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?

Where is the north of England?

YABU because Leeds is basically the south

I live in Scotland. I don't mind the shops that won't open here so much as it's a commercial decision (albeit a very silly one presumably made by people who've never been to Kelvingrove or Morningside). What really winds me up is when I get emails from my former university, in London, inviting me to a special alumni event "in my area" and then it turns out it's in pissing Durham.

Leeds is in the North of England. It is also in the centre-ish of the UK. This isn’t difficult to understand!!

The organisation I work for (which exists only in England) is split into 8 Regions, with the NE starting at Chesterfield! Both my friend from Chesterfield and my friend from Newcastle are mildly annoyed by this.

Spare a thought for us in NI
Nope, I've no sympathy as you have amazing Tayto crisps and (in some places) nicer Cadbury bars so you can't have it all.

@babyno5 We’ve all sorts here now.....there’s even a Nando’s at the retail park!

So they are closing half the booths in Manchester. I'd heard they were for sale/ struggling seems like hey are

Thomas Baker is a funny one. Or nearest is probably in Middlesbrough, of all places. I haven't found any north of there and Darlo.

Durham has a lot of empty shops, right now, if they fancy their chances here.

The north of England is slightly south of the north east of England, lilypoppet. Some of it, like where my parents live, is also east of it.

I hear tell it's anything above Watford lily.

Lol I was joking. Seriously, Leeds has Harvey Nichols and a lovely huge John Lewis. I don't have a Betty's Down south but I still buy yummy cakes from their website.

This week I tried to enter a giveaway with Lee (clothing) who were giving away loads of free baseball caps. I really liked them and with that many being up for grabs I felt the odds of winning one were really good. However, caps need to be collected from their London store. Inexplicably this made me so angry I literally won’t buy any more jeans from THEM!

Paintingtheroseswhite - we haven't managed to make it to the Michelin star place yet as I was really ill when we had our reservation

I lived in York for three years lol. Honestly, retail is so tough now, these companies cannot afford to open shops all over the place. It costs millions to open just one.

I never realised Booths was so posh - there was one in my (very deprived) home town when I was small, but it closed

They vary quite a lot according to location, IME. My guess is they'll shed the unposh ones in poorer areas, which probably compete ineffectively against other stores and focus on the naice ones.

Booths started in Blackpool

You want every high street and town centre in the land to have the same monopolising chain stores? Pricing your local independents out of retail space?

Be careful what you wish for, with your wilful misery.

Booths started in Blackpool

But there isn't a store there now. St Anne's and Lytham each have one though.

@PickaChew, my aunt is heading down south with Thomas Cheese straws as I type. She's in Driffield and I think she buys them there or Pickering? I wouldn't know where else they are as we tend to stick to the North and East Ridings the nice bits where family live, to visit.

I know the boss at Thomas scopes potential locations quite thoroughly.

The reason most stores start in London is because of the tourists. If Leeds had higher volumes of tourists than London, then they’d start there instead.

There’s a number of retailers with requirements to open in regional centres but it’s a matter of waiting for the right sized unit to become available, usually on a shopping park or centre - the average high st shop these days doesn’t suit many retailers as they are usually too small and don’t fit modern dimensions (width and height) so that retailers can display and stock a good range of their products.

OP there are loads of companies in the north that aren’t in the south too you know.

Morrison’s for one is relatively new in the grand scheme.

Or is this just another reason to hate London/the south?

DSHathawayGivesMeFannyGallops

I think theyre a Helmsley company. There's dozens of them in north Yorkshire. They've just brought out a new chocolate orange cake that I might need to buy for research purposes. In some stores you can buy frozen cheese straws and sausage rolls.

What’s worse is the online places who insist that NI is not UK so wont deliver here or try and charge you like £20 for it

I think Thomas the Bakers originated in Thirsk.

Where I live, I have a Waitrose ten minutes drive away and Booths another ten minutes (Otley and Ilkley). Nice big Booths in Ripon as well. I'm surprised there isn't a Booths in Northallerton yet but I guess now isn't a good time for expansion.