For decades, Tottenham Court Road in central London was the place to go for any kind of electronics, and I’ve spent many an hour stomping up and down the street trying to hustle the best possible price out of rival shops along the street.
In recent years, rising rents and the growing impact of Internet shopping have seen a huge reduction in the number of electronics shops along Tottenham Court Road.
Many of the old electronics shops have now been taken over by coffee shops or more mainstream High St stores, while some have remained empty for months on end.
A lost paradise for hagglers
It was one of last vestiges of a main shopping street where you could still go in and haggle like a pro.
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!
Although the majority of electronics stores have now disappeared, there’s still some to be found along the street, so it’s still worth visiting if you’re after some new electronics gear.
Be prepared to hustle too – with a bit of persistence you can sometimes get bargains every bit as good as the internet and you won’t have to wait around for it to be delivered!
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Related posts:
Tapped & Packed coffee shop review, Tottenham Court Road, London
Tottenham Court Road and Crossrail – one almighty building site
Blue, red and grey: tube train, Tottenham Court Road
Tottenham Court Road reopens on the 28th Nov. TfL lob out a work in progress video
London rain: six rain-drenched scenes from the capital’s streets
The death of Our Price records, Brixton Road, Brixton
Last remaining Brixton Prime Shop unit awaits its new owners – but will it be another phone shop?
Derelict shops, Toynbee Street, Spitalfields, London E1
These stores were not only important for selling new stuff, but also for cheap and accessible repairs and parts. Worrying trend of repair being driven out of retail spaces. We’ll be mapping repair places soon for the Restart Project – see more http://restartproject.wordpress.com
I really hope this is a symptom of the recession rather than a terminal decline. Obviously internet shopping will have had an impact, but there is still a need for places to go and buy things ‘there and then’, and get advice and compare deals.
Hopefully TCR has a future…….
Getting hefty discounts is maybe good for the ego – but bad for the neighborhood shops as you can see above
Better to be still shopping there than not bothering at all though…
I hear what you are saying, Friedemann, but those shop owners are pretty savvy. They wouldn’t sell anything that wasn’t making them a profit.
Right. If they were making profits, they would still be there, wouldn’t they?
That row of shops with the roller shutters down are part of the InMidtown business improvement district (BID) http://inmidtown.org/ . This part of the street was included in the BID from April 2010. Not much of an improvement. Now the rest of Tottenham Court Road has been colonised by another BID led by The Fitzrovia Partnership http://news.fitzrovia.org.uk/2012/06/06/commercialisation-fitzrovia-ballot-business-improvement-district-is-announced/
can’t say i’m surprised. Worked by TCR for years, i was always surprised at how these guys would make up specs, and take advantage of the not-so-tech-savvy. selling electronics is far better suited to the internet. More savings for you, less overheads for the vendor. WIN WIN.