What shops do you love going into?

[Limth]

I don't mean shops you like because they're products are good quality, or because they're reliable for certain things, or because their customer service is great.

I mean what shops do you go in and think "Yes, I love it in here".

For me its Iceland Food Warehouse. Our local one is massive, really clean, really well-stocked and I always find completely random oven-able beige goods.
I could genuinely browse for hours.

We also have Boyes in my local high street. It's like a mini department store that sells basically everything you could think of. It's like stepping back in time. I absolutely adore it.

Love Boyes. It's the shop that saved me many a time when DS would say 'we need to take a XYZ into school tomorrow'. Also they sell proper Lion midget gems.

@OliviaRodrighost Didn't know Jenners had gone. Memories of going there as a child on family holidays.

Generally any delicatessen.

Really, really want to go to Waterstones in Bradford. It looks amazing.

I went in one of these for the first time at the weekend. Loved it 😊

Oh also Muji!

Home sense
M&S food
John Lewis home and the make up department

Oliver Bonas

Home bargains - why is it so much better than B&M even though it sells such similar things?

Finally - I love books but hate bookshops (and libraries for that matter) as I get a headache from all that sideways head tilting looking at titles. I hate it!

Also love a decent sized Avoca shop. Love the one just off the M7 junction 4 outside Dublin though it usually the one at Malahide castle that I get to plus the lovely garden centre nearby. Also an Italian grocery chain in Canada called Longos. Their deli is to die for and I also love just browsing the different products thinking how I might get them home to the UK. Plus I love Sephora for beauty products and Shoppers Drug Mart similar to our Boots.

Booths - such a treat!

Teebay services, North bound.

Ooh Kizzywizz you just reminded me- Gloucester services!

Scarthin Books in Cromford, Derbyshire.

Waterstones - and their cafe - run by lovely ladies who have time for all their customers and I've witnessed so many kindnesses to their very vulnerable, elderly customers who come in regularly. An oasis of care in what can be an edgy city! We go there at least twice a week and often meet family there too - lovely. Our grandson loves checking out the books and we always buy our Christmas jigsaw there - so many lovely ones, so hard to choose!

Also Homesense, T K Maxx and local charity shops - love a good rummage!

Interesting about Sostrene Grene - I'd never heard of it, but will definitely be checking them out. From their website, they look great.

I love a mooch around Whittards tasting all of the little cups of hot chocolate and iced teas. Inevitably buy something that then sits in a cupboard for 3 years!
Also Waterstones for obvious reasons, and Selfridges in Birmingham.

Rituals. I just love it!! Although not at this time of year

My in-laws live near Burford. I must pay a visit to the garden centre one time.

This thread is making me so happy.

We have a Sostrene Grene in York. I love their products. But its always crowded, the aisles are too narrow so I'm terrified of knocking things over as I get swept through on a tide of humans. I can see how I could love it. But I don't.

Little independent craft shops where I can browse and find little gems to gift.

Little independent shops well away from home, where they have ‘different’ things I’d never find in any of the shops around here. Plus 2nd hand bookshops for whiling away an hour or two, especially when on holiday and it’s raining!

I can well remember queueing to go in during COVID. It was 2 or 3 people out 2 or 3 allowed in. When our local favourite takeaway opened to orders by phone only at set timeslots we did a little celebration.

We have an Open All Hours shop nearby and it's great - run by a female version of Ronnie Barker. No dog that I'm aware of but she has a chair near the till with various homegrown vegetables for sale which is also a treat.

Another Liberty lover here. It's the smell and the creak of the wooden floors, not to mention one of the priciest cups of tea that I have ever had. I did drink it feeling like someone from Downton Abbey though 😀

For any other Cornish Mnetters, my favourite shop is probably Uneeka in Truro. My DC refer to it as my spiritual home. I could quite happily live in their cafe 😍

Barnitts in York for the same comforting feeling as Boyes

Harrods - it might be tacky, but no other department store can compare

Melrose Place in Los Angeles, which is idyllic

TK Maxx and Homesense, I could spend an absolute age in there

Home Bargains and B&M, for the range of cleaning products!

Liberty is so beautiful and tasteful, but I find it weirdly stressful!

I used to live near Bishop's Stortford in Herts, an old fashioned hardware/diy/++ store called Maslens where you could buy three six inch nails or six three inch screws, both from large boxes, unpackaged, plus all sorts of home and garden delights. We actually bought a dishwasher there too. My DH was in gardening/DIY heaven.
Sadly it was sold on, as always seems to happen, and it became Coopers Of Stortford, a standard all purpose homewares etc catalogue shop.

Thr Co-op. It's small. I love the smell of their freshly baked bread, their fruit and veg is great and looks pretty, the chickens are amazing. It is a pleasant place to go around, undemanding.

@Pollyanna87 "Liberty is so beautiful and tasteful, but I find it weirdly stressful!"
Not weird at all, it's absolutely rammed from mid November to mid-January - absurdly hot, stuffy and quite unpleasant to shop there.
In fact, although those are the worst times it's often uncomfortably busy at other times of the year. Weird layout too and it always seems to be difficult to find an exit.

Uneeka looks great online, hadn't heard of them, thanks!

I’ve never heard of it and I go to York a couple of times a year, will definitely check it out next time I’m there.

I miss the Persephone bookshop in Bloomsbury but am aiming to get to the one in Bath soon. Gorgeous shop.

So many shops I haven’t heard of here…is the Oxford stationery one ‘Scriptum?’ Definitely putting that one on the list to visit.

Excellent thread!