Favourite shops, online and off

I thought I'd start a thread where we can list our favourite places to buy simple things or things that should be simple and use it as a sort of reference guide.

My favourites for shoes, are moshulu, a small firm in Devon that make beautiful shoes for British shaped feet, they're a bit expensive, but they last a long time so are worth it. The other place I sometimes get shoes from is Hotter, mostly I get my walking boots from them as their shoes have gone a bit aggy, the boots are good as the womens sizes go up to an 8, they do wide fit too.

One of the shops I sometimes use for clothes is Laganlook.co.uk, mostly for tops as their trousers are about 3 or 4 inches to short for me

If I wanted wool for knitting or anything else I'd go to wool couture, pure wool and lovely colours, although they seem to do more crafty stuff than wool for clothes making, it's expensive, but lovely, another British company.

For bedding I'm a TKMAXXX girl, good quality cotton sheets, pillow slips and duvet covers at bargain prices, I have some pillow slips from them that are 100% cotton with a 500 thread count, they're so soft, they were only £7:99 a pair.

Parents
  • Independent shops of all sorts. The local farm shop has great veg, physical bookshops not part of a chain, independent online booksellers, Presto music online for cds, The Coffee House places in our local towns..

    But regarding the Coffee House I was chatting to one of the baristas recently and it looks like they are soon to be bought by either a larger chain or maybe a private equity investor. I understand enough about accounts and finance to understand why this so often happens to small successful brands and shops, its not anyone being greedy but the inability to grow further when they reach a critical size. I will be saddened when they are subsumed and no doubt quality will drop, but its a financial inevitability if a person or company have a truly innovative and appealing brand which customers want more and more of, they are a victim of their own success. Cry

  • I don't know if we even have any physical bookshops left here. Everything seems to have moved online and is hard to find, rent and rates are so high that smaller independent shops have been priced out, there's nowhere to buy unusual gifts or anything like that.

    We have lots of independent ice cream shops, sadly none of them do anything for those of us who are lactose intolerant. We have a few independent coffee shops too, but as I don't drink coffee after breakfast I don't go to them either. 

    I actually miss department stores where you can get more or less anything, I certainly miss proper clothes shops.

Reply
  • I don't know if we even have any physical bookshops left here. Everything seems to have moved online and is hard to find, rent and rates are so high that smaller independent shops have been priced out, there's nowhere to buy unusual gifts or anything like that.

    We have lots of independent ice cream shops, sadly none of them do anything for those of us who are lactose intolerant. We have a few independent coffee shops too, but as I don't drink coffee after breakfast I don't go to them either. 

    I actually miss department stores where you can get more or less anything, I certainly miss proper clothes shops.

Children
  • A group started a physical bookshop in a large town I know in Merseyside but try as I would I couldn’t buy much from them. Their range was limited, generalist and mainly geared to the college students. They never updated the poetry section in my numerous visits. Their days are numbered 

    I don’t blame them though as the financial costs of holding wide stock are in the long term impossible for them as a community interest company.