"I don't mean Ratners!"

News that the British institution that is Argos is going down the pan comes as no surprise to moi.

Always a bit of a "tacky" store, emerging as it did out of the ashes of the old "Green Shield Stamps" emporia, its most recent reinvention - slowly phasing-out the traditional catalogues, paper order slips, little "betting-shop-style" pens and tills in favour of touch-screen terminals (half of which never work) and card prepayment machines (most of which never work) - has created a form of organised chaos at the collection points that, last time I went there, was reminiscent of a North African airport (minus the goats).

I went to purchase an expansion drive to backup the old PC and ended up spending 45 minutes of my life I will never get back, waiting, with all the other red-faced and angry punters, for an order that their "professional staff" had promptly lost - it seems some lucky person who was waiting for their purchased 16Gb memory stick ended up with my £60 Seagate 2Tb drive by mistake; I ended up with the correct item and a hand-written receipt eventually.

When it comes to rewarding shopping experiences, I think only the "Seventh Gate of Hell" that is IKEA comes close...

Anyway, in its favour, its appeal to the chavvier elements of society was forever immortalised in song by none other than "The Blonde Bombsite" herself, Miss Lily Savage!

Lily Savage - Argos Is A Girl's Best Friend