The inspiration for starting this topic was finding a Boots "Made in Switzerland"
Cassette Tape and seeing several UK retailers such as Currys mentioned in other threads.

In the list below I have stuck to the UK national chains as those are the ones
other British people will probably remember.

I have also realised that I haven't included Department Stores. Until
the Noughties most department stores had a Audio / TV department. The first
Stereo Boomboxes I ever saw were probably "Superscope by Marantz" in Debenhams, department store.

Nowadays, with the exception of John Lewis most department stores in the UK
seem to have stopped selling electricals. In contrast you can pick up a 50" LCD TV along with your weekly shop in many big Supermarkets. In the past the only thing audio / electrical most supermarkets sold were batteries and budget MFP or Pickwick LPs.

If there have any retailers I have missed feel free to comment. If you are in another Country then why not add to the topic with info on where you used to lust after the latest Walkmans etc.

Here are the UK Retailers I remember many of which are now history:

Argos 
One of the best known UK retailers. Actually a spin off from Green Shield Savings stamps, they are different from most retailers being a Catalogue
Store. Instead of having items on display they issue a catalogue and keep
all the stock packed in boxes at the back of the store or upstairs. This allows themto carry a large range from small shops and offer competitive prices.

One catalogue retailer described their catalogue as "The Book of Dreams" and in the UK that was certainly true of Argos. How many people eagerly picked up the latest catalogue on the day of issue to see what new products such as Boomboxes were featured ?

I recently bought a DVD with scans of all the 1970s catalogues. In 1973 there were more Reel to Reels than Cassette recorders while the only Radio Cassette was mysteriously withdrawn:

The first Stereo Boomboxes don't appear until 1978 with a choice of two.

Argos are still around, and now own the Alba and Bush brands which have gone through many hands since the beginnings of Radio.

Boots.
A chemist that turned into a sort of department store then back to Chemist.
For quite a while they had their own brand audio equipment to go with the large record departments which were found in their larger stores.

This Boots boombox appears to have factory fitted Graphiti art !
Amusing to see it labelled as "Vintage" as it doesn't seem that long since I saw
them for sale. I suspect it is really 1990s

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vint...a:g:gpkAAOSw3mpXFid~

Comet
One of the first chains of "Out of Town" warehouses, that had been around
since the 1960s.  They were still with us until 2012 when they went bankrupt.
Their own brand equipment was called Proline.

Currys 
Originally a competitor to Dixons when it came to Audio and TV. As well as
well known brands like Philips they had their own brand Triumph. Their product range didn't completely overlap with Dixons, as while Dixons started out selling small gadgets like cameras Currys sold Household appliances like washing machines. This led to a buy out by Dixons in the 1984.

Dixons 
One of the most well known High Street brands.
My first camera, Digital Watch, and two calculators all came from them.
As well as a range of branded products like Philips they had their own brands

"Prinz" when they thought it was good to sound German,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRIN...4:g:6uMAAOSwwpdW4pMf

then Saisho when they wanted to sound Japanese.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SAIS...d:g:dEUAAOSwiYFXKOII

and more recently Matsui

Dixons are still found in UK airports selling small gadgets like cameras.
After buying out Currys in 1984 they increasingly adopted their name and now
have out of town warehouses where you can buy anything from a camera to a Fridge Freezer.

Index
The Littlewoods Club Catalogue group attempt at imitating Argos. They were around from 1985 to 2005. According to Wikipedia they lost money in eighteen of those years !

Looking at some 1990s catalogues they seemed to have a bigger range of Walkmans etc than Argos. This page is just the Aiwa personal stereos they sold. Rather amusing that the only thing digital on the whole page is one stereo with a digital tuner:

There was a similar page for Sony and more pages with assorted other manufacturers. I guess stocking items from more manufacturers gave them less buying power hence the lack of profits.

Laskys
A chain of shops based more around Hi Fi separates than any of the other shops mentioned, although they also sold things like Cassette Recorders. I know that, as in 1976 I received one bought there for my Birthday. The shops disappeared in the early 1990s.
 
Saturn 
A smaller scale imitation of Comet.

Richer Sounds
Not really in the old category but one of the few audio retailers who has expanded dramatically since the 1980s. Having lusted over a £400 Akai Hi Fi in Dixons in 1984 I bought the same model as a Catalogue return from Richer Sounds for £150 a year later. That was when they only had two shops; London and Birmingham, so I had to drive 100 miles up the M5 from Bristol to buy it.

Rumbellows
Mostly TV sales and Rental, but they also sold various kinds of audio gear. I bought my first VCR there, (for £340) as Laskys special offer of a £299 Fischer VHS top loader had sold out when I arrived for the first day of the January sales at 11:00am.  

Sony Centres
I had to Google this to see if they were still around as both of the ones I was familiar with have closed. There are still 29 in the UK. As the name implies they sell nothing but Sony; usually the full UK line up.

Tempo
Yet another imitation of Comet which went as quick as it came in the 1990s
(although not quite as quickly as the UK version of "Best Buy").

Tandy
A UK Franchise of Radio Shack who were renown for overpriced items which then would be offered at "Half Price" in special offers. Most of the items that they sold were their own brands such as Realistic, although quite often they were easily recognisable as items from companies such as Sharp or Casio with just the name changed. Tandy were unusual in having a Catalogue, regular
newsletters as well as shops where you could look at and try the goods.

I remember the excitement of when they opened.  Does anyone else remember the free battery club ? Tandy were bought out by Carphone warehouse when Mobiles took off in a big way and Carphone  wanted to open hundreds of phone shops ASAP. 

As a military brat, the main place for my electronics drooling was the Base Exchange (USAF) and depending on what base I was at, the selection was better than most.  All name brands of course and no sales tax on anything purchased there.  I also served eight years myself and accumulated quite a bit of home stereo equipment while serving.  

After leaving the service, I remember Circuit City as the main hub for any electronics purchases until they bit the dust locally.  Now it's "Best Buy" for the best variety of electronics or you can go online with Amazon.com of course.  Radio Shacks are still in business of course, but as mentioned the selection usually amounts to next to nothing with regards to stereo equipment.  Cell phones they've got covered. 

My first bit of stereo equipment was purchased at the Base Exchange located at RAF Chicksands in 1981.  It was the Sanyo JXT-6910K shown in the video.  12.5WRMS per channel with 10%THD into two 8" woofers and two 2" tweeters.  It sounded like heaven to me and watching the VU meters move to the music was a sort of hypnosis....

I spent Hours in rumbelows in Farnham, Surrey where I grew up! The staff would let me play all day as long as I kept away from 'customers' lol, very nice people in there........a real grumpy old manager who 'told me off' a bit at 1'st but soon realised that I could not keep away  mostly TV/Video in there in 1980 but a few audio pieces for sale too!!

Argos was where my 1'st ever mono cassette recorder came from in 1979 recently discussed in this forum: £14.95 for the mighty Waltham W104MIA lol - the first argos portable stereo above - I have a mint mark II in silver one of those  & yeah they are rubbish......but without them, we may never have progressed onto what followed  

Tandy was a great shop to have as you could get many components as well as overpriced hi-fi pieces & of course leaf through the catalogue at home to your hearts content!! I bought a pair of Memorex floorstanding speakers from Tandy in the 90's & pretty good they were too!!

Sadly I got given many a 'Boots Audio' blank cassette in the 70's..........like their audio badges products, they were no bloody good at all lol!!

Curry's sold my beloved Triumph brand until 1985 when Matsui took over (Saisho in Dixons) & audio quality fell through the floor overnight!! Shit tape mechs dreadful build quality & lousy sound......enough said!!

Comet were great & long before cheap Chinese 'Proline' there were Solavox speakers built by the likes of Wharfedale & even the odd British built amplifiers (even Amstrad got a look in at Comet) Sadly the later Solavox speakers were potted together by Amstrad & the brand sunk very rapidly...............

Oooh!! & Southern Electricity Showrooms  You could play ad-finite in theses shops - no one gave a toss!! & with the likes of Hitachi & Teleton Hi-Fi's & portable stereo's!! I still have cassettes I recorded in store from 1981......that's what you could get away with then  I made a complilation cassette up out of their records using a top of the line Akai separates system  I knew how to 'play' the retailers back then - fantastic time & dream technology quickly evolving & appearing so fast..............

 Do miss the good old days...........................

I can only remember the UK ones listed above, cannot think of anymore.

I do not remember Saturn in the UK but they are still very big in Germany.

I may have missed a couple, but I was a regular Boombox and Walkman tester at the following stores in NYC.

• The WIZ
• 6th Ave Electronics
• Stevens
• 47th Street photo
• J&r Music world
• 47th street photo
• P.C. Richards
• Macy*s
• Bloomingdale's (sold the JVC RC M90 at one time)
• Crazy Eddie
• Alexander's (sold the Sharp VZ-2000 once)
• Circuit City
• Radio Shack
• Stereo Exchange
• Harvey Electronics
• Yamaha showroom

I remember Sears selling the Fisher  ph492 at one time

I used to work in Rumbelows in the late 80s as a teenager. Most of the great boxes had gone by then but I do remember Hitachi 3D8, 3D80, 3D30s ( I still have my 3D80 on staff discount) Also the Sharp WQT-238s 354s etc. We used to get loads of returns on those! Some early JVC cd boxes and some mini's I recall. 

In those days the midi hifi were selling well with the decent Kenwood M94 M97 selling at over £1100. Video cameras did well and we were getting Nicam TVs and Video recorders. 

In the top Rumbelows shops the blank THATS tapes were quite nice and I still have some unopened ones.

Blaster posted:

I remember Sears selling the Fisher  ph492 at one time

Right, Sears has some gems as well. 

While on this topic, I recently had an idea to document all of the last remaining brick and mortar shops from the 80's in NYC.  These shops are disappearing at an alarming rate because of the Internet .  I'll start a new thread on this topic, but this was the first store I recently visited.

14th Street Digital Corp.

The last remaining electronics brick and mortar shop on a street that was once the Mecca of boom boxes and Walman. This is the same shop I purchased my Sharp Gf-800Z and HK-9000 from back in the 80's. I spoke to the owner and he told that he's being forced to sell his shop because he has lost lots of business to the Internet over years.

hisrudeness posted:

Also the Sharp WQT-238s 354s etc. We used to get loads of returns on those! 

Sharp TWINs were not that reliable construction, were they? Even being new.

Mystic Traveller posted:

hisrudeness posted:

Also the Sharp WQT-238s 354s etc. We used to get loads of returns on those! 

Sharp TWINs were not that reliable construction, were they? Even being new.

The back to back cassette ones were always failing! 

Locally we had a few..

Radio Shack

Mainly carried Tandy, Realistic and some lower model Sony's

Majestic Sound Warehouse

Similar to todays Best Buy layout but dedicated to a/v only. Had a big lion head for a logo. Mixed quality but didn't survive the 90's

Consumers Distributing

Catalogue store with the same scheme as Argos. Candle/ Citizen and low end Sony's and Sanyo were common. If you wanted a Walkman and a Star Wars figure, you came to the right place.

Stereo People

Mid range audio with brands like Denon, JVC, Onkyo etc.

Canadian Tire

Audio equipment goes here to die. They still sell crap car audio but in a bygone era they also sold crappy boomboxes. Nice that they are consistent.

The best thing about the dedicated audio retailers back then was the free brochures for the taking. Many times I leafed through those things with dreams of ownership. Now most are posted here on S2Go...