View Full Version : Fond Memories - Boots the Chemist
Rush2112
13-04-2014, 07:28
Boots the Chemist - What possibly could they have to do with Hi-Fi ? Well it could be where you buy the Isopropanol and AnalaR to make your record an CD cleaning solution or maybe it was where you bought your Hi-Fi gear, yes that's right back in the 80's Boots sold Hi-Fi. Just a selected range. I can remember admiring the Sansui SR222 MKIV turntable and Audiolab 800A and I think KEF Coda's too. Back then there was simply lots of places to see equipment but listening to it well that's another thing altogether. The dem room was non existent a comparator was the best you could hope for a series of selector buttons routing various components through a amp and a second selector for various speakers, how things have changed ! So we really have Linn and a few others for changing the way Hi-Fi was sold too very much what we take for granted now.
I remember Boots selling hi-fi. They used to have a proper 4 storey department store in Liverpool selling all sorts of stuff. A real old-fashioned set-up. My cousin worked there as a Saturday girl while she was in the sixth form. When she came to leave to go to college they offered her a full time job doing the same thing. She declined and at the same time took the opportunity to tell them about all the things they were doing wrong and what a shambles they were. They came back and offered her a job as a manager! She turned that down too.
The larger ones sold LPs too.
talisman2
13-04-2014, 11:54
i remember taking a slightly warped LP back to Boots , telling them it made my cartridge skip the grooves and the assistant gave me a very useful teak that i think might prove useful to the vinyl addicts out there !! "bluetack a new penny to your headshell" (Mayware Formula 4 arm at the time) give it a try and watch your Koetsu's bend at the knee !!!!
The Barbarian
13-04-2014, 11:56
Yep i remember both Boots & Wooleys selling LP's..
Gordon Steadman
13-04-2014, 11:57
Cod liver oil and malt - the only proper stuff available. Made for sticky finger marks on the LPs. Licking got them pretty clean though.
Never knew Boots used to sell hifi gear and records:eek: What decade we talking?
The Grand Wazoo
13-04-2014, 12:09
They had their own brand of gear too - rebadged ITT's or something!
I bought loads of albums from the record section in the big Boots by the clock tower in Brighton duing my teenage years. They always had an excellent section of stuff for £1.49, usually priced that way because of dog-eared sleeves or something, which I plundered mercilessly for years!
Never knew Boots used to sell hifi gear and records:eek: What decade we talking?
Late 'seventies/early 'eighties. Woolworth sold vinyl up until mid 1990s, at least they did around here.
PaulStewart
13-04-2014, 13:57
So come on Martin, we all want to know what your cousin did after college :lol: As it happens, I found a brand new , still sealed in it's packaging Boots version of the velvet pad things you put a few drops of water in to make them lift the dust..... Parastats the real ones were called, IIRC got it for 20p and I now use it to get loose dust off albums before I put them on the RCM.
archiesdad
13-04-2014, 13:59
So come on Martin, we all want to know what your cousin did after college :lol:
Strangely enough, I was wondering too. Did she make it big in another career?
Pete The Cat
13-04-2014, 14:49
i remember taking a slightly warped LP back to Boots , telling them it made my cartridge skip the grooves and the assistant gave me a very useful teak that i think might prove useful to the vinyl addicts out there !! "bluetack a new penny to your headshell" (Mayware Formula 4 arm at the time) give it a try and watch your Koetsu's bend at the knee !!!!
Boots also gave me similar advice - except in my case they showed me by using a 2p on their in-house deck !
Pete
I bought a record player from Boots
Naughty Nigel
13-04-2014, 16:27
Boots were selling HiFi equipment until the late 1980's. They also sold an excellent selection of LP's and CD's for some time after that.
Boots had been a big name in photography since the 1950's I believe, and they used to sell and develop a lot of film until digital came along. Boots tried hard to compete with Jessops et al, and from what I can see they won too, although digital has turned that particular market on its head.
Now, on a similar theme, does anyone else remember that the Gas Board (now British Gas) used to have showrooms in every town in the land? Of course they sold gas cookers, gas fires, and gas fridges (which many people have forgotten about); but they also sold fertilizer and creosote, both of which were by-products of the town gas production process until North Sea gas came along. Aspirin, nylon and coal tar were also by-products of gas production, but you couldn't buy those from the Gas Board showrooms!
Nigel
Dragging the bottom of the memory barrel here but I think the gas and leccy shops in the south east were branded Seegas and Seeboard...
Naughty Nigel
13-04-2014, 16:58
Dragging the bottom of the memory barrel here but I think the gas and leccy shops in the south east were branded Seegas and Seeboard...
Yes they were. I cannot recall what they were all called, but there were several regional gas and electricity boards, such as NEEB and NEGB, as well as Scottish and Welsh boards.
Nigel.
I remember the Gas Showrooms and queuing up with my mum to pay the gas bill. There was also a Norweb Electricity Showrooms across the road where we went to pay the electricity bill. I remember staring at the Lava Lamps they had on display in there. I must have been 3 or 4 years old, I suppose.
Strangely enough, I was wondering too. Did she make it big in another career?
Yes she did. She is on first name terms with the PM, apparently, although not a politician.
Yes she did. She is on first name terms with the PM, apparently, although not a politician.
Oh God, she should have taken the job at Boots then for her own wellbeing... :lol:
Oh God, she should have taken the job at Boots then for her own wellbeing... :lol:
It used to be worse. Before the last election she had to have dinner with Gordon Brown...
It used to be worse. Before the last election she had to have dinner with Gordon Brown...
YOIKES!!! :eek:
Young man to chemist: 'Do you sell contraceptives?'
Chemist: 'Sorry, we're out of stock. Have you tried Boots?'
Young man (answer 1) 'I want to shag her, not kick her to death'
Young man (answer 2): 'Yes, but it leaked through the laceholes'
Yes they were. I cannot recall what they were all called, but there were several regional gas and electricity boards, such as NEEB and NEGB, as well as Scottish and Welsh boards.
Nigel.
Living in Bristol our electricity supplier was called SWEB (South West Electricity Board).
I remember Boots selling hi-fi. They used to have a proper 4 storey department store in Liverpool selling all sorts of stuff. A real old-fashioned set-up. My cousin worked there as a Saturday girl while she was in the sixth form. When she came to leave to go to college they offered her a full time job doing the same thing. She declined and at the same time took the opportunity to tell them about all the things they were doing wrong and what a shambles they were. They came back and offered her a job as a manager! She turned that down too.
Boots also sold a range of (35mm film) cameras.
And if you go back to the late '50s, early '60s, they sold books as well. They even had their own lending library!
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.3 Copyright © 2026 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.