In this, my time of moving, I have found some painful shortages in terms of home shopping. In my opinion, the UK is severely lacking and in need of the following stores:
Michaels
Aaron Brothers
Pier 1
Cost Plus
Bed, Bath & Beyond
Pottery Barn
Crate & Barrel
Target
It seems like when I move, I would generally end up visiting the majority of these stores for various necessities. Here I don't know where to turn for my shower curtain/framing/wall art/garbage can/fake flower decor needs. There are a few department stores with home sections, but I find these lacking in both selection and variety for many things. John Lewis has a good kitchen section, but most of it is overly expensive. Marks and Spencer also has a small home section, as does Debenhams. But again, these are all department stores. They do not specialize in the home. There is a specific Tesco Home Store down behind West Quay but it has clothing and a lot of electronics instead of simply emphasizing the other home needs. It seems like Ikea picks up the slack for a lot of this, but it does not have the best variety of many items and you end up with all the same stuff as everyone else (although at impossible to beat prices). I really just want to get some picture frames but nowhere has has had the selection I seemingly require.
How can there be such a gaping whole in the UK chain store ways? I think the locals must just not realize what they are missing. A 'what you don't know can't hurt you' sort of situation. But I know, and so this doesn't work for me. Shame, too.
In totally unrelated news, I am a bit stuck on dissertation. I sort of fear that I have gotten a bit off track and/or am just doing completely the wrong thing. I've arranged a meeting with scary supervisor on Friday. Now it seems I'm just sort of killing time trying to think of things. This means I look at facebook. Sad, I know.
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6 comments:
aah the talk of a non local! hehe
You have an interesting point but then I am happy with Ikea so its never really occurred to me...
Men!! Women are much more into shopping, and it's recently been shown to be genetic. I feel for you, girl! I'm taking Friday off to go to the Container Store and Crate and Barrel.
But, try the Fulham Palace Garden Center for silk flowers. It's in your hood!
While its nice to know there are options over here, it's hard to get across the huge vastness of these stores in the US. It's all well and good if you have ten stores with ten shower curtains, but I want one store to have a hundred shower curtains!
im a firm believer in small local stores!
i shall be checking that garden centre out...think might get a small flower/tree thing for the corner of the front room!
Oh dear, I "misspelled" centre.
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