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'.

@Nicolasix and @Mapletreelane

Yes, Confetti!!!
I loved the toy shop with the slide, so many memories!

@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.

INTERNACIONALE!!! Came here to say the same thing. I was beginning to think I'd imagined it all. God they sold some shit didn't they.

Our HMV (Southampton) has recently reopened and it was bliss taking my children for the first time and them getting ‘that HMV feeling’ it was really nostalgic. Glad they have a high street presence again.

Our Price, The Ex-Caralogue store, Index, Maplins, Tammy girl, The Half Price Jewellers, Wallis. So many good shops lost to t’internet.

@bendmeoverbackwards yes to clements. I used to go shopping in Watford with my gran and it would be such a treat to visit clements.

This is such a lovely nostalgia thread.

I used to love buying knickers in La Senza. Those little perfumed beads they would chuck in the posh bags smelled so nice!

Maplins

Yes! And Tandy.

Dixons, Jessops, Virgin Records, Dillons and Borders bookshops.

My town centre (like all town centres) had a hippy shop, selling crystals, nirvana tshirts, green nail polish and various weird smelling stuff. It seemed so cool.

Loved this shop in my home town. It was such a weird shop compared to the rest and it survived for many years, doubt it’s still there now but it definitely was a decade ago. I always bought my green hair dye from there and green powdery eyeshadow. My friend was into crystals and incense so he bought it there.

@SartresSoul - I think most of the hippy shops in our nearest big towns are gone - Croydon and Bromley but no idea!

We do have a small crystal shop but it's trendy/new age hippy with none of the Nirvana tshirts and green nail polish!

@CounsellorTroi

Dixons, Jessops, Virgin Records, Dillons and Borders bookshops.

@CounsellorTroi - Borders - that was the name!

There was also a range of bookshops in SW London that sold overstock of Virago type books really cheap.

In late 80s/early 90s where I lived we had two really nice shops - one was a shoe shop which sold Churches shoes and unusual fabric but nice shoes and the other sold Fenn Wright Manson etc naice clothes so boutiques and then another clothes shop which was larger but sold everything from Levis denim shorts to more trendy and naicer clothes. Things just seemed better then, quality seemed better.

I went to Dorset last summer and there was a hippy shop with hessian and tie dye type clothing, intense, wooden carvings and single earrings/nose rings etc it was like being back in 1994! I didn't notice any green hair dye though.

Still miss David Morgan in Cardiff. Lovely store. Their carrier bags are collectors’ items now!Also the Cookshop and the old Laura Ashley shop on St Mary Street.

@CounsellorTroi

Still miss David Morgan in Cardiff. Lovely store. Their carrier bags are collectors’ items now!Also the Cookshop and the old Laura Ashley shop on St Mary Street.

Yes! I remember David Morgan when it had a food hall, and a pretty good one at that.

I’m in my mid 30s so not a teen until the arse end of the 90s, but I used to love driving into the city centre with my Dad once a month.

Listening booths, flipping through vinyl, posters, trying to find the next Aaliyah single from my list on CD, buying Buffy video box sets after I’d saved up for MONTHS (£30 for half a season!) and my Dad would always buy me the second half at the same time as I’d so diligently saved up for the first half.

Athena was the epitome of cool for me, along with Forbidden Planet where I’d longingly gaze at the Buffy merch and graphic novels that were way out of my price range.

I’m sad that there’s no Disney Store near me now, DDs and I have spent a decade going in every year to choose a new decoration each.

I grew up in Darlington and as a teen went into town every Saturday with friends, there was a cool shop on the end of high row called Rags which was very much modelled on biba, great bags if i recall. In Skinnergate there was a tiny shop called Legs which sold all manner of fancy tights and stockings, i got my gold lurex footless tights from there and my silver lurex ankle socks. We also had a shop that was mainly selling jeans, hundreds of pairs all for £5 in fact it may have been called everything £5 they must have been factory rejects as you could get some branded ones too. We also had a market in the square next to the indoor market and i can clearly recall buying those flavoured roll on gloopy lip glosses there and a coca cola and martini label belt before popping in the indoor market for a savoury, mmm.
Not sure what year Primark came but it was years before it became a well known shop, i bought loads of cheap stuff there.
A good day out was when me and mum used to get the train to Newcastle to shop, always started at a shop called bus stop near the station which i loved as it was so fashionable, then made our way to Eldon square, ahh those were the days, full of anticipation about we might buy and that amazing feeling getting home with loads of bags and tipping them out on the bed to admire the goodies when you got home.

@Girlfrom15YearsAgo you’ve just reminded me of the corn exchange in Leeds before they did it up and it became fancy - it was all incense and head shops and goth or clubbing clothes. I loved it as a student!

I also should have mentioned that until this very thread, I thought that Flip was a one-off, independent shop in Edinburgh. Genuinely had no idea it was a chain. I absolutely loved that shop and to this day will point out the location to DH any time we go past, and say how much I miss it.

@AnchorWHAT re Primark, I think one of the first stores was in Derby in the 1980’s. When I had my first 2 children in the early 80’s, a trip home to Derby to see grandparents included a visit to this new amazing shop called Primark! I used to buy them 3 polo shirts for a couple of £’s.

Just googled it
First uk store derby 1973

@Knittingnanny2

Just googled it First uk store derby 1973

Well that fits in with my memories thank you, i remember buying three skirts in pastel colours that were very fashionable at the time, at rock bottom prices.

Ok the pier! I'd forgotten about that shop. Loved just pottering around and buying coloured glass pebbles. And going to the local record shop and flicking through the CD's

The Sweater Shop HQ was in the next village to where I grew up. Their factory sales were the highlight of my teenage life!

@Ifailed

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.

I completely agree. I loved shopping in my local pedestrianised high st when mine were toddlers. It doesn't seem to put people off here. I mean one of the reasons shopping in a mall is so nice is the safety of no traffic. People are happy to shop in malls so why not pedestrianised high st.s?

@cereallover

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.

I've got a couple of CDs from Elvedon of nature sounds bought about 20 years ago. I still love them.

Oh yea HMV that was the best. There always was a cool long haired guy behind the till wasn't there. What I most miss is raving. That was an early 90s legendary time. All that crap about dance like no one's watching' on Facebook memes. Sad, because that's what we did all weekend long in trakkies (then buy the Euphoria compilation in HMV after). Sorry for the thread derail, you've awoken the memories lol.