Supermarkets: Bejam, Caters, David Greig, Fine Fare, Gateway, International, Kwik Save, Liptons, MacFisheries, Presto, Safeway, Wavy Line, William Low (the increasing dominance of the big few has throttled diversity) Shoe shops: Bata, Curtess, Dolcis, Freeman Hardy Willis, Manfield, Saxone, Truform (they no longer fit) Clothing: C&A, Dunn & Co, Etam, Foster, John Collier, Littlewoods, Chelsea Girl TV rental: DER, Granada TV Rental, Multi Broadcast, Radio Rentals, Rediffusion, Visionhire (an almost completely vanished service industry) Electrical: Dixons, Powerhouse, Rumbelows, Tandy, The Link Homeware: Brentford Nylons, The Reject Shop, Timothy Whites Restaurants: Berni Inn, Golden Egg, Happy Eater, Kardomah, Pizzaland (I'm getting quite nostalgic) Pubs: Charrington, Courage, Ind Coope, Truman, Watney, Whitbread DIY: Do it All, Great Mills, Payless, Queensway, Texas Homecare Furniture: Courts, MFI, Perrings Jewellers: Ratners (I mean "jewellers" in inverted commas, obviously) Newsagents: John Menzies Record shops: Andy's Records, MVC, Our Price, Tower, Virgin Megastore, V Shop (you remember records...?) Bookshops: Dillons, Hammicks, Ottakars Cinemas: ABC, Cannon, Classic, Gaumont, Granada, Ster Century, thefilmworks, UCI, UGC, Virgin, Warner Village Toy shops: Beatties Banks: Midland, William's and Glyn's (that's banks whose names have 100% vanished, so not TSB) Off licence: Peter Dominic, Unwins Travel agents: Lunn Poly Catalogue shops: Green Shield stamps, Index Energy: Electricity showroom, Gas showroom (I'm feeling my age now)
• Yes, inspired by comments to yesterday's post, thanks. • Yes, I know I've probably made several mistakes, please point them out. • Yes, I know I've probably omitted several stores, feel free to suggest more. • These are the ones I remember, so your suggestions may not appear. • I've updated the list three times so far, any more thoughts? • I will confess to finding this forum thread very useful. • Expect this list to get longer in 2009, alas.
