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!

@ILoveMyBedTooMuch the thing with HMV is they were struggling - people weren't buying so many CDs and DVDs so they have adapted and now sell much much more.
The vinyl is hugely popular.

Tapi gave us the cheapest quote for our carpets and did an excellent fitting.

Never heard of Tapi or Shoe Zone 😂

It’s Crazy but they do! Haha Most travel agents offer a travel money card Too so not everyone takes the physical cash. It’s maybe a saving thing too, as we have customers that come in monthly who buy a couple of hundred pounds of euros then they’ve got plenty for the summer

I suppose the last remaining advantage of a travel agent is the ATOL/ABTA insurance of a "package" holiday, where if one aspect fails due to say, bankruptcy, your entire holiday cost is covered.

Whereas if you book everything separately, and your, say, hotel goes bust, you're stuck with your flights, car hire, etc and only get refunded from your credit card for the hotel cost, and either have to find somewhere else to stay or forfeit the costs of the other aspects you can't use.

I love shoe zone and peacocks

Claires accessories. How they stay in business with their prices

WH Smith, The Body Shop, New Look-the clothes seem to have gotten very expensive and much lower quality as well as the target market being very confusing.
Clintons, my local one looks like a Time Machine to 1992 and is very expensive, and empty.
Peacocks is quite good for work stuff and the clothes actually seem made for the middle aged women they are targeting.

I take foreign currency. There are still countries where you can't rely on an ATM or card machine being available.

I like Fat Face and Sea Salt and used to like Dash. I don't wear hideous colours though!

I agree WH Smith is a shadow of it's 80s self, but it does have nice cards.

Next has been rubbish for years now. I used to get all my clothes there, but haven't bought anything since about 2005!

Boots is awful. No stock and poor customer service, although some of the big city centre stores are ok.

We don't have Argos anymore, I used to actually buy quite a lot of stuff there but just order on Amazon now as there's no point driving 5 miles to the Sainsburys to collect things when I used to be able to walk.

Morrisons. It's rubbish. It is neither Lidl/Aldi nor Sainsburys/Tesco. What is the point of it. We don't have a Lidl in my town, I wish they'd take over the Morrisons unit.

I think that if High Street buildings were increasing in value, then, yes, someone would sweep in and try to buy the chain to get hold of the real estate.

But unfortunately, High Street premises are losing value, obviously due to the demise of town centre shopping and the sheer number of empty premises, so their real estate portfolio doesn't look quite so appealing, except maybe to hold for the long term pending town centre redevelopments, demolitions, etc where they could demand a premium if their premises can hold a developer to ransom, i.e. stopping them from building a new development!

I know a lot of small private landlords are happy to hold onto property in areas where redevelopment is likely as they know they'll make a killing when the developer comes along and needs to buy an entire block for redevelopment.

Oh I forgot to say about Homebase, it's much nicer to walk around than B&Q. We use it.

@ILoveMyBedTooMuch Shoe Zone has over 400 stores and has been around for decades.
Tapi I think is a spin off/re brand from Carpetright

I was in WHSmith at an airport yesterday....absolutely extortionate! But soooo busy! They are in our local hospital too where there are no other shops so people obviously pay the stupid prices!

Urban Outfitters is massively popular with younger DC and all their friends. I think if’s expensive for that it is but the clothes I got for the DCs from there for Christmas were the ones where I subsequently needed to make the fewest returns.

I was trying to find skirts in the massive M&S in my town yesterday. I could find three skirts in the whole place, scattered all over the shop. Trousers appeared to be together but I had no idea whether I should be looking under the different brands or types of clothing for skirts and eventually I gave up. Mostly they don’t have the size I’m looking for anyway so I wasn’t minded to look much harder.

I don’t understand why if M&S want to appeal to different kinds of customers they don’t just open different shops rather than having it all in one store. H&M and Zara have different brands in different shops designed to appeal to different clientele so the clothes that might appeal to younger people aren’t connected to a brand that their parents may well have in their wardrobe and vice verse.

@Badbadbunny Thanks that makes sense.

pepsi?

I'm surprised by all the hate for Fatface! I'm in my 30s and it's my go to shop for jumpers and tops. They have really good sales (I would never buy anything there full price) and although some of the patterns and colours are a bit garish, I find there's plenty that is really nice and very good quality which lasts. Good online shop as well. I'd be very upset if it went under!

I used to wear Per Una stuff from M&S but the last time I was in a big M&S with a large clothes department (the main one in Liverpool) I thought they'd have to pay me to wear their clothes!

I do still buy knickers from there.

I am surprised by the hate for Fatface too. They do nice kids' clothes.

My son gets some clothes there because they do a genuine XS in mens, which suits skinny teenage boys and young men. Most places jump from a boy's size to a S man (probably also a reason why Superdry is quite popular as it caters for the skinny young man).

Disagree with everyone about the Bodyshop, my dd and I exclusively use their face creams etc.
WH Smith - my kids like a book shop. Waterstones is nicer, but not as widespread.
H&M - chappy clothes, cheaply made, crumpled on coat hangers. Why do people shop their, and why doesn't the store manager steam the clothes when they go out?

I also don’t understand Smiggle. So expensive! And the stuff is shite... Do parents get pressured by kids to go in? Much nicer / better stuff to be found in supermarkets / TK Maxx.

I thought the same. There's a lot of snobbery around "fast fashion" and stuff being poor quality, and buy cheap, buy twice etc. Ignoring the fact that it's not really a choice for a lot of people on a low budget.

I've bought trainers in Shoezone for PE. DS had decent trainers at home, and school shoes, I didn't have the budget to pay for another decent pair that would sit in a school bag and be outgrown by half term.

I second that shoezone store, I would often be buying ,school gym plimsolls type shoes 👞 for working at my local travelodge budget hotel,
And I was lucky if my shoes lasted for three months,

It's a mystery how they still keep going,

Peacocks 🦚 has bit of quirky history how it's still going,

Sports Direct store is another mysterious one how it's still going,Consirdering if you purchased any item of clothing ect from this store,
You are not allowed 🚫 to return item even if its in perfect condition ,same as when brought it, within usaul time range,like other stores,

You are only allowed to show proof of purchase then exchange paid item for something else in Sports Direct.

How does Sports Direct get away with this way of running their business then??
I know big manager higher up of Sports Direct is quite Controversial figure,
Similar to Weatherspoons chain of pubs/restaurants

Sports Direct store policy is no Customer is allowed a refund at all, !
Just make sure policy of no refund is implemented at all times No excuses allowed for whatever reason...

Just make sure Customers are fobbed off to have exchange item

I loved the deli department, I used to always get my Christmas pudding from there in the early 1990s. As a child (70s) the Christmas toy window display was magical and in the 80s it was TH place to go to buy makeup and perfume, I used to feel so sophisticated. It's always Cavendish House to me, I never got used to it being House of Fraser.

It's such a shame to see its decline as it was so much part of Cheltenham's history.