Where’s the first place I head when I arrive in the UK? No, not Harrods (how gauche!) or Charing Cross (where I go to feed my reading addictions) or even the hotel (unless it’s very late at night and I’m tired from flying all day).
It’s Boots. Not just Boots … Boots the Chemist.
(Some of us Americans find the British use of the word “chemist” charming. It sounds so much better than “pharmacist” or “druggist.”)
I’ve been known to book flights to Europe that have exceptionally long layovers at Heathrow so I can stock up things like fizzy vitamin C tablets and (pre 2001) my favorite shower gels. I’ve even been known to try to convince my husband, “That flight through London was the best I could find to San Francisco!”
When I actually do get outside of Heathrow, I drive everyone crazy by insisting we stop at every Boots we pass so that I can stockpile my favorite goodies, some of which must be stealthily hunted. I remember dragging my friend Kate into every Boots in London so we could search for a juniper berry-based shower gel, the only gel that worked at waking me up in the morning enough to face my horrible marketing job back home in Connecticut.
Then a couple years ago, Boots came to America.
There aren’t any freestanding Boots shops here, but Boots’ brand products are now available at department stores like Target and pharmacies like CVS.* At first, I was thrilled. When there was a run on a Boots’ wrinkle cream last year, thanks to a BBC program, there were no jars of the product to be found anywhere in Britain. I smugly walked into Target, where I found jars of the stuff. (I think American women are immune to hyperbole about beauty products. If you tell them there’s a candy bar that won’t end up on their ass, though, they’ll buy it hook, line, and sinker.)
Now that there’s Boots, Boots everywhere, going to Boots in the UK isn’t the same. I was passing through Heathrow in March on the way back from Mumbai, and I listlessly poked around the shelves. What’s wrong with me, I thought. I should be wetting myself with glee. I blamed the fact that I couldn’t bring anything bigger than 4 ounces on the flight back to the U.S. and that I was feeling anti-capitalistic after seeing India. But the fact was, I’d seen all the shower gels, the makeup, the wrinkle creams a couple weeks before in Nashua, New Hampshire. The magic was gone.
I’ll be in London for five days in December, so I’m curious if my mood will change when I’m able to peruse a proper Boots, not just the abbreviated airport version. I hate to see my love affair end over too much familiarity.
*It should be mentioned that I know Brits who feel the same way about Target and CVS as I do about Boots.
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My personal favorite: the blue-tubed chapstick. Nothing is smoother! I actually think, though, that it’s made by Labello (Germany and France)–another favorite.
Holly
http://www.wonderandmarvels.com
Diana,
I have to admit to having purchased some Boots face cream because I love the smell of the stores…when I find the time to actually *use* the cream, it immediately takes me back to browsing in the shops (particularly the one at Covent Garden).
I think you’ll do it…even if you can buy their products in the US, you can’t get that fix of the real Boots.
Have fun…and please inhale one for me. (Okay, so how weird of a request is THAT!)
Elizabeth
Elizabeth, I’ll be sure to take a deep sniff for you. Now that you mention it, Boots does have a unique smell. It’s probably what’s missing at Heathrow.
Funny post. Now that I’ve lived in London for 9 years (gasp!), Boots has become simply the place to stock up on supplies. Instead, I thrill when I re-visit Duane-Reade and Rite-Aid in NYC, my former home town.
Jennifer, I think you even offered to look for some shower gel for me (a long time ago). You enabler you!