Shop baskets

[coccinelle]

This is a bit of nostalgia; can you remember the first time you ever went into a food shop and picked up a basket and helped yourself rather than asking the lady behind the counter for everything? I can...

[Count-A-Strong]

Which do you prefer coccinelle?

[B00]

errr yes, yesterday in Tesco

[coccinelle]

Boo, it was your first tiime? Never!

[jno]

was that your first time in a big modern supermarket then, B00? Have your customers been asking you to get everything off the shelves for them all these years?

Funny place oop north.

[B00]

oh i see, sorry, rofl. Didn't read the question properly, serves me right eh? ;-)

And no, I don't.

[coccinelle]

count a strong; I was little at the time and thought it was great. I used to play shops with my sister after that, going round Mam's kitchen. As I was shy i much preferred doing that.

[jake-the-peg]

yep - four candles

seriously No but I do remember half day closing on Wednesdays and people keying in the price for every individual item.

No wonder people were thinner then, you probably couldn't get served quickly enough to buy enough to get fat!

[coccinelle]

True jake, people were a lot thinner. In my small village we had a co-op and the lady served you behind the counter; 4 oz butter, a pound of this and that which went into paper bags and then one day it was help yourself and straight to the till. It did take ages as everybody had so much to say wheareas this would normally be said while you were being served... so instead of it being quicker it was in fact slower...

[RATTER15]

I was very young at the time but yes I still clearly remember this.

Does this mean i am really really old? :-(

[boxtops]

Yes I can - a Tesco opened in my home town in about 1963 - we had never come across the concept of walking round a shop before. The very first time we saw a self-help shop was in Belgium on holiday about the same time - Mum and I just walked about picking things up, it was fascinating. Mind you, I still remember Woolworths having a sales person in the middle of each counter island, and that they sold Christmas wrapping paper with tinsel bits stuck on - that was in the early 1950s.

[RATTER15]

Oh yes Boxtops, I remember Woolworths like that, I used to buy all the brokem biscuits there as well :-)

[lardhelmet]

Do you remember those whizzy tube things that the cashier would put the cash in and it would shoot off up the wall and across the ceiling and disappear somewhere mysterious, only to return a minute later with your change?

[cazzz1975]

I dont remember it but I thought it was funny that the advert banners on my pc beside this thread are
"dating for older people"
"sameday loans"
"over 40 and single"
"the dating site for 50+"

I wonder what words they are picking up on?

[scotman]

JTP

The butcher shop along the road from me still does early closing on Wednesday

[boxtops]

cazzz, I've got an advert for dog baskets and another one for 3-d Creativity in cardboard....!

[wildwood]

Thank you for posting your question ☺☻☺☻☺☻

[rowanwitch]

I now feel truly ancient thank you so much....Liptons northcote road...Battersea... aaaaagh need a lie down overcome with nostalgia

[coccinelle]

lardhelmet I remember those whizzy things in Doggarts in Bishop Auckland.
Hey it was only the 60s not that long ago.
Another nostalgic moment; can you remember using the public telephone and tapping the number to get a free call? Can you remember dial a disc?

[jno]

actually, this is a really good question, coccinelle, only I can't remember the answer. I suppose the change was more gradual than that - there were shops like Woolworths even when I was a kid where you walked along the counters picking up things you wanted then sought an assistant - behind one of the counters, not in a row of checkouts at the door - to pay for them.

I can remember where I was when JFK died, though, and Elvis.

[coccinelle]

jno; i can remember cos I used to pop along to the corner shop to get Mam's groceries with a list in my hand and all of a sudden one Saturday morning it had changed and I had to do the shopping! If I went say to Woolworths my Mam would have been with me so she'd do the shopping.