Retailers you used to frequent or really like but now hardly buy from

[PoodlesRUs]

For me it's Amazon, Etsy, Next and Fat Face. Amazon and Etsy are filled with so much poor quality crap, stuff that bends or breaks after a few uses or electrical items without certifications and cosmetic and cleaning products without labels. I'm never sure if I'm buying 10 year old stock of a well-known brand, a fake or the real deal. Their pricing and "discounts" are wild too and so rarely are they as they appear. When it comes to Etsy it is swimming with mass-produced crap being resold by small businesses. Or should that be "small businesses". Handmade must be one of the most frequent mislabellings on that site. It's a shame because it used to have interesting products

Next is often way down my list of places to check when I'm searching for something as their prices have increased whilst their quality has dropped. They always had somewhat inconsistent sizing but now it's even worse. Boden and Fat Face are no longer high on my list of places to shop for the same reasons.

Which places have you moved on from?

John Lewis used to buy all my white goods from there as had good guarantees / customer service. Not any more.

Clarks. They used to fit shoes but now they just measure and assume all shoes of that size will fit. Sizing and fitting are not the same thing!

Monsoon. Used to love their dresses but they just don't seem to be what I want anymore.

Fat face, quality is so bad compared to when I was younger. I washed a new dress from there on a v cool gentle wash and the arms shrank by 10cm in length!

I agree with you about Next. Nearly all my clothes for work were from there for years.
Then they changed styles and didn’t suit my shape. Now they’re really expensive for poor quality fabrics and the stores barely have anything in stock, it’s all online.
I occasionally do click and collect for stuff for my DC’s but not for myself.
Edited to add. The last thing I bought from next was a pair of jeans in an identical size and style to a pair I have, just a different colour. They’re huge on me and the ones I had already in the same size still fit? Sizing is bizarre.

Monsoon have lost it. Gone very polyesterish.

I used to like British Homes Stores. I still have some boots and jeans I bought from there.

Hush - don’t know what they are doing now, but gave up when they were turning out the same old designs every year and deteriorating in quality.

Whistles. It's now about the same quality as Primark.
The online Topshop is a very poor imitation of the original. The jeans especially.

I used to buy all my clothes from Jigsaw, Gap, LK Bennett, Warehouse, French Connection, Boden and Comptoir des Cotonniers. I don’t think I’ve bought a single thing in any of them now for years, at least since before COVID. In each case the quality and fabrics have gone massively downhill, or the prices have gone mad, or both!

Similarly, I used to buy all DD’s clothes from Boden, M&S and John Lewis. Haven’t now for ages. When they brought in the Anyday range both the styles and the quality of John Lewis kidswear went massively downhill. Nowhere seems to do good basics for kids in decent natural fibres any more. H&M is the only place I can get things for DD these days, and their kids abd teenage fashion ranges are very high and miss: one season they’ll be great, and then the next it’s brown polyester flares everywhere if something equally vile.

Next. I worked there in the 90s. Haven’t bought anything from there in around 20 years now.

Monsoon, I used to love.

I generally buy outdoor gear now, rather than dressy stuff. Most of my clothes are from Findra, Passenger and Icebreaker.

John Lewis, the customer service is terrible, the whole thing of buying a slightly more expensive thing from JL was the aftercare and ease of customer issues, I had several just awful experiences with them and I will not use them again.

Next is impossible to buy from. Now if I want a coat the website shows me 30000 coats. I know I can filter but ultimately I just want to see 5-6 next coats. Not loads of other brands.

Boden
Clarks
Monsoon

Matalan. Quality went massively downhill. No idea if it's improved again as not been in for severa years now, but somehow I doubt any improvement has happened.
I miss Debenhams.

Agree with you about Amazon and Fat Face. I used to buy a lot from Fat Face but they seem to have completely changed their target market and use a lot of influencers in their marketing now which I find off putting. Also still can't believe that they stopped doing children's clothes! Seasalt is another one that seems to be having a slightly bewildering rebrand.
I miss the old Topshop, and Warehouse. Also used to love French Connection but would never think to look there now.

Etsy has gone downhill but if you filter by UK sellers then it cuts a lot of the mass produced rubbish out.

Fatface, whitestuff- boring and overpriced, synthetic.
jigsaw, moonsoon - used to love now also synthetic and insanely overpriced. I’m not paying £££ for polyester. I’ve got sone lovely silk things from both 20+ years old, still going strong. They are such high quality fabrics and were reasonably priced - it’s now 2 or 3 times the price for much poorer quality.
Have bought some good things from m and s recently though after about a two decade gap!

I've used amazon less and less over the past few years as it's become clear that their prices are less competitive and so much tat is for sale instead of genuine good brands. Cancelled prime in the autumn then Trump happened and I haven't used them since.

Still use Next as my autistic young adult DS fits in their biggest child sizes and has lots of their joggers and "cosy" long sleeved tees - all identical apart from colour. They also sell start rite, which he wears. Also handy for trying things on then returning as I live near 2.stores.

It’s quite handy if you want, say, a cotton sundress or a long wool coat, though. Ditto M&S online with their many brands.

Pretty much everywhere. Me and Em has gone to pot, I’ve sent most things back that I’ve tried recently and the one thing I did keep has turned to an absolute rag.

Hush used to somehow sell a lifestyle to me, with beautifully presented models (despite the fact that most of their tops were crap, the bottoms were decent quality). But now the pictures on their website just make me want to cry with despair at how sad it all looks.

I pretty much have a uniform of Levi’s jeans, custom made plain T-shirts from Citizen Wolf, and a few lovely sweatshirts and cashmere jumpers for layering weather, and that’s it now. I don’t wear anything else. There are no shops that cater for me.

Fat face - find their stuff so bland now

Same.

When I required assistance, John Lewis's customer services were staffed by some of the rudest, most deeply unpleasant people I have ever encountered.

British Gas are just inept.

Not any more. I used to do that. Now it's a bunch of dropshippers calling themselves UK sellers and UK small businesses with "handmade" items. A quick image search and it throws up dozens of other sellers, often including Tmu, Shin and Amazon.

Very - been a customer for 10+ years, bought loads from them clothes, washing machines, fridges, sofas etc and every month they text me a reminder to pay my bill yet the month that my 6 or 12 month deadline hits - no text 😂 fortunately I know when my bills are due and pay off in time but I’m now very cynical of them so closed my account - they didn’t like that

Oasis. You always used to be able to find nice tops and dresses. Not the same since it went into Administration and the name bought out for online sales only.

H&M, literally 90% of dc clothes came from there from birth till about 12. DS is 17 now most of his come from sports shops or boohoo. Most of DD’s come from M&S, sports shops or next. Sometimes primark.
zara is another one, went through a phase of buying everything from there and that sort of dwindled over the years.