Posted January 26, 20232 yr So many big name high street brands disappeared at the turn of the 2010’s and became online retailers instead or simply went into administration. Are there any you remember fondly visiting on a trip to the shops? I will start the thread with WOOLWORTHS which was a British run company that was in business for 100 years until 2009 when the last high street store closed its doors. The store was mostly a general homewares retail outlet similar to the likes of WHSmiths or Wilkinson. Here’s some archive images of some stores found online; What other high street brands do you miss from this era?
January 27, 20232 yr Woolworths is always the first go to in 'shops that no longer exist'. :lol: I remember going in there many times as a kid. Blockbusters of course another big one that went out of business for obvious reasons. BHS (British Home Stores) is one I remember well because ours had a nice cafe. Toys R Us too of course, plenty of time spent in there as a kid.
January 27, 20232 yr Woolworth is a supermarket chain in Australia. Different shop obviously. We had Toys R Us, we also no longer have HMV. So they’d be my two.
January 27, 20232 yr Woolworths! Although it’s bringing back dreadful memories of when a cute guy saved a Girls Aloud single for me (maybe Call The Shots?) and he said he liked them… so I shot my shot only to be horrified to learn he was straight! A straight Girls Aloud fan! Even 15 years later I struggle to comprehend that one ;)
January 28, 20232 yr The ones I immediately think of have been mentioned already :lol: MVC was one where I got a lot of CD's from at the time too along with Woolworths obviously.
January 28, 20232 yr We use to also have a number of different video game shops here, now there’s only two I can think of.
January 29, 20232 yr Author I’m going to make another post in here now about another lost high street name from this time period; Virgin Megastore was one of the best places to get your media from, including music, videos and games. The store was of course part of the larger Virgin consortium and traded until 2010. The Virgin Group sought to sell its UK and Ireland stores during 2007, and on 17th September 2007, it was announced that the UK and Ireland arm of the Virgin Megastores brand was to break away from the Virgin Group. A management buy-out offer was accepted. Stores were rebranded as Zavvi. Following the collapse of Woolworths, which owned Zavvi's supplier Entertainment UK, Zavvi entered administration on 24th December 2008 as it had been unable to source stock from other suppliers under favourable terms. By February 2009 Zavvi had closed its stores Here are some archive pictures of some stores of that time;
January 29, 20232 yr Ahhh the nostalgia! I was an avid news connoisseur quite early on in life so was a distraught kid following the Woolworths story :lol: I remember going there on the closing down day - can't remember my entire haul but I recall getting a bejewelled shoe keyring as I had a keyring collection. I also loved Virgin Megastore/Zavvi - would go there to buy CDs and Sims 2 PC games. Toys R Us too :wub: one of my first obsessions was Bratz dolls so I'd love going there to pick out a new one. I was always in awe of their big main display that would feature an assortment of toys revolving around the latest big movie or TV show. As a late 2000s secondary school girl I definitely had a Jane Norman bag at one point.
January 29, 20232 yr Loved it as a Virgin Megastore, not as much as a Zavvi - not to mention me getting a £50 gift voucher for Christmas 2008 and they went into administration almost immediately and I lost the lot as it couldn't be redeemed gah. Woolworths is an obvious big name that had everything and could've probably given B&M a run for its money had it still been around now. Virgin, Woolworths and HMV were the holy trinity for buying music in my city centre as a kid so I definitely miss that experience as we have none of that now.
January 29, 20232 yr I’ll always miss Woolworths - such a great variation in products Virgin was cool and I wish it had lasted longer. I grew up in Milton Keynes and it was one of the stand out stores in an extension they built to the shopping centre there (now a Hollisters)
January 30, 20232 yr We had a few Virgin Megastores here in Melbourne, one in the centre of the city and one at one of our main train stations. I remember going to the one at the train station on the way home from TAFE in 2008. They must’ve been in the early stages of closing down I got Emma’s Free Me album for $4 Australian, along with a few other, it was like 5 albums for $20.
February 9, 20232 yr Author Ok new shop to continue thread discussion; Phones4u; a large independent mobile phone retailer in the United Kingdom. It first opened in 1996, expanded to over 600 stores. On 14 September 2014, EE and Vodafone, the company's final remaining suppliers, ended their contracts. During the 2000’s this high street shop was competing with the likes of Carphone Warehouse and other networks to provide customers the best deals on their handsets. Did you have a mobile phone contract from this company?
February 9, 20232 yr ^ I did not but the first thing to come into my head was the hand actions from the adverts :lol:
February 9, 20232 yr Author ^ I did not but the first thing to come into my head was the hand actions from the adverts :lol: Oh yes! How could I have forgotten that! :lol: I imagine there were some iconic TV ads too, let me have a quick glance on YouTube… Edit, oh here’s one I found! PQA8n3sYaAY
March 19, 20232 yr Tomorrow's World is one that comes to mind as well. Did have it down as a place to hand a CV into but never got round to it in the end. BHS was good also and there used to be a shop in the guild borne centre called Wizard that I really liked popping into. Don't think that exists now.
March 26, 20232 yr Author Time to dust off this thread again then it seems. Let’s have another trip down memory lane… Once there was a high street name called Dixons and they would sell the latest technology in the areas of computing, gaming, headphones, cameras and more. Dixons Retail plc was one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in Europe. In the United Kingdom, the company operated Currys, Currys Digital, PC World (with stores increasingly dual branded 'Currys PC World'), Dixons Travel and its service brand Knowhow. Anyone recall stepping foot inside one of these stores before and purchasing a new gadget?
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