To miss the excitement of 90's shops

[JunoLunar]

Warning: pointless nostalgia
I love shopping but it's such a dull experience these days.
Maybe it was because I was younger and had such little disposable income. I miss shops selling you a 'lifestyle' as i really only get that feeling in IKEA now.
In particular I miss:
Body shop: the little shaped sponges of oranges, lemons, strawberries and the coordinating sprays, bubble baths and those little iridescent balls that went in the bath.
Disney shop: DD was obsessed with Encanto at Christmas and I had to trawl through what they had on so many different online shops. It would be amazing to have a Disney shop to see all the different merchandise and let her choose a few things. I remember the excitement of the lion king coming out and seeing the big displays with all the cuddly toys. I chose a pencil case with different compartments which hid rubbers, pens etc, think it had a calculator too (high tech!)
The Pier: totally up my hippie mums street. Used to have one of those CD players where you could listen to a snippet of rain music, whale music, wolves howling! Did anyone buy those cds? Also selling us the dream of a coloured glass bowl of water with floating tea lights which definitely didn't end up either getting spilt or left to go mouldy on the book shelf. I remember how grown up I felt buying a wooden cat which came in a stars and moon print paper bag.
Waterstones: I still love it now but loved it even more when there was no Amazon or kindles and you had to proper commit to a book to pay £8 for the hard cover.
HMV: I bought the single of 'Smooth' by Santana on tape and the long haired guy behind the till said 'nice choice'. I was sure I could write for Kerrang magazine based on that comment alone.
Also Debenhams in Bristol had in interactive forest with talking trees and a fake drive in cinema with little cars you could sit in and watch Disney films. It was basically ok for your parents to dump you there whilst they shopped. I vaguely remember going there but we never bought anything as it was ' too dear'.

@Pleaseacceptmyusername I worked as a Christmas temp at bhs in the 90s while I was at college. So much effort went into those displays! You'd get a bollocking if you didn't show off or sell the festive stuff right. I had to laugh at how seriously it was taken by my supervisor when I was 17.

Young people seem a lot more sophisticated than I was. I can't imagine today's teens being satisfied by a Woolworths pick n mix and a poster as the spoils for a whole Saturday in town with friends.

Having said that, my teens and their friends love a mooch around the Polish supermarket

I can remember the thrill of going in La Senza with my two wee pals when we were about 12. Really what business did we have going in a womens lingerie shop?? But it was so amazing in there. Remember all the drawers with all the different size bras in and the bags if you bought something that they'd put those lovely smelling beads into? It was an incredible experience IMO.

Sock shop I used to love too! And Pilot

But I also think what has changed is the speed with which children grow up these days. So whereas some bath beads from the Body Shop might have been of interest to a 14 year old then, now many of them want a full face of contour learned via a YouTuber or TikTokker. Girls now look sharper and much more aware of their appearance than I ever was. I’d say the Glossier palace in Covent Garden is almost the new Body Shop, that’s how far things have changed..

That's a good point too @LiveFromNewYork. When I look back at our college photos, we were a very unsophisticated bunch - spots and unruly hair and very little make up. Now it's all hair straighteners and contouring and the latest Tik Tok trend.

TaytoCrisps I was at uni 88-92 and i related to all you say.

I'm another with fond memories of shopping on a Sat with mam and a sister or 2. It was like mam's religion, she so loved to shop and the lunch/ cuppa and a score was integral. I miss those days and her so very much.

Oh my god yes, La Senza! I felt soooooo sophisticated shopping in there, I was about 13!

A score. Jeez, I did NOT have a junkie mam.[grin. A cuppa and a scone! She'd laugh her head off at that!

The pick’n’mix at woolies, the big talking tree at mothercare, TammyGirl/Mark One, lip stain at the body shop that smelt of cherries, hair bands at Claire’s accessories, trawling HMV for posters and the new Linkin Park single. Finish in off with Chicken McNuggets. Bliss.

@zen1 the Aroma cafe

I loved going there, I felt so sophisticated going to a coffee shop for a mocha in a big, brightly coloured cup, like I was actually in Friends

@LadyLolaRuben, yes! Their stores were very Zen and minimalist in style, and I had several candles that were based on elements, and a little Japanese style stand to go with them, which I think I still have. It all seems so luxurious and I aspired to one of the big glass bowls with floating candles and those little coloured glass pebbles.

Lol, I was wondering what a score was, I thought it might be a regional thing!

They sound like very happy days with your mum

God this thread does really bring me back. Could spend a whole day on Saturday with friend from school in town just 'parading' as my Mum called it. Town centres would be heaving on a Saturday.

I miss Habitat and wanting to furnish my first house when I bought it. Imagine my delight that there is still a huge Habitat here in Zürich, not the same as 90s one though!

Proper old school department stores like Dickens & Jones and John Lewis that really felt far more upmarket than they do now.

I loved my Benetton jumper!

I’d say the Glossier palace in Covent Garden is almost the new Body Shop, that’s how far things have changed.

TBF, Glossier is great (even if I did have to queue for half an hour) and it felt like one of the few times in recent years that a shop felt like an experience.

On our town we had Our Price record store, and all the "cool kids" used to hang around outside . River Island was an amazing shop, it was really stylised with big tartan curtains and 1950's Blues music.

Ooh, and I just remembered the old Bull Ring in Birmingham, they had a really cool Chinese supermarket and sold the most delicious noodles. Nearby was the coolest sheet music shop, we couldn't play music, but used to thumb through looking for all of the PInk Floyd, U2 and Prince stuff!

I loved going to the cafe at Habitat in Edinburgh, where I would plan what I was going to buy for my future (dream) home.

That cafe had the best carrot cake ever.

@ANameChangeAgain

On our town we had Our Price record store, and all the "cool kids" used to hang around outside . River Island was an amazing shop, it was really stylised with big tartan curtains and 1950's Blues music.

I remember when River Island changed from Chelsea Girl to RI and the initial concept (in our local RI) was country chic. Floral print blouses, floral tea dresses (which were in fashion at the time, but RI's were not combined with DM boots as was the actual fashion at the time, it was more "floral tea dress and tea shoes"). Straw boater hats, little shelves with props on like old suitcases and photos, cream trousers, lots of navy/cream/beige tailored wear and blazers. It was nothing like what it's morphed into today.

I think at the time they were aiming for the Next market but with a more youthful twist. A bit like what Nicole from the popular Nicole and Papa car adverts would wear, that sort of "young sophistated".

@cardiologist349275

I can remember the thrill of going in La Senza with my two wee pals when we were about 12. Really what business did we have going in a womens lingerie shop?? But it was so amazing in there. Remember all the drawers with all the different size bras in and the bags if you bought something that they'd put those lovely smelling beads into? It was an incredible experience IMO.

I just came to post about La senza. I remember buying a slinky nightie as a teen and standing at the till whilst they wrapped it up in tissue paper, with a little sticker and then those smelly balls in the bag. It truly was an experience going in store to shop.

I remember every teenage girl could only be seen carrying their pe kit in a Jane Norman bag.

@LubaLuca apparently the Polish supermarket in our town sells the best icecreams! My dd will only go in though when she is with her Polish friends though, bizarrely!

@SnowD

There was a big HMV in Croydon until fairly recently and my teenage dds enjoyed browsing and buying until it closed. Croydon was brilliant in the 80s when I was a teenager and it was still good in the early 2000s. I remember there was a bistro at the top of the whitgift selling raspberry Belgian beer. I liked the Thorntons cafe and Books etc too. 80s Croydon was a world away from what it is now. So run down and a lot of shops empty. The big H&M that my teenage dds liked has closed now. There was going to be a Westfield built but won't be now. There's still the big Marks and Primark and waterstones

Oh yes! Croydon Whitgift was my big shopping centre in the 80s/90s. We’d start off in Alders and work our way back to M&S and the foodhall just before we went home. Huge Woolies over two floors, massive Boots, brilliant Waterstones before it went all samey - they had the best SciFi dept, loads of US editions you could only usually get in Forbidden Planet uptown. Actually also Forbidden Planet opposite West Croydon station as well later on but that was pretty small. Past Times, was so excited when they had their first pop up shop there which later became permanent, I have tons of jewellery from there over the years. Habitat in my childhood and their circular cafe bang in the middle of the shop - they did massive cheese baguettes with grated cheese that was the best treat ever for little me. All those little shops that came and went that sold cushions and incense and wooden elephants, etc. HMV and a big Our Price, Littlewoods, (now a Primark) I remember begging for a particular coat from Clockhouse which I got for my birthday.

Haven’t been there since pre pandemic and it was a shadow of itself then.

Loved Athena, going in there with friends and flicking through the poster selection 🤣, also buying bath Perl’s and dewberry body spray in Body shop (not the same in there now) and then buying pic and mix in Woolworths.

Going into town with friends was the best thing ever, we lived out in the sticks so it involved a long bus ride, going shopping was a full day out but most of it was spent browsing posters and sniffing perfume.

HMV!!!! And Virgin. All record shops. Hanging out among the aisles of music you loved to meet boys who liked the same bands as you.

I remember DS2 (v shy) having a moment like that when a cute blue haired girl came up to him in HMV and said. 'Oh you like blah - that's so cool! No one I know likes them' and they chatted for ages, next week, the shop closed down.

Lush is the only high street shop that gives a similar feel now, IMO. Love going in there for an extortionate bar of soap.

HMV in Cardiff is still amazing - wonderful staff.

@sansucre

I miss late 80s Covent Garden - the General Store, Flip, Neal Street East and Argon to name just a few stores, all of which had disappeared by the mid-late 90s (although NSE might have clung on until toe early 2000s. And speaking of the 2000s, used to love Koh Samui too but the service was so dreadful that I'm not surprised they shut up shop for good).

It's interesting the now shopping is considered to be a leisure activity, so many shops are missing the mark completely. Everything is so identikit, it's depressing.

The General Store!

I coveted one of those metal waste paper bins in bright colours that looked like metal house outside bins at that time.