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'.

Nothing g brought me more joy in the 90’s than the enormous, Woolworths pick n mix stand
It was just so massive. With every kind of sweet imaginable. They used to do a little mini coconut nougat thingy that was bright pink and came in a dark blue wrapper - have never come across them again since Woolworths closed down

C&A and Tammy Girl were fond favourites of mine!

Definitely, shopping used to be so much fun. Aaah Tammy Girl 😍

@Ifailed

presumably these shops don't exist any more because insufficient people were using them so they closed.

Times have changed. We had to buy everything in store when I was younger and were only able to choose from items in stock. Online shopping killed high streets not a lack of shoppers.

@Boood

I loved The Pier. Also Spoils- I bought everything for my first flat from there. And the perfume bar at the Body Shop.

Spoils!! I loved Spoils 😍 I’m guessing we’re a similar age, as a lot of my first household items can from there.

I also loved The Pier. I still have a set of wine glasses with a red swirl that I bought with a voucher my friend gave me as a housewarming gift - 18 years ago!

@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.

I loved their CD racks made of iron, despite never having enough CD’s to fill it. I can’t imagine having a full time professional wage and still being able to shop there.

@Ifailed

presumably these shops don't exist any more because insufficient people were using them so they closed.

Or because they were put out of business by landlords raising the rent to ridiculous levels so they could turn it into a Costa/Tesco (happened to two independent shops I worked in).

I grew up in Cheltenham & there was a pick & mix sweet shop in the local shopping arcade (not mall!). It had mirrored walls & bright lights & was full of puck & mix from ceiling to floor. It smelt amazing & no sweet has ever tasted as good as the ones I chose & put in the bright pink paper bag!

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.

@Boood

I loved The Pier. Also Spoils- I bought everything for my first flat from there. And the perfume bar at the Body Shop.

I didn’t know Spoils was a chain! I thought it was just in our town.

Omg my first Xmas decoration from when me and now DH had our first flat together was from The Pier. 14 years later I still have it now. It's a father Christmas whose head is hanging on by a thread. Every year I mean to glue it on and never do and just balance it on top of his body 🤣🤣🤣

Literally bought a CD from HMV yesterday. It was only released yesterday and went to our local independent record shop who didn't have it so I was amazed that they did. But the place is unrecognisable now. Bobble heads, crap t-shirts and loads of wierd Japanese food and drinks. Followed by loads of tat at the till they try to flog you. No I dont want a £9.99 bag of Flipz pretzles

I remember those listening booths in Virgin/HMV for new music. it was the only way of hearing music without buying it/hearing it on the radio.

It was a reason to go to town if there was new music you really wanted to hear.

And I could spend hours in Borders.

I often wish I could go back in time to spend a day hanging out in my 90's town centre. The old body shop was the best, all the snapped soaps and Bath pearls. Athena, hard copy books, singles on cd or tape, chunky neon plastic jewellery, sigh. Life was so much fun back then because I was a teenager

Descending the escalators at the entrance of Oxford Circus Topshop into actual heaven.

No feeling like it

I have always loved the experience of shopping and walking around laden with bags of goodies, but I went to a big shopping centre a couple of weeks ago and I just couldn't be arsed with any of it, my back started aching after a while and the bags were just too heavy...

We used to drive through to the Metro Centre and that was an experience. The different quarters had different vibes, one was supposed to be like an Italian village or something. I remember Tammy Girl and The Sweater Shop being firm favourites, and getting to eat stottie sandwiches! And the magic of an indoor roller coaster.
Shops ARE all so samey now. It used to be so much more fun to go shopping (or was that just because we were in our youth!)

@DoubleGauze

Athena was very cool too.

Yes!!!! Topless man holding a baby!

This thread is making me sad. How things have changed so much, will it ever revert back to the way it was. Shopping used to be enjoyable.

I loved Athena, esprit, Tammy girl, Morgan, Woolworths pick and mix. Going to hmv and looking at posters and T-shirts I'd not be able to afford to buy.

I've still got sweater shop jumpers and paco ones. Take them out every so often just to look at them!

@NinaDefoe

The PIER! I lived in rented houses when that shop was around and longed to buy all the lovely stuff they sold. By the time I had my own place they had closed. Is there anywhere remotely like it now?

www.iansnow.com/ is definitely worth a look

@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.

Omg I have literally just replaced my 14 year old dinner set from au naturale and passed it on to my sister! It did so well for how little it cost. We had an au naturale in the v.v.v.small town I live in. No surprises that it is now a B&M 🤷🏼‍♀️ (but was a brantano in-between)

I loved The Pier, I used to go into Southampton as that was the nearest shop. I'd go on with a friend and I bought quite a bit in there including a bedroom set of rattan bedside tables and a headboard.

It's more recent but I miss Cargo, another shop I bought quite a bit in.

@PotatoGoblins

Nothing g brought me more joy in the 90’s than the enormous, Woolworths pick n mix stand It was just so massive. With every kind of sweet imaginable. They used to do a little mini coconut nougat thingy that was bright pink and came in a dark blue wrapper - have never come across them again since Woolworths closed down

Was just reading this thinking is no one going to mention wooly's pick n mix!

I used to love a day out shopping with my nan, would always end with us popping in to woolworths for something then getting a big bag of pick n mix, mostly full of the strawberry creams and eating them on the bus home. But we always had to save some for my mum.
Such a simpler time

I miss the Clas Olson store in my city centre. Was a great store.

I bought a friend a large cream coloured Moroccan style lantern from The Pier about twenty years ago and she still has it in use.
It's been said before but online shopping killed the High Street. Debenhams used to be great but people would try on clothing in store then order online as it might be slightly cheaper.
Nostalgia wise, I used to love the large Boots store in Manchester. It sold everything cookware, books,records and had a really good cafe. It's still there but IMO shiny and soulless now.