Very local chains

woah
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Sheffield has it's very own small chain of pork sandwich shops (of course!):

http://www.beresporkshop.co.uk/
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Nick Harvey
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I think I'm right in saying that a long time back, people were wondering whether it would be Lancashire's Booths or Yorkshire's Morrisons which would take off and become the national chain.
stu
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Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 19.34
Location: Kings Oak

I can recommend Roy's of Wroxham for being the world's most expensive supermarket. Actually, everything in Wroxham was...

The branch of Boyes in Louth is/was excellent, a proper timewarp store! Plus I remember a Jackson's supermarket taking over an old Lo-Cost popping up in the Midlands but soon disappeared
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madmusician
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Do you non-East Anglians know of Hughes? Currys equivalent, pretty much. I always assumed it was a national chain (growing up in Ipswich) but apparently, it's pretty much based in East Anglia. I've just had a look at their website, and it seems that they've acquired a few other stores around the place more recently (former Apollo stores and the Hughes Plus stores, which presumably are also acquired from elsewhere).
Whataday
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For a long time The Range would have fallen into this category, with just a handful of stores focussed in the South West. In the last ten years they've exploded to more than 100 stores.

Leekes, "The Out of Town Department Store (as the catchy jingle of the 90s would sing) seems to be growing in recent years, starting out as a handful of branches in South Wales.

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dosxuk
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stu wrote:Actually, everything in Wroxham was...
Wroxham or Hoveton (pronounced 'hoffton')? The whole of Roy's is actually in Hoveton, despite the name.

Last time I went there (about, erm, 10 years ago), it wasn't really any more expensive than the national chains. Although back then it was only really competing with one Sainsbury's and a Tesco express within 6 miles.
wells
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madmusician wrote:Do you non-East Anglians know of Hughes? Currys equivalent, pretty much. I always assumed it was a national chain (growing up in Ipswich) but apparently, it's pretty much based in East Anglia. I've just had a look at their website, and it seems that they've acquired a few other stores around the place more recently (former Apollo stores and the Hughes Plus stores, which presumably are also acquired from elsewhere).
I know of Hughes becuase of their acquisition and subsequent rebranding of what was until a couple of years ago still known as Apollo 2000. Think the former Apollo's (which are all in the Midlands bar maybe one in Blackpool) are more retail parks whilst the East Anglia stores seem to be high street.

Anyway the Hughes in Redditch remains open and has recently seen off the nearby Currys. Currys seems to be relying on not having any direction competition most places these days. So it's good that we still have a competitor here.
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Nick Harvey
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Whataday wrote:Leekes, "The Out of Town Department Store (as the catchy jingle of the 90s would sing) seems to be growing in recent years, starting out as a handful of branches in South Wales.
I think the first Leekes outside Wales was in Melksham, just down the road from here.

We went in, just the once, and simply couldn't believe how overpriced everything was. We now joke, whenever they have a half price sale, that their prices then roughly equate to those in any other expensive store, on a bad day.
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Finn
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Location: Manchester

Nick Harvey wrote:I think I'm right in saying that a long time back, people were wondering whether it would be Lancashire's Booths or Yorkshire's Morrisons which would take off and become the national chain.
*flame on*

One day one of them may become a successful national chain.

*burn achieved*
cwathen
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Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 17.28

Might as well throw in a previous employer of mine, ETS Electrical. Similar to Currys/Comet but a local chain based in Cornwall with 6 (later 7, and finally 6 again) stores. The furthest they ever got was Plymouth, a good intentioned but poorly executed venture which ruined the company and was arguably the biggest catalyst in the firm's eventual collapse in 2011 (having traded since 1963).

Bits of their website remain on Internet Archive
https://web.archive.org/web/20070105020 ... inder.html

Whilst we're on small time chains of electrical retailers, ETS' arch rival, HBH Woolacotts, is still going strong, and in recent years has grown to 8 stores trading under their own name, as well as holding the franchise to the Panasonic and Sony Centres in Plymouth.
http://www.hbh-woolacotts.co.uk/services
Critique
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madmusician wrote:Do you non-East Anglians know of Hughes? Currys equivalent, pretty much. I always assumed it was a national chain (growing up in Ipswich) but apparently, it's pretty much based in East Anglia. I've just had a look at their website, and it seems that they've acquired a few other stores around the place more recently (former Apollo stores and the Hughes Plus stores, which presumably are also acquired from elsewhere).
Indeed, I'd always thought they were a national chain, but lots of their recent advertising has mentioned that they have stores across East Anglia, rather than nationally. They must be doing (perhaps somewhat surprisingly) well - they opened a new store that was a Blockbusters a few years ago, and gave it a full-on refit before opening.
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