Forgotten Retail Chains

[MacNimon]

Many familiar High Street names have been disappearing at an alarming rate over the past few years, but this is not a new phenomenon. What High Street stores can you remember from your childhood which have long since been swallowed up by competitors or gone into liquidation and are seemingly long-forgotten? Here are a few from a Scottish perspective...I'm not sure whether these were Scottish or UK-wide chains, though.


Dodge City...DIY chain which was swallowed up by B&Q

Templetons Supermarkets....swallowed up by Presto, which was in turn was swallowed up by Safeway, which most recently was itself bought over by Morrisons

Clydesdale Electrical - became Dixons and/or Curries up here

John Menzies - sold retail operations to WH Smith

Which other long-gone stores do you remember?

[SiHart]

Fosters menswear.
C&A
John Collier

[Nyder]

Bought my Palitoy talking Dalek from the Cwmbran store.


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[Andrew Curnow]

I assume Woolco was a part of Woolworths in some way, shape or form, because I definitely remember that logo.

John Menzies I remember too, they used to have a really good branch of it in Barnstaple, all sorts of things downstairs, and videos upstairs. I bought Traken, The Five Doctors SE, and Hancock's Last Hour and a Quarter from there, plus others I'm sure.

I'm not sure whether this is the same thing, but I also used to find as a kid that there were chain names in the part of the country where, say, Gran and Grandpa lived which we didn't have at home - which in some absurd way made them sound exotic and intriguing. So I'm not sure whether or not the newsagents McColls still exists but as a kid it was somewhere we went when on holiday in Ledbury; and conversely, I think Bulloughs was a big 'name' when we lived in Carlisle, but I'm not sure they were actually nationwide. (Even allowing for the memory cheating, I seem to recall the Carlisle Bulloughs being absolutely huge.)

But that's enough of that, surely outside office hours we shouldn't be talking shop!

[Mike Saville]

Radio Rentals, Visionhire, Rumbelows, Beatties, Toy Fayre, Presto, off the top of my head.

We till have John Menzies up here btw.

[MacNimon]

There are still a few McColls about, not nearly as many as there used to be though. There's one near us in Ayr.

[Perry Vale]

My Dad used to take me to this place in Leytonstone to meet Father Christmas. The Harrods of East London.....

Bearman's Department Store Remembered

[WileyKat]

The mention of Radio Rentals reminded me of "D-E-R" and "Granada Rentals". The big missing one for me is "Our Price"

[SiHart]

And Our Price Video. I loved Our Price Video.

MVC too. I still miss MVC

[duncan]

My first ever job, while still in sixth form was as a trolley porter at Presto. I'm glad a couple of you have given that store a mention.

What springs to mind for me, and I remember them being a pig of a company to deal with, is the London Electricity Board or the LEB for short.

As for Our Price, didn't Virgin take over them?

[Stuart Wallis]

And look what happened to the Megastore and Virgin Games!

[Andrew Curnow]

"You'll be impressed in Presto" is one of the jingles from my youth.

[Dirk Gently]

I don't know if it was a local chain or not but we had a supermarket called International which then became Mainstop, then became a Gateway & eventually became a Summerfield. But is now long gone.

[SiHart]

My Dad used to work for International in Weymouth, before moving to Mainstop in Windsor.

[duncan]

"You'll be impressed in Presto" is one of the jingles from my youth.

The advert jingle I remember was "The Presto Manifesto." Then there was "For the best, best go to Presto".

Also, who remembers Bejam's which was eventually frozen out by Iceland?

[Stuart Wallis]

And Kwiksave, before Somerfield bought it out.

[duncan]

They still have a few stores in Wales I believe. I worked at Kwik Save for a year before joining the Underground. It's where I met the present Mrs Campbell and she still works in the same store today. Although it's a Co-operative now.

[Andrew Curnow]

We had an International in Holsworthy, which then (like yours Tim) became Gateway, then Summerfield. Don't remember it having a 'Mainstop' phase though!

[MacNimon]

Bejam and Kwik Save...I'd forgotten those two. That's reminded me of another supermarket chain though, William Low. Another Scottish chain I believe, which was bought out by Safeway.

[Jon Masters]

Wikipedia suggests that Capital Freezer Centres (home of the 59p for 4 quarterpounders that I lived on for my last 2 years in Edinburgh) have become Farmfoods

[Simon R]

Zodiac Toys.

I got some He-Man books from there.

[Nyder]

They still have a few stores in Wales I believe. I worked at Kwik Save for a year before joining the Underground. It's where I met the present Mrs Campbell and she still works in the same store today. Although it's a Co-operative now.

Kwik Save's HQ was in Prestatyn


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