What was your favourite shop as a child?

[ohellio]

My mum used to take us to the local florist. It was more than a florist though; it sold things like bird seed in little plastic tubs (which I used to stand and push my hands through - I still love that feeling to this day). They sold dog leads and I used to save my pocket money so I could buy a new one every now and again for my little toy dog that I carried around. I still remember the smell of the green oasis stuff that the flowers were stuck into, and the smell of the bird peanuts. They had a lovely, elderly black and white cat called Crackers who just LOVED the strokes. We called it 'Cracker's Shop'.

I also have fond memories of our local Safeway as it was the first time I was allowed out unsupervised. It was only to buy a pint of milk, but MY GOD I still remember the fear that I'd get to the till and not have enough money.

I'd love to hear about other's favourite / most memorable childhood shops.

We had a local grocer shop called the cabbage patch but it had the wee cubbie hole that had hundreds of different kinds of penny sweets,especially the bubble gum that smelled like germoleen and had a tattoo in it, used to get 10p and come out with hundreds of treasure (well it felt like that ) 😃

Ohh also another one,in Glasgow called the walrus and the carpenter (Sauchiehall street? )used to sell all these different types of fantastic marbles God it was amazing xx

@regressionconfession does Neal Street East not exist any more?
I so loved that place.

We had a Zodiac toys, I remember buying clothes for my Pippa doll there. Loved Woolworths, C&A (used to measure myself on the wall measure to see what height clothes I should be wearing!)

Also liked Fairheads in Ilford. They had the vacuum machine to send money to the cash office which fascinated me as a child.

Sunshine kids. It was a childrens clothes shop with a giant ball pit in it. So an obvious choice.

@Queenofthedrivensnow Trago mills terrifies me now as an adult, never mind a child

Woolworths. Loved the toys and the pick and mix. I'm showing my age now but I also remember when they sold broken biscuits. Loved filling a bag up with them.

WH Smith for all the fantastic stationery.

It’s gone downhill so much now. It feels so run down and sugary and depressing. I only go in if there’s really nowhere else.

It's too expensive now also @ScarletAnemone

My local sweet shop - choosing between the big jars of sweets and getting a quarter measured out of Tom thumb drops, sherbet pips, lemon sherbets or bonbons
Woollies
The greengrocers - winding up paper bags of fruit and veg to go in my mums shopping trolley
The bead shop at Covent Garden
And my once a year pilgrimage to Hamleys in Regent Street

There used to be a sweet shop at the top of the road. I have memories of going there!

The Pied Pedeller on Thame high street.
Lovely memory of my mother going to Waitrose whilst my younger sister and I roamed around the toy shop.
Then my mum would meet us in the toy shop and we would cross the road to go to Punch&Judy cage and have a got chocolate and cake.

Also the pet shop on Thame Hugh street. They had a live parrot outside. Cruel I see now, but at the time - bloody loves it!

Woolies. Especially the pick and mix.

My kids would pick go outdoors for the tents to play in

We had 2 fantastic Department stores when I was growing up. Busbys and Brown Muffs.
Busby had an ice cream parlour and the manageress, Miss Hallas used to let me go in an put the maraschino cherry on the top!
The grotto at Christmas was a sight to see and they began assembling it in June!
Brown Muffs had 2 restaurants and in the cheaper one, you could sit up to a yellow formic bar to eat!
They did the most delicious sausages In A lyonnaise gravy!

Such happy times x

I liked lots:

Groococks, O'Malley-Gaunt's, Rhodes and Chennell's/Dolphin in Adel.

Schofields in Leeds centre.

Owen Owen and Durrant's in Shrewsbury.

Wray Bros. in Leyburn.

Not a shop as such but my local market. I have such happy memories. The stall that sold cheap tat like the fake stereo cassette player that played the tape at a very slow speed. The spice stall that smelled amazing. The stall with bulk buy crisps and biscuits.
The cafe that opened whether the market was open or not. We would stop in there with our shopping for hot drinks in polystyrene cups and the owners homemade shortbread. The stall with the tastiest fruit and veg ever.
There was always someone selling dodgy fags and baccy. I went to the same market recently and all those stalls are gone.

My absolute favourite shop as a child was the pet shop. Mum would leave us there while she did the food shop for the week at the market nearby. It sold all the usual pets including tortoises and parrots which you see anymore in high street pet shops. It also had puppies and kittens. It was packed to the rafters with stock and absolutely fascinating for a 9 year old.

The Toy Bazaar, Aberdeen, 1980s.

Wish there was somewhere similar I could take DS these days.

Selfridges - my mum used to take me at Christmas to look at the windows and we would have hot chocolate or a coke float in the cafe

I also loved Zodiac toys in Uxbridge, was a lovely independent toy store but always had stuff you never saw in the likes of toys r us. We would spend hours looking at all the toys.

Zodiac! I remember that iklboi. They had “pocket money toys” for 50p!

Posted too soon. I bought those clackers that people used to break their wrists with.

Haha @buttontin I remember the pocket money section... They had the BEST marbles in there. I had some fab ones

Zodiac toys, bought outfits for my dolls, lovely shop
WH Smith for lovely pens and stationary, can't believe it's decline now
Woolies, nice bathcube sets and small fancy bottles of colourful bubble bath for my friends for Christmas

@MiniDoofa
@nightcapers
@PrivateParkin

My big sister had a Saturday job in Blackler's cafe and my granny used to take me into town to meet her at the end of her shift. She used to buy me strawberry ice cream that was served in a metal sundae dish.

When I was in senior school I used to buy the fabric for my school needlework projects in the haberdashery department.

I loved the grotto at Blackler's and also Lewis's. Lewis's had The Best food hall.

McKays
C&A
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