Matalan Carpet Right Those giant f**king costume hire shops Also any tiny joke/costume shop The Range B&M Bargains (like entering a different decade) Most department stores before they all got refurbed around 2010 GO Outdoors The parts of IKEA after you get past the show rooms Dunelm
Do quite enjoy the bleakness of some of the above shops though in a weird way
Has anyone said WH Smith yet?
They have. Slightly unfairly in my view as in my experience it’s the only place I can find birthday cards for my parents that aren’t either rude or cloyingly sentimental.
They do that whole Ebay and other pickup stuff now, don’t they? I actually felt like the Holloway Road Argos got pretty unbleak over the last few years before I left. Always very popular.
I miss having Argos. Its range is really great.
So sterile So smug I’ve decided its probably a bad idea to title your staff’ ‘Geniuses’
Theres a poke place in there now and more local stuff, it been trendyied a bit.
Reckon it’s the Wembley stadium shop actually
Mr Bleak’s Bleakery
No way! I love that place!
Cash Converters
I found the Disney store I went in really depressing - all the stuff I’d seen kids in for carnivale that I’d assumed to be market stall knock offs turn out to be insanely expensive actual Disney stuff. Also everything else about it was depressing.
Or, worse, any kind of Cash Converters knockoff. Usually with a name like Cash Xchange.
Ooh, just remembered, The Works, pretty bleak. Like looking at the careers of a thousands struggling writers, and their careers dying right in front of your eyes.
Always found Maplins particularly bleak. There were always too many staff on shift so you couldn’t buy an overpriced HDMI lead in a hurry without being hassled by someone. Also they did that classic on-their-arse tactic of diversifying into selling all kinds of crap, like one of those awful “gifts for men” shops that pop up before Christmas.
Also, I think certain Tesco Express / Sainsbury’s Local branches can be pretty bleak. There used to be a Co-Op Local on Whitchurch Road in Cardiff that reeked of stale dairy. Apparently someone had spilled four pints of milk behind the freezer section a year or so previously, and they’d effectively been abandoned by head office in their wait for someone to remove the units for a deep clean.
There’s one in my town that sells Make America Great Again hats. I’ve considered going in and asking where their KKK hoods are.
Fuck off mate
There’s a Sainsbury’s Local at the top of Tottenham Court Road which is pretty grim, and it’s especially pointless seeing as there’s a nicer one about a minute’s walk away
