Mothers Co-op number what was it?.

No was 13 for C&A dress, i think by 15 I'd graduated to jeans and long sleeved tee shirts and 'flowing' plain tops...

Or corner shops giving you things 'on tick' till payday.?Those were more trusting days...

Can't imagine the co op letting you bring home stuff 'on approval' these days??

Our co op used to smell of smoked bacon and coffee beans.

Yes Sara1954- i remember my mum used to take me to our co op clothing store for school shoes.. i too remember my first 'grown up' C&A dress as a teenager (15) it was midi white background, like a 'gypsy skirt' style with small flower sprigs on at top half and in panels so had tiny checks on bottom panel & a tie sailor type collar.(probably wouldn't look twice at it now, even at 58)??

Same here beth20,and i stil have my mom`s part-full co-op book of stamps.
Just can`t throw them out.

My goodness Marydoll, you cant even buy a magazine or a comic for 10 or 15 shillings (equivalent) now! ?

Nannan
I thought I’d really arrived when I got my first C&A dress, yellow cord, with a zip up front.
Everything from the co-op had been purely functional!

Yes, I remember. 4636

Sara1954-ahh, C&A's, now there's a shop i remember well, and still miss.I remember getting my first 'grown up' bra's there, and long dresses..and now even Debenhams has gone(yes i know its online, but its not the same) and there's M&S and John Lewis just hanging on in there....?

75630 was my mother's Co-OP number. I remember her queuing up for her divi.
In my Saturday job, I eventually progressed to the cash office, where people came to pay their weekly club. There was a twenty week club with no interest added and a thirty eight week club with interest. Having this loan was the only way my mother could afford to buy my expensive uniform for my school.
My wage rose from 10/- to 15/-. Big bucks!

I had a chat about this just yesterday while driving behind a Co-op lorry on the motorway with my grandkids in the car.

I remember as a child in the 50s shopping in our local Co-op with my lovely Mum. Standing on my tip toes looking over the high wooden counter watching while ham was sliced on the machine and loose tea weighed into brown paper bags. Cheese and butter were cut from large blocks using a wire.

My grandkids were shocked to hear that from age six I was allowed to run to the shop by myself with a shopping list and quote the number. I still remember it. My dad resurrected it to use for his Lotto numbers and I’m still using it.

Yes I do but I can’t tell you as it is the combination to my safe and you might know where I live??

I was only little when my mum used to take me to co op shop- (in late 60's- early 70's) i remember she used to get me to lick stamps though from co op & green shield stamps- she saved them all in a drawer & at end of year i think it was, i had to lick them all & book them.Took me ages to get rid of the taste of the glue?? Now theres hardly any co op shops left, and you get a card/key fob to collect a few 'pence' on what £s you spend- its hardly worth it- not like the old dividends they once did.?

356055.
(Hard pushed, tho', to remember what I did last week?)

Yes, Mum's was 73090 and I think Grandma's was 59453 - how strange that I can recall them as numbers really aren't my forte.

Ours was on the next street and we went frequently as we didn't have a fridge until a bit later. Mum went in with her little book. I didn't like the butcher's next door as he'd squeeze my cheek which hurt but he sometimes gave me a few pennies. All the assistants were male and wore brown overalls like Arkwright in Open All Hours. It was like an alien universe compared to today.

When it changed to a supermarket arrangement Mum didn't like it - it was meant to be faster but she felt that it took the same amount of time, the only difference was that instead of waiting for Mrs-So-and-So to stop nattering to the assistant so she could be served she had to get things off the shelves herself and then wait in a queue. Progress, eh?

26951

I can't remember my mum's divi number but when I was 15yrs I worked Friday nights and Saturday's in our local Co-op.

I was working there the night President Kennedy was shot. I mostly filled up shelves, writing prices on all the items individually, with a blue waxy pencil (for some strange reason now, everything seemed to be 1/6d!). Sometimes I went on the till and sometimes the till didn't work, so I had to add every customer's shopping up on a piece of paper or in my head. I enjoyed my time there, though that shop has long since been replaced with a Tesco Express.

Loose tea and sugar weighed out and put into dark blue bags. I was facinated with the way the shop assistants folded the tops down to seal them....no sellotape needed.

Visgirl
I remember that.

Oh I remember it well, my grandad worked at the co-op.
We lived in a small town, but there was the co-op bakery, butchers, womenswear, menswear, furniture, grocers, haberdashery, shoe shop, undertakers, and I may have missed some out, and of course the little co-op on the estate we lived on.
We got new clothes when the divi was paid out.
My mother would bring things home on ‘appro’ which I presume meant on approval.
Everything I owned was purchased at the co-op, I was so happy to graduate to C&A.

Yes 106101... Crikey dragged that out of mothballs!
I can remember as a kid going up there to pick bits up for my Mum and they had this " Crisscross Wire systems" that shot the payment across the shop on pulleys.

Septimia, you've reminded me of the divi , I can see my grandad who was good at arithmetic sitting totting everyone's up for them and the queues on divi day went right along the street.

Yep - 3117. I had to recite it when I went for the shopping or "messages" as we said in Lanarkshire. Each week you "paid the book". My mum got everything from the Co-op from excellent meat to my Dad's working boots !

Don't remember the number but I do recall sticking in sheets of stamps - both co-op and green shield.