Are you a shopper?

Crikey PECS. That must make you a celeb by association at the very least! ?

Oh and Anne Packer the athlete taught me PE!!

purple And Sandy Denny and Jacqueline Wilson???

Not until I was older and living closer on Merton/ Tooting borders! Always gravitated back to Kingston ..more familiar!

Did any of you Bentalls shoppers shop in Croydon? When I was young the Whitgift centre was one of the first shopping centres and I thought it was very futuristic and went there regularly.

I like shopping but do find the shopping centres much too hot and the heat wears me out. Both the big centres near me have shops out in the High Street and surrounding roads as well which I prefer.

Ah JessK a girl after my own heart? I also love Liberty, the very building it is housed in is beautiful, all twisty steps, hidden rooms, the overseas merchandise and oriental carpets are wonderful, wish I were going today.......

I love to browse and don't necessarily have to buy anything. I love looking around Lakeland stores and Fortnum and Mason as well as John Lewis.
I also love smaller specialist stores, Hobbycraft and local craft shops (including haberdashers).

I hate shopping too and we can't be alone in that. That's why Amazon etc are doing so well.

I used to live in Hounslow, and my first job was at Ealing Town Hall, so Bentalls was familiar back in the days. There was also a lovely china shop, Lawleys, in one of the side streets, where I bought our first dinner set, Spode, and some of it is still being used today.

We shall be the visiting celebs Grannyknot?
Twinkle went to your school PECS ? Wow! Friend at school lived next door to one of the Yardbirds. We thought that was so cool!

Lovely to read all the Bentall's reminiscences (if that's a word

See you there on Wednesday Purpledaffodil

I loathe shopping malls - the air always feels as though it's been breathed by too many other people before it gets to me. I don't enjoy supermarket shopping either and order most of what we need online.
However, I do like a good farm shop or a deli and always enjoy a visit to our lovely local butchers.

No, not really a Kingston girl PECS, about 6 or 7 miles away. I used to go to Elys years ago, very good for home wares etc., but went off it a bit after it underwent modernisation.

nanthewiser are you a Kingston girl? I worked in the small department store in Wimbledon, called Elys.

My late MIL only ever went for the best PECS. It was so long ago I had almost forgotten until the name came up on this thread. I think she was looking for wedding and Christmas presents and so we were steered through the household section looking at cutlery and Le Crueset stuff (which was then very trendy and up-market).

I've never heard of Bentalls.

Re Bentalls: Wasn't there also a pianist at a grand piano at the top of the escalator?

trisher locally it was considered a very good shop in its day..and it meant you did not have to go to Oxford St!

We go to the supermarket early on Thursday mornings and buy provisions for the week ahead. I top up if necessary in our lovely little harbour town, which still has independent shops. We have two butchers, a fishmonger, a green grocer, a bakery and a Co-op and Tesco metro. Oh and two pharmacies and an ironmongers. There is also a farmer's market once a month.

I cannot stand shopping malls and echo posters above who share my dislike of them. I do like pottering in charity shops and have found some great bargains in them. We have several to choose from and I do my rounds when I go for something like the library or to collect a prescription.

I buy all my clothes and gifts online and enjoy searching for both. So much choice with no real effort involved. I don't even mind paying postage as the car parking fees would cost the same or more if I shopped in person.

I shopped in Bentalls a couple of times with my late MIL when they lived in the south. That was a lifetime ago. Do you suppose everyone has visted the shop at some point?

I don't mind food shopping but I hate clothes shopping. I always come home in a bad mood! DH says I'm the only woman he knows who doesn't like buying clothes. I used to love it when I was young and slim but now I hate it. Nothing looks right and I have lost the plot in knowing what suits me.

I like shopping but only for books ,cd's and nice wine .Its what I prefer to spend my money on,my OH however loves shopping and regualrly trails me round clothes shops and coerces me into buying clothes I neither need nor want,He doesn't do it our of badness ,he just likes buying me clothes .Sadly I take a lot of them back as he still thinks I'm 20 instead of 65 and I wouldn't feel comfortable outside the house in some of the things he tells me I'd look amazing in.
I like buying things for my AC and GC though even clothes and I love topping up my present cupboard all year round with things I know they'll like .I buy a lot online

purple Twinkle went to my school....

Ooh, quite a few Bentalls fans! Yes, it was a bit "Are you being served", at times.

I remember serving Doreen Keogh, who played Concepta Riley in Coronation Street - she bought a nice tartan skirt, which she was going to wear while doing a summer season somewhere. We also had the famous Mills family - John, his wife Mary and daughters Hayley and Juliet, browsing. I was really struck by the yellow (bleached) hair of Hayley.

There were also a couple of quite well-known cross-dressers, which was a bit awkward if they were trying on in the fitting rooms and needed assistance!

I sometimes managed to sneak off to the new coffee bar on the ground floor when my boyfriend visited on a Saturday afternoon at tea break, which was against the rules.

And there was the time we had a Scottish Week, when a diminutive bag-piper from the Black Watch paraded through the store, followed by fascinated shoppers, he was lovely, as was a very shy guy from Pringle who demonstrated making a sweater on a knitting machine.
Those were the days...