Clintons Cards

Clinton’s is located practically next door to Card Centre on Albany Road, with only a disused shop separating them… surely there is some logic in this, but I have to admit that it escapes me! Both shops sell almost identical product ranges and share the same commercial emphasis, clearly concentrating most of their effort on the sale of greetings cards. There’s not much to distinguish one from the other in my opinion, as the majority of the stock is either of the ‘humorous’ variety, or of the schmaltzy candy-​coated kind, (flowers, kittens, stylised teddy bears, and utopian rustic scenes that don’t exist in hardly anyone’s reality… you know the type… all replete with cringe-​inducing idylls, and sentimental verse that are the poetic equivalent of the two times table… yeah, that sophisticated!)
Other items for sale include cuddly toys, gift wrap, and plastic helium balloons… has no-​one told these people that the reserves of helium on planet earth are close to running out? And I won’t go into the fact that plastic comes from the petro-​chemical industry, as I think we all know the score where fossil fuels are concerned…
Card Centre probably wins the price war on the whole, but has sacrificed quality, (and several thousand trees), to achieve a pretty shallow victory! The only thing that I can say in their favour is that a lot of their cards are so flimsy that, at least, they probably use less trees than Clinton’s. Hardly a heartfelt vote of commendation!
My vote, on Albany Road, is actually with the Vision 21 Gift Shop. Not only can you buy more interesting cards here, but you can probably pick up a half decent present to go with it… and the cause is 100% more worthy!

Sometimes I find myself quite disppointed with Clintons. They seem to forget sometimes what it is to be a card shop. They focus instead too much on little toys and fluffy things that I really don’t want. I guess that there must be a market for them but not for me, thanks. Paperchase has upped the stakes in the greeting card game, making it hard for any other shop to do quite so well. Clintons, in particular, often gets stuck between the high level, expensive, nice-​looking cards and the absolute trash of cheap shops. This Clintons, then, was a nice surprise, offering a good range of cards and generally reasonable prices. The staff here are much nicer than they are at the shop in town too, so if you live around this area, save yourself a trip into town to be insulted by the service. Come here and be pleasantly surprised by your whole experience.