Today, as part of my normal shirt sequence, I'm wearing a light mauve C & A shirt. It's almost as good as new, even though – since Google tells me that C & A had ceased trading by 2001 – it must be at least 25 years old.
This got me thinking about lost brands and chains (a theme which will only resonate with those of a certain age).
Most of these lost brands were victims of the ruthless world of commerce. If you don't stay ahead of the competition, you bite the dust.
Poor old Comet, for example. I rather liked them, and it was healthy to have a rival to Curry's. But Comet plunged to the Earth.
MFI? They used to be everywhere.
Some chains are not much missed, such as Gateway. In the 1980s they were for a while the third biggest supermarket chain in Britain, but they never really cut the mustard.
When I was young there was still a branch of Home & Colonial in my local town. In 1931 (before my time!) that noble old chain of grocers' shops had over 3.000 branches.
In electronics there was Rumbelows and, further back, Radio Rentals.
Swisskits were once ubiquitous, though I never much cared for them. (“I'll risk it for a Swisskit" – so annoying.) But I liked Barmouth biscuits, which apparently disappeared in the 1990s.
However the greatest crime against British identity – because wholly unnecessary – was the replacement of thousands of red phone boxes after BT was privatised in 1984. “Iconic” is an overused word, but these truly were (and are, where they survive).
BT wanted to look modern and cutting-edge, but the replacement phone boxes quickly looked downmarket, and suitable mainly for the display of advertising by prostitutes.
