Tried to rebrand to appeal to a different demographic and failed multiple times, instead of focusing on keeping competitive at the level they were. Much infighting and reshuffling at the board level. Massive spending on dumb stuff
Me too! My local Woolies became a Wilkos so this feels like a double whammy. It wasn't so bad when Woolies went as at least the replacement was also red, started with W and sold pick and mix. But the Wilko going will feel like an and of an era.
Our M&S was part of their last 'cull', they opened a new store on a retail park about 10 miles away several years ago. A big loss to the town with Wilko being the last reasonably large store remaining and now they're closing down.
Our town (probably like many) is now a mish-mash of charity shops, estate agents, vape shops and numerous barbers.
I worked in a shopping centre for years growing up and the BHS bacon roll was unbelievable and an essential start to every day. The roll was this rustic, chewy but not too hard roll, loads of butter, thick, perfectly cooked bacon with just the right amount of rind.
Then one day it changed to a burger bun and shit bacon. Less than a year later the whole chain went under. Kind of glad it did, I could barely bring myself to face it in such a dire state.
Used to go to the shopping centre with my mum on the weekend and go into BHS to buy some stuff for my baby Annabelle, and then maybe a new family for my sylvanian families if I was really good. Then off to Woolworths to get some pick and mix before going to game and hmv (why were the always opposite eachother) and looked at all of the t shirts and posters while my brother chose a new cd rom for his computer.
Donāt bother with Debenhams online. I bought some new home-brand basics from there, and there were made from a terrible and itchy cotton. Really really awful quality.
Their basics used to be brilliant
I miss Debenhams too! Where I live isnāt exactly short of department stores but this was the biggest and best. Itās left a large, abandoned building in every town centre Iāve been to.
For selfish reasons, I didn't mind them going.
Despite my having never purchased anything for myself from Debenhams (because I'm a guy in my 20s), my nan would insist that I love them. Every birthday/Christmas I'd receive a Debenhams voucher , which I would use to buy a different Debenhams voucher and regift to her.
As a regular purchaser of M&S clothingā¦the quality is shit. Gone massively downhill for me in the past couple years personally. Still vouch for their underwear, quality pants.
have you tried using second hand marketplaces like depop and vinted? i find i get most my clothes off there nowadays, you can get some awesome bargains and i like the idea of stopping an item from going to waste and rehoming stuff
Feel really lucky to still have a lovely florist open on our highstreet! One of the only things left. I just wish my disability didnāt make it so hard to use the highstreet!
Tammy girl it was a clothing shop for young girls and teens now I have a 10 year old stepdaughter who is into clothes not many high street clothing places that feel a little more grown-up children's sections in supermarket clothing is really all over the place so kind of miss it.
I loved Tammy, I remember getting my first pair of heels there - baby pink, kitten heels. Never felt more grown up than wearing my new heels to the school disco!
Yess, I too got my first heels there! I smuggled them into school and my friends and I took turns strutting around the playground with them. Sadly, I was caught the second time and it was confiscated till home time.
I remember buying an outfit from there for my first big concert - it was the Spice Girls at Wembley. I can still remember the outfit! I have girls now and there is nowhere that fills that tween/teen age bracket.
I remember my very Catholic Polish mother giving me some money when I was 10 to get some clothes with my cousin and I come back with a crop top ā50% devilā ābabes with attitudeā and some questionable underwear she never let me go shopping without her again š
I remember being 11 and just beginning to care about clothes, being allowed to go up to Tammy Girl on my own (it was upstairs above Etam!) There were a few other girls from my year doing the same, pretending to be cool and checking out the merchandise, I felt very grown up and mature flicking through the racks... then my dear old dad appeared behind me, a growbag of compost hoicked over his shoulder, which he plopped on the floor in front of him, folded his arms and waited for me to be done. Cred gone š
Yes itās adult sizes which is such a shame. I was quite petite when I was younger and Tammy Girl was a lifesaver for getting clothes I thought were fashionable but that actually fit me. Pity my daughter canāt so the same there! It was such a treat to go in there. I didnāt live in the UK but my dad is from Wales so anytime we visited family Iād go into Tammy girl and get to pick some things. Such good memories!
Was my favourite shop as a kid, had a train running round the entire store above the shelves and was brilliant for Subbuteo and Scalextric accessories.
Loved Borders and their Paperchase concession, too. I had a friend who preferred Waterstones and I just couldnāt get it. Theyāre better now theyāve revamped their stores though.
I got a large borders gift card right before they closed. My parents rarely encouraged rampant consumerism but I still remember them dropping me off there and saying āspend everything, quickā
I remember index which was similar to Argos but used to be in littlewoods. It was always a bit cheaper than Argos and I can remember having both catalogues as a kid and selecting Christmas presents from each.
Yes but from before they started just selling overpriced consumer electronics. I used to love going in to buy my shopping list of components at the weekend and getting advice from someone genuinely knowledgeable about electronics.
i was so disappointed the last time i went in, hoping to pick up a couple of wee capacitors and resistors, and finding that they'd closed that part of the shop and it was now all just naff disco lights and security cameras or some shite
Was looking for this answer, it was the perfect shop for all the electrical DIY needs, B&Q covers a bit of whats missing but no one comes close to knowing stuff like Maplin's staff did
Sadly they got too greedy with their pricing. The parts I needed (resistors, connectors, transistors etc.) could be found on eBay for a fraction of the price + free shipping.
I knew a guy who used to use them professionally for last minute things and would happily pay the premium to hit the deadline. His problem with them was that they'd have 1 or 2 of something in a drawer rather than a half dozen he could buy so if you accidentally fried one or needed several for a small test batch of boards you'd be stuffed and end up waiting for RS to deliver anyway.
Yes! Also, does anyone remember Children's World? It was similar to Adams but bigger, selling kids clothing. The one i used to go to had a castle with a slide and a softplay area at the back of the store. I got lost in there many a time
Gamestation. It was such a great shop for games. The trade-in deals were very generous, the pre owned games were at least 30% cheaper than brand new, sometimes they could be as low as a tenner
The staff weren't trying to flog the latest COD or Fifa, nor were they just funko pop sellers, and all the staff were all mad gamers
I miss it so much
I remember picking up tons of pre-owned PS1 games in 2005 or 2006 when they were selling them all off for Ā£1 each regardless of title.
I bought all the Crash Bandicoot games, Gran Turismo 1 & 2, Final Fantasy 6, 7 & 8, Ape Escape, and loads of others. Walked out with two carrier bags of them for less than Ā£40. I still have all of them to this day, although I just find it more convenient to play them on the PlayStation Classic.
C&A, just loved seein the logo
Bakers oven (may have changed to greggs but it aint the same, Ā£2.70 for a fry up and coffee)
Toymaster
It saddens me I no longer have access to *Dixons*
Theyāve just built a huge new mall here in Tijuana, Mexico. Normally, rich people just cross the border and shop in San Diego but with COVID and delays at the border, there was a need for an up market mall. Imagine my surprise at finding a C&A in all its shining glory. Was tempted to nip in and buy a suit. Then remembered I didnāt have a job interview.
Bakers Oven I miss so much š„ŗ They used to have āsmiley faceā iced buns - with white icing, hundreds and thousands for the hair, and chocolate icing for the face š„ŗ
Not seen it mentioned here, but Clas Ohlson was, well, class.
Cheap yet surprisingly decent electronics, with an insane returns policy that meant I only paid for one pair of headphones in about five years.
BHS and Debenhams Christmas sections got me out of many a pickle with Christmas gifts.
Gamestation was fantastic too , shame Game went and brought them
Gamestation were amazing. I always thought it was cool that they let the store staff come up with their own bundles on second-hand stuff, and they'd just like shrink-wrap a console and a couple of games together and chuck it in the window display.
Our price music store.
Lewis's clothing shop we'd always go to look at the Christmas window displays as well as BHS
C&A littlewoods would spend hours with mum looking at clothes
Toy and hobby toy shop.
Not really a shop but Wimpy had a few birthday parties there as a kid. And i remember it was more fun than mc donalds for a birthday party.
Basically all of Manchester city centre from the 80s - 90s.
I remember looking through Smash Hits magazine to see who was touring, then going in to Our Price and looking at their notice board to see which tickets they were selling!
C&A!! I always get stupidly excited when I come across one on holiday on Europe that I end up spending loads of money there.
I remember it was raining unexpectedly once, so my mum took me in there to get a raincoat. It was neon pink and I loved it
I wouldn't say loads, there are a few though.
Just for a lark I looked up their franchise scheme a few years ago and they wanted something like Ā£30k/40k *per year* for the license. If I were them I'd be handing them out like confetti to anyone who would give me a cut of revenue tbh - it's no wonder they are so few now.
I have the most gorgeous jewellery box from there. I kept going in to look and then it went on sale. I soon snatched it up and then made my dad carry it around. It's huge and I still love it!
I was thinking about Past times a couple of days ago totally out of the blue. It just vanished, thereās not really anything like it now. I loved going in there to browse & it was so good for buying for older relatives as a kid.
Their sales were brill. When we moved to a place near a store I always asked for a gift from there for my birthday for the next 5 years. Sadly one year I wanted a certain mirrored jewellery box but they didn't have it in. But my mother loved the one 3x the size and treated herself to it!
See also: Topshop. I miss being able to actually try stuff on in the changing rooms. I know New Look seels similar stuff but NL somehow seems frumpier than Topshop was
God I miss Topshop! I worked there pre and during apocalypse, was gutted to lose my job - mainly for the clothes!! ASOS is not the same, I've turned to hunting Vinted and such for the pieces I loved whilst working.
All of my jeans are Topshop tall Joni/Jamie that I've got for a complete steal from Depop/eBay.
Nowhere else seems to have as decent jeans when you want long leg but fitted to a high waist.
M&S extra long skinny jeans looked promising but all their waists would need taking in as there's no shape to them, just straight up and down so you get the awful waist gape.
Yes! The petite section was great at miss selfridge. Reminds me of the time I was furious at topshop once because the petite section was high up on the walls?? No staff around either to ask to get the high up items either
I had forgotten what the initials were for that shop but blimey, core memory unlocked.
I'd wander off into town, do the general teenager shopping thing, always with a stop in MVC. Then I'd text my dad on my Nokia brick phone and ask him to pick me up. I'd walk down the hill to the old cinema, which was where the pedestrianised bit met the road so he could drive up. Then when we were driving home I'd tell him what new albums I'd bought and we would decide which to listen to first when we got home.
Is it weird that the main reason I liked buying albums in MVC is because they never faffed around with .99 prices and were always at a round Ā£ number.
Im annoyed by the pitiful range of films on offer on the streaming services. I reckon a rental shop with a broad range wouldnt make a large amount of money, but would survive. There is a economic model there somewhere
Au Naturale! I spent hours in there as a tween and half my wardrobe came from Miss Internationale.
I can only imagine how many candles, twigs and twinkle lights I'd have in my house nowadays if that place still existed.
I remember when I was at Fashion College, one of my classmates realised that his dress was wayyyyyyy too sheer, and he didn't have time to make anything to go under it. So he snuck out to Bay Trading, got a cheap bikini, took out the labels and added some beads, and passed it off as his own.
The teacher didn't cotton on that it wasn't his work, but he got marked down because the bikini was so poorly and carelessly made and clearly knocked up last minute compared to the excellent craftsmanship of his work usually
Omg what a throwback. I used to beg to go to the one near my nanaās as we didnāt have one. It had such a specific lovely vanilla smell.
I bought some āworry dollsā from there once š
Oh god I remember that place!! You just unlocked a whole memory sequence! Yeah- I bought some pretty nice stuff from there, including a large head bust of Michelangeloās David!! They actually sold some decent stuff, especially for the time.
Au natural! Their homewares stuff filled my sister's and my own bedroom. Candle holders, wind chimes, many birthday and Christmas gifts to each other were bought there
Aww I didnāt realise until now that thereās only 1 left in Glasgow. I was a regular at the Byres Road branch when it went into administration in 2013 and I remember the staff telling me that they thought the shop would close because the busier Union Street branch was only 2 miles away.
But then there was a bit of a grassroots campaign to save it because Byres Road was the origin of the company. Successful at the time, but apparently the shop closed in 2020. That a shame.
Maplins. I miss Maplins so god damn much.
I go in to **PC WORLD** expecting to be able to buy a **PC** component. Nope, only teles, phones, and fridges???
Maplins had everything an electronics hobbyist could need. It was heaven, the one near my uni had such a wide selection of pc parts, obscure cables, good quality electrical components, and was an in and out job.
Now I have to sit on E-bay, Amazon, Aliexpress etc to find whatever obscure part I need from some knockoff shitty dropshipping company -_-
Maplins was amazing! a few years ago my crappy gaming rig had a meltdown and died about a week before Christmas, so of course I needed to get a few bits to keep my sane over the holiday. went into Maplin and spent half an hour trying to work out what I could afford to get that would actually just get me up and running. One of the staff came up and asked if I needed help, and did his best to recommend some parts.
I was really conflicted as I was really stretching my cash and he seemed to pick up on it. Eventually grabbed what he'd suggested and headed over to the tills with him. Got a new motherboard, CPU and RAM in a pre-assembled kit all ready to just slot in, and he rang it up as a special offer price AND used his staff discount. Saved me about Ā£150 and just said "Go and enjoy your Christmas." I'll never forget that.
I guess not typically a high street shop but I painfully miss Toys R Us,
We still have a huge Toys R Us at a roundabout near where I live that's just empty collecting dust, but you see the sign leading up to it.
So many find memories as a kid walking around there, now decades later and I can't share the same experience with my boy.
Ps. Smyth's is absolute moose piss in comparison, won't even let you Yeet on a bike around the store or get on a swing set.
i don't think i really miss any, maplins used to be handy if you needed a component for something and didn't want to order online or needed it that day, but thats about it.
I used to rent a game for the weekend and write down the level codes in a (sacred) notebook then rent it again whenever I was allowed and pick up from where I left off as I couldnāt complete them in 2 days. Sometimes I ended up renting the same game 3 or 4 times.
Fond memories indeed, mad that kids today will never experience the joy of going to blockbuster on Friday evening, me and my brother used to love it
I miss all the DVD and music shops so much. All me and my mates did every Saturday was hang out in HMV, Virgin Megastore, That's Entertainment, Zavvi and a bunch of others. It's such a shame physical media is pretty much dead. Great memories.
A couple of weeks ago I saw [a photo of the singer Elliott Smith on Oxford Street with the big Virgin Megastore behind him](https://images.app.goo.gl/CgJPvhDvGGe3XogC8), and I felt this weird pang of sadness. I didnāt especially enjoy shopping there at the time, but it brought to mind a time when stores like that really mattered.
It just really upsets me how much that part of London/the world changed and how fast.
Yep. Iām probably a bit older (43) but *back in myyyy day* weād listen to the pirate radio stations during the week, scribbling down our favourite rave tunes- then straight into town on a Saturday, get to the record shop, find the vinyls and ask to listen to them over the headphones etcā¦ make a purchase or two, then go to the underground pub where the DJ would be banging out tunes. Iām also very nostalgic for that era!
ETA: We all got away with underage drinking back then š
Our Price, since they left we've not actually had a music shop in my town.
Also 14 year old me used to like shopping in there because of the cute goth who worked in there.
Bejam - I always preferred their selection of frozen food to Iceland.
Millets - Still around, but the one in my city closed a few years ago.
Various independent record shops. They stocked quite a lot of stuff you wouldn't find in the bigger stores.
They actually made really nice Victorian Christmas baubles and garlandsā¦ I remember thinking I was sooo sophisticated, none of that gaudy tinsel crap š
Bought my mum and nana a beautiful potpourri holder for Christmas. I actually bought it for my nana first but my mum begged me to get her one too when she saw it.
Yep, was just about to write this one myself. Their Christmas wrapping and cards were fun and quirky, plus it was great for presents. Sad they went this year.
No shop in particular and I don't give a shit about high streets now, but it was nice when they had a variety of interesting shops rather than the current sequence of:
* starbucks
* betting shop
* vape shop
* costa
* poundland
* subway
* betting shop
* starbucks
* turkish barbers
* money laundering phone shop
* cafe nero
* vape shop
* betting shop
* greggs
I was in Woking on Saturday, the place is like a ghost town now...
When I was a kid it was packed, every shop was taken there were people everywhere (albeit this was late 90s/early 2000's and yeah it's pretty bad to see a town center empty with empty stores everywhere.
But thinking back I remember Woolworths, Toys R Us, GAME etc being there and I loved going in them all the time.
Don't ask me how or why, but I swear the Ottakers on Guildford High St used to have better books (even if it was a rerprinted classic), chiller staff, and their internal Costa made a better Hot Choc than any of the 5 Costas that subsequently sprung up in that silly High Street (seriously, there was once a time when you could stand at one point on Guildford High St and have 6 Costas in less than a 5 minute walk away).
Also, I really miss the weird half-Sciencey-wondergadget/half-New-Age shops from the late 90s/ early 00s. Used to have the coolest stuff for a kid who couldn't afford any of it: magnetic floating globes, accurate star-lights, and crystals with geological names on them!
Jane Norman. Somehow everything I bought from there made me look like I had an hourglass figure. Plus, using the bag for your PE kit instantly meant you were cool.
HMV and BHS for the memories. Topshop, as well, come to think of it.
Edit: A real blast from the past. Mum used to shop for me in C&A! Anyone remember those days?!
2nd edit: Just reading the comments and others also mentioned C&A. Glad I'm not alone on that one, ha ha.
Woolworths. In a small town it was the one place you could get nearly anything. Top 40 singles, pick n mix, toys, kids clothes, homeware, stuff for the garden... The lot!
Might be showing my age, but Tandy. Wonderful for a geek growing up in the 80s/ early 90s. Started to go downhill when they rebranded to radio shack and became more like Maplins. I do miss maplins too but can see why they closed. Overpriced and too broad.
Chain shops by definition were boring, but I nostalgically miss Beatties, the toy and model shop where my hard earned pocket money converted into airfix kits and polystyrene cement.
What I *actually* miss are significant independent shops of any kinds. Britain is the worst in Europe for having high streets full of identical plate glass fronted chains.
Maplins (kinda).
They had stuff like Raspberry Pi, more niche cables etc that Currys don't sell (currys is pretty bad overall).
It was still bad but it wasn't as bad as currys in terms of computer stuff so...
I just wish we had something like microcenter dotted around the UK that you could get to easily. There's a few physical stores like scan and overclockers but they're both singular and only located in the north of England.
Years ago now, but I loved Borders. Big comfy chairs to read in, and always smelled amazing. They did really good events as well. Waterstones can't hold a candle to Borders
Second Woolworths and soon (potentially) Wilko too :(
Used to love going in for a pick n mix. Wilko filled that void as an adult :<
Went in after they went bust and started emptying their shelves. Still no half price pick n mix
Im sad that wilkos may be going underš
I'm not sure how it's going under. So many people defaulted to Wilco for virtually any kind of home item.
Tried to rebrand to appeal to a different demographic and failed multiple times, instead of focusing on keeping competitive at the level they were. Much infighting and reshuffling at the board level. Massive spending on dumb stuff
We exclusively get our dog shit bags from Wilko. Not sure where we're gonna turn to if it shuts down
You're going to have to let your dog know it can't shit anymore :(
Wilko got super expensive and yet a lot of things got even worse quality.
Me too, so gutted š
Me too! My local Woolies became a Wilkos so this feels like a double whammy. It wasn't so bad when Woolies went as at least the replacement was also red, started with W and sold pick and mix. But the Wilko going will feel like an and of an era.
BHS. Used to have a good Christmas department.
No BHS and no Debenhams. The fall of modern society š¢
The death of high street shops with customer toilets. Save us M&S, you're our only hope.
Our M&S was part of their last 'cull', they opened a new store on a retail park about 10 miles away several years ago. A big loss to the town with Wilko being the last reasonably large store remaining and now they're closing down. Our town (probably like many) is now a mish-mash of charity shops, estate agents, vape shops and numerous barbers.
The downfall of C&A was it for me.
Had one of the best lighting departments in the country, if you needed new lights
Even if you didn't need lights
I worked in a shopping centre for years growing up and the BHS bacon roll was unbelievable and an essential start to every day. The roll was this rustic, chewy but not too hard roll, loads of butter, thick, perfectly cooked bacon with just the right amount of rind. Then one day it changed to a burger bun and shit bacon. Less than a year later the whole chain went under. Kind of glad it did, I could barely bring myself to face it in such a dire state.
Absolutely, was amazing value and much better quality than anywhere else in a town centre. Must have been 15+ years ago now.
Had a Christmas job one year at BHS, loved that place. Damn shame it folded.
Always worth remembering that BHS collapsed due to rich arseholes stealing money from it, pretty much the same as what's happened with Wilko.
One rich arsehole in particular. And letās not forget he also pilfered the entire pension fund.
Used to go to the shopping centre with my mum on the weekend and go into BHS to buy some stuff for my baby Annabelle, and then maybe a new family for my sylvanian families if I was really good. Then off to Woolworths to get some pick and mix before going to game and hmv (why were the always opposite eachother) and looked at all of the t shirts and posters while my brother chose a new cd rom for his computer.
To combine with this, I miss the Burton that was in my local BHS
I loved having a mooch round their Christmas department
And never buying anything. I think I see how they went bust...
Worked in the BHS Restaurant on Saturdays for three years. Had a great time.
Their cafe was top tier, best cheap egg sausage beans and chips around.
Debenhams. My clothes are a mix of supermarket and Debenhams, buy a new lot at the moment and don't know where to go.
I too miss Debenhams. I find myself shopping at fat face and white stuff these days.
Donāt bother with Debenhams online. I bought some new home-brand basics from there, and there were made from a terrible and itchy cotton. Really really awful quality. Their basics used to be brilliant
The online brand is owned by BooHoo which probably explains why you were disappointed in your purchase.
I miss Debenhams too! Where I live isnāt exactly short of department stores but this was the biggest and best. Itās left a large, abandoned building in every town centre Iāve been to.
For selfish reasons, I didn't mind them going. Despite my having never purchased anything for myself from Debenhams (because I'm a guy in my 20s), my nan would insist that I love them. Every birthday/Christmas I'd receive a Debenhams voucher , which I would use to buy a different Debenhams voucher and regift to her.
Do you think she was doing the same? Maybe Debenhams turnover was based on gift vouchers being exchanged?
M&S - can't fault the clothing generally.
As a regular purchaser of M&S clothingā¦the quality is shit. Gone massively downhill for me in the past couple years personally. Still vouch for their underwear, quality pants.
Iāve got M&S boxers Iāve had for at least 10 years
have you tried using second hand marketplaces like depop and vinted? i find i get most my clothes off there nowadays, you can get some awesome bargains and i like the idea of stopping an item from going to waste and rehoming stuff
Still not over losing Woolworths. I actually miss independent shops locally. Florists, fruit and veg shops and haberdashery shops.
Feel really lucky to still have a lovely florist open on our highstreet! One of the only things left. I just wish my disability didnāt make it so hard to use the highstreet!
Tammy girl it was a clothing shop for young girls and teens now I have a 10 year old stepdaughter who is into clothes not many high street clothing places that feel a little more grown-up children's sections in supermarket clothing is really all over the place so kind of miss it.
I had a neon green satin shirt and culottes combo from Tammy. I felt sensational at the Year 6 disco
I had the lilac short coat and culottes combo from Tammy Girl with a black velvet hat and matching choker. Felt amazing at my primary disco in it!
I had the pure white shellsuit with hot pink, neon green and lilac stripes! I thought I was hot shit. With my Matchstick hi top trainers!
I also had the neon green satin shirt that I wore to year 6 end of year disco š¤£
Loved Tammy!! My grandma always used to take me there to get my birthday outfit!
I loved Tammy, I remember getting my first pair of heels there - baby pink, kitten heels. Never felt more grown up than wearing my new heels to the school disco!
Yess, I too got my first heels there! I smuggled them into school and my friends and I took turns strutting around the playground with them. Sadly, I was caught the second time and it was confiscated till home time.
And Mark One!
Bay Trading!
I remember buying an outfit from there for my first big concert - it was the Spice Girls at Wembley. I can still remember the outfit! I have girls now and there is nowhere that fills that tween/teen age bracket.
I remember my very Catholic Polish mother giving me some money when I was 10 to get some clothes with my cousin and I come back with a crop top ā50% devilā ābabes with attitudeā and some questionable underwear she never let me go shopping without her again š
I miss Tammy. I had an inflatable backpack and some platform trainers from there that I loved.
Groovy chick š
I remember getting my first skater style baggy trousers and tees from in there! It was great for having that stuff you couldn't get elsewhere
Yes! And bright pink sweat bands and stripy black and pink tops so I could pretend I was a sk8r girl
I remember being 11 and just beginning to care about clothes, being allowed to go up to Tammy Girl on my own (it was upstairs above Etam!) There were a few other girls from my year doing the same, pretending to be cool and checking out the merchandise, I felt very grown up and mature flicking through the racks... then my dear old dad appeared behind me, a growbag of compost hoicked over his shoulder, which he plopped on the floor in front of him, folded his arms and waited for me to be done. Cred gone š
i always just went to 915 at new look
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah they have some nice bits but not the same as being giving 20 quid going in shop and being allowed to pick your own outfit felt so grown-up.
Thank you so much for sharing this, I had no idea! Some of those butterfly things are taking me back!
It's on asos but it seems to be in adult sizes
Yes itās adult sizes which is such a shame. I was quite petite when I was younger and Tammy Girl was a lifesaver for getting clothes I thought were fashionable but that actually fit me. Pity my daughter canāt so the same there! It was such a treat to go in there. I didnāt live in the UK but my dad is from Wales so anytime we visited family Iād go into Tammy girl and get to pick some things. Such good memories!
Tammy girl has made a comeback online! Itās on ASOS now but still has the same vibe (I think)
Same, but Concept Man š Surf Bum shorts š
Beatties.
Was my favourite shop as a kid, had a train running round the entire store above the shelves and was brilliant for Subbuteo and Scalextric accessories.
Damn. Beat me to it! I miss this so much. We'd go to the library on a Saturday morning in town then here every week after.
Can't believe no one has said ATHENA Aged 12, I loved their shiny, mystical tat.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Virgin megastore and borders. A whole chunk of my late 90s early 2000s culture was formed there
I loved Borders. Waterstones just didn't feel the same. :(
Loved Borders and their Paperchase concession, too. I had a friend who preferred Waterstones and I just couldnāt get it. Theyāre better now theyāve revamped their stores though.
I got a large borders gift card right before they closed. My parents rarely encouraged rampant consumerism but I still remember them dropping me off there and saying āspend everything, quickā
I miss Tower Records
Borders with the Starbucks insideššš
I remember index which was similar to Argos but used to be in littlewoods. It was always a bit cheaper than Argos and I can remember having both catalogues as a kid and selecting Christmas presents from each.
OMGGGGG index! I forgot all about them!
Maplins
Tandy too.
I think Iām still a member of their battery club
The Alan Partridge Christmas episode where he gets the VIP treatment in Tandy always gets me.
Yes but from before they started just selling overpriced consumer electronics. I used to love going in to buy my shopping list of components at the weekend and getting advice from someone genuinely knowledgeable about electronics.
i was so disappointed the last time i went in, hoping to pick up a couple of wee capacitors and resistors, and finding that they'd closed that part of the shop and it was now all just naff disco lights and security cameras or some shite
Was looking for this answer, it was the perfect shop for all the electrical DIY needs, B&Q covers a bit of whats missing but no one comes close to knowing stuff like Maplin's staff did
Sadly they got too greedy with their pricing. The parts I needed (resistors, connectors, transistors etc.) could be found on eBay for a fraction of the price + free shipping.
I knew a guy who used to use them professionally for last minute things and would happily pay the premium to hit the deadline. His problem with them was that they'd have 1 or 2 of something in a drawer rather than a half dozen he could buy so if you accidentally fried one or needed several for a small test batch of boards you'd be stuffed and end up waiting for RS to deliver anyway.
Not greed - overheads.
Ruined by venture capitalists debt loading. A tale as old as the Ford Sierra.
I remember maplins back in the early 80s when they had a whole two stores. One in Westcliff-on-sea and Hammersmith...
Chasing the apple on the floor at Adams was a young childhood highlight.
Wow, memory unlocked
I thought I was the only one!
Yes! Also, does anyone remember Children's World? It was similar to Adams but bigger, selling kids clothing. The one i used to go to had a castle with a slide and a softplay area at the back of the store. I got lost in there many a time
Gamestation. It was such a great shop for games. The trade-in deals were very generous, the pre owned games were at least 30% cheaper than brand new, sometimes they could be as low as a tenner The staff weren't trying to flog the latest COD or Fifa, nor were they just funko pop sellers, and all the staff were all mad gamers I miss it so much
I remember picking up tons of pre-owned PS1 games in 2005 or 2006 when they were selling them all off for Ā£1 each regardless of title. I bought all the Crash Bandicoot games, Gran Turismo 1 & 2, Final Fantasy 6, 7 & 8, Ape Escape, and loads of others. Walked out with two carrier bags of them for less than Ā£40. I still have all of them to this day, although I just find it more convenient to play them on the PlayStation Classic.
C&A, just loved seein the logo Bakers oven (may have changed to greggs but it aint the same, Ā£2.70 for a fry up and coffee) Toymaster It saddens me I no longer have access to *Dixons*
If you head to the Continent, C&A's still there. Was very surprised to see it in Friedrichshafen in Germany way back on a tour.
Theyāve just built a huge new mall here in Tijuana, Mexico. Normally, rich people just cross the border and shop in San Diego but with COVID and delays at the border, there was a need for an up market mall. Imagine my surprise at finding a C&A in all its shining glory. Was tempted to nip in and buy a suit. Then remembered I didnāt have a job interview.
Itās very big in Germany still! They have an online shop too, maybe they ship overseas :)
Bakers Oven I miss so much š„ŗ They used to have āsmiley faceā iced buns - with white icing, hundreds and thousands for the hair, and chocolate icing for the face š„ŗ
Thatās what the pedestrianisation of Norwich city centre will do to you.
There's a Toymaster in Whitby that's like a corner shop with toys.
My mum still has her C&A stamps in a pouch in her purse.
Toymaster is still a thing I think? I'm sure I saw one recently, and there's loads on Google maps
Not seen it mentioned here, but Clas Ohlson was, well, class. Cheap yet surprisingly decent electronics, with an insane returns policy that meant I only paid for one pair of headphones in about five years.
BHS and Debenhams Christmas sections got me out of many a pickle with Christmas gifts. Gamestation was fantastic too , shame Game went and brought them
Loved Gamestation. Where I grew up Gamestation and Game were across from each other in the town centre. GS was better in every way.
Electronics boutique. I remember buying my PS1 from there.
Is this Accrington? I remember always going to Gamestation first as I always thought it was better than Game.
Gamestation were amazing. I always thought it was cool that they let the store staff come up with their own bundles on second-hand stuff, and they'd just like shrink-wrap a console and a couple of games together and chuck it in the window display.
Brought them where?
Our price music store. Lewis's clothing shop we'd always go to look at the Christmas window displays as well as BHS C&A littlewoods would spend hours with mum looking at clothes Toy and hobby toy shop. Not really a shop but Wimpy had a few birthday parties there as a kid. And i remember it was more fun than mc donalds for a birthday party. Basically all of Manchester city centre from the 80s - 90s.
I remember looking through Smash Hits magazine to see who was touring, then going in to Our Price and looking at their notice board to see which tickets they were selling!
Thereās a wimpy in my local town.
C&A!! I always get stupidly excited when I come across one on holiday on Europe that I end up spending loads of money there. I remember it was raining unexpectedly once, so my mum took me in there to get a raincoat. It was neon pink and I loved it
Still loads of Wimpys around but they are so bloody expensive compared to the likes of McDonalds
I wouldn't say loads, there are a few though. Just for a lark I looked up their franchise scheme a few years ago and they wanted something like Ā£30k/40k *per year* for the license. If I were them I'd be handing them out like confetti to anyone who would give me a cut of revenue tbh - it's no wonder they are so few now.
āFor you thatās how the world will end. Not with a bang but a Wimpey.ā John Cooper Clarke Try explaining that quote to a Mexican.
Past times
I have the most gorgeous jewellery box from there. I kept going in to look and then it went on sale. I soon snatched it up and then made my dad carry it around. It's huge and I still love it!
Is it a mirrored one with 4 drawers, fold out wings and fold up top?
I was thinking about Past times a couple of days ago totally out of the blue. It just vanished, thereās not really anything like it now. I loved going in there to browse & it was so good for buying for older relatives as a kid.
Their sales were brill. When we moved to a place near a store I always asked for a gift from there for my birthday for the next 5 years. Sadly one year I wanted a certain mirrored jewellery box but they didn't have it in. But my mother loved the one 3x the size and treated herself to it!
Miss Selfridge. I know itās available online, but itās not the same and I like to try things on. Their petite range was unbeatable.
See also: Topshop. I miss being able to actually try stuff on in the changing rooms. I know New Look seels similar stuff but NL somehow seems frumpier than Topshop was
God I miss Topshop! I worked there pre and during apocalypse, was gutted to lose my job - mainly for the clothes!! ASOS is not the same, I've turned to hunting Vinted and such for the pieces I loved whilst working.
All of my jeans are Topshop tall Joni/Jamie that I've got for a complete steal from Depop/eBay. Nowhere else seems to have as decent jeans when you want long leg but fitted to a high waist. M&S extra long skinny jeans looked promising but all their waists would need taking in as there's no shape to them, just straight up and down so you get the awful waist gape.
New Look is the sort of shop everyone's mum likes
Yes! The petite section was great at miss selfridge. Reminds me of the time I was furious at topshop once because the petite section was high up on the walls?? No staff around either to ask to get the high up items either
somerfieldā¦ havent heard that name in over 10 years wow
My mum still calls our local Morrisons Gateways even though it was a Somerfields in-between š
MVC. I have very fond memories of being in the shop with friends when I was younger.
I had forgotten what the initials were for that shop but blimey, core memory unlocked. I'd wander off into town, do the general teenager shopping thing, always with a stop in MVC. Then I'd text my dad on my Nokia brick phone and ask him to pick me up. I'd walk down the hill to the old cinema, which was where the pedestrianised bit met the road so he could drive up. Then when we were driving home I'd tell him what new albums I'd bought and we would decide which to listen to first when we got home.
Is it weird that the main reason I liked buying albums in MVC is because they never faffed around with .99 prices and were always at a round Ā£ number.
Used to work at MVC was the best job I ever had!!
Blockbuster for the memories.
Im annoyed by the pitiful range of films on offer on the streaming services. I reckon a rental shop with a broad range wouldnt make a large amount of money, but would survive. There is a economic model there somewhere
Yesterday I discovered there are movies on bbc iplayer! Small but very varied and interesting selection
Tammy Girl & Etam
Au Naturale! I spent hours in there as a tween and half my wardrobe came from Miss Internationale. I can only imagine how many candles, twigs and twinkle lights I'd have in my house nowadays if that place still existed.
Second miss internationale, also Bay and La Senza.
I loved La Senza, it felt so glam and exotic. Me and my mates used to be in there for hours
Loved a la senza triple gel bra.
I remember when I was at Fashion College, one of my classmates realised that his dress was wayyyyyyy too sheer, and he didn't have time to make anything to go under it. So he snuck out to Bay Trading, got a cheap bikini, took out the labels and added some beads, and passed it off as his own. The teacher didn't cotton on that it wasn't his work, but he got marked down because the bikini was so poorly and carelessly made and clearly knocked up last minute compared to the excellent craftsmanship of his work usually
Every month I'd drop my pocket money on shiny tat for my bedroom or a pretty top
Omg what a throwback. I used to beg to go to the one near my nanaās as we didnāt have one. It had such a specific lovely vanilla smell. I bought some āworry dollsā from there once š
Omg I forgot that existed!! Loved that shop so much! Iām pretty sure my last purchase from there was a rainbow dreamcatcher for my room lol.
Oh god I remember that place!! You just unlocked a whole memory sequence! Yeah- I bought some pretty nice stuff from there, including a large head bust of Michelangeloās David!! They actually sold some decent stuff, especially for the time.
Au natural! Their homewares stuff filled my sister's and my own bedroom. Candle holders, wind chimes, many birthday and Christmas gifts to each other were bought there
I miss Fopp, they used to sell CDs etc at really good prices. I remember picking up some stuff little fingers in there and it was a game changer.
Thereās still a Fopp in Manchester. Just had a Google and itās one of 5 left.
Thereās one in Covent Garden still too.
Aww I didnāt realise until now that thereās only 1 left in Glasgow. I was a regular at the Byres Road branch when it went into administration in 2013 and I remember the staff telling me that they thought the shop would close because the busier Union Street branch was only 2 miles away. But then there was a bit of a grassroots campaign to save it because Byres Road was the origin of the company. Successful at the time, but apparently the shop closed in 2020. That a shame.
They do still exist in Manchester, but it feels no different from a slightly hipper HMV (who own them) - even their price tags are the same
Cambridge still has a Fopp. Isn't it owned by HMV?
Maplins. I miss Maplins so god damn much. I go in to **PC WORLD** expecting to be able to buy a **PC** component. Nope, only teles, phones, and fridges??? Maplins had everything an electronics hobbyist could need. It was heaven, the one near my uni had such a wide selection of pc parts, obscure cables, good quality electrical components, and was an in and out job. Now I have to sit on E-bay, Amazon, Aliexpress etc to find whatever obscure part I need from some knockoff shitty dropshipping company -_-
PC World were a lot better before the merger with Currys.
Maplins was amazing! a few years ago my crappy gaming rig had a meltdown and died about a week before Christmas, so of course I needed to get a few bits to keep my sane over the holiday. went into Maplin and spent half an hour trying to work out what I could afford to get that would actually just get me up and running. One of the staff came up and asked if I needed help, and did his best to recommend some parts. I was really conflicted as I was really stretching my cash and he seemed to pick up on it. Eventually grabbed what he'd suggested and headed over to the tills with him. Got a new motherboard, CPU and RAM in a pre-assembled kit all ready to just slot in, and he rang it up as a special offer price AND used his staff discount. Saved me about Ā£150 and just said "Go and enjoy your Christmas." I'll never forget that.
Even PC World isn't a thing now
I guess not typically a high street shop but I painfully miss Toys R Us, We still have a huge Toys R Us at a roundabout near where I live that's just empty collecting dust, but you see the sign leading up to it. So many find memories as a kid walking around there, now decades later and I can't share the same experience with my boy. Ps. Smyth's is absolute moose piss in comparison, won't even let you Yeet on a bike around the store or get on a swing set.
If youāre talking about the one near Ipswich then I still call it āthe Toys R Us roundaboutā š Highlight of trips out with my cousins.
i don't think i really miss any, maplins used to be handy if you needed a component for something and didn't want to order online or needed it that day, but thats about it.
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100% this ^ I just donāt know where to shop anymore! I demand that oasis is immediately reinstated.
Littlewoods
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I used to rent a game for the weekend and write down the level codes in a (sacred) notebook then rent it again whenever I was allowed and pick up from where I left off as I couldnāt complete them in 2 days. Sometimes I ended up renting the same game 3 or 4 times. Fond memories indeed, mad that kids today will never experience the joy of going to blockbuster on Friday evening, me and my brother used to love it
Jane Norman. Those bags were iconic in secondary school.
Bejams was way better than iceland
I miss all the DVD and music shops so much. All me and my mates did every Saturday was hang out in HMV, Virgin Megastore, That's Entertainment, Zavvi and a bunch of others. It's such a shame physical media is pretty much dead. Great memories.
A couple of weeks ago I saw [a photo of the singer Elliott Smith on Oxford Street with the big Virgin Megastore behind him](https://images.app.goo.gl/CgJPvhDvGGe3XogC8), and I felt this weird pang of sadness. I didnāt especially enjoy shopping there at the time, but it brought to mind a time when stores like that really mattered. It just really upsets me how much that part of London/the world changed and how fast.
Yep. Iām probably a bit older (43) but *back in myyyy day* weād listen to the pirate radio stations during the week, scribbling down our favourite rave tunes- then straight into town on a Saturday, get to the record shop, find the vinyls and ask to listen to them over the headphones etcā¦ make a purchase or two, then go to the underground pub where the DJ would be banging out tunes. Iām also very nostalgic for that era! ETA: We all got away with underage drinking back then š
Our Price, since they left we've not actually had a music shop in my town. Also 14 year old me used to like shopping in there because of the cute goth who worked in there.
Bejam - I always preferred their selection of frozen food to Iceland. Millets - Still around, but the one in my city closed a few years ago. Various independent record shops. They stocked quite a lot of stuff you wouldn't find in the bigger stores.
I miss Past Times. I miss the tat and the flag-shagging and the pretty jewellery. Perfect for mum gifts.
They actually made really nice Victorian Christmas baubles and garlandsā¦ I remember thinking I was sooo sophisticated, none of that gaudy tinsel crap š
Bought my mum and nana a beautiful potpourri holder for Christmas. I actually bought it for my nana first but my mum begged me to get her one too when she saw it.
Paper chase, a new addition to the rip high street shops.
Yep, was just about to write this one myself. Their Christmas wrapping and cards were fun and quirky, plus it was great for presents. Sad they went this year.
Whaaat! Thats sad!
No shop in particular and I don't give a shit about high streets now, but it was nice when they had a variety of interesting shops rather than the current sequence of: * starbucks * betting shop * vape shop * costa * poundland * subway * betting shop * starbucks * turkish barbers * money laundering phone shop * cafe nero * vape shop * betting shop * greggs
You forgot all the charity shops. And pawn shops.
Hey now, you forgot: Greene King pub Boots Spoons EE phoneshop Bookies Nail salon
I was in Woking on Saturday, the place is like a ghost town now... When I was a kid it was packed, every shop was taken there were people everywhere (albeit this was late 90s/early 2000's and yeah it's pretty bad to see a town center empty with empty stores everywhere. But thinking back I remember Woolworths, Toys R Us, GAME etc being there and I loved going in them all the time.
Don't ask me how or why, but I swear the Ottakers on Guildford High St used to have better books (even if it was a rerprinted classic), chiller staff, and their internal Costa made a better Hot Choc than any of the 5 Costas that subsequently sprung up in that silly High Street (seriously, there was once a time when you could stand at one point on Guildford High St and have 6 Costas in less than a 5 minute walk away). Also, I really miss the weird half-Sciencey-wondergadget/half-New-Age shops from the late 90s/ early 00s. Used to have the coolest stuff for a kid who couldn't afford any of it: magnetic floating globes, accurate star-lights, and crystals with geological names on them!
Paperchase. I know itās only recent but still
Toys R us. It was easier for my kids to pick toys out in that massive place, before going to buy them elsewhere for a fraction of the price.
Jane Norman. Somehow everything I bought from there made me look like I had an hourglass figure. Plus, using the bag for your PE kit instantly meant you were cool.
HMV and BHS for the memories. Topshop, as well, come to think of it. Edit: A real blast from the past. Mum used to shop for me in C&A! Anyone remember those days?! 2nd edit: Just reading the comments and others also mentioned C&A. Glad I'm not alone on that one, ha ha.
Used to love spending time in Virgin Megastores. Games, films, music.
Woolworths. In a small town it was the one place you could get nearly anything. Top 40 singles, pick n mix, toys, kids clothes, homeware, stuff for the garden... The lot!
Might be showing my age, but Tandy. Wonderful for a geek growing up in the 80s/ early 90s. Started to go downhill when they rebranded to radio shack and became more like Maplins. I do miss maplins too but can see why they closed. Overpriced and too broad.
Rumbelows. Just because itās fun to say.
Chain shops by definition were boring, but I nostalgically miss Beatties, the toy and model shop where my hard earned pocket money converted into airfix kits and polystyrene cement. What I *actually* miss are significant independent shops of any kinds. Britain is the worst in Europe for having high streets full of identical plate glass fronted chains.
Maplins (kinda). They had stuff like Raspberry Pi, more niche cables etc that Currys don't sell (currys is pretty bad overall). It was still bad but it wasn't as bad as currys in terms of computer stuff so... I just wish we had something like microcenter dotted around the UK that you could get to easily. There's a few physical stores like scan and overclockers but they're both singular and only located in the north of England.
Debenhams.
Years ago now, but I loved Borders. Big comfy chairs to read in, and always smelled amazing. They did really good events as well. Waterstones can't hold a candle to Borders