# The slow death of Tottenham Court Rd



## editor (Jul 31, 2012)

It used to be the electronics capital of London and now there's loads of empty shops and bland High St stores taking their place.







http://www.urban75.org/blog/the-dec...rt-road-former-electronics-capital-of-london/


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Jul 31, 2012)

Working just off there right now.
I am surprised how much of a regular high street it looks at the moment, mostly catering for the lunches of the media middle classes.
Can't say I have seen any empty shops. I am going to take a trip down the bottom a check argos out at lunch.


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## editor (Jul 31, 2012)

Charing Cross Road has just about lost most of its character too.


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## wemakeyousoundb (Jul 31, 2012)

all killed by http://getyercheapelectronics.com like a lot of other stores, the virgin megastore chain and associated fnac in France are suffering big time from this due to simple economic factors: online stores don't need to pay premium rent for high street presence, and I guess the amount of people wanting to go into a shop to try stuff and then actually buying it there rather than much cheaper online is dwindling apace


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## joustmaster (Jul 31, 2012)

I've only lived in London for a few years, but I have always wondered why people mentioned TCR as a place to go for electrical stuff. Its always seemed the same as any where else to me.

When did it change?


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 31, 2012)

Not surprised when you can get most products online and often cheaper why waste your time going to a shop?


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 31, 2012)

joustmaster said:


> I've only lived in London for a few years, but I have always wondered why people mentioned TCR as a place to go for electrical stuff. Its always seemed the same as any where else to me.
> 
> When did it change?



It was good about twenty years ago...


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## paulhackett (Jul 31, 2012)

Never liked the 'aggressive' sales technique and customer service with their 'How much do you want to spend?' opening gambit.


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## DownwardDog (Jul 31, 2012)

joustmaster said:


> I've only lived in London for a few years, but I have always wondered why people mentioned TCR as a place to go for electrical stuff. Its always seemed the same as any where else to me.
> 
> When did it change?


 
In the mid 80s it was like a scene from a G.A. Effinger novel.


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## Voley (Jul 31, 2012)

I enjoyed shopping for a stereo there back in the day. Getting a price off one bloke, taking it to the guy next door, going back, seeing if they'd discount it a bit further etc. I never used to get much money knocked off but I went to get an amp once and ended up with a CD Walkman thrown in for nowt. It's a shame to hear these places are dying out along with record shops - I buy all my stuff online these days though so I'm as much a part of the problem as anyone.


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## twistedAM (Jul 31, 2012)

paulhackett said:


> Never liked the 'aggressive' sales technique and customer service with their 'How much do you want to spend?' opening gambit.


 
I  must say it's no great loss. The only plus side was that on that street you could find everything and i got pretty good at handling their guff.
Nowadays though people could look for best price on internet and then go there and negotiate with more confidence and obviously that didn't leave those shops enough profit margin.


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## editor (Jul 31, 2012)

I used to go in to the shop and say, "I'm buying [this gadget]. I have cash. I'm going to walk up and down this street for a hour and give my money to the shop that offers me the best price today. So what is your best possible price?"

I got some hefty discounts from that approach


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## twistedAM (Jul 31, 2012)

editor said:


> I used to go in to the shop and say, "I'm buying [this gadget]. I have cash. I'm going to walk up and down this street for a hour and give my money to the shop that offers me the best price today. So what is your best possible price?"
> 
> I got some hefty discounts from that approach


 
Oh yeah, cash talked loudly in those shops.


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## cesare (Jul 31, 2012)

Plus you'd always get cables etc thrown in FOC


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## maldwyn (Jul 31, 2012)

It has been on a steady decline for at least ten years.

The bland is set to worsen once the tube station is finished.


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## uk benzo (Jul 31, 2012)

For me it was all about the Saturday computer fairs that were held in the mid-to-late-90s in and around TCR, when I was into building/modifying computers. Got some mad bits of hardware that I would not have been able to find anywhere else.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 31, 2012)

uk benzo said:


> For me it was all about the Saturday computer fairs that were held in the mid-to-late-90s in and around TCR, when I was into building/modifying computers. Got some mad bits of hardware that I would not have been able to find anywhere else.



Yup me too, the computer shows where a regular for and my mates back in the day...


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## editor (Jul 31, 2012)

Those computer fairs are still going. They were mighty grim affairs.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 31, 2012)

They weren't when I stopped (2002/3), great place to hang out and chat with vendors about upcoming stuff (including games related imports).


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## editor (Jul 31, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> They weren't when I stopped (2002/3), great place to hang out and chat with vendors about upcoming stuff (including games related imports).


For techie blokes, yes.


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## gabi (Jul 31, 2012)

The surrounding areas of Tott Ct Rd are fucking cool though. I work just off Goodge St. Best area I've worked in, all in all. Lovely pubs, lovely cafes, hot girls, russell square, good transport..


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 31, 2012)

editor said:


> For techie blokes, yes.



Well yeah they aren't for non techy folk and virtually no non techy people even know about their existence!


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## Ted Striker (Jul 31, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Yup me too, the computer shows where a regular for and my mates back in the day...


 
"The whole universe was in a hot dense state..."


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## editor (Jul 31, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Well yeah they aren't for non techy folk and virtually no non techy people even know about their existence!


There was usually more than a few bored looking girlfriends to be found waiting by the entrance.


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## twistedAM (Jul 31, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Well yeah they aren't for non techy folk and virtually no non techy people even know about their existence!


 
Well apart from the guys standing on the main road with a big sign with an arrow on it. They later found employment with "Golf Sale"


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## 5t3IIa (Jul 31, 2012)

I went to a few places along there only last week to touch up laptops. Then buy them online.


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## Ted Striker (Jul 31, 2012)

I always found them very strange beasts...As if they were actively trying to look 'dodgy' and the sort of place you'd see regularly on watchdog.

Didn't ever really think much of their customer service nor sales strategy, though they were shit-hot on grey imports. I think I got most of my Car stereo bits and DJ stuff from round that way, but that was nearly 10 years ago, when their main/only competition was Comet/Currys etc.


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## IC3D (Jul 31, 2012)

I used to love the haggling back in the day, going backward and forward. Internet though init today I found an hdmi cable online for 6 quid that was 30 on the high street


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## FridgeMagnet (Jul 31, 2012)

I went down there the other week looking at the prices for a couple of lenses. There are still a couple of the old-style shops, and I remembered how uncomfortable they always made me - the impossibility of browsing with everything behind the counters, the pushy sales techniques, the high prices with the expectation of haggling (which I hate).

I went into the Jessops on New Oxford Street afterwards and it was much nicer - I could see what they had, play with the stock, and had a couple of chats with staff there about _photography_  with no expectation on their part that I was going to buy something.


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## Bahnhof Strasse (Jul 31, 2012)

Walked down there last week looking for electricals for the first time in perhaps 20 years, was shocked at how the place has changed. Bought online at the end, guess that's why it's changed.


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## Voley (Jul 31, 2012)

editor said:


> There was usually more than a few bored looking girlfriends to be found waiting by the entrance.


"Girlfriends?"


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## editor (Jul 31, 2012)

NVP said:


> "Girlfriends?"


The lucky ones.


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## wemakeyousoundb (Jul 31, 2012)

editor said:


> For techie blokes, yes.


took my girlfriend there once


editor said:


> There was usually more than a few bored looking girlfriends to be found waiting by the entrance.


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## Mr Smin (Jul 31, 2012)

I don't reckon much to the shops there. I wanted a bluetooth keyboard with built in trackball. I went to lots of shops before I found even one that had such a device. Most of the shops had the same quite narrow range. I did buy there and then, paying the bricks and mortar premium.
When the keyboard malfunctioned 6 months later, I took it back and the shop owner asked me why I hadn't sent it back to the manufacturer. Well duh, the point of buying on the high street is high street service. I coldly told him that I had a contractual relationship with his shop and not with the manufacturer. He grumbled about it being on his postage (yes, exactly) but in a month I was able to collect a replacement from the shop. I haven't been back since.


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## pinkmonkey (Jul 31, 2012)

I got a bargain laptop down there in January, but I agree, it's really dull now. Central London is becoming another clone town.


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## pesh (Aug 1, 2012)

TCR seems to have recently turned into the bed shop capital of london...

we were looking for a new bed at the beginning of the year and i noticed there were about 10 showrooms along the street while up there to buy an external HDD.


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## Pickman's model (Aug 1, 2012)

Tcr's been rubbish since they shut the burgerking by the dominion theatre


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## pesh (Aug 1, 2012)

actually it's been shit since We Will Rock You opened.


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## southside (Aug 1, 2012)

My first IT job was in TCR, building PC's like a rabbid dog.

There was all sorts of crazy stuff that went on in that place.

I was invited for a full expenses paid night out with the finance director, he took me to a pole dancing club and we got hammered on champers and had a few of the girls sit with us 

I can't remember the name of the place we went to, it was in Gouch Street just past the first pub you get to just past the station.  I got chinned in that pub for no reason when a massive fight broke out on my leaving do lol!

When we were in the club one of the girls we were sitting with, who you could pay by the hour for a room in the back told me I should go to a club and find a nice girl and stop hanging around with a looser like the bloke I was with   .  I didn't know if it was a compliment or a put down


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## mrsfran (Aug 1, 2012)

I lived just off TCR in the late nineties and I never liked the electronic shops. They always just looked like dodgy shitholes.


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## EastEnder (Aug 1, 2012)

paulhackett said:


> Never liked the 'aggressive' sales technique and customer service with their 'How much do you want to spend?' opening gambit.


I couldn't agree more. I absolutely loathe being put in the position of having to haggle when buying things (buying trinkets from a street market on a Mediterranean holiday is different, I don't give a shit about getting a good deal there). It's a tedious anachronism that only benefits the brazen (should one expect to pay more due to an aversion to confrontation, or should we all be forced to become pushy & argumentative?). With the internet I can take my time, do thorough research, find out what is a genuinely fair price, compare specifications, read reviews, other customers feedback, etc, etc. I always thought TCR was shit, can't say I'm sad to see the old guard disappear.


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## Radar (Aug 1, 2012)

I hated TCR for that reason too. If you can't be arsed to put a price on your goods, then don't be surprised when folk turn around and walk out again.

I've seen similar approaches from certain electronic shops in the states, no prices and quoting inflated prices if you ask.

Fuck em, life's too short.


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## Pickman's model (Aug 1, 2012)

southside said:


> My first IT job was in TCR, building PC's like a rabbid dog.
> 
> There was all sorts of crazy stuff that went on in that place.
> 
> ...


what did you do?


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## Crispy (Aug 1, 2012)

I'm with EastEnder. TCR was shit.


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## Pickman's model (Aug 1, 2012)

Crispy said:


> I'm with EastEnder. TCR was shit.


and now it is...?


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## Crispy (Aug 1, 2012)

Pickman's model said:


> and now it is...?


Even worse


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## cesare (Aug 1, 2012)

TCR was the shop equiv to market trading, so unlikely to appeal to everyone.


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## southside (Aug 1, 2012)

Pickman's model said:


> what did you do?


 
Ignored it, carried on drinking and letching.


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## Pickman's model (Aug 1, 2012)

cesare said:


> TCR was the shop equiv to market trading, so unlikely to appeal to everyone.


there's a couple of nice occult bookshops near tottenham court road, atlantis book on museum street, treadwell's on store street, watkin's just near trafalgar square... why buy electronics when you can learn to conjure them up?


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## cesare (Aug 1, 2012)

Pickman's model said:


> there's a couple of nice occult bookshops near tottenham court road, atlantis book on museum street, treadwell's on store street, watkin's just near trafalgar square... why buy electronics when you can learn to conjure them up?


I'm going to have a snoop at those next time I'm round there.


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## Pickman's model (Aug 1, 2012)

cesare said:


> I'm going to have a snoop at those next time I'm round there.


check what you want isn't available online. there's a load of hermetic order of the golden dawn stuff, fuck loads of crowley, as much theosophy as you can shake a secret chief at free online


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## QueenOfGoths (Aug 1, 2012)

cesare said:


> TCR was the shop equiv to market trading, so unlikely to appeal to everyone.


This - plus I am with eastender a bit, I am rubbish at haggling, hate that kind of confrontation and just get horribly panicky when I do. If you are into that/can cope with it then the shops on TCR were great but I used to walk past them almost daily and if i did venture in just got scared


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## Pickman's model (Aug 1, 2012)

cesare said:


> I'm going to have a snoop at those next time I'm round there.


http://www.luckymojo.com/crowley/
http://www.arcane-archive.org/


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## cesare (Aug 1, 2012)

QueenOfGoths said:


> This - plus I am with eastender a bit, I am rubbish at haggling, hate that kind of confrontation and just get horribly panicky when I do. If you are into that/can cope with it then the shops on TCR were great but I used to walk past them almost daily and if i did venture in just got scared


 
My brother used to use them a lot but not anymore. Last time I used them was about three years ago when I needed a new HDD and bruv was on the phone concurrently telling me what I could reasonably expect to get thrown in & pricewise


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## cesare (Aug 1, 2012)

Pickman's model said:


> check what you want isn't available online. there's a load of hermetic order of the golden dawn stuff, fuck loads of crowley, as much theosophy as you can shake a secret chief at free online


 
Ta & for link. I admit I like the snooping/browsing as much as anything else though. Bookshops disappearing


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## Greebo (Aug 1, 2012)

cesare said:


> I'm going to have a snoop at those next time I'm round there.


Don't do it unless you've got plenty of cash to spare - the periodicals alone make it easy to spend over £20 a time.  There's also Mysteries (Neal St), but it's become depressingly New Age and was always a bit overpriced (1$ = 1£ for book cover prices?  Yeah, right).  And don't forget Skoob, even if it's a bit further out of the way.


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## Greebo (Aug 1, 2012)

cesare said:


> Ta & for link. I admit I like the snooping/browsing as much as anything else though. Bookshops disappearing


Time sinks, the lot of 'em.


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## cesare (Aug 1, 2012)

Greebo said:


> Don't do it unless you've got plenty of cash to spare - the periodicals alone make it easy to spend over £20 a time. There's also Mysteries (Neal St), but it's become depressingly New Age and was always a bit overpriced (1$ = 1£ for book cover prices? Yeah, right). And don't forget Skoob, even if it's a bit further out of the way.


 
Cheers.  I doubt I'd have much cash to spare but could be quite a nice meander if anyone else was up for it too.


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## cesare (Aug 1, 2012)

Greebo said:


> Time sinks, the lot of 'em.


True.


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## Greebo (Aug 1, 2012)

cesare said:


> Cheers. I doubt I'd have much cash to spare but could be quite a nice meander if anyone else was up for it too.


You haven't seen me on an occult mag crawl with £20 to burn.


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## cesare (Aug 1, 2012)

Greebo said:


> You haven't seen me on an occult mag crawl with £20 to burn.


I expect I could get a great  deal of vicarious pleasure from that. Perhaps we should have an occult mag crawl and have a £5 kitty/familiar.


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## Reno (Aug 1, 2012)

The electronics shops are ueseless. Poor choice and aggressive, rip off staff. I think the last thing I bought there was a Discman in the 80s. The other end with its furniture stores, PC World and Mortimer Market clap clinic has been more useful for me over the years, though shame there is no Reject Store anymore.


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## salem (Aug 1, 2012)

I think the decline started when they started to kick out the sex shops in the 90's and clean it up. I suspect they had a bit of a symbiotic relationship with the electrical stores and of course the 'nicer' TCR resulted in higher rents which timed nicely with the advent of internet shopping to kill off the electrical shops.

What I used to love was that they'd have loads of great stuff you wouldn't see in argos. Spy gear and imported stereos. Same goes for the computer fair. Now that's all available on ebay direct from China there seems little point.

The electrical stores that survived seem to mainly do commodity laptops now.

Ah well life moves on and all that.


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## UrbaneFox (Aug 1, 2012)

Greebo said:


> You haven't seen me on an occult mag crawl with £20 to burn.


 
Next u75 meet-up. Followed by a slap-up at Malabar Junction.


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## Greebo (Aug 2, 2012)

UrbaneFox said:


> Next u75 meet-up. Followed by a slap-up at Malabar Junction.


I'll pass on the meal - rather spend it on reading matter.


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## TopCat (Aug 3, 2012)

editor said:


> It used to be the electronics capital of London and now there's loads of empty shops and bland High St stores taking their place.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The electrical stores were/are all owned by the same bloke. No real competition there at all.


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## TopCat (Aug 3, 2012)

editor said:


> Those computer fairs are still going. They were mighty grim affairs.


Why grim? Please elucidate?


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## Citizen66 (Aug 3, 2012)

Never been a massive fan of TCR. Over priced electrical shops, seedy looking sex shops iirc and the scien fucking tologists.


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## Greebo (Aug 3, 2012)

Citizen66 said:


> Never been a massive fan of TCR. Over priced electrical shops, seedy looking sex shops iirc and the scien fucking tologists.


I've never been pestered by a scientologist, what's wrong with me?


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## Citizen66 (Aug 3, 2012)

Greebo said:
			
		

> I've never been pestered by a scientologist, what's wrong with me?



Their mere presence is malignant without any pestering. The only time I've had any contact with them i volunteered myself after a couple of bevvies.


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## editor (Aug 3, 2012)

Citizen66 said:


> Never been a massive fan of TCR. Over priced electrical shops, seedy looking sex shops iirc and the scien fucking tologists.


What sex shops?


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## editor (Aug 3, 2012)

TopCat said:


> Why grim? Please elucidate?


I did a bit too much of that last night.


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## Citizen66 (Aug 3, 2012)

editor said:


> What sex shops?



That's why I said iirc. I have this vague memory of there being one or two porn shops there in the late 90s. When I hadn't been in London that long. Charing Cross road does so it isnt beyond the realm of possibility.


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## rutabowa (Aug 3, 2012)

this is one of the reasons why it's dying: https://www.facebook.com/curryspcworld/posts/470998072920101?comment_id=5634232&notif_t=like
please feel free to add comments!


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## Citizen66 (Aug 3, 2012)

rutabowa said:


> this is one of the reasons why it's dying: https://www.facebook.com/curryspcworld/posts/470998072920101?comment_id=5634232&notif_t=like
> please feel free to add comments!



What use is a computer that doesn't have a shift key ffs? 

That's typing and gaming out of the window then.


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## Radar (Aug 6, 2012)

rutabowa said:


> this is one of the reasons why it's dying: https://www.facebook.com/curryspcworld/posts/470998072920101?comment_id=5634232&notif_t=like
> please feel free to add comments!


That some customers are too stupid to be allowed to dress themselves in the morning, let alone own a computer ? WTF didn't he look at the display model ?

Those shift keys are pretty rank, but lappie manufacturers seem to have their own ideas on how to cram a keyboard into limited space and they have come up with some crackpot layouts over the years.

PC world are often in need of a good kicking, but this doesn't seem like one of them.

*Caveat emptor*


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## Citizen66 (Aug 6, 2012)

If most people who buy pcs are anything like me they'll be too busy seeing what component specs they can be factored into their budget to be checking if a shift key is on the keyboard or not. I'd have thought the shift key was a given.


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## Radar (Aug 6, 2012)

There IS a shift key (if I've identified the laptop correctly), ffs there's three of the buggers (albeit spectacularly crap ones)


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## Citizen66 (Aug 6, 2012)

Radar said:
			
		

> There IS a shift key (if I've identified the laptop correctly), ffs there's three of the buggers (albeit spectacularly crap ones)



I mean its location should be standard. Why should people be expected to learn to type all over again?


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## editor (Aug 6, 2012)

Citizen66 said:


> I mean its location should be standard. Why should people be expected to learn to type all over again?


Loads of keyboards have slightly different layouts. Thinkpads, for example.


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## Citizen66 (Aug 6, 2012)

Reinventing the wheel.


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## Radar (Aug 6, 2012)

Citizen66 said:


> I mean its location should be standard. Why should people be expected to learn to type all over again?


 



			
				I said:
			
		

> Those shift keys are pretty rank, but lappie manufacturers seem to have their own ideas on how to cram a keyboard into limited space and they have come up with some crackpot layouts over the years.


 
It's what laptop manufacturers do unfortunately.


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## Citizen66 (Aug 6, 2012)

I suppose it's easily solved by plugging in a suitable usb one, if impractical.


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## ViolentPanda (Aug 6, 2012)

Pickman's model said:


> there's a couple of nice occult bookshops near tottenham court road, atlantis book on museum street, treadwell's on store street, watkin's just near trafalgar square... why buy electronics when you can learn to conjure them up?


 
Watkins is Cecil Court.

Glad to see that you didn't mention the execrable "Mysteries".


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## Chz (Aug 12, 2012)

I think the last time I went to TCR for anything more than "Crap! I need this cable and I need it now!" was back in 2004. That was when LCD screens still occasionally came with stuck pixels and "up to 3" was considered acceptable under warranty. I wanted to see the damned thing plugged in and displaying before I bought it. Didn't pay too bad a price (Samsung 193T) and it was recently donated on the Urban recycle forum.


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## newbie (Aug 12, 2012)

salem said:


> What I used to love was that they'd have loads of great stuff you wouldn't see in argos. Spy gear and imported stereos. Same goes for the computer fair. Now that's all available on ebay direct from China there seems little point.


They had/have proper buyers with specialist knowledge of their area. These days it's all there on tech blogs or even tv but in the days when getting a full round up of new kit meant buying a handful of specialist mags, TCR was (and to some extent still is) the best place to go looking. Particularly for things that are new enough, or niche enough, that they're not widely reviewed.

Its heyday was quite short though, it only really came into its own when the Edgeware Road declined as the London electronics center, sometime in the 80s. Henrys is still there (I think) but not much else.  If HiFi Care had held on to it's original shop, staff and ethos it too could perhaps survive for decades when all around turn into fried chicken shops.  But no, they had to turn it into something hideous with overpriced blisterpacks and high staff turnover without the specialist knowledge, making it utterly useless.


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