What shops or brands did you think were posh, but now doubt yourself

[DashingWhiteSergeant]

For me it is Habitat. As a teen I thought it was the epitome of home styling the shops looks so expensive. I only had a paper round for income then so it WAS expensive!

but now it is just a brand you buy in Sainburys. They make my big standard - but very much liked - tea lights.

Makes me sad to admit it because it was the first brand I found that didn't just shrink-and-pink men's sportswear and sell it as women's but ... Sweaty Betty. Used to be expensive but fabulous - practical, stylish, lovely fabrics, long lasting, properly tailored for women; now they're just expensive. I used to love getting SB vouchers as gifts, now there's very little I want to buy.

I still use the white pasta bowls from Whittards I bought in the 90’s they’re not even scratched, really nice quality.

I remember the hardback Next Directories with fabric samples!

When I was a child (90s) there was a definite supermarket hierarchy in terms of poshness (and price!) or otherwise:
Waitrose
M&S
Sainsbury
Tesco
Asda
Lidl

When I got a bit older I realised it was all bullshit, but I've still never been in a Waitrose because there isn't one near enough to bother with. We also never had a local Morrisons when I was a kid so I'm not sure where they fit on the scale....

We thought Next was super-posh and so chic and expensive when it first started. I was at school and someone having a Next carrier bag for their sports kit was THE status symbol. 😂

When Next opened they really made M&S up their game. Previous to that M&S clothes had been displayed any old how but because Next put outfits together on mannequins and displayed the clothes together so you saw how an outfit worked, Marks started doing the same. I worked in the City of London and a lot of my office clothes (plus casual knitwear) came from Next in the early days and they were good quality stuff.

@FTY765 are you sure that Lidl was around in the UK in the 90s? It was Netto back then, which was bought by Lidl in the 2000s (according to the German website). Then Lidl showed real UK presence in the late 2000. Maybe you had one of the pioneering stores

Maybe I'm just old and confused now! It may well have been further into the 00s than I remember!

Now long gone, but does anyone remember Cripps in Bold St in Liverpool ?
We shopped at Beatties, Robbs, Lees and Hendersons. Cripps was a cut above, with salesladies dressed in black dresses who used to pounce with a 'can I help you, madam?'. Mother used to bé eagle-eyed to avoid one pouncing on her.

No but seriously, I agree with your supermarket hierarchy. There was definitely some kind of pyramid of supermarket order. @FTY765

Sure does and makes me feel smug as a northerner rare occurrence when down south at PiLs

Habitat is owned by Argos now isn't it?

Booths sell Herdwick lamb - best lamb in the UK!!

Total opposite, I was completely ambivalent to Waitrose until it opened near us and is an entirely different experience to our other major supermarket (co-op).

It's more expensive overall, but the range, quality and service is much better at Waitrose and some of their offers can make prices similar to the Co-op.

When I was younger I used to think Ted Baker was the height of luxury. Less so these days!

The coop near me is fortnum and mason prices and kwik save quality all the veg are going off in the packets and it smells of soured milk / dirty fridges

I grew up in a small town so New Look. It used to be my dream to have an all New Look wardrobe.

I wouldn't shop there at all now.

I had a lidl behind my flat in Harlow in 99/2000 so they were definitely around.

For me, Liz Earle, Cath Kidston, Laura Ashley, Jane Norman, Zara.. all vastly reduced in quality and appeal now

Lidl were in Britain long before 2000, it was 1994 according to their Lidl GB. I graduated that summer and loads of people I graduated with got jobs as store managers on the milk round.

Netto were Danish, and were in the UK in the early 1990s. Then sold to Asda, then JV with Sainsbury's, then closed in the UK in the mid 2010s.