Anyone miss shopping in Woolworths?

Fabulous shop. All my ladybird clothes came from there as a child. Records, Christmas decorations and of course the pick n mix. Indeed happy memories when high streets were buzzing. I also loved British Home Stores especially the lighting department.

I agree, Woolies and BHS were great places to shop.I spent my young life there on a Saturday with friends.
I also miss all the good dept stores☹️

I worked on Haberdashery as a Saturday girl too, Cardashian. It must have been the quietest of all the departments. I much preferred my stints on the beach toys and sweets counters. Though I did get into trouble on that one when a Scottish customer asked for a wee poke and I couldn’t keep a straight face.

Before that I used to love going to Woolies with my dad on a Saturday, mainly for records and a new Airfix kit - we’d do them together. Pick ‘n’ Mix as we went out. Happy days!

Aged 4, I took a blackcurrant and licorice sweet from the pick n mix and popped it in my mouth. After I finished it I proudly told my twin brother what I had done. He told me I would be arrested as we left the shop. I felt so scared and dreadful I have never stolen another thing since.

My Mum worked part time in ‘Woolies’ for some years - sad day when they closed down.

Ah, such happy memories of Woolies.

I used to go to the kids Saturday morning cinema at the Odeon with my big sister and her friends, then into Woolies to look at the records & make up. Felt so grown up!

Sadly my big sister is now in the late stages of dementia but, on rare occasions, she still remembers those wonderful Saturday mornings outings😢

Funny how they had to close because people stopped shopping there- we had superstores and out of town retail parks.

I have a Boyes store near me and it is wonderful- they sell everything in there including sweets you can't buy elsewhere. It is a treasure trove right on my doorstep just like Woolworths used to be...great friendly staff too and I rarely have to queue at the till because not many people go there!
I wonder why that is...? Oh, of course, everyone's shopping on-line now.

We had a huge Woolies in our town back in the 70s/80s. I think it was the second largest in the country. It had three floors, the bottom one being for delicatessen counters and alcohol. Unfortunately, after a few years that floor had to close as it was next to the bus station and fumes were coming through - bad planning. However the rest of the store was great, I used to buy my lampshades and even bought a tumble drier there. I miss it.

Another Woolworths Saturday girl here. I worked on the bakery counter. It was a lovely job as everyone seemed so happy that it was Saturday and were buying cakes as treats. Lots of familar faces picking up their regular order.

Now people find it hard to believe me when I tell them Woolies had a bakery and a deli counter (although we called in cheese and cold meat) back in the 1970s.

I earned £7 a day and spent most of it on make up in Boots during my lunch hour and the rest on a copy of Blue Jeans magazine on the way home.

Not now it’s been gone for so long, but I used to.

IIRC my elder sister once had either a Saturday or a summer holiday job in Woolies - at 2/- an hour. It seemed a bit stingy even then (probably mid 60s).

keepingquiet

Funny how they had to close because people stopped shopping there- we had superstores and out of town retail parks.

I have a Boyes store near me and it is wonderful- they sell everything in there including sweets you can't buy elsewhere. It is a treasure trove right on my doorstep just like Woolworths used to be...great friendly staff too and I rarely have to queue at the till because not many people go there!
I wonder why that is...? Oh, of course, everyone's shopping on-line now.

I like Boyes stores too. Even though I have to travel I’d far sooner make that effort than buy online………buttons, thread, yarn etc just don’t present well 8n a photo on a website, much better to see them ‘in the flesh’. I know I have the cost of travel on top but having a considerable list - not just haberdashery - does make it worthwhile . No, I don’t have shares in Boyes 🤣

Boyes in my small market town is well used. Between that shop and the Handicentre you can get everything you need( non-food) and more. The staff are so helpful too. In fact I rarely buy anything online. Patronise local shops or lose them.

Us kids used to play on the organs, whilst mum would have a mooch round the household bit.
Mum would buy us pic-n- mix, or my fave, old Jamaican rum chocolate for the Odeon.
She once left us twins parked up outside woolies, got the bus to go home & realised she had left us (new mum) - gosh I can’t imagine doing that in this day & age🥴

Oh I loved Woolies and still miss it to this day It’s now a charity shop and I still look at the building and think ‘I wish’
Wilco filled a little bit of it and I grew to like Wilco and now they are gone too
Nothing like it around here that fills the gap

I miss shopping full stop.

I too was a Woolworths Saturday girl. I worked on the pick & mix counter and sometimes the ice cream and roast peanuts (odd that they should be on the same counter.) I loved my time there in the late sixties.
At Christmas my mother and I would go there for gifts for the family. I too miss it.

Yes I miss Woolworth - it was my go-to for everything.

Does anyone else remember having a bottom drawer?
I got engaged, aged 19 , in 1957.
I would go round Woolworths and buy things for when I had my own home.
Just little bits like kitchen utensils, I still have some of them, one still in use is a Pyrex rolling pin . You filled it with cold water to keep the pastry cool.

My SiL was a Saturday girl and a film starring Norman Wisdom called Trouble in Store came out and the female staff had their photos taken standing behind a counter, they were displayed in the cinema foyer and customers voted for their favourite.
Woolworths was a mine of treasures, very happy memories

I used to love Woolies at Easter.
I remember buying one of the first game consoles from there and I said to the girl behind the counter 'Do I make the cheque out to F W Woolworth?' and she had no clue what I was talking about 😂

Now people find it hard to believe me when I tell them Woolies had a bakery and a deli counter (although we called in cheese and cold meat) back in the 1970s.

Yes, I remember filling in on the cheese and cooked meat counter and struggling with the tongs and scales. Our branch also had a fabulous staff canteen on the top floor where we’d get a proper cooked dinner. I think it was free?

I have told this tale before.
I was at the deli counter in Woolworths and two women came up and one said to the other, what is Pate?
The other sniffed and said “it’s high faluting meat paste”

If high faluting wasn’t in your local dialect it meant pretending to be “posh”

Yes I miss it as well. We had one in our town until tbey all closed. Both daughters had Saturday jobs there.
And when I was a child our seaside toen had a large branch next door to a Littlewoods. Different feel and smell in each. Beach toys in the FWW and clothes line by the yard for skipping rope. I would shop there on my own or with a friend from quite a young age. And always after Saturday morning pictures. Great memori.es