What did your old Woolies/HMV/Game etc become?

Pawnless Endgame · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:05

Just curiosity / nostalgia really! Feel free to add other shops as well as Woolies etc.

Stafford over 'ere. Woolies became a Sports Direct, HMV has been empty for about 1.5 years now. As for Game, we've still got ours but we lost its sister shop Gamestation which became a Salvation Army charity shop. EE took over Orange and T-Mobile. We lost the T-Mobile branch and that's now a café I think. However, when Santander took over Alliance & Leicester and Abbey, we managed to hang onto both branches. Losing HMV was biggest kick in the teeth for me - I used to like going in there listening to albums through provided headphones, generally trying headphones and listening to what was being played out on the PA.

Other than that, Stafford is just betting shops, pawnbrokers, charity shops and cafés lol.

Liquid_Entity · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:07

Take a wild guess....can only be a choice of 3:

1. Coffee Shop
2. Mobile Phone Shop
3. Pound Shop

cyber69 · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:08

My local woolies became a Primark but still got a Game shop (last time I looked).

Shotgun_ned · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:08

Woolies is now H&M, HMV is empty and we've still got our Game.

Halestorm · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:08

In sheffield town center
HMV is still HMV
Game is still Game
I can't even remember where woolworths was

In Meadowhall
HMV is still HMV
Game moved but is still there as Game
It never had a woolworths

Other than that most of sheffield center is bookies, banks and phone shops

Theophany · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:11

An empty space with a sign above it indicating that any misguided business could pay a stupid amount of rent to occupy a space with pathetic footfall.

That's Kidderminster for you.

Hunders · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:13

Our Woolworths was empty for several years and only just recently become a pound shop.

Glaucus · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:13

Who knows that would require visiting a horrible commercial shopping centre.

jsmoke · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:15

Both pound shops I think. Ironic?

antijoke · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:16

Woollies became pound land and a sainsburys express(split the large shop) and hmv only closed at Xmas and is still empty.

Manbatius · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:21

Home bargains

and...... I am unsure if Marks and spencer extended into comet or hmv. Hmmm

Either way one of them is just empty.

Kosmiche · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:22

Woolies became a Boots

Game is still Game

HMV is still HMV

Monkeynut · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:23

Cheshire Oaks - Game is still game. Town centre's Gamestation has turned into a pop-up clothes shop which has been changing hands almost monthly (presumably to avoid rates/taxes)

HMV was gone years ago anyway, before the crash.

Manbatius · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:26

I will add to mine.

It was more than just hmv.

Hmv had a orange phone network section and a costa upstairs.

Comet had a game inside.

All of these additional stores went down with Comet and HMV.
It sucks as theres nowhere else to get decent coffee when shopping there, unless you sit in at marksies cafe.

danza · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:36

Woollies became Currys, which has now become a Wetherspoons. This probably makes my town the smallest, crappest in the UK to have one.

jsmoke · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:39

hmmm.. so not much of a high streeter but did HMV not close down about 6 years ago?

malachi · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:41

Either Homebargins, Poundland or 99p store.

Hxc · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:41

danza said:
Woollies became Currys, which has now become a Wetherspoons. This probably makes my town the smallest, crappest in the UK to have one.

My home town of Dereham got a weatherspoons a few years back. I swear it is now the central hub of the town. Ridiculous.

Pawnless Endgame · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:45

Interesting on the mentions of pound shops and Home Bargains. Stafford have these separately already, but can't remember what they each replaced.

Also worth noting - we lost our main post office as well, then it co-inhabited with WHSmiths, occupying half of the upper floor. Apparently, that seems to happen with a lot of town centres nowadays.

jsmoke said:
hmmm.. so not much of a high streeter but did HMV not close down about 6 years ago?

HMV lost most of its stores over the last couple of years. Think there was one wave of closures 2.0 years ago and another wave 1.5 years ago. Stafford lost theirs in the 2nd wave. Woolies packed up 6 years ago though. Game/Gamestation was about a year ago maybe?

almoststew1990 · 25 Apr 2014 at 17:47

My Game became an opticians, pah