But today Lauralea and I stopped in there and took a look around. It still is classic old town hardware store.
Oh yes, nails and saw blades and a few power tools. But also dishes, table clothes, closet hardware, hooks, irons, and soap. Toys and games, puzzles and books, stoves and fridges, axes, bobby pins, thermometers, thermostats, thermoses. And women’s clothes, for town women, regular sized women actually.
We bought Lauralea a beautiful sweater, and some canning lids for her pickle jars.
It was, wonderful.
That looks so much like the aptly named 'Handy Store' in Bicester, a shop run by a couple of generations of a family selling saw blades and skirts, toys and tacks. Sadly it closed around 10 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThese places are treasures.
ReplyDeleteIn a way they are, but they're also something of an anachronism and serve a market that largely doesn't exist in the UK any more. The clothes sold in 'Handy Stores' were really targeted at the women who would have been born before 1920, and although some of the hardware was good and useful, much of it had become the kind of stuff most people won't think to buy. British society would tend to throw away & replace, rather than maintain & repair (few probably even know HOW to repair things) and that's part of what's killed this kind of store here.
ReplyDelete