If I’m going somewhere local I’ll nearly always just take my phone. I pay for practically everything on Apple Pay so the wallet is just clutter. In the event a shop had a fault I could always nip home and get my card.

If I’m heading to another town I’d take my wallet though as a just in case.

This thread does seem to be going round in circles, which is apt given the subject matter.

Loathe as I am to close a topic I think we probs are best to leave this until something else interesting happens?

Martin Phillp wrote: Sat 29 Mar, 2025 22.11My local Smiths even sells vapes!

to be fair they always sold fags so its a natural evolution of that.

The holsters for the scanner guns in M&S are infuriating. Why are they on the wrong way? They're such a clart to take the gun out and use it compared to the Tesco equivalent.


Aren't they the kind that work in a hands-free mode when they're mounted on the trolley holster? I presume that's the ...

The holsters for the scanner guns in M&S are infuriating. Why are they on the wrong way? They're such a clart to take the gun out and use it compared to the Tesco equivalent.

Charlie Wells wrote: Mon 10 Mar, 2025 09.54They've also recently announced that the 'payment wallet' in the app is being removed later this month.

Is that Tesco Pay+ formerly PayQuik? I wonder if that's because the Apple Pay / Google Pay limits (or lack thereof) have eroded the need for this.

I really loathe The Range. The tat makes Dunelm seem like high class yet the prices are somewhere between ordinary and garden centre level. Staff always seem totally miserable and the owner is an arse hole. I don't get how it's seemingly so successful.


It's oddly good for storage and ...

also didn't realise there were any cafes left. It's odd how they've done nothing with the space though.

Pizza counters were traditionally quite busy were they not?

Branch refurbishments tend to hollow out the floor, remove old-fashioned lines of cashier windows and siderooms and replace them with a huge hollow space with some desks and machines. I can imagine the latter is easier to find an alternative tenant for


unless it was outright owned by the bank ...

bilky asko wrote: Sun 05 Jan, 2025 19.38 That's the period when they were using "Shine" by Take That in their ads - it just seems to be a jingle based on that.

Agree, it's an instrumental edit of Shine

Current estimates are it'll take at least two weeks to fix (as in, shove some supports under) the motorway prior to its eventual complete demolition. Full metro services may not return until February.


Impressively, they managed to shore up the flyover enough that services through the tunnel were ...