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'.

@Florenz

Shops have really taken their eye off the ball in the 2000s, going shopping used to be fun and enjoyable, now it is drudgery, it's no wonder so many people prefer to shop online.

Shops need to up their game in the same way that pubs and cinemas have. Going into a shop needs to become an experience, it shouldn't be about just going in and buying something.

Totally agree

The Body Shop used to do a soap for kids and it was squishy and like clay. That was fun. It came in a foil packet.

I used to love dissolving bath pearls too. They felt just like the rubbery capsules that Karvol used to come in. Another pleasing thing of childhood.

@PoshPyjamas

I remember the Body Shop in York in the early 90s as some kind of magical apothecary.

It was. It was in a tiny little shop near the Minster in the mid 80s. And Sarah Coggles was just down the street - beautiful unusual clothes.

I bought all my crockery as a student from spoils. My brother (confirmed bachelor and not at all fussy about interior design) still has and uses it all!!

I would give anything for a big bag of woolies pic and mix now. Pic and mix in supermarkets, cinemas etc these days is absolutely rubbish in comparison.

Hardbacks from Waterstones are more like £20 now. It is a tragedy.

I always think of Spudulike in Victoria Wood’s voice: Spud-doo-likay 😂

I don't know really.
I feel the same but I think it's more to do with missing the times in the early 90s where I first started going shopping with friends (rather than getting dragged around by the parents) and feeling the excitement of being all grown up going into town or the Metrocentre on a Saturday and looking around the shops, getting something to eat at Pizzaland (was it called that) or the Monument Mall food court in Newcastle.
So yeah, it was more exciting and fun then - I remember the body shop but also the Virgin Megastore where you could listen to albums with headphones before you bought anything (and then going to HMV to actually buy the album because they were a bit cheaper)

It was a whole experience which I miss these days but I think it's because of my age and there's no excitement about it. I don't go trawling round shops with a group of other 45 year olds, gossiping about boys and buying crap with my very small allowance!
Most of the time I buy online these days - I live in another country and the shops are a bit crap compared to the UK. I live in the back of beyond so by the time I've driven to the city, paying for petrol and parking, that takes the excitement off the whole thing, then I can't find what I want - a shop might order it for me, but that would mean driving back again when it arrives. The whole thing can be done online quickly and cheaply instead.

And of course that is bad, because when we all shop online, then shops in town begin to die out and the shopping experience gets worse.

I lived in central London in the 90s and miss that time so much. Used to love sitting people watching in the Aroma cafe in Books etc on Charing Cross Road. Top Shop Oxford Circus was a favourite as was Mod in Carnaby Street. Tottenham Court Road had Muji, Heals and Habitat. You could get a cheap two course meal in the Stockpot cafe.

Aw I loved hanging out in so many of these shops! I was obsessed with the papasan chair in The Pier - saved up to buy one when I rented my first flat (my mum always said we didn’t have enough room in our home!)

I was in HMV the other day and got the DVD of Another Round. Spent quite a while nosing round the films and music. It was good to be able to actually wander round and look at/discover stuff rather than have Amazon "suggest" stuff to me because I once bought a similar thing.

I miss Evolution, Woolworths cafe, Body Shop before it turned into little piles of very expensive tiny things (I used to love choosing my own scent for the unscented stuff) and Past Times for presents.

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!

Sock shop and knickerbox

La Senza! That was a good one.

Our local giant Topshop has been turned into a vaccination centre, its like a dystopian film, remembering the joy Topshop used to bring and now seeing loads of miserable masked up people with security guards on the door taking temperatures.

Ah 90's body shop! I was never without a bottle of White Musk! Actually I think our whole year group either used that, Exclamation (!) or Charlie Red....with various wafts of Impulse....or all of the above...we must have reaked!

HMV was such a thing for a new single on the weekend-

Your right, where's the excitement gone?

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

No feeling like it

I can remember when they brought out their maternity range, there was nothing like it available. I queued up with a dozen other pregnant women on the day it launched.

We were escorted into “maternity changing rooms”. I think I bought the entire collection. I loved those clothes!

Bless him, he’s too young to understand. Had his dad taken the toy away? If you still have it I would give it back to him, if it’s been taken away, I’d be one-clicking Amazon for a same or next day delivery replacement.

OP i grew up in Bristol in the 90s. Great times. I remember when the Galleries shopping centre first opened. I loved Saxone shoes (opposite Tammy Girl) and there was a Primark (totally different to today) on same road as Debenhams on opposite side a bit further down. Does anyone recall Wax Lyrical the candle chain store?

I liked The Pier, that and Past Times were good for present shopping and household stuff.

Dated department store restaurants - our local BHS had similar but the toasted teacakes were good

My DD still loves HMV.

...and Benneton, for a naice jumper...

@ChirpyChirp

Do any of you who remember 90s Metro Centre remember Baba Yaga? You could buy mood rings and joss sticks and long beaded necklaces?? I spent so much of my Saturday job money in there. My first proper boyfriend worked in Metro Centre HMV 😍

OMG YES!!! Loved Baba Yaga. Had so much mood jewellery from there.

Oh Spoils ! It was briliant . I think (IIRC) they were seconds but if you looked closely you'd get a bargain

The Pier , Habitat and Heals were very close to each other in Tottenhan Court Road . Habitat was more aspirational , Heals was way out of budget !

In the late 80s/early 90s there were themes of
Black (hexaganol or square) plates/bowls
Black/Red
Those hezaganol glasses

or Eternal Beau ( which I didn't go for)

I bought a set of cafe cups + saucers and plates (2 of each) for leisuely breakfasts . Dark green with gold rim, white inside the cups

BodyShop , as a student I bought the huge bottles of the Raspeberry Ripple showergel , the Green Shampoo and Hair Salad, Passionfruit Cleanser . Lasted me a year .

I remember the excitement of going to W H Smith in the 90s. They seemed to have everything a child / early teen could wish for.

@GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal me too! I always felt so grown up if the mood ring said I was feeling passionate 🤣

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

No feeling like it*

This!!!!!