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So Goodbye Woolworths


RichardB

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How many were there in Sheffield, where were they, which did you work at ? When did they open ? Why did one split in two ? Which Blue Peter "Star" re-opened the Moor store and why do I hate him with a life-long passion ?

[An appeal for Woolies inspired pictures is obviously implied.]

Me, I worked as Saturday-boy at Hillsborough branch 1978-80 then on The Moor during 1980-early 81.

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How many were there in Sheffield, where were they, which did you work at ? When did they open ? Why did one split in two ? Which Blue Peter "Star" re-opened the Moor store and why do I hate him with a life-long passion ?

[An appeal for Woolies inspired pictures is obviously implied.]

Me, I worked as Saturday-boy at Hillsborough branch 1978-80 then on The Moor during 1980-early 81.

Woolworths and Redgates on 1 photo

The Blue Peter presenter would it be Mark Curry (direct from his father's farm at Dethick)

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Guest carlie167

A couple more of "Woolies".

We took these last summer on one of our jaunts into Sheffield, not realising the whole lot would be gone by the end of the year!!

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Woolworths and Redgates on 1 photo

The Blue Peter presenter would it be Mark Curry (direct from his father's farm at Dethick)

Close, no cigar !

It's the other Redgates, Arundel Gate that we hanker after ...

Mark Curry, no ... had a dog in tow ... don't have anything against the dog (Oooo-err Missis)

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Guest carlie167

This is (was) my local Woolies in Worksop. Now gone, along with another six shops which have just announced closure!

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Close, no cigar !

It's the other Redgates, Arundel Gate that we hanker after ...

Mark Curry, no ... had a dog in tow ... don't have anything against the dog (Oooo-err Missis)

Most Blue Peter presenters had a dog in tow, one just carried on and did Crufts, they were the 2 I did not like, and surely you can't mean every boys hero John Noakes

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Guest transit

Woolworths and Redgates on 1 photo

The Blue Peter presenter would it be Mark Curry (direct from his father's farm at Dethick)

That would be ex BP Simon Groom who 's dad had the farm in Dethick . Now a presenter on Radio Sheffield ! ;-)

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That would be ex BP Simon Groom who 's dad had the farm in Dethick . Now a presenter on Radio Sheffield ! ;-)

Of course it was Simon Groom, he was ok it was Mark Curry I did not like.

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Of course it was Simon Groom, he was ok it was Mark Curry I did not like.

Was Mark Curry the idiot one who knocked the head off the life size figure of a man made out of Lego?

If so I didn't like him either!

OK, so the "proper", big Woolworths store next to Castle Market became a Woolco shop before it became what it presently is, Wilkinsons.

All these names beginning with W sound pretty much the same, but Woolworths and Woolco sound took close not to be related, - is there a connection here or just a strange coincidence?

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Was Mark Curry the idiot one who knocked the head off the life size figure of a man made out of Lego?

If so I didn't like him either!

OK, so the "proper", big Woolworths store next to Castle Market became a Woolco shop before it became what it presently is, Wilkinsons.

All these names beginning with W sound pretty much the same, but Woolworths and Woolco sound took close not to be related, - is there a connection here or just a strange coincidence?

Woolco was just an attempt by Woolworths to be a bit different, they were the same company. Woolco tried to be more of a department store, they had electrical & furniture departments, as opposed to the normal Woolworths type store.

Big W this was an attempt at outer town shopping. When Big W opened at Catcliffe, it was in the days when Woolworths was part of the Kingfisher group, the same as B&Q and Comet. It was envisaged as a combination of all 3 together with concessions such as Specsavers, Thomas Cook, Carphone Warehouse, Time Computers and Burger King. The whole thing nether really came together, and it slowly went down hill.

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Woolco was just an attempt by Woolworths to be a bit different, they were the same company. Woolco tried to be more of a department store, they had electrical & furniture departments, as opposed to the normal Woolworths type store.

Big W this was an attempt at outer town shopping. When Big W opened at Catcliffe, it was in the days when Woolworths was part of the Kingfisher group, the same as B&Q and Comet. It was envisaged as a combination of all 3 together with concessions such as Specsavers, Thomas Cook, Carphone Warehouse, Time Computers and Burger King. The whole thing nether really came together, and it slowly went down hill.

Thanks for the info there Stuart. My comments were inspired by RichardB's other question, which Woolworths was split in two? (as in 2 different businesses perhaps) but I don't think we're any closer solving that one.

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Thanks for the info there Stuart. My comments were inspired by RichardB's other question, which Woolworths was split in two? (as in 2 different businesses perhaps) but I don't think we're any closer solving that one.

Woolworths on the Moor used to be twice as big as it is now, the Suprdrug store was once part of the Woolworths Store, see my photo in this topic.

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Most Blue Peter presenters had a dog in tow, one just carried on and did Crufts, they were the 2 I did not like, and surely you can't mean every boys hero John Noakes

That's the unspeakable &%^*£$$.

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Woolworths on the Moor used to be twice as big as it is now, the Suprdrug store was once part of the Woolworths Store, see my photo in this topic.

Didn't know The Moor store had split in two; the other one was Hillsborough, before the Mall was knocked through Woolies was wider, indeed, the side entrance opened into the Mall before SuperDrug or similar took over part of the building.

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Didn't know The Moor store had split in two; the other one was Hillsborough, before the Mall was knocked through Woolies was wider, indeed, the side entrance opened into the Mall before SuperDrug or similar took over part of the building.

A couple of photo's taken today, the 1st shows the extent of the original store, which included the Superdrug shop

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A couple of photo's taken today, the 1st shows the extent of the original store, which included the Superdrug shop

I think you are right here Stuart.

Most Woolworth stores with this long frontage design (clearly seen here in the upper floors that the original building straddles both Woolworths and Superdrug) tended to have the "pick and mix" sweets right behind one of its several entrances. I think the original pick & mix was in what is now Superdrug. the topmost entrance now (ie before last Saturday!!) was the records / CD / DVD section, but this used to be, in the days of proper records and a few tapes, way back in the shop near the restaurant.

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I think you are right here Stuart.

Most Woolworth stores with this long frontage design (clearly seen here in the upper floors that the original building straddles both Woolworths and Superdrug) tended to have the "pick and mix" sweets right behind one of its several entrances. I think the original pick & mix was in what is now Superdrug. the topmost entrance now (ie before last Saturday!!) was the records / CD / DVD section, but this used to be, in the days of proper records and a few tapes, way back in the shop near the restaurant.

I was there in the days of vinyl and tapes, the record section was near the entrance to the side street near Burtons - opposite Fanny May's.

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I was there in the days of vinyl and tapes, the record section was near the entrance to the side street near Burtons - opposite Fanny May's.

Yes that's right Richard, the same entrance led to the restaurant as well, through the doors on the side entrance, up (or possibly down) a short section of stairs and then straight on into records & tapes, turn right into restaurant.

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I was there in the days of vinyl and tapes, the record section was near the entrance to the side street near Burtons - opposite Fanny May's.

Fanny May's the American mortgage lender had a store in Sheffield! or was a slip of the finger, did you mean Violet May's?

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Thanks for the info there Stuart. My comments were inspired by RichardB's other question, which Woolworths was split in two? (as in 2 different businesses perhaps) but I don't think we're any closer solving that one.

Many Woolies were split in two when the Kingfisher company bought Superdrug and used some Woolies space to expand the Superdrug estate of stores. I was working at the store in Doncaster, Frenchgate Ctr at the time. The Store Manager was Stuart Thompson who had previousy managed the Sheffield Haymarket Store.

I later moved on to manage Woolies stores in Thorne and Alfreton.

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Thanks for the info there Stuart. My comments were inspired by RichardB's other question, which Woolworths was split in two? (as in 2 different businesses perhaps) but I don't think we're any closer solving that one.

Many Woolies were split in two when the Kingfisher company bought Superdrug and used some Woolies space to expand the Superdrug estate of stores. I was working at the store in Doncaster, Frenchgate Ctr at the time. The Store Manager was Stuart Thompson who had previousy managed the Sheffield Haymarket Store, the team in Doncaster were a great set and we had some great times..

I later moved on to manage Woolies stores in Thorne and Alfreton.

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Fanny May's the American mortgage lender had a store in Sheffield! or was a slip of the finger, did you mean Violet May's?

Yep, he meant Violet Mays. Richard seems to have this habit of altering names a bit to confuse the issue.

But as we all knew at the time if you wanted something that was not mainsteam music and Woollies didn't have it in the shop all you had to do was walk out that side entrance, across the street into Violet Mays and it was almost guaranteed that she had it.

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Guest Reddles

Speaking as the 1981 'girl on the record counter' I can tell you I was too busy getting the orders right for the top 20 to worry about losing any business to Violet May. If you were cool you went there first anyway!

You're absolutely right before they moved it, the record counter was tucked in a little corner by the cafe. Sometimes it felt like I never saw the light of day!

Very fond memories of Woolworths, I cut my teeth on the world of work for a year before going off to persue a career in the health service. The staff were very patient with me, given that it was patently obvious that retail was not going to be a strength of mine. (and the canteen was great!) Stock taking was a bit scary downstairs.

Ahh life was so simple then!

Reddles lol

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Speaking as the 1981 'girl on the record counter' I can tell you I was too busy getting the orders right for the top 20 to worry about losing any business to Violet May. If you were cool you went there first anyway!

You're absolutely right before they moved it, the record counter was tucked in a little corner by the cafe. Sometimes it felt like I never saw the light of day!

Very fond memories of Woolworths, I cut my teeth on the world of work for a year before going off to persue a career in the health service. The staff were very patient with me, given that it was patently obvious that retail was not going to be a strength of mine. (and the canteen was great!) Stock taking was a bit scary downstairs.

Ahh life was so simple then!

Reddles lol

Thanks for the confirmation of our information there Reddles. Nice to get the info from someone who was definately "in the know" because they actually worked there. The road outside that I casually mentioned as being a side street off The moor is of course Matilda Street.

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