Beosystem10
Member (SA)
We have those catalogue showrooms here too. Argos is the biggest and best known one but Littlewoods - who used to have both club books and high street department stores - also competed in the catalogue showroom sector briefly during the early '90s. Argos' dominance of this type of selling soon saw the competition withdrawing and now only eBay's shops compete with Argos but as Argos has several dozen showrooms across the country and eBay only has one in Scotland and a couple in the south of England it's pretty close to a monopoly for Argos.
Argos also use an old, once proud brand name on their budget audio kit; Bush. Back in the day Bush, along with Murphy, were independent manufacturers of radio sets and TVs, then both companies became part of the Rank organisation and some of their manufacture was moved out to Hong Kong. Now the Bush brand appears in Argos' washing machines and other white goods as well as on audio-visual stuff. Other brands that could be found on generic electronic gear these days and are no longer the high end independents that they once were include Dual - once known for their excellent turntables with their unique orange segment idler drive - as well as Grundig, Alba, Defiant, Decca and even Roberts, once suppliers of wooden portable radio kit to the rich and famous, now put their name to Chinese built plastic-cased equipment.
I was showing this thread to a friend last night and she recognised its topic as a set that was sold under the Ingersoll brand name which found its way from a range of reliable pocket watches to generic electronic goods back in the '70s and '80s. She owns one and has promised to try and find it with a view to selling it to me on the promise that I won't use it for parts. I've seen her house, it won't be a quick find!
Argos also use an old, once proud brand name on their budget audio kit; Bush. Back in the day Bush, along with Murphy, were independent manufacturers of radio sets and TVs, then both companies became part of the Rank organisation and some of their manufacture was moved out to Hong Kong. Now the Bush brand appears in Argos' washing machines and other white goods as well as on audio-visual stuff. Other brands that could be found on generic electronic gear these days and are no longer the high end independents that they once were include Dual - once known for their excellent turntables with their unique orange segment idler drive - as well as Grundig, Alba, Defiant, Decca and even Roberts, once suppliers of wooden portable radio kit to the rich and famous, now put their name to Chinese built plastic-cased equipment.
I was showing this thread to a friend last night and she recognised its topic as a set that was sold under the Ingersoll brand name which found its way from a range of reliable pocket watches to generic electronic goods back in the '70s and '80s. She owns one and has promised to try and find it with a view to selling it to me on the promise that I won't use it for parts. I've seen her house, it won't be a quick find!
