http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224469/Cheltenhams-The-Famous-forced-close-doors-126-years-trading.html
There used to be places like this all over Britain not so long ago.
Comments section mentions a similar shop in Reading that I pass on my way to Thames Valley Business Park. School uniforms is big business there also.
yep, seen this go on up & down many uk high streets sadly, one just closed near me .. ridiculous rents mean you need to sell an enourmous amount to keep your head above water. the cause is ridicuous central planning by government / central banks in inflating a proprty bubble so we all feel rich as our homes go up in value, unfortunately it adds huge costs to businesses esp in retail, who then pass on costs to consumers, make less profit or a loss & end up making people redundant. fuckwits in the govt to blame imo .. couldnt run a fucking bath.
fruity.
At university, I worked in menswear in a department store with a tube system. It made Grace Brothers look modern.
Shopped there when I lived in the Cotswolds (Taynton, Blockley). Lovely place.
Sad.
Chaps, if everyone wants to buy Chinese because it's 15% cheaper and drive to their bloody shopping centres on the weekends, then it's not really a miracle that the high street is going to the dogs. You have exclusively yourself (or your fellow countrymen, rather) to blame!
This reminds me of the J, Press story involving a type of discontinued sweater. Every iGent from here to Timbuktu believed it to be a shocking end to a tradition and waged a whining campaign that this sweater must not perish from the earth. J. Press brought the sweater back and lo and behold, they didn't sell many at all.