Shops of the period

[stewartingram]

Green Shield trading stamps were the 1960s and 70s equivalent of today's Clubcard and Nectar loyalty schemes, you collected stamps with your shopping and stuck them into special books which could then be exchanged for gifts at Green Shield Stamp catalogue shops, later on rebranded as Argos from July 1973 (source: Wikipedia).

Until 1977, Tesco was a big player in the market and every store had posters and displays emblazoned with Green Shield stamp promotions.

 

http://logos.wikia.c...ore_1970s_2.gif

 

http://www.google.co...75&tx=122&ty=93

 

I believe the Ffestiniog managed to get a JCB or something similar this way to help construct the deviation, perhaps someone knows the details?

 

Stewart

[BernardTPM]

It was a 'Smalley' http://www.oilyhands.co.uk/smalley_towable_diggers.htm - I've got the FR mag with it on the back!

[Pete 75C]

Remember all the TV rental shops like Multi Broadcast? Back in the day when renting a top-loader VHS or Beta machine was easier than saving for 6 months to buy something that would soon go out of date. My sister used to work in the Wallington Surrey branch and had a Mk2 Escort Estate as a "company" vehicle. I remember my mum working in a FineFare (or was it FineFayre?) branch, later bulldozed to build an office block which has since been turned into "posh" flats, sorry, "apartments"... all in the space of 30-40 years! The 70s/80s and the BR blue era really are becoming quite historic. I have to confess I much prefer BR blue to all the privatisation vinyls around today.

[crompton 33]

back in the early 1970's i worked for DER. this plus radio rentals and multi broadcast where all owned by thorn emi. we all had a ford escort  estate's or van's.   

[BernardTPM]

 I remember my mum working in a FineFare (or was it FineFayre?) branch

FineFare - We had a couple of those too, one of them later cecoming Gateway and then Somerfield (the other shut).

 

Does anyone else remember Slot TV? (Probably talking no later than very early '70s, I suspect).

[tornado64]

being old enough to remember  the early 80's  shops were indeed very difrent to now , most local shops were independents ,  open all hours wasn't far off reality in the early 80's i remember quite a few like that in the early 80's definately in the 70's

 

it seems to be a modern time but in reality there were still many shops around that hadn't had a refit since the 1950's   sometimes earlier my local newsagents shop fittings had 1930's stamped all over it  in gorgeous oak i'd say

 

of course there were modern shops but even so most were still independent owners  chain franchises etc were still only a town centre thing

 

the co-op  being the only main chain on most out of town streets ,  some newsagents still left newspapers outside in racks  and of course there were more pubs

 

decor was much simpler than today it was much simpler often hand written bargain posters were the norm

[EEType4]

 

Does anyone else remember Slot TV? (Probably talking no later than very early '70s, I suspect).

Certainly do remember slot TV, first colour telly at home when I was a kid had a coin box on the side which you fed like a gas meter.

 

If I recal rightly it only took 50p's and can remember the never ending search for 50p pieces or no viewing.

 

Every few weeks a chap from the TV shop came round to empty the meter, must have been around '76-'77.

[Guest Celticwardog]

This is my half relief Woolies of the era....complete with ner'do well, probably a shoplifter after the pic & mix.

[Removed a/c]

Very nice did you scratch build the whole thing?

[Guest Celticwardog]

Very nice did you scratch build the whole thing?

LOL yes one of my 1st attempts. Windows are a bit wobbly and its a bodge but ok. I usually work with someone who is much better, I just paint stuff

[Removed a/c]

Great job !

[Robuk1981]

Don't forget presto and wm low

[Griffin Road]

Don't forget Presto (became part of Asda) and Wm. Low (bought out by Tesco) Supermarkets. Also Gateway which became Somerfield in the '80's which merged with KwikSave in the early 2000's. Somerfield is now part of the Co-Operative Food Group.

Burtons, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Top Man, Top Shop and Debenhams were all part of the Burton Group.

Mothercare, British Home Stores, Currys, Dixons, Rumbelows, C&A, John Menzies(Scotland) WH Smiths(England), What Everyone Wants, Littlewoods, H.Samuel, Ratners, F.W.Hind (south half of England), Woolworths, Valentines Cards, Boots the Chemist, The Army, Navy and Royal Air Force also had high street recruiting offices.

 

 

Mark

 

Presto became part of Safeway not Asda .

[Pete 75C]

I miss C&A. I have to get my jeans at Primark now. Given use of a time machine, I think I might spend some time in 1977.

[CloggyDog]

Working from memory...

 

I lived in Brentwood, Essex in the 70s - the 'local' shops around the Robin Hood pub comprised a FineFare (which morphed into a Co-op in the late70s), a launderette, chemists, chippy, independant butchers, Martins newsagent (where I used to buy ciggies for my dad!), independant hardware and a (proper) greengrocers.

 

http://www.francisfrith.com/brentwood/photos/ongar-road-c1965_b198074/ is an earlier photo of that row of shops.

 

 

By the late 80s, the Co-op was a video hire place, the launderette became an estate agents, the chemists, greengrocers and butchers had all gone and the hardware became a tool hire place. Only the chippy and Martins remained.

 

Heading up into town (via Curtis's Prams and Toys - my local model railway emporium!) and the independant bookshop - I recall a Wimpy, Boots, WH Smiths, Woolies, the 'big' Sainsburys, Allied Carpets (I think). There was also a very good independant cycle/fishing shop, a butchers, a tobacconist, hardware, all at 'Wilson's Corner', the 'country' end of the High Street. Wilsons (department store) had already closed by the 70s, I think. I do recall a big fire gutting the place in the late 70s?

 

As I most often went into town for Saturday morning pictures, I rarely ventured past the cinema to the bottom end of the High Street, though there was another model shop down that end, where I bought the majority of my Airfix plane and afv kits

 

There was also a set of underground public conveniences outside Woolies/opposite the Post Office - 2p for a 'wash and brush-up'

 

The other thing that sticks in my memory is just how many pubs there were along the High Street!

 

And once a month we'd board the Eastern National 151/251 'bus (Bristol Lodekkas, later Leyland Nationals) for either Chelmsford (more department stores) or Romford (for the market)

[DropTheTap]

It should be remembered that up until probably the early to mid '80s, many retail establishments showed only a local or regional bias. Remember how ITV had *many* more regional stations until the late 1990s? Where I grew up we could receive Yorkshire, TyneTees and Anglia, although there were seemingly dozens of others across the U.K. Recall too that there were lots of regional and local TV commercials back then, mostly cheap and cheesy?! I left the UK years ago but even then, I can't recall too many TV commercials remaining for local businessses, apart from those shown in cinemas. (Pearl and Dean!!!)

 

Okay, dragging this back on topic (sorry!), many of the initial supermarkets were purely regional: Morrisons and Asda began that way, for example. I remember several days out to the scary South in the '80s and seeing all kinds of shops that I had no idea existed! Growing up in Yorkshire, the first large supermarket that I can remember appearing was Hillards (remember them?). I also recall Presto, Spa, Boots, Currys, Madeleys, FineFare/ Co- Op, Woolies, Radio Rentals and Kwik Save being among the few larger, early infiltrators to get among the traditional high street retailers in my small town. Venturing further afield into a larger town or city, one could see Dixons, Halfords, Wimpey, Marks and Spencer, C & A, MFI, ASDA, Woodcock Travel, GT Smith, Burtons, Top Man, Next etc, etc... Financial institutions were also more varied prior to the "carpet bagging" fad of the mid 1990s: Yorkshire Bank/ Building Society, Abbey National, Alliance and Leicester, Halifax, Bradford and Bingley, Midland Bank, among others. All these were nicely blended with locally owned shops but the "bigs" began to dominate more as time wore on.

 

From memory, it seemed like the late 1970s/ early 1980s were the initial bloom years for supermarkets and larger chain stores: once their "one stop" convenience was discovered they took off like lightning. Prior to this, I remember many more smaller, independantly owned "high street" businesses being the dominant places to shop. None of my grandparents could drive and Grandma used to walk into town and buy all her shopping from about two dozen tiny little stores all on the high street then walk back with an armful of bags!! I can still smell the wonderful aroma of the long gone little cheese shop in the 1970s, sadly overtaken by the opening of Hillards.

 

Anyway, note the recurring theme here: any layout set in the 1980s or earlier should show a regional, local bias in its retail, service or (especially) financial establishments. The name above the bank or an advert on a billboard in your model street could tell you just as much about where the layout is supposed to be set as the type of locomotive, style of architecture or landscape features... the same may not necessarily be true of more recent times. Also, check out the logo of the company you're modelling: some (for example, BT) have changed noticeably throughout the years.