After three decades of service, Tyre Sales Abingdon, the local independent tyre specialist located behind the Esso Garage on Marcham Road, has closed its doors. The company will continue operations through its sister outlet, Sutton Courtenay Tyres, located just 10 minutes away.
Kwik Fit, a leading supplier of tyres in the UK, is all set to open a new branch at the former Tyre Sales Abingdon premises.
Thanks to Newcomer for this report.
This conspicuous black-and-white timber-framed building in Stert Street has a symmetrical gabled roof and a Tudor appearance. The shopfront with large glass windows has an abandoned look. The building once housed the much loved Prices Stationers which closed in December 2021. The freehold was sold in August 2023, but no changes have been visible since and the shop remains empty. Hopefully something will happen soon to give it a new purpose.
Shop window screens, like these on Bury Street in Abingdon, are becoming more common as businesses look for ways to catch people’s attention.
Shops have used screens for decades. Back in the 1970s, in Bury Street, the Cathode Ray Tube TVs in Radio Rentals and Wigfalls Television would sometimes show live TV. In the 2000s, plasma and LCD screens made digital displays more practical, and by the 2010s, LED technology bought in bigger, brighter, and more flexible screens.
In Bury Street, Newbury Building Society and Oxford Vapours both use screens to promote their services.
Oxford Vapours are not only standing up against unlicensed vape traders, and promoting their own products, they also show their charity of the year: My Life My Choice – an award-winning charity run by and for people with learning disabilities in Oxfordshire.
I more often write about petrol prices when they’re volatile and hit new highs. But this time, the question is why are all the service stations in Abingdon charging almost exactly the same price for unleaded?
For years, a certain supermarket, let us call them T, in Abingdon was the place to go for the cheapest petrol in town. That’s no longer the case. A recent snapshot (February 21st, 2025) reveals a surprising uniformity.
T now matches the Vineyard petrol station, which used to be more expensive.
And T is 0.2p per litre more expensive than the Esso station on Marcham Road, a station that used to be pricier.
T in Abingdon appears to be the most expensive T petrol station in Oxfordshire. Here’s a comparison:
Unleaded Prices on 21/2/2025:
T Abingdon: 141.9p
T Banbury: 137.9p
T Bicester: 137.9p
T Didcot: 137.9p
T Oxford: 139.9p
A look at Didcot, a town with more supermarkets and other petrol stations, reveals a wider price range – from 136.9p to 142.9p. T in Didcot prices its unleaded at 137.9p. Are T using a location-based pricing strategy? Instead of setting uniform prices across the county, and undercutting local competitors as they have done in the past, they now seem to be aligning their prices with the local market.
Figures come from https://www.petrolprices.com/.