h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thinking about it the other day, aside from the supermarkets and corner shops, I can't think of the existence of a single proper specialist off license in the city where I live. Namely Cardiff.
(I'd be delighted if someone could tell the location of one )

So have they all disappeared in your hometown?
What has caused their apparent demise?

Or is it just me?

I take it off-license means somewhere you can buy alcohol, but not drink it?

Because, if that's the case, what about all the wine seller chains? Oddbins and the like.

we still have a threshers in town but the unwins closed 8-9 years ago

We have four in our little town. We also have one supermarket and two petrol stations that sell it as well. Don't know what that says about the residents...

Exactly Bouncy, I don't know of an Oddbins, Threshers or whatnot around here at all.

Also, when I lived in Birmingham (left 3 years back) Harborne High street, which was my nearest shopping zone had shed *all* of their off-licenses.

You could drive to and Oddbins on the Hagley road or there was a tiny Victoria wine in Woely Castle square but both were miles away.

Now we do have corner shops and AsTesCorrisons but specialists, with something a little bit different or more interesting for sale...

I'm quite surprised then. In Bristol, there are Threshers and Oddbins and suchlike all over the place. There are at least couple here in Wycombe too.

a chain of off licences has sprung up recently

Bargain Booze

says it all

There are a couple... but sadly too far from where I live Strangely one of the better places round here for decent and some unusual beers, is a kinda pop in CoOp style little shop on a main road, which has an more intersting range of beers than its' size woudl otherwise give indication of
There is a big wine merchants, and a couple of smaller wine merchants... But really with ASDA just round the corner selling bottled real ales so cheap, and bottles of spirits (branded), at a seeming constant 'special offer' I don't know if even a very decent off licience shop round ere would stand muchchance... no, actually it would, so long as they opened it on my street I'd keep em in bisuness. (we're in an alcohol voic where I live, Tescos out of town, or the ASDA are the only places really wihthyin sensible walking distance)

My tiny village has two, well, an offy and a posh wine shop. Guess we're all drunks in Berkshire.

Got two off licenses in my village plus all the other outlets like garage, large Co-op,small co-op and nearby 24 hour Asda(though that obeys the licensing rules).

Bristol has a few around, indeed, plus well stocked corner shops.

Bargain Booze shut down it's shops in Bristol to my knowledge. What a shame, no more fake smirnoff ice for moi! lol

Cardiff must be an abstinent place.

For what it's worth I googled Wine Merchants in Cardiff and got a list but there's only about 6 or 7 (at least in the list I checked) in the whole city and none are anywhere near the area I live in

There's an Oddbins on St Mary's street which is the High street in the City Centre but that's very little use seeing as only buses and taxis can drive on that road and in any case it's about 5 miles from my house.

I suspect the malevolent influence of two Tesco Extras and now a large Asda...

Not that I don't shop there too of course

Threshers bought out Unwins, who went into administration, and is itself a Whitbread owned subsidiary and incorporates Wine Rack.

Oddbins is still independent. All are under threat from supermarkets and corner shops, with many closing daily,three in my locality alone...

Support them if you have one!!!

MMF

<>

That's the root of the problem there. Traditional High Streets have changed. Speciality shops like off-licences, especially off-licences that do the bulk of their trade after 6pm when most other High St shops are closed, will struggle in "shopping areas". Shops that sell only one line of goods need a very high footfall to survive. I've noticed some off-licences supplying sweets, ice creams and coffees in an attempt to diversify. Corner shops don't rely solely on booze sales, so they can do it.

Of course, the influence of the supermarkets can't be ignored, especially late night ones.

Perhaps this will help ... http://www.yell.com/ucs/UcsSearchAction.do?ssm=0&scrambleSeed=22153028&keywords=off+license&companyName=&location=cardiff&M=0&x=0&y=0

Ah, the same list I'd already explained I looked up

Thanks anyway. You think 10 wine sellers in a city of 300,000 is a lot?

As I said none of those is within about 3 miles of where I live also.

To be fair, St Mary's Street in Cardiff isn't really a shopping street. It's more pubs, clubs and chippies.

The real shopping street is fully pedestrianised.

Anyway, I want one near where I live, not in the city centre.

I live in a large village in Warwickshire. This has an off-license on the High Street. It also has a Tesco Express and a Co-op, both of which stock wine, beer and sprits. Redditch, the closest town of any size, doesn't have any off-licenses in the town centre, though there may be some in the suburbs (don't know where). I think most of the population go to the Tesco Extra, Sainsbury and Morrison supermarkets.