Let's Talk About Shops

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What shops do you frequent? Which do you avoid? What does a persons shopping preferences reveal about their character?

Enthuse.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 31 October 2004 13:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I bought a new bike from a wonderful shop in Hitchin. They were so nice and helpful compared to Halfords it brightened up my whole day and made shelling out £200 for a new bone-shaker a pleasure. If you want a bike I recommend J Frosts in Hitchin people.

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 31 October 2004 13:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I hate shopping. They must have run out of the gene that women have that makes them go "wooh, shopping! Retail therapy! Shoes! Massive credit card bills!" when they made me. I hate shopping for food, I hate shopping for clothes.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 31 October 2004 13:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't like shopping much either. I like buying sometimes, but I hate the traipsing. If I am forced to walk around shops all day, I will often get rage and headaches, but I try to control it.

Having said that, I like browsing charity shops, and my favourite thing to shop for is second-hand books. My favourite place to shop is Hay-on-Wye, and it is also one of my favorite places to be.

I like shopping for food when I'm quite hungry, but if I'm not hungry it is really difficult and I end up walking round for ages without seeing anything I want and then buying next to nothing. I am incapable of thinking what I might want to eat the next time I'm hungry.

I like greengrocers a lot too (it's funny that I really can't decide where or whether to put an apostrophe in greengrocers there. I will not put one).

― Cathy (Cathy), Sunday, 31 October 2004 13:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I went into town yesterday to buy some boots. I went into one shop, decided I hate town centres on a Saturday afternoon, couldn't be bothered even trying on a pair of boots, and went to the pub and watched the football scores rolling in on Sky Sports.

I'm rubbish at being a girl.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 31 October 2004 13:34 (twenty-one years ago)

It's a short list for me, generally:
Virgin Megastore every week - it's very convenient.
Gosh! for comics about every other week.
Sainsbury's when shopping at a weekend, as it's nearest.
Tesco when shopping in the week, as it's where I change from tube to bus.
The remainders book shop opposite my work.

I could easily go a month without going anywhere else. Oh, prescriptions - either my very local small chemist, or the Boots that is nearest work. I go on music shopping trips to Berwick St, London, now and then, and drop in at HMV when there is a sale. I occasionally go into charity shops, secondhand bookshops and other remainders shops. Very occasionally the Iceland or whichever the cheap rubbish supermarket down the road is, Aldi or Lidl. And I went in a pet shop the other week, as I am toying with the idea of getting a tank and tropical fish.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 31 October 2004 13:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I like shops where they act like they like me, like Unicorn and Polar Bear and especially especially that awesome costume shop on Oxford Hurst Street, which is so so amazing (but closingdown :( ). And Neal's Yard Dairy. I pretty much mostly buy things to make kind shoppeople smile, maybe, I worry.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Sunday, 31 October 2004 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I left my coat in the pub the other day and decided to go to TK Maxx to see if they had any. I didn't like any of them. Anyone know where I can get a nice coat for the winter in North Herts?

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 31 October 2004 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

(martin, have you ever said that Scimidar was one of the nastiest comics you've ever seen? i came upon this quote in a book i was reading last night - 'a history of comic art' - and the name Martin Skidmore leapt out of the page screaming ILX! ILX! at me...)

― zappi (joni), Sunday, 31 October 2004 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

One shop I tend to avoid is the G@P. They always ask if I need help in there, almost the second I walk through the door. I hate that. And the last time I was there, they asked if I was looking for a new pair of jeans, I read the subtext as meaning the ones I had one were shabby looking.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 31 October 2004 15:12 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.elismanhattan.com/graphics/breadlgo.gif

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Sunday, 31 October 2004 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, a list:

HMV, CD Warehouse, Rough Trade, Selectadisc, Woolworths for CDs
Sainsburys, Greggs, M&S for food
Gosh, Forbidden Planet, Waterstones, Borders for comics and books
TX Maxx, Uni Qlo, M&S for clothes
WH Smith for paper, pen and magazines
Newsagent for magazines, sweets and water
Ealing Arts and Crafts for painting stuff

I think that just about covers it.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 31 October 2004 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Opps! Forgot Argos, Dixons, SEBA for electrical stuff, blank CD's, scart cables etc.

Shops I wish were nearby:

Ikea and Toys'R'Us

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 31 October 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't recall the comic, Zappi, but I reviewed hundreds when I was in the business, and might have done. It's almost certainly me quoted, as I was professionally involved in comics. What sort of comic was Scimidar? It's the sort of thing I vaguely recall saying about one or two thoroughly misogynist B&W comics in the '80s, for instance.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 31 October 2004 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

IKEA is hell on stilts, it really is. I have been once, and I was just about crying with the sheer size, volume and pointlessness of it all. I go to Tesco for food, as it is across the road from my house, to the newsagent between the car park and my work for newspapers, and that is about it. Any household stuff that is needed that can't be got from Tesco, I get the mister to get it. I hate shops too much to waste any of my life in them.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 31 October 2004 15:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, I liked the hellishness of IKEA. I've only been there once, it was so strange. You had to go and find your stuff in a warehouse the size of an aircraft hanger. Though, I think I like looking at the catalogue better.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 31 October 2004 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I cried when I went to IKEA too, ailsa. It was so stressful and complicated and I didn't know how to get home, and I spent so much money on stuff that wasn't what I went there to get.

― Cathy (Cathy), Sunday, 31 October 2004 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

In general, I hate shopping in busy places, purely because I'm too impatient, and hate having to wait for people to move out of my way.

I only go shopping about once a month, partly because it's hard to find the time (I work on an industrial estate a few miles out of town, so shopping in my lunch break would involve driving into town, finding a parking space, having to get some lunch somewhere then getting back again, all inside an hour), and partly because most of the shops here are crap anyway. After payday, though, I'll usually drive to somewhere like Sheffield or Hull and wander round, mostly window-shopping and occasionally buying stuff.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 31 October 2004 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

i spent three hours in IKEA on Saturday, spending a lot of money. this seems bad. but i have a nice black table now, glowing green lights going up my stairs, a toothbrush holding thing and other bits and bjorns. we also ate there and the food was not bad at all for the cheap price.

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Chris and I managed to spend only 25 mins in Ikea, and bought more or less what we went in for (we changed our plans last minute when we saw how busy it was, and abandoned plans to look at bedside cabinets)
Two throws to cover up fraying pink sofas, smaller throw to cover up chair which didn't match new throws, two new cushions and two more cushion covers, and two HUGE storage boxes, 6 medium sized ones, and 4 little ones, so that the bedroom looks tidier cos I'm anal like that. 25 mins! result

― Vicky (Vicky), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:48 (twenty-one years ago)

i've cried at ikea, too. i went with my mother five years ago to the one in new jersey, and we had a huge argument with ten minutes of being in that hellhole. i hid from her in the gardening section and called my father, sobbing that she was trying to ruin my life. also, everything that i've ever purchased there has taken weeks to assemble and broken after about six months.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Ahem.

Sense, Peckham Rye
Oxfam, Goodge Street
Tesco, Goodge Street
Boots, Tottenham Court Road
Costcutter, Queens Road

Um...

Actually last Friday whilst in agonising stomach pain I decided to be masochistic and go to Phones 4 U to look at a phone, 4 m3, and to Virgin Megasnore where I did buy Kill Bill 2 (knackers) and Trojan Xmas box set (patchy but good parts = grebt).

Bah.

― Starry (hello chickens), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

This week's shopping:

Food: Sainsbury's, Chinatown shops, Hackney Viet shops, Italian deli next door, gravadlax/meatballs from Ikea
Ablutions, etc: Kiehl's, Sephora, Superdrug
Furnishings, etc: Unto This Last (cool store at top of Brick Lane), Ikea, Homebase
Clothing: H&M plus a BOMB spent on repair/alterations (I am not having to buy much this year cos of all my vintage 'lady' clothes)
Shoes: Kate Kanzier in Leather Lane (cheap and stylish place but although situated on Leather Lane most of the shoes are made of PETROCHEMICALS)

HOWEVER the week has been excellent for freebies, to wit: one pair handcrafted op-art Alain Mikli shades, one bottle of MaxMara perfume, two bottles of Chanel No. 5 (all three are EDP, not EDT, mwah).

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 1 November 2004 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

they've just closed the Virgin Meagrestore in Hammersmith so there's nowhere i can walk to at lunchtimes to buy cds. spent an hour looking for new trainers at the weekend and found them all too fashionable. back to wearing docs i guess.

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 1 November 2004 12:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to say, I quite like IKEA, except the restaurant when it's busy.

I can never go shopping with my parents, though, without arguing with them. In fact I can barely go anywhere with my parents at all without arguing with them.

― caitlin (caitlin), Monday, 1 November 2004 12:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I am toying with the idea of getting a tank

And then go on the rampage? Woo!

Costcutter, Thresher and occasionally the greengrocer and butcher in the parade of shops near me. The butcher has recently become Sith Efrican, though, and is called "Snoggy's" with the sign being in Comic Sans for fuck's sake. I am yet to patronise it.

Sainsbury's is my supermarket du choix, though occasionally I'll go for Asda if feeling poor or Waitrose if feeling flush. Tesco can suck me.

For clothes, I seem to have broken my H&M habit and seem to be eBaying the majority of my wardrobe right now. For shoes (obv the key purchase), Offspring in Old Compton Street has enjoyed my custom at least half a dozen times.

I don't buy music any more.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 1 November 2004 13:01 (twenty-one years ago)

The best thing about IKEA was in the carpark where I had to take my new book case out of the box as it would not fit into my aunt's car, and pile up all the pieces over the back seats and boot...my rage was soothed by ripping up the box into tiny pieces.

Today, I went to Wollworths but didn't buy anything, and the newsagent to buy teabags.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 1 November 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

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