Things you don't see in towns anymore

Yes that’s right… and I remember I always had to thread the needle for my mum! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
The ‘Singer’ machine shop has been long gone now.

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Gas Works, Rag and Bone men on a horse and cart, cars with trafficators. Grocers with broken biscuits for sale. All things of the past.

Public phones still exist here but all domestic calls are free from them. (International require a credit card)

What do you mean? I was in Wollies this morning.

It was the US FW Woolworths that went broke.

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Another one ST, Laura Ashley has gone from my town…I love Laura Ashley…:heartpulse:

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Employment agencies. I know several people who have been made redundant recently and apparently job hunting is all done online now.

Burtons, the 50 bob tailor. I don’t mean the any-brand modern taken-over Burtons, but the old style one where nothing was too much trouble and made-to-measure meant an exact fit in a reasonable time.

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What you say is partially true but since they privatised job search, employment agencies have sprung up everywhere because there’s money to be made. Wollongong has dozens.

https://jobsearch.gov.au/serviceproviders?GeoLocation.DisplayAddress=%20NORTH%20WOLLONGONG%20NSW%202500&GeoLocation.Suburb=NORTH%20WOLLONGONG&GeoLocation.State=NSW&GeoLocation.Postcode=2500&GeoLocation.Latitude=-34.40680236&GeoLocation.Longitude=150.89556468&ExactWord=false

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You don’t see hardware shops remember you could go in and ask for the most unusual of items and they would say …what size do you want or how many :slight_smile:

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Dry Cleaning Shops

Chinese Laundries

@Bruce Been a long time since I saw an actual job agency in London although there are probably some still around. You are in NSW?

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Flea markets and record shops.

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That is what we used to call Ironmongers years ago. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Why would anyone want to buy fleas?

We still have an HMV record shop - but that is the only one.

We used to have a few record shops, HMV and Virgin. The flea market round the back of the High Street was also great for records.

It’s been about 37 years since I bought a vinyl record but recently I saw them for sale in Tesco - I still haven’t lost the knack of flipping through the vinyl records quickly with my fingers.

Yes, we still have one which I have actually used once or twice. It is no longer treadle-powered, though, as it has always had an (old fashioned) electric motor and a belt drive. I assume it is still safe as I have never had a shock from it.
At present, though, it is used only as a ‘decoration’.

Oh we still have one of those.

Yes, there’s a launderette / dry cleaning shop here in my town, but hardly any customers. It looks a bit grubby really, not a place I would feel comfortable using.

I used to work in Singer shops. The worst thing about it was stock taking, all those fiddly notions to count.

We don’t get tradesmen in our street any more either, we used to have several different types, now we just get the odd ice cream van.

Our high street is mainly estate agents, though we do have a few independent shops. I doubt they’ll last though. Only one bank now & that isn’t mine, sadly.
We had more shops here when we were a village.

Road sweepers with their ‘Trigger’s Broom’ and the ubiquitous barrow. The only one I see occassionally these days is sweeping outside No 10.

We lived near Tavistock in Devon for a while. There used to be culls of the Dartmoor ponies and they were turned into meat. There was a stall in Tavistock market on Saturdays that sold pony burgers, sausages and steaks. They were very popular.

Well I’m glad you don’t have THAT anymore then :angry:

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