Not to buy stuff online from companies that think the North doesn't exist?

[wordgirl]

I'm looking at you Uniqlo - loads of branches in London and Home Counties and nothing at all in the rest of the country. Is our money not good enough?
Today I have had an e-mail from Rituals inviting me to attend a special evening. Very nice but I'm in Leeds and my closest branch is over 100 miles away in Leicester whereas there are 11 branches in London. I'm not likely to buy smelly stuff online without being able to sniff it beforehand so what's the point?

They probably don't mean it personally.

The miracle of online shopping is that you can get stuff sent from anywhere to anywhere.

Tiger is slowing rebranding as Flying Tiger in order to protect its brand internationally in places where Tiger means something else.

YANBU OP. I travel to the South quite a bit but I purposely buy any big ticket items as close to home as I can and don't order from outfits that favour the South. If we all did this things would get spread around a bit better.

I feel your pain OP. Also Leeds-ish and would love to actually be acme to go and try things on at Uniqlo.

Who needs Waitrose when we have Booths

Tiger, the knick knacks shop, in Belfast is now called Flying Tiger. It changed name a few months ago. I'm all confused now because I assumed they changed the name of the whole chain.

And echoing other NI posters, I have supermarket envy when I go to England. Waitrose was fantastic but Booths was a whole new level.

Sarahj, your Booths story is fab! I'm already besotted with Booths and want to move to the north so I can go there and buy cake. They do the best cakes of any supermarket I have ever been in.

Uniqlo aren't just anti-northern, they closed down their Brighton branch and never opened another. Not that that bothers me, their stuff doesn't go up to my size (possibly because of all the cake I eat).

It's Flying Tiger/Tiger the tat bits and bobs shop I want in Chester!

I'd quite like a Booths now too

We go on an annual trip to Booths. It's a special event in our family.

Yes, Budgens are franchises I think, meaning that some are no more upmarket than a local Londis. The smart ones are pretty smart, however - e.g. Upper St in Islington and Moreton-in-Marsh in the Cotswolds.

YY to posh London Budgens - one of the aforementioned is my local and it is bonkers. Fresh juice bar, olive counter, section for Cook!, fresh pasta counter, displays with freshly dressed crab, and both grouse and rabbit in the meat section. Sourdough practically has its own aisle.

I'm a Northerner in the South and there are lots of shops back home that aren't down here.

Booths is my local shop. This week I haven't done a food shop and keep nipping there for bits. I bet I've spent over £100 on random but excellent items of food.

@mossend @fabellini since when did Inverness have a Starbucks? Jeez I remember when it didn’t even have an M&S!!

As well as Booths, up north we also have Betty's. I'll have a Fat Rascal please ...

Of course, Betty's do offer a very good online shop for southerners!

I wouldn't miss the Harvey Nicks in Leeds, London you can have it back. I mean, it's not very useful. I don't often want to spend £600 quid on a skirt, for example.

At certain times of year, Booths have potatoes that have been dug that morning. I can't explain it, it's a subtle but exquisite taste, and is as close to knowing what a home grown potato tastes like that I'm ever likely to get.

They also have a cheese counter to die for.

and the cafe uses the same ingredients as they sell in the shop.

Don't get me started on the wine section...really different stuff...especially the french ones...

A word of warning - booths stores are not homogeneous, IME they can vary quite a bit depending on where they are.

Similarly brands such as SimplyBe, The Range and B&M Home Bargains have no stores anywhere near me (all an hour away at least) despite living in the south ....so I order online. No biggie!

I'm down south in the Lake District for the Easter holidays and have very much enjoyed going to Booths. I've got some canapés in the oven as we speak. I do wish we had a uniqlo in Edinburgh though, I clothe both myself and the kids in the basics and have just bought one of their Marimekko tops.

If there were branches all over the country (in less densely populated areas than London) then they’d probably run at a loss. That would then need to be absorbed somewhere else, so they’d have to increase costs across the board. That might put customers off, meaning they would lose custom and revenue. Surely you don’t actually expect companies to run at a loss?

I thought this post was going to be about online companies offering ‘free postage throughout the UK’, but then you find they won’t deliver further north than Edinburgh. Lack of physical presence, I don’t mind. Lack of delivery to ‘remote’ areas (or charging extortionate fees) is not ok.

I spend plenty of my Northern Pounds online with Uniqlo. I am a little puzzled as to why they keep inviting me to in-store events. I live 300 miles away, I don't love HeatTeach thermals that much.

Only every heard of Tiger on MN but I really want to visit one.

I'm not in the Booths/Waitrose part of the NW
I'm at anyone coveting Morrisons. It's awful.

yabu- loads of places are solely trading in SE.