Oddbins coming to Lordship Lane !!

[Estella]

And pretty soon, so I heard....

[worldwiser]

Oh how boring.

[KalamityKel]

again?

[Estella]

Have they ever been on the Lane ? I can't recall that..

[MissWiggy]

That's a shame. We've already got a couple of independent shops selling good quality wine and beer.

[kford]

Dull generic chain

[Jeremy]

I like Oddbins. The London Bridge branch have a good beer selection in particular. Although I agree that I'm not sure we really need it in addition to Bossman and Spirited.

[Estella]

Not an addition. Apparently they are taking over Spirited

[cle]

The new owners have Oddbins as the best it's ever been - selection is brilliant and wins awards for buying. Agree it's a chain etc, but shed a lot of branches so more focused, and better than an estate agent...

[StraferJack]

Spirited never took off either did it?

[Sophron]

Upmarket winemerchants with a great reputation and knowledgable staff - good luck to them! Much better than many alternatives that i can think of (amusement arcade, poundland, mobile phone etc etc.)

[david_carnell]

Do they still do the cool window designs?

[BrandNewGuy]

I'm with Jeremy - the London Bridge branch is terrific and the bottled craft beers are far cheaper than on Lordship Lane. And they're no longer the goliath they once were - they operate 37 branches across the country.

[El Pibe]

Oddbins was great when it was still an independent chain prior to the Seagrams purchase.

It had a genuine ethos and passion for wine, and every new employee had to do a 3 month stint as a shop assistant regardless of the position so that wine knowledge and appreciation of the the coal face of the business percolated throughout.

It did suffer as a result of the buyout and a lot of the core talent, enthuiasm and knowledge moved on to pastures new.

But I always liked the brand and concept, I hope the new owners make a good stab of it.

[rjsmall]

The fact they are taking over the Spirited Wines location sort of completes a circle. Oddbins was sold to Seagrams who in turn sold it to Castel Fr?res who rebranded some of the stores as Nicolas. Castel Fr?res then sold some of the Nicolas stores to Spirited Wines who now seem to be selling to Oddbins. Plus ?a change etc etc

[Zebedee Tring]

Didn't Oddbins go into administration some time ago? If so, did Seagrams buy them before or after they went into administration?

[Otta]

Sophron Wrote:

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> better than many alternatives that i can think of (amusement arcade, poundland, mobile phone etc etc.)

Amusement Arcade? When was the last time you saw one of those open on a high street?

I'd never really used poundland and the like before, but since moving to Penge this year I have totally fallen for the 99p store! 6 k!tchen rolls for a quid, what's not to love?

[Otta]

Wow, due to annoying spam, we can no longer write "k!tchen" without altering the spelling.

[Jeremy]

Otta Wrote:

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> Amusement Arcade? When was the last time you saw one of those open on a high street?

There's one in Peckham now. Sort of. Well, a bar with 15 or so retro arcade machines.

But I think Sophron probably meant one of those places with loads of fruit machines and a sign saying "casino" outside. Like what the boho bar used to be, innit.

[cle]

Cashino surely? Like the 'Walworth Slots'.

There are limits on the amount of machines (as with bookies) - hence they now open in multiples on the same high streets.

[????]

There used to be an Oddbins in The Village I think

[keane]

There used to be small slot machine place on lordship lane then I think there was a threshers then that went bust. There are quite a few wine shops now though with Bruno & bossman wines & obvs co op sell wine too, tho I always thought odd bins quite a good shop.

[StraferJack]

"There used to be an Oddbins in The Village I think"

100% correct - up until 5 ish years ago (these days time is very timey wimey with me)

[Earl Aelfheah]

5 years - can't believe it's been that long. Now Gails

[Earl Aelfheah]

Didn't Bruno's used to be a gun shop?