Dr Lobster* wrote: Sun 07 Sep, 2025 10.26
BBC TV Centre wrote: Sat 06 Sep, 2025 18.20
I put TG Jones on the endangered list, just down to the fact that it's the not particularly profitable part of what was WH Smith and the fact the rebrand as a result of the divestment was just so naff.
WH Smith had some provenance in the name, this was just made up by a bunch of people in a meeting room in a branding agency...
I agree, I had a look in a fairly large store yesterday and it’s like a jumble sale. Back in the 1990s, it was where you went to get your fountain pen and supplies for school, get your special interest mag, and buy and listen to CDs etc, now all of that core business has been eaten by supermarkets, Amazon and streaming.
It’s more like Woolworths now, selling lots of stuff, but nothing in particular so if suddenly need an X, I don’t think “ah, yes I can run into Jones’ and grab it”
Didn’t see too many customers, few old folks buying a paper, not much else.
I've only ever been to TGJ twice in recent years, once to try and source some sturdy card for work to print some event brochures on - they had none in stock and the prices they were asking were crazy on the empty shelf. Even for normal copier paper, 8 quid or something, it's cheaper to just nick it from the office (!). What they had on offer was shabby and had been opened and thumbed through, and even at the premium they were offering and buying it for work it was a no-go.
Secondly, was to try and find the post office to mail a parcel. The post office used to be in a central part of town near a nightclub (if you know Kingston you'll know where I mean) but the whole area recently got redeveloped for yet more offices and apartments - and probably the umpteenth Starbucks. Thinking perhaps the post office had been shoehorned into the back of WHS, since the shop occupies two floors in a karge shopping centre, it wasn't to be found.
Ironically, the PO was in an office temporarily in a unit right next to WHS but that closed a few years ago, madness to think a town with 160k pop doesn't even have a post office in the centre of town.
Ah yes, I remember those good old days of perusing the CDs and tapes, and heading to the listening stations after school to check out Now 37 or whatever it was.
