BHS

[Bail]

you've got to navigate your way through dog shit and condom wrappers

Wow, I never knew you lived in North Wales!

I thought he lived in Basingstoke!

You live in Southampton!?

[rdobbie]

Same goes for M&S in my hometown Warrington, although the Town Centre store is well overdue for a revamp, it's still got decor from when it opened in the mid 1970's and any signage from the mid 1990's too. Which is annoying as it's in the Golden Square Centre which has had all signs of the 1970's removed from its interior.

Yes, the Warrington store is particularly bad. Even the out of town M&S on the Gemini in Warrington is surprisingly outdated.

It must be about 3 years since M&S revamped some of its stores with the ultra modern and rather stunning black and fluorescent yellowy-green theme (like the Trafford Centre store), and then the revamping just came to a grinding halt.

It always annoys me when retailers get halfway through a store refurb program and then just stop. But it's not just M&S; many retailers are guilty of it. My local Dixons (now called Currys.digital or something) still has its 1980s fittings, complete with grey carpet with red stripes, like many teenage boys had in their bedrooms back in that era.

Esso petrol stations are another prime example; about 3 years they refitted some of their sites with new modern signage (which was long overdue), yet many of their sites were just left to rot, and still have the 1980's fittings which in some cases are looking really battered and faded. I know a couple of garages where the word 'Esso' inside the ellipse on the main price tower has become almost totally bleached out and has been like that for years. It just makes the whole place feel neglected and makes you wonder what the quality of their product is like. You'd think an oil company, of all people, could afford to get their image right.

[Gavin Scott]

Sometimes petrol stations are sold to independents, so while they may show an Esso or Shell sign they aren't owned by them any more.