Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Food & Drink => Topic started by: Cudzoziemiec on 16 January, 2019, 11:30:48 am
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Yeah, to go with Food lore.
Fine Fare
Key Markets
Gateway
Somerfield
Those are the supermarkets that stood in succession in one corner of the Merrywalks shopping precinct in Stroud, behind what was then Woolworths. Or perhaps Key Markets came before Fine Fare. Anyway, I think there might be a Co-op there now. Perhaps Jaded could investigate? Or perhaps not.
I look forward to hearing other bygone names and perhaps finding out that some of these chains survive in remote wastelands of shopping.
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My mum used to shop at Fine Fare. I think that one also mutated through Gateway and into Safeway. I think the site is an Iceland now.
My first ever job was chief monkey at the Co-op. Apparently, according to my mother, that just closed. To be honest, as the main 'industry' in the town appears to be the promulgation of retail park supermarkets (I'm never sure on the economics of having all the major supermarkets in easy drive of each other, people do realise they sell the same stuff at basically the same prices, don't they?), I'm surprised it survived so long (it was a smallish high street supermarket, like they all used to be).
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The first significant supermarket in Leyland was Victor Value, that was acquired by Tesco in 1968. Tesco built a big new store in the early 2000s and the original Victor Value building continues as a branch of Iceland.
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Did Kwik Save count as a supermarket?
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The current Tesco in Leyland stands on the site of two supermarkets, one was a Co-Op, the other was built as a Mainstop, then became an International, then Carrefour, then Gateway, then Food Giant, then it was demolished.
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Did Kwik Save count as a supermarket?
In Liverpool, it counted as Care in the Community (obligatory dress code was nightwear and slippers). Still, it was one step above Diamond Frozen Food. Frozen kebabs ftw.
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Did Kwik Save count as a supermarket?
In Liverpool, it counted as Care in the Community (obligatory dress code was nightwear and slippers). Still, it was one step above Diamond Frozen Food. Frozen kebabs ftw.
I think that role in Bristol has been taken over by Asdal. The Kwik Save I remember had a separate greengrocer's in the same building, just in case shoppers should fall prey to a sudden urge. That site is now our fourth-nearest Co-op.
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The first significant supermarket in Leyland was Victor Value, that was acquired by Tesco in 1968. Tesco built a big new store in the early 2000s and the original Victor Value building continues as a branch of Iceland.
Victor Value. Fine Fare. Retail victims of declining educational standards that led to subsequent generations failing to appreciate the value of alliteration in acquisition.
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MacFisheries
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The first significant supermarket in Leyland was Victor Value, that was acquired by Tesco in 1968. Tesco built a big new store in the early 2000s and the original Victor Value building continues as a branch of Iceland.
Victor Value. Fine Fare. Retail victims of declining educational standards that led to subsequent generations failing to appreciate the value of alliteration in acquisition.
Heather's mum refused to shop at Kwik Save, as it was incorrectly spelt. She now won't shop at Lidl, as it is set out anti-clockwise
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Heather's mum refused to shop at Kwik Save, as it was incorrectly spelt. She now won't shop at Lidl, as it is set out anti-clockwise
A kindred spirit with Dr Biggles, who refuses to install apps on his iPad because 'app' isn't a word.
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Presto
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Yeah, to go with Food lore.
Fine Fare
Key Markets
Gateway
Somerfield
Those are the supermarkets that stood in succession in one corner of the Merrywalks shopping precinct in Stroud, behind what was then Woolworths. Or perhaps Key Markets came before Fine Fare. Anyway, I think there might be a Co-op there now. Perhaps Jaded could investigate? Or perhaps not.
Similarly, one site in my home town had, over the years:
Lennons
Gateway
Somerfield
I just checked Streetview, and it shows a Co-Op - however,a bit of Googling suggests this is now closed. I have no idea what's there now.
The local Kwik Save appears to be derelict.
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Bishops
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I used to pop into LoCost near the Hallam Uni in sheffield when I was a student there. Or intend to go there, but then actually go to the chippy and end up sitting in the Student Union drinking pints waiting for off-peak time on the buses so the fares were cheaper.
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Bejam
Jackson's (in Hull)
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Netto.
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Safeway (now Morrison's)
Presto
Geographically-named Co-ops: Sheffield had S&E (Sheffield & Ecclesall) and B&C (Brightside & Carbrook) when I was a PSO.
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I wonder how many of these were regional? I recognize several names: Bejam, Safeway, KwikSave, I think Presto – but others I've definitely never heard.: Lennons, Jackson's, Bishops, Diamond Frozen Food, LoCost. Of course they might have been national just I never encountered them. I think Netto was, maybe is, German?
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I don't think Sainsbury's ventured north of its southern birthplace till the mid 1970s. It was an almost exotic luxury for me as a student in Sheffield, where the established supermarkets stocked aisles of biscuits and little of what I considered Sensible Food.
Here in Burnt Oak, our local Tesco closed a few months ago. This was the replacement for one of Jack Cohen's first outlets.
There are, of course, many other Tesco branches within a few miles.
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One of the first large supermarkets to appear in the area was Carreforre, which was in Telford town centre.
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There was Wm Low around here. They were quite modern and impressive for the time. Then taken over by Tesco, seems most of them have since been replaced by much larger Tesco shops.
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I wonder how many of these were regional? I recognize several names: Bejam, Safeway, KwikSave, I think Presto – but others I've definitely never heard.: Lennons, Jackson's, Bishops, Diamond Frozen Food, LoCost. Of course they might have been national just I never encountered them.
I was wondering the same thing. (Of course I may have simply missed the ones that were pre-1985.)
I don't think I discovered Morrisons until I was a student, and I remember barakta not having heard of Budgens when I first met her. Somerfield's another one that I'd heard of (mainly in the context of where you could drop off milk bottle tops so Blue Peter could turn them into guide dogs) but never actually saw in the flesh.
I think Netto was, maybe is, German?
Danish. It makes the German ones look positively upmarket (and I'm only slightly prejudiced against it because there's a dog in the logo). I remember avoiding the Canterbury branch which always seemed to have people hanging around smoking in it. Often they were the staff. The one we lived near in Sheffield wasn't that bad, but we only really used it for generic tinned goods.
This thread wouldn't be complete without mention of the authentic 1980s Tescos that survived in West Bromwich until 2013.
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I think there were a lot of regional supermarkets in the past. There's one I used to get dragged around as a child, but I just cannot remember its name. It went through various incarnations before being knocked down and rebuilt and ending up a drug rehabilitation centre. Which of course is not a bad thing.
Gah.... it's driving me mad. It was a proper old school 60s supermarket. I'll get the name in the end though, I promise :P
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I don't think I discovered Morrisons until I was a student,
In Canterbury? I have a feelign there was Morrisons in Buckinghamshire, where my grandmother lived, but it certainly didn't exist at about the same latitude 90 miles or so west, so it might have been a southeast/home counties thing. (Not sure if Buckinghamshire really qualifies as home counties, but near enough.)
and I remember barakta not having heard of Budgens when I first met her.
Another one. Not sure if I've ever been in one.
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~Ford & Lock's and Lipton's in Barnstaple when I was young, and Sanders in the Weston-super-Mare area
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I don't think I discovered Morrisons until I was a student,
In Canterbury?
I was a student in Canterbury at the time, but I think the Morrisons in question was somewhere in the vicinity of PeatBogHorror - an area notorious for not making its mind up about being in the North.
I have a feelign there was Morrisons in Buckinghamshire, where my grandmother lived, but it certainly didn't exist at about the same latitude 90 miles or so west, so it might have been a southeast/home counties thing. (Not sure if Buckinghamshire really qualifies as home counties, but near enough.)
The bit south of Aylesbury surely qualifies. Seems a bit pointless not including the rest.
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Presumably no connection with Lipton tea?
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I'd never heard of Morrisons until about 1990 when a northern housemate told me about them. I believe they had the ad slogan "There's more reasons to shop at Morrisons". Catchy. I remember it almost 30 years later. They're still shit though...
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Not so much a supermarket as a chain, Hugh Fay and Co Manchester.
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There was a Pricerite in Sittingbourne when I were littler.
I see Wikithing has a page of them. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_supermarket_chains_in_the_United_Kingdom)
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Wullie Low's when I was growing up in Scotland.
Also Littlewoods used to have a sizeable food section in the Dundee branch. I suspect not unrelated to it being the closest store to what were the bus stops out to the schemes back in the day. Not sure if this counts though.
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Morrisons was a new thing in the East Midlands too – they had to build one on our school playing fields which annoyed the student smokers greatly as it was the best bit of playing field to elude the teachers' surveillance (not that the teachers could probably see out of the nicotinic fug of their staff room anyway).
It's also where my mother worked for many years after all the garment factories disappeared off to be sweatshops in the far-east.
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I'd never heard of Morrisons until about 1990 when a northern housemate told me about them. I believe they had the ad slogan "There's more reasons to shop at Morrisons". Catchy. I remember it almost 30 years later. They're still shit though...
There's a smallish grocery near here called More Reasons...
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Presto
The company behind Presto bought Safeway
for some bizzare reason when the vast majority of Presto's became Safeways (as it was the better known name or something), the Presto in Cupar remaind Presto until it closed.
There was Wm Low around here. They were quite modern and impressive for the time. Then taken over by Tesco, seems most of them have since been replaced by much larger Tesco shops.
there are clues in the design as to which were designed for Wullie Low's, but the ones that were can often be identified by the tiling in the bakery having not been updated.
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I remembered Fine Fare, and I also remembered my mum collecting Green Shield stamps, so I looked up what happened to them. They (Green Shield) became Argos. I never knew that!
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I thought Safeway was higher class than Presto. (You'll be depressed at Presto...)
Green Shield had its HQ near Edgware Station, which was on my way to school.
Green Shield House became Premier House and the offices have now been converted to overpriced shoebox housing.
Argos is, I think, now part of Sainsbury's.
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I wonder how many of these were regional? I recognize several names: Bejam, Safeway, KwikSave, I think Presto – but others I've definitely never heard.: Lennons, Jackson's, Bishops, Diamond Frozen Food, LoCost. Of course they might have been national just I never encountered them. I think Netto was, maybe is, German?
I wondered if anybody would mention Bejam.
If you want yo know what an abbatoir smells like, defrost one of their Economy Dog Food tubes :sick:
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Hinton's in Cockerton. Now a small Co-Op, but it felt big at the time.
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Lipton > Gateway> Somerfields> Morrisons
I think that was the evolution.
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There was a Pricerite in Sittingbourne when I were littler.
I see Wikithing has a page of them. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_supermarket_chains_in_the_United_Kingdom)
Oooh! But of course there would be.
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I remembered Fine Fare, and I also remembered my mum collecting Green Shield stamps, so I looked up what happened to them. They (Green Shield) became Argos. I never knew that!
Were Green Shield stamps from Fine Fare? That would make sense as I remember my mum collecting them – great pages of them – at about the time of Fine Fare. And there was later an Argos in the same shopping centre, though I thought Fine Fare was at the other end. So maybe at one point Fine Fare and Key Markets were there simultaneously. Oh, what choice!
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I wonder how many of these were regional? I recognize several names: Bejam, Safeway, KwikSave, I think Presto – but others I've definitely never heard.: Lennons, Jackson's, Bishops, Diamond Frozen Food, LoCost. Of course they might have been national just I never encountered them. I think Netto was, maybe is, German?
Bishops was regional- had about 60 stores in the South-East, was bought by, or became, Budgens.
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Booker used to own (or franchise) a lot of the smaller local supermarkets - Fine Fare, Londis, Budgens, Mace etc.
Of which there are zillions.
They are, amongst other things, a wholesale supplier for whom, in another life, I used to drive an artic.
Booker were bought up by Tesco in (I think) 2017.
Fun fact - they're the same Booker as the one responsible for the literary prize.
ETA - Does anyone remember Pink Shield Stamps - or is there something wrong with my memory?
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Wavy Line
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ETA - Does anyone remember Pink Shield Stamps - or is there something wrong with my memory?
Pink stamps were A thing.
The Co-op had its own Dividend Stamps.
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Presumably no connection with Lipton tea?
Yes, I think the same company. My mother used to get her groceries (we called them 'arrants' in North Devon) from Liptons.
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Wikipedia says:
Tesco founder Jack Cohen was an advocate of stamps; he signed up in 1963, shortly after his competitor Fine Fare adopted S&H Pink Stamps, and Tesco became one of the company’s largest clients. So pink from Fine Fare, green from Tesco – and presumably Key Markets among many others.
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Presumably no connection with Lipton tea?
Yes, I think the same company. My mother used to get her groceries (we called them 'arrants' in North Devon) from Liptons.
I'm not a fan of Lipton tea. :(
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Presumably no connection with Lipton tea?
Yes, I think the same company. My mother used to get her groceries (we called them 'arrants' in North Devon) from Liptons.
Both were at one time owned by Lever Brothers (Unilever). They decided to get out of the retail market and sold the supermarkets (and MacFisheries). Part of the deal was that they couldn't use the name for the tea in the UK, which is why the Brooke Bond brand was promoted.
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We had a George Mason's when I was a child. I don't know if they existed anywhere else.
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MacFisheries! There's a name! Became MacMarket, then International Stores...
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Lipton > Gateway> Somerfields> Morrisons
I think that was the evolution.
International > Gateway> Somerfield and then bought out by Cooperative
I think.
I worked for Gateway
Liptons became Presto (became cooperative pioneer where I was)
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Somerfiled became Morrisons.
Morrisons are Leeds based, therefore Northern, therefore questionable.
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When I was a student, in Manchester, another Southerner friend and I used to define civilisation by how far north Sainsbury's had penetrated.
Even the biggest supermarkets were really regional then (late '70s'). I'd never seen a Morrison's or an Asda before going to Manchester.
Back home and back into the '60s the only supermarket local to us was Savage's which I've always assumed was a one-off local shop.
After a while the other local food 'department store' Lancaster & Crook (you used to have to pay in each section, fruit and veg separately from groceries and so on) changed to be a 'supermarket' with checkouts.
Savage's now appears to be a Co-op while Lankies (as we always called it) seems to be a dance studio.
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Rusts had quite a few branches, mainly in Surrey, but also one just over the road from where I live now in east Swindon. It's a Co-Op these days.
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The Somerfields round here (Dundee) were bought by The Co-Op group who I think bought the smaller stored.
Edit: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/jul/16/coop.somerfield
More a case of large convenience stores here but:
Watson and Philip had a chain brand of "VG"
Many VGs became "Morning Noon and Night" which was sub-branded MACE
When the owner of MNN sold up (then blew his money on a football team...) the shops were bought by the Scottish Midland Co-Op.
The result of this is best seen in Beauly, where on one side of the street is a Co-Op group Co-Op and on the other side of the street a Scot Mid Co-Op.
https://goo.gl/maps/p9LJpUoJMeJ2
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Booths is probably the best food retailer in the country. I won't shop there because you always spend twice as much as you thought you would.
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Presumably no connection with Lipton tea?
Yep, Sir Thomas Lipton. Liptons was the first supermarket in my home town of Crowborough, utilising the old cinema building. Killed off by the arrival of Waitrose.
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Somerfiled became Morrisons.
Morrisons are Leeds based, therefore Northern, therefore questionable.
Morrisons are not Leeds based, they started in Rawson Market in Bradford & their headquarters are still in the city.
Asda is Leeds based.
I think in my granns local co-op in Bradford became a fine fare then went back to being branded a co-op until it closed last year. I used to have the job of sticking the co-op stamps in the book I seem to remember the 5's being blue & the 20's being blue & pink
The extint supermarket which I remember when growing up in Hull where Goodfellows & Jacksons dont think they existed outside Hull & East Yorkshire, think goodfellows was the larger stores, they were taken over by sainsburys.
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Somerfiled became Morrisons.
Morrisons are Leeds based, therefore Northern, therefore questionable.
Somerfield was Gateway and then was was bought by The Coop. Morrisons bought Safeway which is when they actually became a national chain as Safeway were bigger than Morrisons at the time.
One I remember was Hillards in Rotherham. They were bought out by Tesco who took over the shop, and have now closed that one as it was on an island
between the river and the canal, so couldn't expand. They've built a new one on the other side of the town centre.
Another unusual one I remember was Brian Ford's in Barnstaple. My mum always wanted to go there when we went to visit my Grandma and Grandad. It was sort of half way between a supermarket and a cash and carry. Unfortunately that one closed a few years ago to make way for yet another Tesco
We used to have a Symco near our Primary school, which is now a Bowling Alley/Health Spa, and our local independent 'Dishmond's' was bought out by the Coop while I was at University. All the locals still refer to it as Dishy's.
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God, I hate modern supermarkets. Aircraft hanger-sized soul vacuums. You can feel the pull before you even get through the door. If I had my way, the murders would start in the car park and escalate from there.
Sainsbury's – looks like it's trying and really not doing a good job of being posh, like they've dressed a turd in a teeny turd-sized suit and they're really proud about it.
Tesco – primary coloured place for people with mental health issues. Everyone looks like they're on industrial doses of haloperidol.
Asda – Walmart without the gun section, and judging by the customers you know why.
M&S Foodhall – ever wanted to shrinkwrap a panda? So did they. Then put it in a box.
Morrisons – you always feel there should be more pies. Even the uniforms are the colour of gravy.
Aldi – all the convenience of an East German convenience store c1981.
Lidl – the shopping equivalent of self-flagellation. And you don't have to take your clothes off first. Though many of their customers do.
Co-op – as I used to work there, I find myself facing up their displays for them and rotating stock. I think I was programmed.
Waitrose – worth it to fuck with the Daily Mail readers. You expect to find Prince Charles's gurning head in the frozen food section. Duchy certified.
Waitrose is the best of the bunch, mostly because they're not entirely proud to shout sawdust and cat fur, two for one, and only £1.99.
The grocery store near me (Big Y, no I don't know either) in the US had aisles long enough to land the space shuttle down. I swear one of them was just bagels. A hundred different brands of the same bagel. And bagels are mostly the doughy equivalent of a donkey's ringpiece.
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The Golders Green Road Sainsbury's of my youth was closed on Mondays, like most butchers of the time were.
They had separate counters at which you would need to pay, before progressing to the next type of foodstuff.
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The Golders Green Road Sainsbury's of my youth was closed on Mondays, like most butchers of the time were.
They had separate counters at which you would need to pay, before progressing to the next type of foodstuff.
Nobody killed things over the weekend / sabbath.
I think the same applies to not buying anything from a fishmongers on a Monday...
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Thank you, Ian. I am *SO* nicking that...!
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Somerfiled became Morrisons.
Morrisons are Leeds based, therefore Northern, therefore questionable.
Bradford, not Leeds.
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primary coloured place for people with mental health issues. Everyone looks like they're on industrial doses of haloperidol.
This applies to them all. Supermarkets are the cause of it. Even Waitrose.
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Waitrose is full of rude people who barge past you and tut theatrically.
Sainsbury's is generally OK but you get the odd senior with dementia staring at baked beans all day and a few pikey builders swearing loudly into their mobiles.
Tesco is like Night Of The Living Dead except all the zombies are obese.
Asda is full of orange-hued women, men wearing baseball caps, and screaming kids, so Swindon average.
The Co-Op in Old Town is full of people who may or may not actually have died ten years ago.
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In London we have the glory that is Wholefoods. I like shopping there, but I know in my soul there's something wrong about it. They sell that same brand of pita bread that I can get at my local ethnic store at 4 bags for £1, at £1.50 a bag. Then again the closest branch to me is on High St Ken. The young royals however shop at the Waitrose a bit further down the road.
In my little area of West London, Waitrose has a kosher section, Tescos had a Polish aisle and Morrisons had a halal section (it's since closed and was turned into a Lidl). I did wonder how they decided which branches of which supermarkets had the various ethnic/religious sections.
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Hinton's in Cockerton. Now a small Co-Op, but it felt big at the time.
Hintons- you have a good memory.
Was there a Walter Wilson store in Darlo? I believe that was a small chain.
Their strapline was "WW the smiling service store".
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The grocery store near me (Big Y, no I don't know either) in the US had aisles long enough to land the space shuttle down. I swear one of them was just bagels. A hundred different brands of the same bagel. And bagels are mostly the doughy equivalent of a donkey's ringpiece.
This description reminded me of this
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7iMjFoT7yWE
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In my little area of West London, Waitrose has a kosher section, Tescos had a Polish aisle and Morrisons had a halal section (it's since closed and was turned into a Lidl). I did wonder how they decided which branches of which supermarkets had the various ethnic/religious sections.
They put a lot of effort into knowing their customers, one of the Tesco metros in Dundee has an Irish shelf presumably due to Dundee being popular with Irish students.
Used to be able to get Irish Market Cadbury items long discontinued in the UK market like mint crisp, and also Tayto crisps and Club soft drinks.
It's a much reduced selection there now sadly, the other stores have a mix of east-central european products.
Always worth a look for something new and interesting.
I keep meaning to go into the sklep near work to see what interesting stuff I can find.
Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk
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When we moved to Cambridgeshire in the late 70s there was what we considered to be a huge supermarket/cash&carry called Beehive somewhere near March. I think it might have been a co-op spin off. It was a real treat to go and stock up on food from there.
Upthread someone (CBA to look) mentioned the limited choice in Aldi - this was my saviour when I had severe anxiety and couldn't cope with 83 types of baked beans in Tesco.
Takeover madness had resulted in a local village having two big co-op supermarkets opposite each other, one an original, always been Midlands Co-op, and the other used to be (possibly Somerfield) Central England Co-op.
When I was a child in Harringay in the 1960s we had a Tesco the size of a postage stamp in Green Lanes -it was very modern!
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Jacksons made it as far as North Yorkshire. There was one in York and until a few years ago one in Malton.
Hillards in York was the first supermarket I remember. It was a place of wonder when it opened, seemed huge. Then an Asda opened and dwarfed it.
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The grocery store near me (Big Y, no I don't know either) in the US had aisles long enough to land the space shuttle down. I swear one of them was just bagels. A hundred different brands of the same bagel. And bagels are mostly the doughy equivalent of a donkey's ringpiece.
This description reminded me of this
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7iMjFoT7yWE
And that reminded me of something in connection with this:
Upthread someone (CBA to look) mentioned the limited choice in Aldi - this was my saviour when I had severe anxiety and couldn't cope with 83 types of baked beans in Tesco.
One of my mum's friends had some sort of musical trip to Leningrad as it still was, made friends with a Russian called Irena and invited her back here. When she arrived, her first visit to a Western supermarket was somewhat daunting. Firstly, there is a sign on the door that says Visa. She'd spent so much time and effort (and probably money) getting her visa to leave the USSR and visit the UK, did she need another one for specially for this shop? What was so special? Or did they just want to check her visa before allowing her to buy anything? And then the shelves and variety: how did anyone ever know what to buy?
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I keep meaning to go into the sklep near work to see what interesting stuff I can find.
Things that look like Wotsits but are puffed maize in various flavours, savoury and sweet.
Some decent bread and especially rolls.
Some different types of yogurt, cheese and other dairy products like fermented milk and buttermilk.
And lots of tinned meat products that haven't been seen in UK since 1952.
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I keep meaning to go into the sklep near work to see what interesting stuff I can find.
Things that look like Wotsits but are puffed maize in various flavours, savoury and sweet.
Some decent bread and especially rolls.
Some different types of yogurt, cheese and other dairy products like fermented milk and buttermilk.
And lots of tinned meat products that haven't been seen in UK since 1952.
I don't usually get any further than the sweet selections...
Particularly like the Wawel stuff that Tescos have been selling recently.
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I'm not sure how you define 'supermarket' but where I grew up, on the south edge of London in the '50s, we had a Payantake, which was our only example of a self-serve establishment (other than the public library) and was of a size that would now be called a 'convenience store'. My father liked to point out that it should more correctly be called Takeandpay - though as far as I recall he never set foot in the place. (He also complained, later on when a new shop opened up calling itself a 'Superette' ::-) )
On the opposite side of the High Street stood Sainsbury's - emphatically not a supermarket at that time (say 1955) but still the best and most popular grocer's in town. Inside, like its neigbouring shops, it was narrow dark and deep, with about 7 separate counters (3 on each side, one at the far end) for different foodstuffs such as cheese, butter, bacon, sausages etc. Housewives would patiently queue at each counter in turn, giving perfect opportunity to receive and pass on gossip as the queues slowly rotated. I found it incredibly tedious apart from the endless fascination that was the butter counter.
Next to Sainsbury's was Boots which was a similar size and shape inside - but the inner sanctum of Boots was, oddly, a lending library set up in opposition to the much larger public one which was a bit further away. We had a book that my mother had borrowed from there, it was so far overdue that the fine would have far exceeded the cost of a replacement copy and she never had the face to return it - the title has always stuck in my mind - Leopard In My Lap.
Standing on the corner over the road was the Odeon cinema. Sometime around the time that Billy Cotton sang:
They turned our local Palais
into a bowling alley and
fings ain't what they used ter be
the building was gutted and turned into a Fine Fare - our first real supermarket. That would be the early '60s I think. True son of my father, I never went in there.
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I keep meaning to go into the sklep near work to see what interesting stuff I can find.
Things that look like Wotsits but are puffed maize in various flavours, savoury and sweet.
Some decent bread and especially rolls.
Some different types of yogurt, cheese and other dairy products like fermented milk and buttermilk.
And lots of tinned meat products that haven't been seen in UK since 1952.
We don't have a sklep in Leyland, but Lidl's stocking policy is very sensitive to demand, so our branch has a lot of Polish products to cater for those working at Amazon and the infrastructure company Enterprise.
Lidl is also just around the corner from the local takeaway cluster, so it stocks a lot of Italian, Indian and Chinese staples. A suitable catchment can alter the profile of the discounters.
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Booker used to own (or franchise) a lot of the smaller local supermarkets - Fine Fare, Londis, Budgens, Mace etc.
Of which there are zillions.
They are, amongst other things, a wholesale supplier for whom, in another life, I used to drive an artic.
Booker were bought up by Tesco in (I think) 2017.
Fun fact - they're the same Booker as the one responsible for the literary prize.
ETA - Does anyone remember Pink Shield Stamps - or is there something wrong with my memory?
The pink stamps were S&H stamps, Sperry and Hutchinson (They were green everywhere else in the world but Green Shield beat them to the trade mark in the UK)
Leo's was an attempt by the CoOp to go upmarket, they had a store on Park Lane Toxteth which my father liked to go shopping at although he used to borrow my car to go there as it was less likely to be carjacked.
On the regional side I'm told that Roys of Wroxham is still going although they've now gone international with stores in Norwich and Thetford.
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On the opposite side of the High Street stood Sainsbury's - emphatically not a supermarket at that time (say 1955) but still the best and most popular grocer's in town. Inside, like its neigbouring shops, it was narrow dark and deep, with about 7 separate counters (3 on each side, one at the far end) for different foodstuffs such as cheese, butter, bacon, sausages etc. Housewives would patiently queue at each counter in turn, giving perfect opportunity to receive and pass on gossip as the queues slowly rotated. I found it incredibly tedious apart from the endless fascination that was the butter counter.
I find your fascination fascinating. What was so absorbing about the butter counter? Was it the weighing and cutting of lumps of butter or... what? I find it hard to imagine.
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On the opposite side of the High Street stood Sainsbury's - emphatically not a supermarket at that time (say 1955) but still the best and most popular grocer's in town. Inside, like its neigbouring shops, it was narrow dark and deep, with about 7 separate counters (3 on each side, one at the far end) for different foodstuffs such as cheese, butter, bacon, sausages etc. Housewives would patiently queue at each counter in turn, giving perfect opportunity to receive and pass on gossip as the queues slowly rotated. I found it incredibly tedious apart from the endless fascination that was the butter counter.
I find your fascination fascinating. What was so absorbing about the butter counter? Was it the weighing and cutting of lumps of butter or... what? I find it hard to imagine.
My home town had a butter market on the ground floor of the town hall. I was very disappointed to find it closed when I visited some time after 1975. It had a particular smell, and I think I missed reliving the smell as much as anything else. Not only butter was available, but anything else you might find in an indoor food market. The stall selling treacle toffee was a favourite.
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Trading stamps were an important part of the transition from Resale Price Maintenance in 1964. Before then retailers had to sell products at the same price. So a tin of Heinz beans always cost the same. The idea was to stabilise supply, and was a hangover from wartime prices and incomes policy.
Pink and Green stamps were a sort of discounting, a capitalist version of the Co-Op's dividend. Edward Heath was the driving force behind the demise of Resale Price Maintenance, as he wanted to harmonise us more with EEC practice. The result was increased competition, leading to a smaller number of suppliers, and the extinction of smaller operators.
RPM persisted into the 2000s for phamaceutical products, the idea being to subsidise smaller chemist shops. https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/news-and-analysis/features/does-the-end-of-resale-price-maintenance-mark-the-end-of-community-pharmacy-as-we-know-it/20004364.article?firstPass=false
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On the opposite side of the High Street stood Sainsbury's - emphatically not a supermarket at that time (say 1955) but still the best and most popular grocer's in town. Inside, like its neigbouring shops, it was narrow dark and deep, with about 7 separate counters (3 on each side, one at the far end) for different foodstuffs such as cheese, butter, bacon, sausages etc. Housewives would patiently queue at each counter in turn, giving perfect opportunity to receive and pass on gossip as the queues slowly rotated. I found it incredibly tedious apart from the endless fascination that was the butter counter.
I find your fascination fascinating. What was so absorbing about the butter counter? Was it the weighing and cutting of lumps of butter or... what? I find it hard to imagine.
Yes it was all the 'business' with the wooden butter pats - talk about playing with your food, these days I have a horror of any food that has been visibly 'played with' (so that lets me out of any pretentious restaurants thankfully for my finances).
(https://laurelleaffarm.com/item-photos/rustic-Italian-wooden-butter-paddles-or-gnocchi-board-set-wood-pasta-tools-Laurel-Leaf-Farm-item-no-m61998-1.jpg)
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Jacksons made it as far as North Yorkshire. There was one in York and until a few years ago one in Malton.
Hillards in York was the first supermarket I remember. It was a place of wonder when it opened, seemed huge. Then an Asda opened and dwarfed it.
Jackos were A Thing in the East Riding too. There was one in Pocklington - dunno what it is now.
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Leo's was an attempt by the CoOp to go upmarket, they had a store on Park Lane Toxteth which my father liked to go shopping at although he used to borrow my car to go there as it was less likely to be carjacked.
We had a couple of Leo's round here too. The Chingford one is now a Morrisons and the Leytonstone one, last time I looked, had turned into a Matalan.
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Jacksons made it as far as North Yorkshire. There was one in York and until a few years ago one in Malton.
Hillards in York was the first supermarket I remember. It was a place of wonder when it opened, seemed huge. Then an Asda opened and dwarfed it.
Jackos were A Thing in the East Riding too. There was one in Pocklington - dunno what it is now.
Having been various other things since (somerfield, safeways, most recently coop) it's now been flattened and the site covered in, I believe, retirement apartments. The Chinese takeaway is still there though.
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Yeah, to go with Food lore.
Fine Fare
Key Markets
Gateway
Somerfield
Those are the supermarkets that stood in succession in one corner of the Merrywalks shopping precinct in Stroud, behind what was then Woolworths. Or perhaps Key Markets came before Fine Fare. Anyway, I think there might be a Co-op there now. Perhaps Jaded could investigate? Or perhaps not.
I look forward to hearing other bygone names and perhaps finding out that some of these chains survive in remote wastelands of shopping.
I had a Saturday job working for Super Key which was the large version of Key Markets. They built it on a disused plot of land near to a Waitrose in the Meadway Shopping Centre in Reading around 40 years ago. The Superkey is now an Asda, whilst the Waitrose is now a gym!
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I worked in a Galbraith in Falkirk which subsequently became a Wm Low and was then demolished.
Ive never set foot in a Morrison but they did stump up many £££ to buy the site of Brockville Park Falkirk in my home town to open one of the 1st Morrisons in Scotland (all agreed before the Safeway conversions iirc).
I've lived in the same bit of Edinburgh for 22 years now and going in reverse order my local Sainsburys was previously a Blockbuster (remember them) and a Wm Low before that.
Residents of genteel Comely Bank in Edinburgh had a massive party when their Safeway became a Waitrose rather than a Morrisons, as they reckoned it protected somewhere between £50k - £100k on their property values.
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I think the Byres Road, Glasgow Safeway also became a Waitrose,
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Yeah, well, Byres Road.
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I worked in a Galbraith in Falkirk which subsequently became a Wm Low and was then demolished.
Ive never set foot in a Morrison but they did stump up many £££ to buy the site of Brockville Park Falkirk in my home town to open one of the 1st Morrisons in Scotland (all agreed before the Safeway conversions iirc).
Morrison's have the best cafes of the major chains. One convenient one is on the Three Coasts at Malton. Another very useful one is at the foot of the Shap climb at Kendal. Planting tends to obscure it, but it's here. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.3410343,-2.7371925,3a,52.1y,70.33h,85.01t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8oJ1eWW8Y0k8aBebQm-gsA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en&authuser=0
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Saw this and thought of this thread.
Nearest big town to where I lived as a child. Wm Low, opened by Isla St. Clair no less!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/17/scottish-shopping-centre-sale-postings-kirkcaldy
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Saw this and thought of this thread.
Nearest big town to where I lived as a child. Wm Low, opened by Isla St. Clair no less!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/17/scottish-shopping-centre-sale-postings-kirkcaldy
Quite who would see it as a development opportunity is another matter.
Presumably a house builder or possibly offices.
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Saw this and thought of this thread.
Nearest big town to where I lived as a child. Wm Low, opened by Isla St. Clair no less!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/17/scottish-shopping-centre-sale-postings-kirkcaldy
Quite who would see it as a development opportunity is another matter.
Presumably a house builder or possibly offices.
Offices:
"Our Edinburgh headquarters is just out side the city centre..." - well it works for Dunfermline
Hooses:
"On the train line to Edinburgh where..." - that one even works as far north as Cupar.
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Saw this and thought of this thread.
Nearest big town to where I lived as a child. Wm Low, opened by Isla St. Clair no less!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/17/scottish-shopping-centre-sale-postings-kirkcaldy
We had a centre like that in Leyland. It was abandoned in the late 1990s, and stood vacant. The council eventually attracted Tesco to redevelop the site. Eventually we ended up with Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Aldi, Sainsbury, Booths, Waitrose and Morrisons in South Ribble. The County Council even got IKEA to sign up for a store close to the M6/M65/M61 junctions. That fell through, and we're left with a bit of a bomb site.
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Crap shopping centres in the wrong places are always crap shopping centres. There a lot of bad ones out there.
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Think the Trafford Centre would agree with that.
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Fur coat and no knickers that one...
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You're pushing against an open door...
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Proudfoot in and around Scarborough. Owned by Wilf Proudfoot, Tory MP and loony.