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'.

I had a Saturday job in Athena I had literally no idea how cool I was imagine and anybody that’s from Birmingham do you remember Oasis ? By the markets

@Lifeisaminestrone

Oh and Harrods toy department- I loved it so much - just a massive room of teddies and Hello Kitty items.

It’s awful now!

I remember Selfridges stationery department - loads of Hello Kitty, My Melody and Little Twin Stars stuff. Those Japanese brands were so popular then.

Also Beautiful Sunday - I was very proud of my pencil case with magnetic opening compartments. Fenwicks in Brent Cross was great for this.

Has anyone mentioned Knickerbox yet? I worked in the Hatfield one in the 90s.

[quote ANameChangeAgain]@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![/quote]
That's funny, only going in with a Polish chaperone! My kids think they have the best drinks with interesting flavours.

@Puffalicious I went to an elderly neighbour's funeral a year or two ago and that was one of the things they mentioned about her - that she loved getting the bus into town on a Saturday to get her bargains. I think it was a generational thing. In my working class estate, none of the mothers worked outside the home, or at least while the kids were small. The mothers were all SAHMs and the week days were taken up with babies and small children and cooking and cleaning. On Saturdays (and especially when the children got older and more self-sufficient) they'd take themselves into town for a day away from all the drudgery - shopping and having someone else serve them up a cup of tea and a cream cake. Or maybe a dinner of chips, fried eggs and beans in a cafe if they were feeling particularly flush. Mam could talk for Ireland and she always bumped into someone she knew and had a catch up. When we were smaller, she'd bring some of us with her and as we grew older, she often went by herself. She liked taking me because I would always stay right beside her in the shop and not run off like my sister . I would give anything to spend another Saturday shopping in town with her and in particular, I'd relish our chat over a cuppa or lunch. She'd be aghast at the notion of online shopping.

I used to love going in to Currys and Comet and getting to play the games consoles. Closest thing to that now is the Apple store demo iPads.

[quote DoubleGauze]@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.[/quote]
@DoubleGauze - do you remember the bloody Christmas bears?! 🐻 ‘Only’ £12.50 with purchases of £20 or more! (Then £12.50 anyway after Christmas when there were massive overstocks…)

We got told off once for ‘not pushing the bears enough’. Young, naive me was honest/daft enough to say that maybe customers just didn’t want the bears. I didn’t go back the following Christmas

I think the problem is that shopping used to be part of defining which tribe you were in, now everyone just shops everywhere.

In my chavvy days it would be Argos to look at the dangly gold clown necklace I wanted (my mate wanted the silver one) then to Just Beauty which sold white eyeshadow, blue eyeliner, coffee coloured lip gloss and diamanté stick on jewels. My idol was Mya or early Destiny's Child Beyoncé so there was a lot of brown lipstick and denim going on, obviously with a gold belly chain which had a slightly different effect on my pasty, un-sculpted tummy!
Amazing that I could get a Macdonald's, two fags, can of coke, anklet and day rider for under a tenner. Then I would stand around Dean Lane skate park hoping to get fingered

Lovely thread, still love shopping.

Remember going on train to local shopping centre with friends and I was about 12.

Martin Ford, Owen Owen dept store, John Menzies, Etam and more

Very location specific, but Grin in the Corn Exchange in Leeds. It took up 3 or 4 units and was a cornucopia of hippy nick-nacks (beaded curtains, dream-catchers, incense burners),
curiously juxtaposed with those Bang on the Door 'groovy chick' style merchandise and inflatable chairs.

I suppose if a lot of your market is 14 year old girls looking for dream-catchers, might as well serve them with a pencil case too

I think it was the buzz that made it all so much fun. If you were shopping on Saturday you would meet so many people you knew. My mum was forever stopping for a chat. The buses would be absolutely jam packed and again you'd meet the neighbours and catch up on local gossip.

@GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal

I'd forgotten about the Gadget Shop! Loved it there! And Past Times - both Teenage Me and Teenage Me's Bedroom were decorated with stuff from there.

Did anyone else have posters of Cassius/Malcolm the Model on their bedroom walls in the 90s? If so, I've got a story for you!

I did not have posters of him on my wall (because I thought he was gross and didn’t understand why everyone fancied this model just because Just Seventeen told us that we should) but I remember him and am 100% here for the story.

Gonnagetgoing

Kingston Upon Thames.

The Next it was so different to any other shop. I bought a pair of penny loafers with my birthday money.

There was a Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge (in Elly’s), a Bernie Inn, Dayvilles Ice Cream, Bejams, Safeway, Polka Theatre

And I have fond memories of you friends parents toy shop in the village (I remember buying the plastic stuff on a tube you could blow up into a ballon)

Then compare that to my goth days where I would go to onyx music which had an upstairs metal section with CDs, t-shirts, hoodies, dog collars, posters etc. I would browse for about four hours and then buy a 50p pin badge and an assortment of spikes to put on my school blazer.
We would then go to Renegade which sold the jeans with buckles or other and loads of tartan, not to mention new rock boots which I could never ever afford.
After that I'd head to St Nicks market via the ticket shop to see what gigs were coming up, look in Twilight Fashions for which PVC corset I would buy with my birthday money (grandma would be so pleased!) and then try and fail to get served a pint of cider in the crown.
My point is that everyone (mums, goths, 'townies', hippies) migrated to town on a Saturday. Where do they go now? Bristol city centre looks like a ghost town with empty shops, empty cafes and no real buzz about it.
I blame malls, online shopping, out of town shopping soulless shopping centres with a costa and/or Frankie and Bennys and ironically people for being less social and maybe less materialistic. In many circles not buying, buying experiences is more fashionable/ ethical than shopping.

Oh my gosh I could have written this myself ! I remember the pier and always talk about the strawberry soap in body shop you could spend hours in hmv and other real music shops even have a tinkle on the odd piano if you we're lucky ..your right it was so much more fun for a day out

@WomanStanleyWoman ha! I'd forgotten about those bloody bears. I also recall having to push the store card onto customers. I really hated holding harassed looking parents captive while talking about bears and cards. I suppose that's pretty common in retail these days though , you can't even get a paper receipt most places nowadays.

Thanks for starting this thread OP. I've really enjoyed reading all of the posts and taking a little trip down memory lane.

Marking place

@Tootsey11 Paco!!! and Ton Sur Ton and Naf Naf! I would go into town with my Mum most Saturday’s and she would always treat me to either a t shirt or jumper of one of those. Wish I still had them just to admire like you.

The pier was amazing, I miss it still 15 years later.

@FionnulaTheCooler

I loved Internacionale, their fake leather tote bag was the only acceptable school bag for 16 year old school girls when I was that age. Also their home section Au Naturale where I wasted a lot of pocket money on tat like inflatable furniture and fluffy photo frames.

Came here to say this! Felt like such a cool shop and I know the exact bag you mean 🤣

Not really the same but I miss John Lewis in Birmingham. Always love to wander in there before getting my train home. There is a John Lewis only 2 miles away from my house but that one isn’t the same as the one in Birmingham!

Grew up in devon, and went to college in nearest big town. Wed afternoon had no lectures, so spent many hours in hmv, the body shop (always loved getting the little £5 for friends for Xmas at secondary school - shower gel, soap and something else), then pop to wimpy for a burger. Moved to bristol for uni, and loved the pier, habitat and athena. Purple Ronnie cards etc were new and exciting then! Couldn't afford much from the pier, bit still have these beauties

Oh, and c & a, bhs and Littlewoods in Bristol. My favourite denim skirt actually from bhs and still wear it now. Now Debenham and m & s have gone from Bristol centre, its not the same :-(

We have a Disney/warners store in Llandudno the grand love it.

Was poor in this decade with kids to raise. Woolworth ladybird clothing was good. Body shop inexpensive

I remember Tammy, Chelsea, miss Selfridge bought clothes there pre marriage. My mum shopping at Biba and Habitat.