Gifts in House

As my fellow Unilocalers have Unilocaled before me, this shop and all its predecessors have generally followed the same pattern — just get any old crap and throw it all together in one small shop (its surprisingly just how much you can fit in one shop, it really is).
I recently visited Germany and went in a shop there that reminded me of here. It sold everything from Walkmans (yes, the original ones) to garden ornaments and it is this type of bizarre bric-​à-​brac that Gifts in House (it’ll always just be a Poundland to me) specialises in, although not so much in the electrical equipment department.
Many a bargain can be found here (it’s very cheap) but when you leave with a bagful of goodies you’ll be asking yourself if you actually need any of it or you just bought it because it was there and it was shiny. A good place to go if you’re looking for some kind of bizarre joke birthday present as well I’d imagine.

This is such a great little bric-​à-​brac store. From bird houses, to England flags, plant pots and flip-​flops, Gifts really does have it all.
Although there are a lot of stores selling random items in Formby, this one seems to come out top with its eccentric range of birthday and outdoor items. It’s one of those places that you wander through until you inevitably buy some piece of junk that you really don’t need, but would just quite like.
During my visit the staff were really friendly and asked if I was looking for anything specific. I had to admit I was just browsing out of sheer curiosity.
A wonderously random store!

Although the name of this little shop of the needful and pointless has changed a number of times over the past few years its stock has remained largely the same; cork message boards, candleholders shaped like cartoon animals, balloons with happy 25^th anniversary on them. Things you had absolutely no idea you needed until you realised that you didn’t have them, or at least until you realised they actually existed.
That the place manages to keep going while so many ventures in the high-​rent Formby business lots go belly up is testament to how much people actually like junk like this. It’s all pretty cheap and cheery in here but don’t be surprised if some of the stuff begins to wither and rot, particularly if left out in the British summertime for any length — even the stuff that is technically supposed to be used outside.
They do stock some decent blank black-​and-​white photo cards which always come in handy. Really though, who is still buying beaded curtains?