Where I live there are three branches of Boots, but two are small and are basically pharmacies that happen to sell a few items too: I wouldn't be surprised if one of those closed, as they're barely 100 yards from each other!
There are three branches of Boots in my local town - one is just a pharmacy, then there's the original branch on the High Street and one at the retail park on the other side of town. I can't seem them closing the big one at the retail park, and if they closed the High St branch it would leave a sizable empty store.
I am not surprised about Office Depot. I went to our nearest one recently for some coloured card (advertised on the Staples website - I hadn't realised that the name of the stores had changed). Largely empty of customers, assistants and products; in a giant shed. The products they had are readily available in the average town centre. If I wanted bulk I would order online and get it delivered.
They disappeared but not wiped off the face of the earth. There are still a few knocking about London.
Yep we have one a few min walk from our house and there’s another one just two stations away. I love going there; but it’s never particularly busy.
Yes, absolutely right. The main Boots got refurbished a few months ago and shed both main till points and a lot of staff. IMO they've lost a lot of business as a result of these changes, with Superdrug a few doors down taking advantage on the 'beauty' side if, perhaps, not so much the 'health'.
I think the growth of the supermarket pharmacies has made a lot of difference, some do have an extensive range of items - more than many Boots stores. We have two Boots stores, neither large, one in the High Street, one next to a surgery; in both you might find there is no pharmacist available during advertised opening times. Pharmacists seem to come and go, unlike independents, so you don't build up any trust in them.
Absolutely, I find I can buy branded equivalents to Boots own brand items at about the same price or cheaper at discounters.
The Wimpy in the Broadmarsh in Nottingham has been forced out during the current building works.
I worked in Minehead Wimpy for three summer seasons, or part thereof, in the 1960s. Hard work (sometimes!), lousy pay, but it had compensations of the non-financial kind! Head office was at Winchester Bus Station and the head guy there was Mr Eatwell.
Mr Eatwell!I worked in Minehead Wimpy for three summer seasons, or part thereof, in the 1960s. Hard work (sometimes!), lousy pay, but it had compensations of the non-financial kind! Head office was at Winchester Bus Station and the head guy there was Mr Eatwell.
At one time my branch bank manager was a Mr Cocking, a not uncommon surname in Cornwall along with Cock and Cocks. In those long-gone days of letters from your bank manager not generated by a computer I received one that had been signed by his secretary on his behalf, as he was unavoidably detained on the golf course or somesuch. Her name was Heidi Snook. You really couldn't make it upMr Eatwell!
So often we come across people doing jobs with apt names like this (in fact there’s probably a thread in this I reckon).
Just off the top of my head, when I worked for Social Services a couple of decades ago, the guy who was in charge of the wages was a certain Mr P Money...
A few years before that though when I worked for the Exeter Health Authority one of our upper managers was called Mr Gurkin...
It was therefore a common trick to play on the unwary to tell them to ring ‘Mr Gurkin’ because he had an important message for them, but to then provide them with the phone number for ‘Ede’s Pickled Onions’ - A local firm (that were probably used to us calling).
You can probably fill the rest in...
I’m not really brand loyal but do buy a couple of branded products which I stick with, and Boots regularly offer the cheapest prices, but because they are classed as special offers the prices are very variable and I never go there unless I know that they are actually the cheapest. I compare with shops via the mySupermarket website and also browsing for shops that aren’t on there (like the discounters) and have my own idea of what I’d like to pay for a product.
