Anyone miss shopping in Woolworths?

I worked in Woolies as a 15 yr old saturday girl and I loved it .
I earned 15 shillings a day.
My friend who worked at Sainsbury got £1,

I do miss Woolworths - it was always a handy shop that sold anything you wanted.

I may be misremembering, but on holiday in Limassol we went into a large Woolworths store. It had a very grand staircase up to the next floor and while we were there a Russian lady in a ballgown came walking elegantly down the staircase. It just seemed so bizarre mid-week in Woolies!
Please tell me there really was a Woolworths in Cyprus .

In Kehl Germany last week! xx

Yes, miss it too.

Also worked as a saturday girl in the 60’s at the Clapham Junction branch.

All the good stores gone. Shame!

Good news for some.
Comet is coming back.

I was just going to ask about pay! I worked in a wee drapery and got 12/6 for a Saturday, and remember the outrage when the other ‘Saturday girl’ and I discovered how much Woolie’s were paying!
And, Humbley what was the name of Woolie’s own record label where they sold cover versions of the hits of the day?

I do.
Especially at Christmas and Easter

I loved Woolworths and always bought our Christmas chocolates there they had such a selection and much cheaper than elsewhere. DD1 had a job there for several years before she went to university and loved working on the records counter. I remember she had to do some night duty and that really worried me but she said they were great to work for and treated their staff well.

I worked in Woolies as a Saturday girl in 1966, to save up for a school ski trip. I worked on the toilet roll counter, as my friends pointed out, that's what they called starting at the bottom!

Yes I miss Woolworths too and more recently I miss Wilco. Lots of other well known shops have gone in the last few years. I still miss C&A, B.H.S a d debe hams. I guess online shopping is taking over the high street.

We didn’t call it Woolies in Tuscaloosa Alabama it was Woolworths and it was small but it had a soda fountain it was out near the university of Alabama campus in the 60s when you can actually walk around the campus it wasn’t so crowded- I only remember the soda fountain because you could get a root beer float! I worked in Adams five and dime in Northport which is the little town right next to Tuscaloosa and I was paid $.25 an hour-I think that was about 15 P an hour-I loved it I worked over Christmas in the 60s and I remember wrapping one pencil at a time as Christmas gifts for the kids that came in. Everything was much smaller than that’s what I remember!

As a youngster back in the late 50's I would love to go into Woolies in London, not necessarily to buy something, but would have my eyes peeled on the floor. I would go up one aisle and down the next - it was surprising how much money could be found dropped on the floor! It would be very disappointing if I found nothing (and sometimes would even go around again)!! I also loved going in there at Christmas time to get their empty boxes so I could put the Christmas presents I bought for my family which didn't cost much but the boxes made them look more expensive.

When I was engaged I used to go in after work, on my way home and buy things for the kitchen etc. my colour was yellow and my plastic colander has only just split and been thrown away, after 62 years! I think it cost 6d or 1/-!

Plugs, screws, pick and mix sweets, baby clothes, toys, socks, stamps...........
All a reasonable prices, which is probably while the fail

Woolworths seemed to stock so much. The counters with the square chrome price tickets, yellow and red. Creaky floorboards, milk bar, record counter, Pick and Mix, pretty Ladybird babies clothing, delicate white and gold bone china, toys. Much missed.

Yes I do miss it. Such variety from a dustpan & brush to stationary, underwear and makeup.
Our local Woolies, when I was very young, had an ice cream counter on the right as you entered. A round ice cream wrapped in paper which the assistant unpeeled before wedging it in a round cone. Yum, I can smell it now 😋
Later, when about 12 my friend Gaynor,who already wore a bra, encouraged me to buy my first in the Woolies near our school. It was pale green and my Mum was highly amused when I showed her my pocket money purchase. I needed to stuff a sock in each cup 😂

Woolies Saturday girl here too. I was on the gardening, washing powder and battery sections. Occasionally the till, but I preferred to be back of store. Before that I washed hair on Saturdays at a hairdressers and before that on a Saturday market stall. Worked from age 12.

I was a John Menzies Saturday girl but spent a lot of my lunchtimes browsing in Woollies - loved it. Christmas presents & decorations came from there, records, my children’s Ladybird clothes etc. when I married in 1980 all our Christmas decorations were from there and I still have a couple of the glass baubles now. I was so excited when I found our Woollies was in Australia when visiting my nephew there this year but then disappointed to find it was a supermarket, albeit Waitrose standard!!

I worked there as a Saturday girl when only 15. I was at a college with 18 year old girls and they wore makeup and all had boyfriends. The headteacher who sent me there did the right thing but I felt so out of place.

JennyCee

Hello Keeping Quiet, are you from Hull? Thats the only place I know where there is a Boyes. Just saw a photo on article about Hull and there was Boyes

Lancashire & Yorkshire have a Boyes

We still have it here but it isn’t the same as the old ones. They have divided into Woolworths which is like Sainsburys and Big W which is more like the old Woolworths but bigger. The latter is in trouble, too much competition from other stores like KMart but still going on for now.

Woolworths was my first full time job after leaving school at 16. I worked in the office and worked 6 days a week earning £6. 0s. 6d. Eventually I was responsible for ordering. One particular order sticks in my mind I should have ordered 12 x 12 boxes of oxo cubes but ordered 12 x 144 boxes. I can see them now - we had a central isle display trying to get rid of them!! We also had a free canteen upstairs. Lovely food - happy memories.

I missed Woolworths, but when travelling to Australia, they have large stores there, it was amazing to spend time looking round the store, with everything that you need, wanted and missed and the sweet selection was like I had died and gone to heaven - there was every sweet you could ever think of. I cant wait to return to browse again at all the clothes, shoes, books, sweets, etc etc..... may take a while.

Yes, I miss Woolworths so much. It was so bright and cheery at christmas. The pick and mix was legendary! Memories!!

I still remember the sound and smell of the floorboards on the ground floor of our Woolies back in the 60's when I'd be taken to town by a neighbour as a treat - I'd be about 6 or 7 at the time. Still miss it and was amazed when I found a Woolies in Nicosia, Cyprus in late 90's which had a 360 degree restaurant on the top floor where you could see the Turkish flag carved into the mountains just over the border. Don't think the Woolies exists now. Also made my day when I came across a
Woollies in Bridgetown, Barbados which apparently is still running. There's a Boyes in the small town I now live in which I'd never heard of before and thought it was just a local store. Love it as it's like a small Woollies - packed with all sorts. Shop there quite often to support local even knowing that I could have bought some of the items cheaper elsewhere.