For some strange reason, as I stood in the queue about to buy these lovely shoe brushes earlier today I wasn't thinking about my Bass Weejun tassel loafers, my RalphLa Saddle shoes or my Red Wing Pecos and the hours of polishing pleasure which lay ahead.
No, what popped into my mind was Woolworth's.
This is what killed Woolworth's, I thought.
I wasn't in one of those supermarkets where you have unbeatable choice and unbeatable prices, with 20% off signs and buy-one-get-one-free offers, free parking, late shopping hours and recycle shopping bags.
No, although the consumer experts argue that it was supermarkets that saw poor Woolies off, I was in fact standing in the queue of an unassuming Pound Shop.
Sure, I thought to myself, the middle classes - the consumer experts and all their mates - may have abandoned Woolworth's for the sprawling aisles, loyalty cards and customer service tills of the major supermarket chains, but that was years ago.
For some time, the now defunkt Woolies had become a place where normal people shopped within walking distance of their homes, looking for garden gloves, toys for the kids, sweets and cheap DVD players - the kind of people for whom the credit crunch is a tautology, like wet water.
Woolworth's lost it's real customer - the working classes - to the Pound Shop and it's allie, the 99p Store.
These low budget retailers have been springing up - maybe two or three to a High Street in some areas - under the noses but beneath the radar of the consumer experts for around a decade.
Their profit margins are tighter than anyone else's. They may not be paying their executives mind-boggling bonuses. They're not spending millions on celebrity centred advertising in an attempt to convince us that they really care about cutting the price of our weekly shop.
As the economy took a nose-dive, affecting working class people years before anyone else cared to notice, they increasingly took refuge in the Pound Shop with all its randomness, cluttered aisles, moody brand names and reassuring lack of...polish.
Which I guess is where I came in...
