General Chat

just thinking back to when I was a child - everything at the grocers came in tins or bags and was measured out for sale

Biscuits in tins, sugar in bags, butter in blocks etc. how times have changed with individual packages

We used to go to corner shop get sugar in blue bags,butter in greaseproof paper,broken biscuits in brown paper bags.Broken biscuits were a lot cheaper 1p a big bag.

So much is for convience and hygene nowadays but it didn't do us any harm in bags.

Sams as Fish and Chips in white paper then wrapped in newspaper....

bacon cut into rashers on the bacon slicing machine - proper bacon that didn't ooze white stuff when you fried it

Ours was always bought at the Co-op with our "divi" number, so that you got paid out every quarter and therefore had extra money to spend then.

Kath. x

I remember asking our local grocer for an empty biscuit tin after seeing a Blue Peter programme about turning them into fish tanks.

Although there was a Co-op near us, I seem to remember that my mum shopped at the local 'Maypole' grocery store, particularly for bacon

I can remember my mum going to the Maypole store in Portsmouth, there wasn't one (I don't think) in the small market town where we lived. She would get cheese and bacon there. I can also remember going to a small Sainsbury's shop (not a large supermarket), and a Liptons.

and then the supermarkets appeared in the late 1950's - Fine Fare was the first I can recall in Cardiff

I have to confess that my first experience of shopping for food was at uni. after I moved out of hall into a rented cottage. I quite liked going into the grocer and getting slices from a whole ham on a special support, bacon sliced from a big rotating disk, cheese cut with a wire all wrapped in white and brown paper change zinging across the ceiling ...

The smells of roasting coffee, cheese, smokey bacon and other delights made it very difficult to keep to budget. My eyes and nose hated my wallet.

Veg. we bought on the market as I recall potatoes were 4d.lb. Supermarkets were very small compared to today and imho very expensive at the time so I didn't buy much there. I still don't.

Mum can still remember her Co-Op divi number

Sainsburys with the marble counters.

Butter patted into blocks.

Old fashioned health food shops where stuff was in sacks on the floor. Not a pill or potion anywhere.

Can not remember the name of the first supermarket I saw but tins etc were still in the boxes just put on the shelf. No price labels on anything. Cashiers had to learn all the prices.

This thread reminded me - my grand daughter wanted to make some tiny fruit & veg for my doll's house greengrocery stall.
I now have a scrap of curtain lining material soaking in a saucepan with a couple of tea bas, to make jute sacks for the potatoes and other root vegetables :-D
Will sew and stiffen them later (into an open position), find the Fimo and get it all to her on Saturday :-D

Up until the late 1990's, the only 'proper' greengrocer's in Winchester was a tiny shop run by a lovely elderly lady, who kept all vegetables in sacks - as her father had done There was very little shelving in the shop. It was like something from the 1900's
Since that shop closed we have no permanent greengrocers - just one on market days, that I will no longer use, having been sold on one occasion underweight goods, and then avocado's that were inedible. :-|

My local High Street does not have a butcher, greengrocer, wet fish shop or baker - do not count Greggs as a baker. Does have at least 6 coffee shops.

The small town I moved from last year had 5 butchers, 4 greengrocers and at least 6 bakers.

Why can some towns have all the small shops and still have the supermarkets and other places have lost out big time to the supermaket

I used to try and persuade Mum to walk all the way down to Sainsbury's because I loved the tiled walls and how they cut the butter from a block then used paddles to shape it.

We've not only not had a greengrocer for nigh on 15 years, we have no butchers, or fishmongers either. Like Glitter Baby, we have a lot of coffee shops. We also have quite a few mobile phone shops, and 1 supermarket.

I remember my mum going into a shop
to buy loose tea out of a cask.

Mum's divi number 4176 :-D

We used the Maypole as well for bacon and cheese. Remember MacFisheries arriving in town.

The local Coop expanded and became our first supermarket in the next street. Opposite was a veg shop. They were up the street about 200 yds from our street, if you went down the street about 300 yds there were the barber's for dad, the newsagent, butcher and baker. We didn't go far for our weekly shopping.

My sister and I did it every Saturday to earn our pocket money.

My mum went into town on the bus once a week for certain items, but shopped locally every couple of days for most other things.

The Grocers in town was called, I think, Griegs. It had black and white tiles on the floor with seperate counters selling bacon by the rasher. cheese cut from the block and possibly roasted coffee beans.

Our local village still has a butchers and a bakers, but for everything else food-wise, its one of two supermarkets.

We're fortunate in our village as we have four butchers and a greengrocers - however we have a shedload of charity shops and coffee shops and a fair number of hairdressers We have four pubs and five churches and two fish and chip shops and three chemists. We have a large post office, a furniture shop, a garage which does repairs and MOTs, three banks, two dress shops, a lovely gift shop, two jewellers and a cycle shop - we also have a library which is under threat the moment - all in all we have just about everything we need and it still maintains a village atmosphere

we also have two Indian restaurants, an Italian, a Thai, a Chinese and a British restaurant

We have only the tiny Village shop which is top price for everything..

They sell potatoes and veg,most foodstuffs except anything exotic like frozen chips :-D :-D

A pint of full fat milk is £1-25

Nearest supermarket,greengrocers or butchers is 9 miles away..

I remember my Gran (who brought me up from age 6) sending me to the butchers to buy a lamb shoulder for Sunday lunch (about 12 shillings she used to say. . . or shout, as I went out of the door) and 20 Kensitas from the newsagents.