I've frequented Boots ever since I was a tiny boy. Our lives have run in parallel for the past 70 years. Boots and me are like cousins.
Boots has a special place in the lives of most Brits; we are inseparable.
They soothe our pains, heal our verrucas, and put plasters on our cuts. They develop our photos (or they used to), they provide our glasses, and see-to our prescriptions.
Boots is that essential part of every town's high street; they are the Ravens of The Tower. They are as dependable as Coutts & Co, and as far as I know, as financially viable.
I really feel that if Boots were ever to disappear, the very essence of Great Britain would leave with them. There is no doubt that it is the likes of these stores that puts the 'Great' into GB.
Viva Boots.
N.B. My youngest recently visited England, and I'd asked him to bring back a couple of items. Where did he buy them? At Boots of course!
38 comments:
There's something about the longing for the homeland, it reminds me of how my grandmother always looked for products from Germany even after living here for more than fifty years, she didn't always find them.
When I was in the UK last time to visit son in school, I found Boots and loved them !
parsnip
I often wonder how they keep going these days. They sell a lot of tat just the same as everyone else, hardly any staff to help you and self service tills.
I think we ex-pats like to think of our homeland as being exactly as it was before we left. Of course we know it's not, but there are certain things that should never change.
Boots is an institution, rather than a commercial outlet. We tend to think of them as being rather like the NHS.
No doubt this changes from branch to branch. The one in Brighton does sell a lot of rubbish, but otherwise it's excellent.
The chemist part is still good but the rest of the shop is just gift stuff and rubbish and enormous floor space. I wonder about that side of it from a commercial point of view.
I'm sure I read somewhere that Boots was now owned by Walgreens.......
They must get their priorities right; a bit like Marks.
I didn't know this. So, dear old Boots is now an American owned company!
The end of the world is nigh.
Let’s hope they don’t go the way of Timothy Whites?
LX
I'm sure they won't.
Bon voyage!!!
Didn't Boots used to host a library - I feel sure there was one in the Reigate branch a long time ago!
That's right, you still find s/h books with their stickers in the front.
Even I know all about Boots. I suppose I probably shopped there in the 70s.
I think of my homeland still being the land of milk and honey even though I know from the newspapers it's not. I always wear my rose tinted glasses when I return and am never there long enough to have the illusion shattered.
But even my little world has changed.
I think we ex-pats are all the same to an extent. I was horrified when I went back to my native Surrey village, a few years ago, and found that the noise from Gatwick airport was all-invading. There were also three Italian restaurants.
Very soft spot for Boots! I was a 'Saturday girl' (+ holidays) in Boots for a few years as a teenager and absolutely loved it. In the 70s, pre-computers, staying open during power cuts, cranking handles on the sides of the tills - great fun.
My favourite time was Christmas - during the year we would put into a drawer those items which had damaged packaging, things like those lemon soaps. Kiddies would come up to us at the till (usually under Dad's supervision) and hold out a handful of pennies and ask if we had anything for their Mum! We could sell stuff from the drawers for whatever we wanted - it would have only been thrown away otherwise. Ah, the days before bar codes and proper stock control!
I like the sound of Christmas at your store; I wonder if that still happens? It probably does in certain old fashioned sweet shops.
My very first job was at the Woking branch of Boots, as a Saturday boy before I left school. I still remember the strange blend of smells - French perfume mixing with the products of the farms and gardens department I worked on. At the end of every Saturday I would accompany the lady who took the cash takings to the bank. They gave me a police truncheon! I once refused Russ Conway credit for a tin of dog food and forced him to write a cheque for about 1/6. He was furious. "Do you know who I am?" he actually said.
I remember Russ Conway; he of the big smile, and nimble fingers. Ithink my sister had a crush on him. You did right.
Only 9 nimble fingers. Tell your sister that he was gay.
Boots has been a foreign company since 2006. It's only a few months ago that it announced the closure of more than 200 underperforming shops.
Anyone going to England has to buy me some Boots No 7 eye cream. It has kept me looking young for 50 years!
Even we from the antipodes know to look for Boots in England to cure our ailments.
She knew.
Oh dear; it's worse than I thought.
I asked for Dettol; there's no real alternative here.
That doesn't surprise me, they are worthy of the reputation.
The Boots factory in Nottingham is closed. Theres a lot of new development on the site now. I came past on the train last week. My cousin worked there for years and made many friends . Some are still friends now.
Gay? I never knew that. I too had a crush on him when I was about five years old and now I'm totally disillusioned.
This made my heart happy.
Didn't they have a large estate in Nottingham where all the buildings were given numbers? I suppose it's cheaper to import from the far East these days. Sad.
Ex Pat? I loathe the term. Days of the Raj imagery. You are an immigrant.
Boots will go the way of all flesh. I remember when the brought out a line of Boots products called AIDS just before the AIDS empidemic burst on the western world and hurriedly withdrew the lot. I see the benefits of the Austrian apotheker system. Drug stores like DM are there for the rest.
These days I think of myself as European rather than a little englander and I am trying to learn my third language.
yes, you are right.It was a huge area so you would definitely need to know your way around.
Oh yes. I was forgetting about the John Gray phenomena for a minute.
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