We had two sports shops when I was starting to buy cricket bats, 25 odd years ago. One sold GN and SS (Stuart Surridge - they had Contours, Jumbos and Turbos, all of which were expensive bats) and the other was GM and Slazenger.
What I remember was that they all seemed really expensive and I ended up with firstly a decidedly rubbish GN Powerspot Tufcoat and then a Slazenger V12 Super Polyarmour which was a lot better, but I was buying to a budget!!! I was always jealous of my mate's GN Twin Scoop and then his Dynadrive, which was an absolute beauty...