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?

With Amazon prime, I complain every time I don't get my next day delivery and they give me a month of Amazon prime for free!

Ah, of course. Told you I wasn’t paying attention! I live 70 miles from Belfast, so any time I’m there it’s normally a surgical strike to get something specific and try to keep DH away from IKEA.

Oooooo treacle that’s interesting! My record is 18 working days to receive something which was listed as prime eligible and I haven’t picked a juicy fight in ages

You lot.....

M&S (Food Hall only) 45 Miles.

Supermarket (other than tiny Co-op) 45 Miles.

Any clothes shops at all unless you want a new fleece or some crampons, 110 Miles (Easgate - happy to meet).

Really good city shops 140 miles.

But, house is huge and cost little and I can see the sea from most rooms.

And born in Leeds but that is not really anything like north from where I am sitting.

If you want a tip about Rituals, buy anything from the Happy Buddha range. You don’t need to smell if first, it is sooooo good!!!

I live near a tube station. As it's outside the M25, our branded shops (apart from coffee) are WH Smith, Millets and M&Co. Most companies don't recognise the town exists so it's not just a northern problem!

Leeds isn't the North, don't you realise that there's a huge area of the UK above you?

Bahahaha! Leeds (West Yorkshire for anyone unawares of what is “south” of Cumbria or “north” of Watford 😜) is MOST definitely the North.

When INCLUDING Scotland (a whole separate country, but still nonetheless part of the United Kingdom - for the moment, depending on who you listen to), then of course Lancs/Yorks etc is approx in the middle of the land, but as in the location of the country they are situated, they are utterly and most definitely North.

We live in a village in rather strange corner of the NE
No Waitrose or booths but we do have several Morrison's close by.
The next village over has two amazing gourmet restaurants one in a 5star country house hotel and there are several others within spitting distance.
One local town has a selection of upmarket shops that require a new mortgage to shop in. The other local town is a more mixed bag - lots of high end independents, a wonderful patisserie set up by former pastry chefs from The Connaught, but also lots of bargain stores - not much in the middle. I love the Boyes there as it has a wonderful haberdashery.
There is lots of money right next to great poverty round here it's rather odd.

And yet when Scottish posters refer to the Central Belt, this isn't generally followed by posters from elsewhere asking whether they mean the area that's in the middle of the island of Britain awaits someone digging up a post from 2013 or whatever doing just that. I appreciate that there will be occasions when there's genuine confusion, but this was evidently not one of them.

Scottish poster herelives in the central belt I knew what the Op meant most people do know where the north is.

Btw I am very sorry for causing the Tigers confusion in our town It is flying tiger

We're only slightly north and not a LIDL to be seen for miles.

But the Central Belt is common knowledge. You no more have to clarify that it means the area around Edinburgh, Glasgow and the M8 than you do when talking about the West End, being the West End in London.

I do agree that 'the north' and 'the south' sometimes needs to be clarified depending on the audience, and of course on here, we don't always mean the same north/south as the other people behind the screens.

More confusingly for me, when some people I meet in a professional capacity talk about 'going south', they are actually talking about travelling to Antarctica!

I'm in the South East, family and mates up north and I think there is a difference in brands and stores. Other than Booths & Thomas Bakeries, there's not much I miss down here. Were I to move up to Yorkshire, I'd miss a lot of the choices I'm used to and I like a day out shopping. I hate online clothes or cosmetics shopping! It's what feels normal and like home, I suppose.

The fact that an English person discussing England means the north of England when they say the north is no less common knowledge. Your West End example is another good one though Barbara: the reality is that people within the UK often use place descriptions that could in theory mean something different to what they're actually saying, but very obviously don't 99% of the time.

I think you live in the same area as me Wonkylegs. Don't forget the 2 Michelin star restaurant on the other side of townour hot cross buns came from the patisserie this year and they were lovely.

I miss Booths. We used to have to go Knutsford (from Macclesfield) but it was worth it.

I thought Hoopers was just a Wilmslow thing til I moved to Tunbridge Wells.

I don’t mind companies with no stores north of x.
I do very much object to companies such as the futon company who put a delivery surcharge onto an order for the central belt of Scotland. And to areas further north they just don’t even bother!

That brand looks Bodenesque to me but cheaper,

Gahhhh you can't complain being in Leeds, it's amazing for shopping!
Harvey Nicks, Louis Vuitton FGS!!
Plenty of nice beauty shops - Space NK (cries real tears as my nearest space nk is about 2 hrs away now)

I live in Leeds and have never been in any of those shops and would happily trade them all in for a Uniqlo, a GAP and an Esprit.

The reason why so many shops do not reach outside of the M25. London, basically. is because of the massive success of internet shoppng. I grew up in Sevenoaks, lived all around London, and now live in Fife. The shops I miss the most are the small individual, often family owned type. I doubt many will ever be back.

OP: buy online from Uniqlo if you spot a bargain. Otherwise, sod em!

I know how you feel, OP. I'm from a town in the north east and sometimes it almost felt invisible. I always liked to try and shop locally until my legs gave out on me and I had to start shopping online. I understand shops are going to want to go where the greatest population density but I do sometimes get hacked off. Even that Lord something or other seemed to think fracking was ok in the north as no-one lived there. Pillock.