Where are they now... companies that bit the bullet

MarkN · Mon 12 Apr, 2004 10.50

Ed Hammond wrote:Rabbit were one of the first mobile phone companies, weren't they? Because the cells were very sparse in those days, when making a call you had to be close to a "Rabbit" sign that signified that one of their masts was near. If you live in London you can still see one of those signs at the bottom of North Gower Street (junction with Stephenson Way, I think).

Whatever happened to...CT2?
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0WV ... icle.jhtml

Mich · Mon 12 Apr, 2004 11.31

The whole Our Price rebranding was a bit of a mess up. AFAIK, from a thread I started in the Lounge, many of the Our Price shops were sold off to Sanity in 2001.

The remaining shops were mostly rebranded to V Shop, and became more open and had more free space. These on the whole became Virgin Megastore Expresses arond Christmas 2002, however some simply became Virgin.

There are still some Our Prices about, who are still owned by Virgin (same branding and offers as a Virgin near by). I also heard that Virgin Megastore Express, weren't accepting V Shop vouchers, but being owned by the same company they really should have honoured them.

So to conclude brands used where previously it was Our Price, and Virgin Megastores. There is now Our Price, Virgin, Virgin Megastores Express, and Virgin Megastore; there may even be a V Shop still about, but I haven't seen one.

Big Brother · Mon 12 Apr, 2004 12.39

MarkN wrote:
Big Brother wrote:We still have a Fads in my town, they do have a website I'm sure they do.
If you can call it a website:

http://www.fads.co.uk/

The site summed up in one sentence: "Sorry - This Website is Currently Unavailable"

Oh that's not the site I was on.

I swear to god I have been on a fads website that was all proper etc. I'm sure of it. 100% Positive.

I do now wonder if it was Fads. I really am positive it was Fads.

Gavin Scott · Mon 12 Apr, 2004 12.49

Big Brother wrote:I do now wonder if it was Fads. I really am positive it was Fads.

Sweetie you're going to give yourself a headache. Its only wallpaper.

Big Brother · Mon 12 Apr, 2004 19.00

Gavin Scott wrote:
Big Brother wrote:I do now wonder if it was Fads. I really am positive it was Fads.
Sweetie you're going to give yourself a headache. Its only wallpaper.

Thank you dear, but I have a handy set of cheap paracetamol sat next to me, (21p from superdrug), incase of such events occuring.

Anonymous · Mon 12 Apr, 2004 20.48

We had a great Our Price in Ilford which was small but did every type of music you could think of: pop, rock, rap, blues, classic, etc. But it closed down & reopened as V shop, that then closed down & reopened as Virgin Megastores Express for about 5 months before closing down for good & becoming ANOTHER F***ING CLINTON CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!

We now have NO MUSIC SHOPS in Ilford at all & considering it used to be a good town center it is absolutely sh*te

there was actually a Rabbit Telecom logo near me a one stage near Goodmayes BR station. Does anyone have a picture of this logo

MarkN · Mon 12 Apr, 2004 21.35

Johnny83 wrote:there was actually a Rabbit Telecom logo near me a one stage near Goodmayes BR station. Does anyone have a picture of this logo

The Rabbit telephone can also work as a good digital cordless telephone, so they still have a use. It is actually possible to think of DECT as the modern version of CT2, for that also works on a "base station" system (although there are no public DECT base stations though).

http://www.walrus.co.uk/petes/petes2.htm

tillyoshea · Tue 13 Apr, 2004 10.51

Johnny83 wrote:Cash Converters (these now come up as various names now)

There's still an orignal Cash Converters in Stockton.

Anonymous · Tue 13 Apr, 2004 20.37

MarkN wrote:
Johnny83 wrote:there was actually a Rabbit Telecom logo near me a one stage near Goodmayes BR station. Does anyone have a picture of this logo

The Rabbit telephone can also work as a good digital cordless telephone, so they still have a use. It is actually possible to think of DECT as the modern version of CT2, for that also works on a "base station" system (although there are no public DECT base stations though).

http://www.walrus.co.uk/petes/petes2.htm

Thanks for that, I rember it with a black eye on the sign, cant remeber where about it was

malcyb · Wed 14 Apr, 2004 19.15

Mentioned earlier in this thread was PolyGram which was taken over by Universal.
Here's a bit of useless information for you from my olden days in the record industry, PolyGram came about from the merging of the two record companies Polydor and Phonogram.
MalcyB.

Brad · Sat 17 Apr, 2004 23.12

Some more to ponder:

Dunno if they have been mentioned, but whatever happened to Martin's the newsagents (think they were also known as RS MCColl in some parts of the country.) Shame as they were rather good. I recall two very huge branches, one in Eastbourne, and one in Weymouth. A smaller branch in Lewes became WHSmiths, so maybe they took them over, but the Eastbourne branch became something totally unrelated, can't remember what. And no, not a zimmer frame shop.

Eastbourne is a hip and happening place, actually.

Timothy Whites: Going back a bit here but I remember visiting this place as a kid. The Haywards Heath branch became Dixons. They used to sell cookery stuff if I recalll.

Peter Dominic: Off licence.

Laskeys: Hi fi specialist.

Bit of a tangent but I was amazed when I asked a friend here in York where the nearest Robert Dyas store was and they said "Robert who?" I thought they were a national chain. D.I.Y. store, clearly Southern based only! Weird, it's been a household name in our family since I was a kid. Likewise, I have yet to see a branch of Unwins here in the north.