The Carphone Warehouse in Leigh

A look at a lost shop in Leigh.

The Carphone Warehouse on Bradshawgate in Leigh, Greater Manchester - one of the 531 standalone shops closed by the brand in April of this year.

The Carphone Warehouse was founded in 1989 and while the brand still exists, products and services are now offered within Currys PC World stores.

Back in 1999 The Carphone Warehouse purchased Tandy's operations in the UK. My first job was at a Tandy franchise in 1995 and I've found traces of that brand in Hitchin and Saint Annes on the Sea on my travels.

What did this building used to be?

A bit of retail archaeology in Leigh, Greater Manchester.

A new Londis, Ellie D's Tattoo Studio and Grainey's Barbers on Holden Road in Leigh - but what did it used to be?

It's interesting to see how the world of retail and buying behaviour changes over time.

------

It was once a Blockbuster Video Express.

After it was a Blockbuster store the unit on Holden Road became a Best-One shop. It is currently home to three businesses, with one section vacant.

Lost Blockbusters

Blockbuster Video ceased operations in the UK in December 2013. At the start of that year there were 528 Blockbuster locations in the UK. The number dwindled until October when only 264 shops remained. The remaining stores closed on the 16th December.

The first Blockbuster Video store had opened in Dallas, Texas, USA on the 19th October 1985.

Blockbuster Video entered the UK video rental market in 1989 following the purchase of Ritz Video.

The QuikDrop box is still in place at the old store location in Prescot, Merseyside

We've found a few empty Blockbuster stores on our travels, including the shops in Fallowfield, Manchester and Colne, Lancashire. We've also seen remnants of signage and QuikDrop boxes in a number of locations.

Pound £ Fever

What a shop name. Apt for 2020.

Pound £ Fever in Leigh

I reckon Pound £ Fever and COVID-19 Buster at the opposite end of Bradshawgate in Leigh are big rivals.

A Mask Vending Machine

We saw our first Mask Vending Machine at the Spinning Gate shopping centre in Leigh, Greater Manchester on Saturday.

A #maskbox PPE vending machine

What a time we're living through!

I've been documenting the Covid-19 and social distancing signs I've seen during the pandemic here on my blog as well as on my Instagram account.

Related blog posts:

- Vending

- Leigh

- Shopping

COVID-19 Buster in Leigh

We spotted this interesting shop while in Leigh, Greater Manchester on Saturday.

It's the best shop name I've seen during the pandemic.

COVID-19 Buster sells PPE to businesses and individuals.

No sitting

A look at a shopping centre bench in the time of social distancing.

A bench in the Spinning Gate shopping centre in Leigh

We've seen a few other benches with social distancing signs and rules about sitting down during the pandemic, including a pair of socially distanced benches in Spinningfields, Manchester and these two in Colne, Lancashire.

I've been documenting the Covid-19 and social distancing signs I've seen during the pandemic here on the blog as well as on my Instagram account.

JJB Sports in Leigh

A look at an old JJB Sports shop in Leigh.

The shopfront of the old JJB Sports shop on Bradshawgate in Leigh, Greater Manchester is still visible.

The company went into administration in 2012 with stores closing in October and was dissolved in November that year.

The retail space occupies the ground floor of the Leigh Friendly Co-operative Society building that was designed in 1897 and opened in 1899.

The JJB brand is now owned by Sports Direct.

This shopfront on the town's main shopping street retains the pre-2010 branding on the signage.

Old shops and lost brands

One of my areas of interest is in old retail brands - I'm a marketer by profession and two of my first jobs in the 1990's and the year 2000 were at Tandy and Toys R Us. It's been fascinating to find remnants of a number of lost, dead and defunct brands on the high street and at retail parks. Some of them include Blockbuster Video, Woolworths and RadioShack, as well as examples of previous brand iterations such as Happy Shopper.

2020 is Out of Order

If 2020 was a sanitising station in a shop.