When the economy was booming, the store card became the symbol of a 'buy now pay later' generation.
Britain falls out of love with store cards as spending falls by 20pc in a year.
As a result, many consumers have ended up with wallets full of sometimes forgotten store cards.
However, their spend on store cards declined 20pc in the same period.
"But please include the store card prominently so my man won't think they're from some stupid Apparatus executive and kill him."
The end of the store card must be nigh.
I explained the situation to him and he arranged a single loan to pay off the store cards.
The number of store cards rose by 1.4 per cent in the six months to September 1989.
Big retail has been quite happy to push store cards to people who neither needed nor could afford them.
Then I have a few store cards and a health insurance card - that could take forever to replace.