Shops you are surprised are still going

[fajitaaaa]

WHSMITHS - who is buying from them? Anything other than a emergency magazine for the train and maybe a bottle of water? But some of their stores are HUGE!

FAT FACE - always a massive sale on!

That’s good to know! Hopefully other shops will follow their lead. I’d hate to see the High St die - I have such happy memories of going into town with my friends and browsing/spending.

Interestingly a lot of the shops mentioned here as being open have closed (ages ago during the pandemic in my town.)
Monsoon, New Look, Accessorize, Shoezone

Plenty of 60+ people do though. I used to go to the one in Cardiff sometimes to have a look at the underwear, bags and gym wear (I don't recommend the gym wear) and it was full of pensioners.
They used to always give me vouchers for menswear, which really pissed me off. I presume they have a lot of female customers who buy their men's clothes.

Where do the yoof of today like to shop ?

@howaboutchocolate I buy most of my shoes from Shoe Zone and they last for ages (and I walk everywhere).
I've never had a pair break. They do of course wear out over time. I had a pair of sandals from there that I wore all through the summer months and they lasted years.

Just thought of another one.
Select! The clothes are cheap tack.
The one in my town is always empty and it's huge.
Agree with Ann Summers, that's always empty too.

I also buy bags from Shoe Zone. They last for years too.

Primark and shein

Clarks

How do you know what age those people were?

Maybe they were well into their 70s or 80s.

My friends don't look like pensioners. I don't know what a pensioner looks like.

IMO the people who dress badly have done so all their lives and when they get over 60 they carry on doing it!

Please don't lump all the 60+ women together.

Never seen a shein so ill have a Google thanks.

The more I think about it the more I'm surprised any of the shops are still going. Who is shopping at Holland and Barratt?

Shein are meant to be terrible, awful quality, worse human rights than Primark and they had lead in their dyes. Online only shop.

I quite like Lakeland too now that that’s been mentioned! You can get a good range of high-quality baking equipment in there and we have had some good stuff in the sales from them too.

So sad, Cavendish House was the epitome of 'posh' shopping in the 80s and 90s. I loved going there Christmas shopping with my mother.

@fajitaaaa Shien is online. Like Wish and Ali Express.
Very very cheap but actually the clothes aren't bad (if you are 14).

Hang on...that's my local and I love them 😂😂
TBF I tend to do my food shopping at wherever is closest to me.
I do miss my Aldi though

Show zone is very popular in my town(where there is a high % of families living on low incomes). In fact they recently went from a small town centre shop to taking over a big shop on a retail park that used to be Clarks. There is a lot of snobbery around them on here but in real life if you have 3 dc and they all need new wellies or school shoes etc then it is an affordable place to go, no worse than buying shoes from Asda or Next tbh.

A few people have mentioned that their nearest branch of Shoezone had shut down, perhaps they've closed for a refit, ours did and has since reopened. If not, you could maybe try their online shop?

Ours definitely closed. Something about the lease I think, the same happened to our M&Co before the company went into administration.

I can't easily buy shoes online, my feet are different sizes and my heels get rubbed raw in so many shoes so trying on is easiest for me unless it's a brand I know. When ShoeZone closed we were left with a tiny independent shop or Peacocks for footwear. I don't even know if any of our supermarkets do footwear as their clothing sections are pretty small (and we only have 3 that do clothing anyway).

The Original Factory Shop recently opened up where M&Co used to be but the selection is still tiny compared to what I was hoping for. I can at least buy Skechers and Rocket Dog shoes there though which I know are fine on my feet.

I also think they survive by the airport and train beaches subsidising other locations. There are always more staff than customers in my local one and it has a weird deserted air to it. Liking the analogy of cockroaches of the high street. They don’t seem to be stopping selling over priced things and chocolate anytime soon!

@TheProblemIsMe I like Sainsbury's. I go there for a lot of the non food stuff - clothes, toys, books, magazines etc.
My local big branch has Argos (which I always find excellent despite some of the comments in here) and Specsavers.
As a large supermarket Sainsbury's is usually excellent.

Halfords, my wife wanted a new crash helmet, of the few in store, she tried one on, wanted a different colour, was told to go away and purchase online for home delivery as the store wasn't allowed/ able to get one in for her.

Aslo Robert Dyas, with their hugely inflated RRPs', which are then discounted down to the real RRP.

Urban Outfitters.

They had a deli department at the back in the mid eighties. It smelt amazing. We used to walk through as poor students and dream the one day we would do proper 'posh shopping in there. Its long gone 😪

Old people 60 plus? Is it mandatory that you go there when you reach your 60th birthday 😂 I have some great stuff from M and S including cashmere and underwear.

WH Smith is an exceedingly useful shop - it has the Post office, upmarket cards ( instead of all this Card Direct shite) and a quick book if you want one for the pool on holiday ( easy to choose as the stock is limited) Maybe it is my childhood memories of pens and things.

Our Boots has just had a refit with all the expensive make up brands - just what we needed as no other high end outlet here. Contrary to what some think their prices are not always more expensive and they do good deals. Again they carry brands that others don't. Superdrug always feels so down market and full of teenagers and the assistants behind the tills know nothing other than swiping a product.

Pandora - I have no idea why this shop is still going.

Fat Face - they carry small amounts of a style and move stock on quickly with their sales. Very popular here.

Roman - waste of space.

Next - their usefulness varies according to the time of year. Summer is better.

Seasalt - dowdier than White Stuff.

I miss Debenhams - it was always a good place to have a wander.

My husband always goes to Sainsbury's when it's his turn to food shop . He has some lovely jumpers from there which have long outlasted the far more expensive, similar style, ones from Joules. If you use your nectar card the points add up very quickly and are worth having .