BUY TOYS!!

Or a suite of wicker furniture for the conservatory!!

I don't know how anyone can bear to sit on wicker furniture.

Most people wear clothes when they're inside their houses.

This looks nice: https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9578997?clickPR=plp:5:47

I don't think I could bring myself to microwave a doggie.

I've found the Argos Clearance section.

https://www.argos.co.uk/events/clearance?tag=ar:events:sale:clearance

Nightjar wrote:

I reckon you're thinking of the bookies.

Would that be Ladbrokes? Or ‘other bookies are available’?

It was definitely Argos. They may have had the same supplier as the red coloured turf accountants.

Butterfield wrote:

I remember the little pens. I'm sure the ones I remember were light blue though.

The pens at the similar but long-forgotten catalogue store Index were white.

Not long forgotten at all. I think of Index regularly. My facial sauna came from there and lasted me years. Use of that is what I partially credit for my good skin. I’ll always think fondly of Index, and that purchase, and all the productive time I spent with it.

I also slather myself in the same thing that Prince Harry uses on his p*n*s, and it’s marvellous. You know, Elizabeth Arden originally formulated it to use on her racehorses after they’d injured themselves in the field. It’s the worlds finest moisturiser.

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:

I don't know how anyone can bear to sit on wicker furniture.

It’s very comfortable. I’m typing this from my wicker chair.

Oh yes, it seems Index was related to Littlewoods. I only ever remember one Index in my area in the 90s, as opposed to several Argoses big and small.

We had a Littlewoods in Sheffield, in Orchard Square. It always seemed a bit low-rent compared to Argos. Argos sold Alba electronics goods but Littlewoods sold Goodmans. Goodmans products were always clearly inferior to Alba's, in build quality, even though they were in the same price range.

What?? I always assumed Goodmans was the sign of good quality, whereas Alba was down there with Saisho.

In our town the Argos either took over from the old Green Shield Stamps redemption shop, or they were the same company and they changed their business model. Anyway they were in the same physical shop, in that depressing square between the multi-storey car park and the precinct, you know.

Everything I've ever owned that was made by Alba was excellent, including our old record player and my first-ever CD player.

Everything I've ever owned that was made by Goodmans was abysmal, including my first-ever stereo record player and my radio-cassette-CD player.

When I was a kid/teenager even Panasonic was considered sh*t.

I had a Goodmans 6 CD multi-changer and it worked excellently for 10 years before it seized up and I had to take it apart to get my CDs out, before taking it to the dump.

You probably needed to grease it up.

I did try that the first time it got stuck a few months previously. But I always remember the maxim that if mechanical things go wrong spontaneously, they don't usually fix themselves spontaneously.