Shops you remember that have closed down...

[Marie8]

What are some shops you remember that sadly closed down?
I grew up in the 90s and it's so sad to think that so many high street shops have closed down over the years.

[Mo34]

Used to love BHS for novelty Xmas stuff. And homeware. And pants.

Woolworths.

[Percy]

Woolworths

[gregarious_introvert]

There's quite a few I remember, but some of them - C&A, BHS, Mothercare, Woolworth - have stores in other countries and it still feels weird to see them. I've seen about five branches of Woolworth's this year, including a new store which was preparing to open in Lodz.

[biscuits]

Woolworths - my favourite ever shop when I was a little child

Virgin Megastores - I would spend so much time in there looking at CDs and DVDs and they had the little stations where you could listen to music

HMV - it was more expensive but had a few more harder-to-find CDs

Blockbusters - I loved going there to rent films

There were a few independent "hippy" shops about that I loved going to - clothes, jewellery, incense etc.

Then there are shops that we would go to as children like Do It All and spend about and hour playing in the doorbell section - probably pissing everyone off but not realising that at all!

Comet - playing on the keyboards for ages

Then there was this shop called BeeWise and me and my sister would go in there and step into the window display and pretend to me mannequins for passers by.

[anxiouslondoner]

There was an independent record shop in Birmingham (on one of the small roads from the main street to the park on the hill with the church in) that I used to love going to for random CDs, when people still bought those. Can't remember the name. I doubt it still exists but I moved away.

There was another nice record shop under a skate shop in Covent Garden but somehow my work security pass would always set off their crappy shoplifter detection systems when I went in.

What was the bookstore chain that went under? Borders? There used to be more bookstores on the high street. Are Waterstones still about? Foyles are still good for Christmas shopping.

[Laurel]

Um
Woolworths, HMV, Maplins, C& A, Edinburgh Woollen Mill gone now?, Kwik Save, Somerfield, Safeway, a stationers called Ham & Sewell (could have been Plymouth only), Office place- forgotten it's name (Staples?), Argos-> Moved to Sainsbury's stores

[gregarious_introvert]

I had a suit on order when Greenwood's collapsed - I got the trousers, but I'm never going to get the jacket. I haven't found anywhere to buy decent suits at reasonable prices since then.

[Percy]

Also Blockbusters and Zavvi/Virgin Megastore

[Mo34]

^^^There's still a Edinburgh Woollen Mill in Worthing.

Blimey, yeah Somerfields - they had some great offers.
Sussex stationers - I loved that shop

Willy Low's (supermarket) - As a kid going up to Scotland with my parents I always associated Willy Lows with things that (at the time) you couldn't get in England, or atleast where I was.

Bejam's . We had a deep chest freezer bought from bejam's for about 30 years!

Lots of clothes shops - Tammy girl, Etam, Miss Selfridge?, Bay Trading,

Radio Rentals (if that counts as a shop)

[BFG_]

Tandy

Gateway

Carrefour

Tyrell and green

Owen and Owen

Plumbers

[gregarious_introvert]

^ I never knew that Carrefour had stores in Britain.

[humphrey]

Tandy

Maplin's

Laws Stores (supermarket)

Fine Fare (supermarket)

Callers (Newcastle Deartment Store)

Binns (another Department Store)

Bainbridges (Swallowed up by John Lewis)

C&A

BHS

[gregarious_introvert]

^ Binns????? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Laurel]

Originally Posted by Mo34

^^^There's still a Edinburgh Wollen Mill in Worthing.

Blimey, yeah Somerfields - they had some great offers.
Sussex stationers - I loved that shop

Willy Low's (supermarket) - As a kid going up to Scotland with my parents I always associated Willy Lows with things that (at the time) you couldn't get in England, or atleast where I was.

Bejam's . We had a deep chest freezer bought from bejam's for about 30 years!

Lots of clothes shops - Tammy girl, Etam, Miss Selfridge?, Bay Trading,

Radio Rentals (if that counts as a shop)

Bejams! Ha I remember them.

Also another thing when Sainsburys used to be J.Sainsburys.

[biscuits]

Originally Posted by anxiouslondoner

There was an independent record shop in Birmingham (on one of the small roads from the main street to the park on the hill with the church in) that I used to love going to for random CDs, when people still bought those. Can't remember the name. I doubt it still exists but I moved away.

There was another nice record shop under a skate shop in Covent Garden but somehow my work security pass would always set off their crappy shoplifter detection systems when I went in.

What was the bookstore chain that went under? Borders? There used to be more bookstores on the high street. Are Waterstones still about? Foyles are still good for Christmas shopping.

I remember Borders - that felt sort of 2006 time? It had an American feel to it, just from the price stickers on the books. They had Starbucks in them too.

I just remember the one in Cambridge which is a HUGE Waterstones now.

[Marie8]

Biscuits - BeeWise rings a bell, I'm sure we had one in our town.. was it a bit like pound stretcher?

I loved Woolworths and bhs. Tammy girl, Dixons and Comet too. Also going to Past Times, got my mum a Christmas present from there every year.

I remember this clothes shop called Ethel Austins and a kids clothes shop called Adams, I think. Also this shop called Au Naturelle or something, it sold homeware stuff.

Didn't Safeway become Tesco? I'm sure I heard that somewhere.. or maybe I just made that up! We didn't have a Tesco local to us, just Morrisons, Asda and Aldi.

I remember in Aldi when the cashiers used to type in the product numbers using the keys. They were super fast, I found it fascinating to watch! Such a skill to memorise all those numbers!

[Tembo]

HMV is still going, though obviously have closed many stores. The one near me still has CDs and DVDs, but more space is used for Vinyl and merchandise. Incredibly, I’ve always seen it busy with teenagers and young adults.

I will miss Wilko when it’s gone. I’m actually surprised it is going, as is seemed the sort of shop that would survive more easily. Always find it handy for household goods and at reasonable prices without being poor quality. The other option is pound stores but I find them poor value for money (do people expect stuff to last long when it’s so cheap?) and the shops are generally just chaos. B&M and Home Bargains require a car to drive to a boring shopping centre.

I miss Modelzone which was a chain of model shops in the south east. I could spend ages in there, and I bought quite a lot from them too. Other independent model shops have also largely disappeared too.

There was also an independent department store in my town, which was a throwback to the 1990s but I really liked it. Amazing it survived into the 2020s to be honest!

I don’t really like the decline of the big stores from the high street. As if our high streets arn’t depressing enough as it is! Some stuff is easier to buy online, but with most stuff I prefer to physically look at it and buy it instantly without having to wait for Royal Mail to deliver it or for Amazon to throw it over my fence, and then have lots of packaging to have to deal with

[Percy]

Borders is another one I miss.

[Azalea]

Adams was a great one for kids clothes.
Toy and Hobby, a brilliant toy shop in St. Helens.

[Merry]

The Little Chef

[Shy_pretty_Angela]

Store Twenty one and Woolworths obviously! So sad

[humphrey]

Binns - was a department store that was only in the North East.

Presto's became Safeway which was bought out by Somerfields I think.

We started with a Safeways, turned into Somerfields for a bit and then they sold it to Waitrose who we have now.

[gregarious_introvert]

Originally Posted by humphrey

Binns - was a department store that was only in the North East.

Presto's became Safeway which was bought out by Somerfields I think.

We started with a Safeways, turned into Somerfields for a bit and then they sold it to Waitrose who we have now.

Safeway was actually bought by Morrison's, but then some stores (where there was already one or Morrison's in the area) had to be sold - the Darlington Safeway, for instance, was sold to Sainsbury's because Morrison's already had two stores in the town.

Apparently, the Binns in Darlington remains Binns, although it has House Of Fraser over the doorways (as I'm sure you know, Binns was sold to HoF many years ago, although most stores weren't rebranded for a long time).

[Laurel]

Burger King has sort of died in Devon, there might be one or two left.

Wimpy.

[Mo34]

Poppins when I was a kid in Northants. I used to have my birthdays in there when I was 8/9/10?

To my amazement there is one Worthing. Though I doubt it's much like it was years ago.

[Mo34]

Originally Posted by Seagull

There’s still a Sussex Stationers in Seaford. Eastbourne also has an Edinburgh Woollen Mill.

Is there really. Blimey. I though Sussex Stationers had long gone. I loved the one in Horsham.

[Percy]

Wimpy

[gregarious_introvert]

^ Wimpy made a comeback, about a decade ago - I found one or two at roadside service stations and there was one in the Victoria Centre in Nottingham, but it seems to have been short-lived. I notice that Wendy has returned to Britain now though.

[Percy]

Yeah, there is one in Basingstoke. Be nice to have it in Southampton.