ONCE rulers of the high street, it’s now impossible to believe that their unsettling concepts were ever viable businesses. How did they ever survive?
Our Price
To listen to a song – a single, three-minute song – you heard it on the radio, noted the name, got a bus, and asked the assistant if they had the single. Frequently they didn’t. Today’s teenagers are annoyed if a song they click on buffers for 3.5 seconds.
Rumbelows and Radio Rentals
TVs used to cost six months’ salary so you rented one. And washing machines and stereos, but mainly the telly. Some sets were coin-operated and many old bastards still have stories about running out of 50ps just before the last minute goal in whatever old bastard event.
Ratners
Cheap gold is a contradiction in terms, and for Ratners also a business plan. Destroyed when boss Gerald Ratner admitted its wares were ‘total crap’, the name still survives today as a term of contempt for nasty shiny jewellery worn by wankers. Something to be proud of, Gerald.
Woolworths
At the dog-end of the summer holidays, you’d be dragged to Woolies for new school uniform and pencil case, then hang around for an hour while your parents browsed garden tools. 30p to spend on pick ‘n’ mix was no compensation for the cool girl from your school on the record counter sneering at you.
Blockbuster
Fancy a night in with a takeaway and a film? The film was the tough bit. Traipsing up and down the aisles picking your VHS, discovering you had a fine to pay from last time, and not getting stroppy because you’d rented The Lovers’ Guide two weeks before and nobody could ever find out.
