Natalie P (2024 Directors Cut): Oh, while I was looking back through pics to find that shot of the VHS shelf, I found this gem for @sharkabytes.bsky.social. A magical, weird time in the early 90s when even Boots the chemist sold video games. Which is where I inexplicably bought it from for a LOT of chore money.

Oh, while I was looking back through pics to find that shot of the VHS shelf, I found this gem for @sharkabytes.bsky.social. A magical, weird time in the early 90s when even Boots the chemist sold video games. Which is where I inexplicably bought it from for a LOT of chore money.

Oh nice! Thanks for sharing and tagging me, that's a lovely little time capsule. I remember buying C64 games from Boots and even PlayStation 1 games. One of the last PS1 games I bought back in the day before jumping fully to PC and PS2 was a Syphon Filter 1 and 2 double pack for £19.99 from Boots.

But yeah, what a weird little time. Walking out of the local chemist with whole computers under your arms and a bottle of shampoo.

I hadn't remembered the whole computers thing! Wow. Though, having been a Product Manager I can 100% see some early 80s exec who's bored sourcing hairdryers, shavers and other personal grooming electrics get all excited about the Home Computer Revolution and persuade the board to buy in.

I seem to recall that they sold all kind of electronics such as personal stereos etc not just computers. It was a weird era.

Yeah! It was more like B&M's today.

Christmas Advert 1986..... www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0B1...

Boots Xmas Advert 1986www.youtube.com

I think it was seen as a logical extension of their Audio department - but, yeah, as a kid my radio and my cassette recorder were both Boots branded

I mean Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix in Canada nowadays let's you buy a PlayStation 5 and a Google nest hub as well as your entire groceries with your antibiotics. Lol

Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what happened. It's like how everything with a shop counter got in on having at least a handful of 8-bit tape games. My local paper shop was a prime place for spending my pocket money and picking up a £1.99 budget game and cheap mixup.

"all the facts without blinding you with science" Y NOT THO

That’s a *lot* of 90s money

You’ve got me thinking about working summers in boots, seeing the shop decide to stop selling something random this year and offering great bargains, only to start again the next year. Apparently if I had a Time Machine I’d be great for a bargain hunt

Considering I begrudgingly got £1 per week from my parents and the rest was whatever money I could earn from neighbours (though being one of the youngest kids on our streets meant babysitting jobs were infrequent) it was a LOT, yeah.

Oh good grief yes, I remember buying games on tape for 1.99 or if they were SUPER fancy 2.99. And they had so many formats, speccy, commodore, amstrad - I even remember seeing Dragon software (my Grandad had a Dragon 32 which is where I learned most of my basic)

They also did BBC/Electron games and the range was the Mastertronic - you could also get these from petrol stations!

Buying video games from a chemist was perfectly normal. The first time I went to New York and popped into the drugstore to buy cigarettes, now that was weird.

Wow, now I remember, I used to buy records and computer cassette games from Boots in Bretton Centre (Peterborough) in the 80s. I forgot they also did music.

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