Nostalgia for high street shops of the past

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I'm feeling nostalgic. I'm struggling to find a winter coat and I just KNOW I would have found the perfect one in BHS. I also loved their underwear, thermals, slippers, pyjamas, dressing gowns, simple but good quality tops and jumpers and Christmas bits and bobs. My local also had a affordable but great restaurant with a little play area and decent loos. Dh and I used to take the dc there for breakfast on Saturdays as a treat.

Anyone else feeling nostalgic for long gone shops?

I used to love Shelley’s shoe store in Birmingham. Got my first dr martens from there! Also evolution and Athena.

Ah, Athena in the Pavilions. I had many a black and white picture from there placed behind one of those clipped frameless frames on me wall!

I think just going shopping in general. We used to get up on a Saturday morning and pick my Nan up and visit a local market then go into the city centre and mooch round all the shops and then have a cup of tea in George Henry Lees and then to M&S food and then home.
Now shopping just feels so frantic and hectic - I can’t put my finger on it. We have a thriving city centre but it just doesn’t feel the same.

I think high streets and certainly Oxford Street had a buzz. They were thriving. No online shopping or internet. Seeing new season’s clothes hitting stores was exciting.
I remember when Next launched and it had several shops all in my same town. Next Men, Next Kids, Next Women’s and I’m sure Next jewellery, seems crazy now.
Town centres in many places are now filled with coffee shops, charity shops and just feel soulless and drab. We want everything immediately, no one hankers after anything anymore.
Saying that, I had a store card for pretty much every shop and got in to debt. I looked good though and had fun. Paid it off years later.

I recently came across a "Glasgow in the 90s" article on Facebook with about 20 photos of the bustling high streets. I actually shed a few tears. I don't live there any more but it was a great city to be a teenager in back in the 90s!

I don't think the high streets are great anywhere now though 😕

I used to like Next but I don't think they as nice as they used to be.

They still have C&A in other European countries. The clothes are still a bit hit and miss, but they have some lovely wool coats at the moment. Clockhouse still there for the teens as well! Wish they'd open up here again. I also miss Past Times, and the whole shopping experience, as previous posters have said...

The Pier, Cargo

@Blankscreen still can't believe Allders closed down!

I still have a load of my old clothes up in the attic. Had a look the other weekend and had lots from Morgan, Kookai, Oasis and Warehouse. My daughter was going and and wore one of my old dresses from Jane Norman. Proper vintage!

My dh swears by canda pants. If we are on the continent he buys multipacks. And has his photo taken holding his good quality carrier bag outside a local cathedral or castle.
He hates shopping for anything else.

I can remember getting sparkly cherry body glitter roll on from 915, and a shimmery blue dress with matching see-through jacket from Tammy Girl
I would have been about 9, I can remember being quite intimidated going in as they seemed so incredibly sophisticated and grown up!
I miss the Co-Op department store my mum used to take me to. Beatties, Toys R Us, Body Shop.

Does anyone remember Debenhams or BHS sell old Bath and Body Works products? I had some lovely body spritzes from there.

As others have said, I just miss the shopping experience, spending a whole day just bimbling around the shops with my mum. Maybe it's because I have children now so see shopping as more of a chore, but it does seem more frantic and fast paced than it used to. Maybe because in the back of my mind I am always thinking "is this cheaper online? Should I just order it when I get home?"

I don't remember Shelley's, but I remember back in the 1970s when there was a long row of shoe shops at one end of New Street - Dolcis, Freeman, Hardy & Willis, plus others. Shoe shopping took up a big chunk of Saturday, interspersed with a milkshake in Woolworth's cafe or egg and chips in Littlewood's. Maybe a visit to Hudson's bookshop at the other end of New Street before catching the bus home.

There are many I miss

Little badge stand by Boots (independent it was and there for years. Vape shop now) in our local Shopping Centre
Dolcis Shoes
Littlewoods (they had a lovely Cafe)
Our Price records
Wendy's (we had them briefly in the early to mid 80s in our Town)
Mothercare (Bought most of my first DCs baby stuff there)
Adams (If memory serves me right it sold Children's clothes... early 90s)
Laura Ashley (Simply because my Bridesmaids dresses were all from there)

There are probably others but these stand out as a loss and nostalgia inducing

Debenhams. They had a great shop here, loads of little franchises and the most fantastic perfume and beauty department which took up most of a floor and had bags of space.

I always did well for Christmas shopping for DH family as well (very safe).

And BHS my dearly departed mum always got me nighties there so definitely a bit of nostalgia.

Bhs lighting department was excellent.

And when we moved house almost 30 years ago we ended up with a duvet and a bhs quilt cover from some other client. I still have the quilt cover for my spare room. (Perhaps they folded due to me not needing to buy new bedding)