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'.

The nail varnish in Miss Selfridge was incredible and so cheap. And Spectacular nail varnish 99p.
I miss 90’s shopping so much, the internet has fucked real life.

My local town centre was fab as a teen. It is a sad run down shell now with hardly any shops left. So sad. Shopping at xmas was my favourite. Went with my friends and spent ages browsing in BHS, Allders, Debenhams etc for presents for our parents.

I miss all the great shoe shops - Dolcis, Faith etc. Shoe shops are rare/crap now.

I've not read all 15 pages
But I do agree
You are so right

Brighton 1985 very early Monsoon by the seafront, up the hill via the first Body Shop with glass jars and testing sticks of scent on a central circular table, skirt left through the lanes for Athena and Pineapple Studio opposite, then on to Churchill square for Miss Selfridges, Tammy Girl, Chelsea girl and a quick flit in and out in disgust in C and A.

Didn't bother with "Marks and Sparks"
Catch the bus home exhilarated and exhausted.

I had a real sense of deja vu just before Christmas. I'd dropped my 16 year old DS off in town to do his Christmas shopping whilst I got my hair cut. We arranged to meet in HMV and I walked in to find him looking through records. Actual vinyl records. And then he bought a Guns N' Roses album and paid for it with a pile of small denominations of cash that he'd been saving up. It was like looking at myself at about the same age (he looks very much like me) - very freaky! I think youngsters still find it exciting to choose something from a real shop. I came over a bit faint when I saw the prices mind you! Vinyl might be making a come back but I don't think many teens will be able to afford to buy records regularly.

@Hasselhoffsheadband

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

Thank you. I've had memories all day of her

[quote Taytocrisps]@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.[/quote]
This has made me smile so hard! My mam was exactly the same- she only went back to work when I (youngest of 5) was about age 9. She could talk for Scotland (although she was born in Ireland!) and knew so many people. She was pretty with it in regard to her phone and laptop, but she preferred real life shopping too. She loved beautiful things. I'd moan about being dragged around Debenhams or Frasers as she looked at sheets or towels- but I'd give my right arm to be back there now (I also have a love of sheets and towels ).

@Dianaofthelakeofshiningwaters yes there was a bead shop in Covent Garden, I remember it well. Someone just said, there aren't any shoe shops any more, and yes, the only ones I can think of are Office and Schuh. And Clark's of course! Miss Dolcis and Ravels, they used to feel v aspirational.

I remember when I was 16, in the 80s, walking down The Kings Road and being totally in awe of all the quirky, stylish shops there. I bought a pair of red suede, lace up ankle boots that I adored and only got rid of when the heels had finally given up the ghost. With all the choices available to us now with the internet, something like that just doesn't exist right now.

I remember when my hangout if choice was Aflecks Palace in Manchester. Many floors of lovely alternative stuff. I used to lo e buying my gig tickets from HMV and meeting my friends in the afternoon.

When we are allowed to travel abroad again, I do want to go to some cities in Europe to do some clothes shopping! Thinking, Paris, Berlin and Barcel ona, any other suggestions?

Oh I still have dozens of vintage dresses bought from Affleck's Palace in my student days HappyDays40 Sadly there's not much hope of me ever fitting in any of them again but I can't bring myself to get rid of them. I can still remember the excitement of the first time I went. Hunting out amazing clothes there in the morning and lunch at the Dutch Pancake House afterwards was my favourite way to spend a Saturday. Those were the days...

I love this thread!
So many memories….Woolworths, Tammy Girl, Pineapple, Body Shop (when it was better!) 😭

I'd really like to know, has the same thing happened to high streets and city centres across Europe or is this just a UK phenomenon?

Does anyone recall Hastings? I used to go there at weekends to a holiday flat at weekends in late teens early 20s and it had and still has lots of unusual shops, so usual junk/vintage kitsch shops but the hippyish type that sold long floral dresses and silver jewellery eg small mask theatre 🎭 earrings, dragon pendant, soaps wrapped in Chinese coloured paper etc, must’ve been late 80s/early 90s? Then in another Old Town street was a sort of hippyish cafe with nice but healthy but naughty cakes, etc. The main shopping centre we rarely visited unless for Debenhams (swimming costumes)! but had Safeway or Morrison’s.

YY to shops like Shelley’s shoes, escalators at Top Shop Oxford Circus and certain areas eg Seven Dials having certain niche shops.

Where I live there a lovely old indoor market and outdoor one, indoor one has vintage stalls etc but apparently unless there’s a miracle the owner who’s a solicitor will sell it for redevelopment. That’s the trouble with progress. Once these areas are changed it’s so easy for them to disappear and become bland.

@Kazzyhoward

The decline of the "High St" coincided with two things. Firstly, the large supermarkets/superstores selling basically everything under one roof with free and easy parking right outside. Secondly, the trend towards town centre pedestrianisation, traffic calming, one way systems, expensive car parks, etc.

Yes, superstores don't sell everything, but they sell all the common/popular items, so have taken away the fast moving/staple stocks of High St shops, leaving them unviable when just selling the more niche/special type of item.

But you also have to remember that the "High St" of the 80s/90s did massive damage to small/independent shops as those two decades were all about national chain stores moving into High Streets which forced huge numbers of small/independent stores to close down as they were pushed out.

Agree 100%. My heart sinks when I hear of yet another pedestrian only road in a town. Nobody bothers going there anymore. People like the experience and energy of being around others. Nobody wants to shop in quiet deserted streets. Just like given the choice between an empty restaurant and a busy one people will mostly want to go to the busy one.

My heart sinks when I hear of yet another pedestrian only road in a town

Mine doesn't. I'd much prefer walking down a safe street, along with the elderly, frail, parents with toddlers & prams, given the alternative of narrow pavements next to a queue of lorries and buses belching out clouds of diesel fumes interspersed with irate car drivers swearing at anyone perceived to be in their way.

Boba was AMAZING baked beans stacked in a giant baked bean tin! Prams in a row with dark clouds ans lights like little stars.
Now we’ve got more choice, it’s so BORING and American car drive in dull. Come on shops! Try harder!
I go round John Lewis mentally redesigning the displays!

Are there any shops similar to pier now that sell sounds of nature? I remember the shop in centre parts Elveden forest that sold stuff like that and it was so lovely and calming for me.

Am pretty sure there was a bead shop where you could buy individual beads and earring pieces to make your own earrings and also a stationers where we bought lovely individual sheets of coloured writing paper

Yes I remember this. When I look back I think " I only had £5 or 10, what on earth did I buy?" But yes it was probably little collections of beads , tiny silver single earrings (displayed on a black velvet board) paper and envelopes etc.

@Fizbosshoes

Am pretty sure there was a bead shop where you could buy individual beads and earring pieces to make your own earrings and also a stationers where we bought lovely individual sheets of coloured writing paper

Yes I remember this. When I look back I think " I only had £5 or 10, what on earth did I buy?" But yes it was probably little collections of beads , tiny silver single earrings (displayed on a black velvet board) paper and envelopes etc.

Yep stuff like beads, a necklace or ring from a hippie shop, a 99p Spectacular nail polish, a lip gloss, a magazine, a CD single, new notebook and a bar of chocolate! Saturday happiness sorted. Something like a CD album, at £12-£14, was a major outlay and so weighing up which albums to buy felt like a big deal before I got my first Saturday job.

I remember being about 15 and I'd saved up my allowance from my parents (£30 a month) for ages, plus some birthday money, and I had about £180, which I blew on a shopping spree for summer clothes. My friends were aghast that I had that much money. I specifically remember getting shorts and vest tops from Bay Trading and a checked shirt from New Look.

When I was sixth form age I'd work weekends and some evenings at Woolworths. I'd spend all my wages there. I bought a fold out bed chair, a tray with cats on. I still have a lot of woolies utensils as that's where I did my big going to uni shop. I hate to spoil the pic n mix for everyone but I once had to clear it out and there were a lot of dead flies in there . I met a boyfriend at work and we used to snog in the lift. We had a lot of weekend elderly regulars who'd come in to buy the same thing each week.

I loved the pier! I bought this tall fold out chair thing for my bedroom. I'd forgotten about those bowls with floating candles!

I had the man holding a baby poster from Athena.

We had a cool hippie shop called jacaranda. I remember buying jos sticks.

We also had a little shop that only sold slogan t-shirts. Loved that place.

I used to love going into top shop but my mum always complained it was too loud.

I bought some kickers and thought I was so fucking cool when I wore them to school on own clothes day. I remember walking slowly in the canteen sort of showing the soles of my feet so girls from the older years might notice.

@Fizbosshoes

Am pretty sure there was a bead shop where you could buy individual beads and earring pieces to make your own earrings and also a stationers where we bought lovely individual sheets of coloured writing paper

Yes I remember this. When I look back I think " I only had £5 or 10, what on earth did I buy?" But yes it was probably little collections of beads , tiny silver single earrings (displayed on a black velvet board) paper and envelopes etc.

There was one near me until about five years ago.

After one of these discussions round a friend’s the other night, we went online and we’re delighted to find that Dutton's Buttons in York is still open.

Were, bloody autocorrect and no delete button

@DoubleGauze

Athena was very cool too.

Athena is still very much up and running online - you can find it on Amazon, Etsy, Wayfair etc