Anyone miss shopping in Woolworths?

I worked on the record department it was great. Really miss shopping there had something for everyone

I used to make wedding favours in the 70s and 80s when they started to become popular always using sugared almonds which I used to buy by the pound from Woolworths pick and mix.
One day I took my usual supply to the cash desk and the regular girl weighed them sighed looked at me and said..It’s a wonder you’ve got any teeth left the amount of these you buy…. I still laugh about it now,, and yes I did enlighten her. I was never able to find another good supplier after Woolworths closed, it was a sad day in our town.

Another Saturday girl here too and also on Haberdashery. I was there late 60’s and earned, net £0.17s and 6pence for the day. I remember always shouting out the value of a note handed to me for my colleague to hear which came in handy one day when the customer challenged me that I had given the wrong change. The till had to be checked at the end of the day, but no refund given to the customer as the till was correct. I loved working there and also shopped there, too.

I miss Woolies Cardashian123! I’ve recently moved back to near my childhood town, I look at that store with such fab memories, it’s a QD Stores now, layout still the same but no poc & mix or broken biscuits 🥲🌹

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

No, not Hull but there are branches across the Midlands now. That's where I found my first one and when I moved I found they had a branch right here where I live. I love going in there!

I used to dream about their Pick and Mix Counters full of sweets when I was a kid!

Bukkie

We too have Boyes near us in Yorkshire (where the shop originates from) Great shop for things you can't get anywhere else.

Yes it is a Yorkshire based company, I believe they began in Scarborough.

I went in the other day and bought a half slip, some socks and toiletry items and a battery for much less than I would pay elsewhere. You can't buy half slips anywhere anymore!

Going into town was a treat when I was young. It lasted a full day which ended in the Cafeteria in Woolworths. I still remember the chips. A birthday treat was a 'Knickerbocker Glory'; otherwise it was a dish of jelly fruit and cream . I loved it there . Happy times and yet we would have been described as poor .

Yes agree. Great store. Always interesting to see what was on offer. I remember the pick and mix. So colourful.

My DH and I took my nephew who was about 2and half into Woolies in St Andrews and asked him what he wanted and he replied in his loudest voice a can of beer. We couldn’t move for laughter. We got two bags of pick and mix, one for him and the other for his older brother. Dh put him in the back seat of the car and gave him both bags of sweets. When we arrived back at my DB house, my DH asked him if he both bags, he handed over 1 empty bag and said that was his brothers bag😂😂😂

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

We too have Boyes near us in Yorkshire (where the shop originates from) Great shop for things you can't get anywhere else.

I did a short stint in Woolies as a Saturday girl. Stock taking was a killer for me think that’s why I wasn’t there very long! I recall counting endless packets of seeds.

I loved Woolies, was always in there for something or other.

I bought a Olivetti manual typewriter from there with a hard cover and the ribbons and paper and bottles of Tipp-Ex!

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

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

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”

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 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 😂

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

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

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.

I miss shopping full stop.

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

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🥴