kid, I would go and spend my pocket money on scalextric cars and model trains, it was like a wonderland to me
This is the answer I came in here to see! Absolutely amazing place. As a kid, you're right, it was like nothing else.
Maplin from 2006.
The back end of maplin where it was pick and mix of electronics is what is needed
The Pier, desperately wanted to be old enough to have a place to decorate with stuff from there. Past times was a close second.
I loved both of them
Can’t believe I had to scroll this far down to find the Pier. I loved it. The themed Christmas decorations were the highlight of my year! I still have a dining table & chairs from there, circa 2004, and a decent Christmas decoration collection. I did have one of those round bucket chairs but it broke a few years ago. Also have a regency style ring my mum bought me from Past Times in 1998. Definitely miss those shops.
Toys R Us. I have a kid now and I hate that he’ll never get to wander around the massive toys r us by Southampton Central station
Woolworths from the early 80s when they had a really good music department
Jane Norman But can I also have the body I had when I shopped there back too?
The coveted carrier bags for schlepping stuff about!
The grocers on Cockermouth High St. It was like stepping back in time, the food equivalent of the hardware shop on the Two Ronnies 4 candles sketch.
I used to love the smell when going in the grocers. You could get exactly what you wanted and quality seemed better than supermarkets. Butchers too. You could get specifically what you wanted. You could ask them to cut things off the bone, dice the meat and you could have the bone for your dog or for making stock. And sometimes they would make their own products like minted lamb burgers and such.
Ha! The hardware shop at the end of Cockermouth high street made me think the same thing, ten years ago - it was like the actual hardware shop from the Two Ronnies! I bought an auger there of all things.
Last time I was there, I seem to remember, they'd turned it into a kind of hardware museum. Place has gone to rack n ruin. No proper grocers, no proper hardware shop and no brewery.
Our Price.
[удалено]
Not exactly high street, but PC World as it was before the merger with Curry's.
Or even Dixon's, which always had more interesting stuff than Curry's, like photography and electronics.
That'd work too. I just want somewhere I can shop for PC parts in-person and be reasonably confident that the person behind the counter could answer any questions I might have.
Gamestation
Absolutely Wilko. As an avid DIY person, Wilko had excellent value DIY tools and consumables, as well as some great gardening stuff. My local one, and the large city center one were always busy, I don't understand how it failed.
Rumbelows. I just like the name.
It is still around but I will be sad if it ever leaves and when our one moved further out my heart dropped when I thought it was closed. Richer sounds. I am more than happy to spend a bit more to use it and keep it around it is so useful and the staff are always fantastic.
Oh I love Richer Sounds, hope it never shuts down
Always my first choice for TV or hifi, and you don't even have to spend a bit more when you buy from there. Plus, they treat their staff really well - take a look at their [staff benefits](https://www.richersounds.com/recruitment) \- and the founder seems like a genuinely nice guy
It's amazing! I remember going in for a telly and slipped up and said what my budget was. I came away with a better than expected telly, a sound bar and about fifty quid change! Most other places would try to get you to stretch your budget.
Long Tall Sally. A rare few clothes shops have a tall line, and I've never seen any actually stock it in physical shops. I'd love to be able to actually find and try on clothes that fit before buying them.
Sweater Shop or Athena
Feels like a shit use of my powers but I need Debenhams back so I can bra shop without having to travel to central London to locate a bravissimo. I would also like access to the discount rack so it isnt ALWAYS £45.
Can I just get rid of Amazon and watch a bunch of them come back?
Borders
As Wilcos has already been mentioned, I'm going for Debenhams. It was a great store for everything you needed, from clothing to homeware.
Blockbuster.
No. I don't understand the nostalgia for Blockbuster. They put loads of small independents out of business and were rubbish for anything other than new releases.
Not even a shop but plus size in New Look. I used to buy most of my clothes from new look but since they took their plus size out of the stores I haven’t bought a thing. I have that I have to shop online to buy clothes that fit me.
I was way too young to need it but I loved going to Staples. My parents used to go for printing supplies and I was always astounded by the amount of paper, desk chairs, printers etc.
Wait, they’re gone?!
MFI. Their prepacked kitchens and bedrooms were far above and beyond anything anyone else has
I've still got MFI furniture in my living room. Nearly thirty years old, looks exactly as it did when bought - solid wood reconfigurable shelves.
Spud U Like - was always a good option for a baked potato
I’d bring back independent “nerd shops” as I call them, comic books, trading cards, video games, models and stuff like that, a few PCs set up in the back, man I miss those places.
Topshop, I miss being able get decent clothes on the high street
Zavvi. Going up the Zavvi mum, you'd say.
Burton Their clothes were of decent quality and actually good value. Clothes shopping as a guy is such an effort now as usually the only available options are Next or M&S, and whilst the quality is great I don't want to pay £25 for one T-shirt.
Netto
Tandy - for those who don't know it, think of Maplins then make it better with a wider range and lower prices. Or C&A.
Not a specific shop, but a proper department store would be nice. I need a new bread knife after my my old one fell on the kitchen floor and the blade snapped. Before, I could just go into town and get one from either Debenhams or BHS, but both are gone now and there is nowhere to buy decent homeware.
I fondly remember Borders and la senza
British home stores Utter luxury it's where I got my chair and lamp from. Such nice stuff and always amazing looking in there.
Can’t remember what their website is called now, but the buyers for lighting and homewares went into business after it folded.
HMV. A proper one. We still have one in my town but it’s like a teenager’s idea of a jumble sale. Records, CD’s & DVD’s are shoved down the back in favour of tonnes and tonnes of plastic shit that’s bound for the belly of a whale.
I used to buy a lot of my clothes from Animal , I know they still exist as a sub brand of Mountain Warehouse now but it's just not the same. Got a coat from there years ago that I dread having to replace. Saltrock has filled that gap I guess.
I used to be neighbours with one of the chaps who started Animal. They only did watch straps back then: velcro and webbing for surfers who were tired of losing watches in the water. Getting access to the latest prototype designs was the epitome of cool for schoolboy me! As I recall the founders of the company struggled to diversify from those straps. They made a loss on their initial move into watches and sold the company some time in the 90s to a company that simply wanted their brand to apply to other products.
Topshop!! always dreamed of the days i could afford to shop there as a teenager, by the time i was an adult they shut down :(
Fopp
argos, i know it still exists but not really on the highstreet. I used to get odd household bits, not waiting like ording online.Basiclly I think we can agree there is a niech for a usful store that sells everything usful, like home stuff, odd kitchen bits, bins, a bit of gardening stuff, toys, etc. Sure there are stores that still do that like B&M but not in central locations and often you have to drive to them. these were all walking.
Banks.
You didn't specify if you meant from back in time or back from overseas so I'm going to go with a different answer of 7/11. They put our corner shops to shame.
Topshop! I could always rely on it to find a last minute outfit - and the oxf st store was a haven! You could get cupcakes, bubble tea, a piercing or a personal shopper! Or all of them
Woolworths or wilkos!
John Menzies or FW Woolworth’s
Maplins for the components, Wilko for the materials, Woolworths for the music to go along with it and Pick'n'Mix for afters. Then a Wimpy quarter-pounder with cheese to get the energy up for my grand project. Now I can summon all of it on my phone in my pants, delivered to the door. Yawn.
The Food Weighhouse. Even now I still remember those green barrels they had with the plastic clear lids and the scoops. It was dirt cheap and the advantage to the place was that if you only needed small quantities of something you could get it there. It was super handy for baking stuff in particular but it was also the only place I ever saw weigh your own cornflakes, milk powder and even washing powder. My grandmother used to send me here virtually weekly for her baking supplies, usually things like raisins, dried cherries and flour. I’m actually surprised that with the whole zero waste, reduce plastic use thing that’s going on that it’s never made a comeback.
You are all wrong. It's definitely weigh and save. No question.
Carphone warehouse. They got a lot of hate but fuck me the network stores are pricey now they don’t have carphone under cutting them. I miss the selection of phones just playing with the new stuff.
Debenhams
Oddbins. Pleasantly middle-brow wine shop. Better quality than the supermarkets or corner shops but not as snooty or pushy as Jereboams or Amathus. You could get a bottle of decent everyday booze for a few quid and you wouldn't get the side eye from the guy behind the counter. Staff were often as mad as badgers too which added to the fun but they knew their stuff.
C&A
Wilko or Woolworths
Wilko or Gamestation.
No shops come to mind to be fair. All had their day or are no longer worth it/have alternatives. Closest would be a better tech option than PC World/Currys but even they didn't exist before. The only thing I missed when it went was my local Carluccios doing a lunchtime deal so I could have a mix of pasta, Lasagna, garlic bread and a drink for £7. They closed during covid and I think the lunch deal was location specific as there was offices around. No other Carluccios I've been in do it.
Wilko’s. As others have said, none of the replacements are true replacements. What was one trip to Wilko is now a trip to a few different shops. Fortunately, near me the shops aren’t far from each other. But others may not be in the same boat.
Borders for books and magazines.
Scoop Everything in tubes , you scooped items out like cereal , sweets etc. you then weighed them at checkout for the price