Are you a shopper?

And I did spot a real celeb once in Kingston ....Twinkle! Think “Terry”! ?

I used to enjoy shopping trips with DD’s or friends, and although I still do now and again, find it boring and tiring after an hour.
My ideal is having a meal out together, or tea and cake, then a short browse around the shops.
I prefer to try clothes on rather than order online though.

Ooh PECS, Terribull and Nanthewiser. Another Bentalls shopper here! DH also worked there in the late 60s when waiting to start teaching. He reckoned there were lots of elements of Are you being served? there. They used to have semi royal inspections by Mr Rowan ( Bentall) ?
Must admit I still like a mooch around the shops in Kingston. In fact am meeting another GN friend for a mooch and coffee next week?

BradfordLass....am guessing you are not in Bradford then!

Riverwalk your post made me laugh; you have such a wonderful turn of phrase!

I'm not a shopper and never have been, the concept of, 'retail therapy' is totally beyond me. I just cannot imagine anything remotely therapeutic about shopping.

I bless the day one of our supermarkets decided to offer an online facility.
I can make a shopping list of essentials over a week or 10 days, submit it and have them pack it into bags, then I am taken to the supermarket to pick it up at a date and time I specify. Wonderful - everyone else has done the hard work !
On the rare occasion I need clothing, I get underwear from the $2 shop in the High Street and so far it's lasted much longer than the more expensive stuff I've bought elsewhere.

The only other shop I visit in is the greengrocers where I can choose fresh fruit and vegies.

PECS I did indeed go to "Benttools" when it was just a shop long before it became the Bentalls Centre, my friends and I, aged 12 or 13 discovered Kingston from our rather boring town a few miles away it was a utopia to us. Bentalls actually had some sort of soda fountain place that served Knickerbocker Glories if I remember rightly but it underwent an earlier transformation before it became the actual Bentalls Centre. We used to go into the hat department and try on all manner of floppy hats, well it was the 60's.

NantheWiser we also went to Sutton at times but it didn't quite cut it quite the way Kingston did. Unfortunately the only c'leb we ever saw in Kingston was Bob from "On The Buses" we were distinctly underwhelmed, not in Bentalls though but Chelsea Girl, remember that? it was on the high street and also a Saturday shopping mecca for us. Later on we discovered Biba in London and then Chelsea Girl paled into insignificance

I don't really enjoy shopping. Have been to Westfield a few times. First time took GC there they wanted to know was why the policemen were carrying machine guns! It was after a terrorist incident and there was a high visible presence at that time. Not a great start.

No I don't like it much.We live 10 minutes away from a major city, we went once last year, we've also got 2 big shopping malls 30 minute drive away, we went in November, we'd only been there about 30 minutes, when a fight broke out, and I came over peculiar and wanted to come home.Think hubby had a lucky escape he didn't seem to mind coming home

I can't stand shopping centres either.
I find it really unsettling; the lighting, the muzak, all of it.
It makes me feel slightly queasy.

PECS and Terribull, I actually worked in Bentalls after leaving school. I was a lowly department junior, and did all the packing for our branches in Ealing, and Peterlee. Great fun at times, spotting the celebs of the day (back in the early sixties), and the Bentall family themselves, when they deigned to waft through the departments. I spent two years there, until finding an office job.
I still have a mooch every Friday, either Kingston or Sutton, but it seems a thankless task these days, as I find nothing to buy. A shame there are no nearby places that have nice independent shops round here.
The high street is surely going to the dogs...

I thought I was unusual in disliking large shopping centres so it's reassuring that so many of you feel the same. One reason why I won't buy clothes from large shops is because I know that anything you buy is likely to have been tried on by at least one other person. I much prefer a street of small, individual shops but there are very few town centres like that any more.

I do like shopping and prefer an undercover mall BUT they dont seem to have many shops that I shop in. I go to Birmingham or Cambridge about once every couple of months and have a nice lunch while I am there which takes up most of the time. I think I mainly shop on line. Although I try to buy local again we dont have any clothes shops that I like in this small town.

I hate shopping malls, they are a version of hell somehow imported to the UK. I don't understand how anyone could possibly spend a day in one without having some sort of break down. All that stuff and all those shops selling all that tat, and not a breath of fresh air anywhere.
I don't like shopping in general. I like bookshops and charity shops but all the others could close and I wouldn't miss them. I am grateful for Asda where you can pick up the clothes you need along with your groceries and I recently found out that my local Morrisons do clothes as well now, so I might explore that. But shopping in general is pants!!

I had a fabulous mooch around Hampstead yesterday, I love to wander when I don’t have to make a purchase nowhere near as much pleasure ifvI have a list

or the library.

It is totally beyond my comprehension why anyone would like shopping. I shop when I need something - food, shoes etc. The only other times I go near to town are for prescriptions or the PO.

I have grocery home delivery now because I find it difficult to carry much. But I enjoy an occasional mooch around clothes shops and department stores. I go to Exeter about once a month to fossick around the big shops there but as soon as my back starts playing up I either go home or go to the cinema, depending on what films are on.

I attempted to shop yesterday in town. I lasted about 10 minutes before pain mafe me give up. I did manage some birthday gifts for a friend and for my Sis in L so not all bad!

I dislike big shopping malls, like MOnica I always find them overheated and unpleasant. I do like towns with independent shops although they are more expensive.
Here in France shopping as we know it is not possible apart from in big cities. There are very few shops in small towns and one rarely meets people out shopping apart from the Supermarket.

I am definitely a shopper, I just love a good mooch around the shops, but having lost first BHS and then our M&S, there is not much to mooch around any more. So I tend to get on the bus and go to the nearest town with a big shopping mall and make a day of it, treating myself to lunch out.

I met a friend for lunch at Brent Cross on New Year's Day and the place was heaving with people. It had not been my choice- I have not been there for 20 years and I suspect it will be another 20 before I venture back.

There were miles to walk indoors and that is now beyond me. I was delighted to get home having bought zilch except for a cup of coffee as I was treated to lunch.

Thankfully I went by bus because I would still be stuck on the roundabout. It was horrendous.

I used to enjoy a mooch around the charity shops and a cuppa in a cafe, but even that has lost its appeal of late.

I rarely need anything these days other than food which I do on-line. I rarely shop just for fun only if I am wanting to buy a certain item.

"Terribull" but did you go to Bentools when it was just a shop and not a centre! Maybe we mooched at tje top of the escalators together looking out for the lads who came in after rowing!

I loathe shopping malls, within yards of walking onto their hard marble floors my feet are aching, I am overheated and gasping for air. Why are they so unpleasant?

It is interesting reading people's posts and then thinking about all the high falutin' articles and interviews elsewhere about 'the death of the high street'. It never occurs to any of these huge retailers, property owners etc. that shopping in the high street is so dull these days, same old chain stores with the same window dressing, same goods in every store.

As so many people have said. We enjoy shopping in small towns with more small independent stores, more variety.

As for outlet villages, shudder. I live about 20 miles from Bicester. When we moved here over 20 years ago, DD had an outing to Bicester Village, hours to queue to get in, hours to park, long walk to the shops that were heaving with people and goods chucked anywhere. Neither of us has been there again. From everything I have heard it is now even bigger, as I said shudder.