Long forgotten brands that sank without trace

[nwtv2003]

Oh my yes

Also, I just remembered Happy Shopper existed. No relation.

They had one on the A55 in North Wales for a very very very long time, it turned into a Little Chef at least ten years ago now.

Going back to Our Price, I seem to remember Virgin had a similar chain of shops called VShop, if not VStore but it was Our Price in all but name, but they've been gone for a good while now.

[DJDave]

FADS the DIY Store and Toy and Hobby

[WillPS]

Four pages and no-one's mentioned:

An electrical retailer.

Aww MVC that was another of Woolworths but I think it was bought out before they went under? We had an Our Price in the 90's it was ting but great, then they opened a Virgin (was not big enough to be called a Megastore) but that went in the early 90s when Primark did not re-new the lease and it then knocked though, they did the same to Woolies as that was next door too.

MVC was sold as part of Woolworths Group by Kingfisher. It lasted a couple of years within the spun-off group before the chain was closed (which happened almost overnight IIRC). I don't understand why Woolies couldn't make it work, since they also controlled the distribution business Entertainment UK, and half of the publisher 2|entertain.

Going back to Our Price, I seem to remember Virgin had a similar chain of shops called VShop, if not VStore but it was Our Price in all but name, but they've been gone for a good while now.

It was VShop, Virgin actually took over a few Our Price branches but I think they traded under the name 'Virgin'. There was a third chain, originally XS Music & Video, later Virgin XS - I only ever saw 2 and both were within McArthur Glen Designer Outlets; they outlived the Virgin name but traded as simply Zavvi for the final year or so of their existence.

FADS the DIY Store and Toy and Hobby

There was also Texas Homestores (bought up by J Sainsbury, merged in to Sainsbury's Homebase) and [WHSmith] Do-It-All & Great Mills, both of which ended up in the failed Focus chain.

Toy Stack is a brand which seemingly disappeared. There was a branch in Nottingham and another in Norwich, both of which were later occupied by Bear Factory (now Build-a-Bear Workshop). I don't know if that's coincidental.

[barcode]

John Menzies is still going stong just not on the high street, the Scottish company is now one of the biggest distribution of Newspaper and Mag. Im sure WH smith had no proper shop up in scotland until there were able to buy JM shops.



Another Brand that no one remember is Capital Freeze centres, who were brought out by Farmfoods around 1995?
The only trace of them is this advert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... JKSA#t=10s

also Does anyone remember Jolly Giant Toy shops? http://telly.com/UZZHK

[wells]

FADS the DIY Store and Toy and Hobby

There was also Texas Homestores (bought up by J Sainsbury, merged in to Sainsbury's Homebase) and [WHSmith] Do-It-All & Great Mills, both of which ended up in the failed Focus chain.

Do-It-All was known as Focus Do-It-All for a long time though.

[wells]

Electronic Boutique was a bit of strange one, obviously the UK arm became part of GAME and in the US it's now a part of Gamestop, branded EB Games now, guess they've got a bit of a similar thing going as Game did with Gamestation by keeping the two brands independent.

Three Cooks/Cooks the Bakery brands are still in operation to a much smaller extent, with a few former branches operating independently under different names.

I remember when Three Cooks were in every town round here, and I'd never heard of Greggs.

[JAS84]

VShop? Don't you mean Virgin Megastore?

[WillPS]

The EB thing goes like this:

EB takes over <British chain I can't remember the name of>
GAME merges with EB UK, agreeing a straight 10% of revenue from their store portfolio goes back to EB
GAME rebrands EB stores as GAME in an attempt to break the agreement with EB
EB sues, case is upheld
GAME buy EB out of the contract.

In the early days of the GAME takeover they launched a parallel version of their Reward Card with EB branding. My American friend managed to obtain one and for many years was able to obtain some sort of discount as it was mistaken for some form of Staff card.

VShop? Don't you mean Virgin Megastore?

No. Same chain, different store format. I don't think Virgin Megastores would count as a "long forgotten brand".

John Menzies is still going stong just not on the high street, the Scottish company is now one of the biggest distribution of Newspaper and Mag. Im sure WH smith had no proper shop up in scotland until there were able to buy JM shops.

Oh snap:

John Menzies the stationers.

The retail side was sold to WHSmith in the 90s. The distribution arm continues to this day, and continued to compete with WHSmiths' News operation (now spun off as SmithsNews).

Another Brand that no one remember is Capital Freeze centres, who were brought out by Farmfoods around 1995?
The only trace of them is this advert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... JKSA#t=10s

I'm sure even fewer remember Sainsbury's Freezer Centres.

also Does anyone remember Jolly Giant Toy shops? http://telly.com/UZZHK

Yes. We had one in Nottingham when I was very young, I remember being very upset when we pulled in the car park and all that was left of the Green Giant was his giant labelscar. The one in Lincoln lasted a good few years longer.

[tillyoshea]

I've only just realised that the whole GlynWebb chain collapsed in 2006.

I know their Stockton store fairly recently became an extension to the Mecca Bingo next door (though I think part of it was knocked down). I thought they'd still been trading up to then, but obviously not! What became of their other stores?

[JAS84]

The one in Hull never closed, it was taken over by B&M Bargains.

[rdobbie]

I'm sure even fewer remember Sainsbury's Freezer Centres.

Never heard of that, thanks for the link. However it does remind me of a time until the mid 1980s when Sainsbury's sold all their alcohol from an entirely separate shop next to the actual supermarket. I'm sure this must have been to do with legislation on alcohol sales at the time. I remember it felt like an airport duty free shop.