Things you don't see any more.

and wore fox fur capes that smelt mothballs?

Dolly blues to make whites white. A minority ethnic, (is that allowed) selling pegs door to door as well as flowers, looked like chrysanthemums, made from wood.
Bananas in large wooden crates, left outside the corner shop in case of large spiders!

It was the little desiccated legs hanging down that fascinated me Teetime and the ladies always wore a hat and gloves.

Curling tongs heated on a naked flame. My aunt did this and it always fascinated me.

Milk horses with big leather feed bags strapped round their heads and blinkers on so they didn't see the traffic ( Ford Anglias, Triumph Heralds, Baby Austins etc!)

The huge round cheeses and big hams that used to be in the local Co-oP store and the guy in the brown overall who used to slice the ham/bacon just as you asked for it, bread that used to lie on a tray unwrapped, not hygienic by todays standards but seemed to be more tasty.
The smells in a grocery shop too, of tea, meat as well as soap etc. I could go on forever.

Butter taken from a big hunk and patted into shape with sort of ridged paddles. Marcel wavers - metal gadgets with ferocious teeth to make your hair wavy. My mum had trained as a hairdresser and had all the kit, including those tongs that were heated on a flame!

Old fashioned wash boards and mangles - how did people manage in those days. I remember my granny using them when I was very young.

And the smell of singed hair littleflo

And another one but I do no remember what they were called - the old fashioned canisters that they had in shops to move money from the tills to the cash offices - some whizzed along on wires and others used compressed air in tubes. Anyone remember those?

If you presented a £5 note in Woolworths to pay for shopping the supervisor used to be called to check it! Loved the biscuit containers with glass lids in Woolies. In went hand out came biscuits. Large slabs of cake that the lady behind the counter cut up.
The purple bags in Home and Colonial that loose sugar, fruit went in.

I remember the change cannisters that flew around on a wire overhead, Lapwing, they used to scare me when I was small as I thought they were going to fall on me, but as I got older I used to watch in fascination.
We have a museum near where I live and they have them in the shop there and I just love to visit and watch them fly around.

Etheltbags1 - the pinging sound that the cannisters made use to fascinate me. Maybe it is just my memory playing tricks on me - but shopping seemed to be much less rushed then.

I loved the old fashioned haberdashers that my mum shopped in and the specialist grocers where you could buy just what you wanted - no one looked at you if you asked for two ounces of cheese. Maybe that was because in the it was such a short time from WW2.

In Ilfordthere was a shop called Fairheads that was just like a big Pollards. They sold all the really old fashioned stuff. They had those canisters right up until the 90s I think. Sadly it closed down about 3 years ago, it was a true piece of living history.

Yes the burning hair smell Shabby, I had forgotten that.

Home & Colonial was a magic place to shop, my nan used to send me. She would say "get a quarter pound of sugar and make sue it's not damp, get a slice of corn beef and make sure it's not all fat, and a sliced loaf and squash it to make sure it's not stale"

Stockings with seems and the suspender belts that kept the stockings up. They were the bane of my nursing training.
Shows just how old I am!

That reminds me, Crow of the elastic belts you used to hook on to those awful sanitary towels, which were incredibly bulky and uncomfortable.

And nappy pins! Though I am sure they are still around.

I worked in C & A when I left school they are long gone now but I believe they are still alive on the continent. Anyway I used sometimes work on the underwear counter which included stockings etc.. I can remember the first time we got 'tights' (pantyhose in the USA)in, in the 60's oh my the shop girls were all sloping off their counters to come and see the new 'in' thing, it was such freedom from the stockings and suspenders and of course we could wear shorter skirts with tights on... I don't think they still do 'American Tan' but it was the most sort after colour for years...

Loving this thread. Tanith - my first job was in the Berkshire Hosiery factory. I started just as they were starting to manufacture tights and as you said American Tan was the most popular shade. For five years I either had free tights (for testing purposes) or paid very reduced prices in the factory shop. Came as a shock when I had to pay full price.

Oh yes the Home and Colonial where the lady made the butter pats with wooden paddles.

Seeing My Aunty Molly spitting on her flat iron and steam pouring off the sheets as she ironed - and the smell of new ironing!!

Nasty one here tough paraffin heaters!!!

My mum used to wear a turban. Other things I remember are diamond mesh stockings, hair lacquer that came in a sachet and you had to pour into a squeezy bottle (it made your hair as stiff as a board), loose potato crisps and loose biscuits which came in a big tub (you always hoped you would get them from a newly opened tub or they might be stale). Tanith - I also worked in C&A on a Saturday for fourteen shillings. We had to call each other 'Miss whatever' and we were never allowed to sit down! I was surprised to see a C&A in Seville last year.

Thin tinsel. Pretty without the garishness of the stuff they sell today. Very glad I held on to all of mine, even if some of it is starting to go bald.

I got some from Asda yesterday, jingl! I was so pleased, because the rest of their tinsel was so enormously fat. Would have drowned my little tree...

Think they only had red or silver, but at £1 for 4m pretty good value.

Rabbits and chickens hanging by their feet in butchers shops, complete with fur, feathers and heads. Rabbits eyes would be looking at you. They had a big gash down the belly where they had been gutted.
Pigs heads in shop windows with an apple in the mouth.

They still have C&A in France and Spain Tanith