General Chat

Watched him on a prog about .the way shopping has changed .not many corner shops today .but when i was younger use to be a hardware shop .they sold everything including kitchen sink ..it wasnt just shop area .they had basement & upstairs room. would have been a nightmare stock taking .but if you asked for an item staff new were it was :-D supermarkets are ok for price .& everything under one roof .folk are so busy now .suppose easy is better .i know things change .but give me a local shop & a bit of a natter anytime :-) Barbara

I had a local village shop in West Cornwall - we opened every day of the year including Christmas morning in case anyone had forgotten anything. We delivered to the elderly and sponsored the village football team and cricket team as well as donating prizes to the village school and pub charity auction.....then the people who reckon 'every little helps' opened up 3 miles up the road and within a year or so both the village shops were consigned to history :-(

Thankfully we still have an old fashioned hardware store.

My local greengrocer often beats the supermarket on prices such as cucumbers, cauliflowers etc and you get a better service. Alot of his produce his grown locally as well such as the potatoes.

When I first left school and started work you had to do your shopping at lunchtime because the shops would be shut when you left the office

Do you think people really are any more busy now or have we just been told by marketing executives that we are?

*Likes Sharon's post*

:-D

Where I was brought up we had a similar hardware store, it was run by the father and his three sons, it had been passed down through the generations.

There was also a family run grocery business, all dried goods were sold loose in whatever weight you wanted, bacon was cut on the bacon slicer in front of you to the thickness you wanted, butter came in a barrel and was shaped with butter pats in the weight you asked for, biscuits were sold loose from tins. all the cold meats were home cooked in the back of the shop, coffee was ground and blended to your request as was dried tea.

The smell in the shop was delicious & the customer service was excellent as the staff went out of their way to make sure you got everything you asked for, nothing was to much trouble. My gran did all the shops laundry and when rationing was still in force on some items, she always got a little bit more than what her coupons allowed ;-)

Happy Days :-)

Good point Sharron .i have two sons & husband.I worked only when my children started school..a lovely retired neighbour .if i wasnt home looked after them for an hour. did my shopping in local shops on my way home .looked after elderly parents in -law .we got on with it ,a lot less money than today .re local shops .the council near us have just turned down application for supermarket near our sm town .we have Aldi .Sainsburys .Cost cutter.Co.op & a few local shops .the land was on a farm .so farmer would be a happy man, .but never mind the impact on local wildlife & traffic would increase. there you go progress .no doubt the developers will apply again .cant stop times a changing .but family values to me have gone, its each to there own today .I will put me soap box away now, enjoy rest of your day Barbra :-)

We still have an old established family run hardware store in my local market town.
My OH often finds things there that he can't get in places like B&Q, and their advice is invaluable.

I note Tesco are planning to do something with a few of their massive big "sheds" called Tesco Extra stores. Because of internet shopping and the success of their intown Tesco Metros, they have surplus footage. And they are turning some of this over to be a of service to the community.

Didn't read all about it, but remember one plan was to have free education for customers about things like cooking and home economics. And no doubt "rush around" places for unruly children. I am sure they will widely consult local people to make sure it is a useful community facility.

There are still quite a few of these hardware shops in the Rhondda. Also butchers and fruiterers. And they are still surviving, depite the arrival of A*** and Mo******** in last 6 years. The dreaded application of Tesco for a store in Treorchy is being bitterly opposed. That might zap the last remaining proper shops that still cling on. :-(

We had an old fashioned fruit and veg ship when I was a youngster. the owner would open up in the morning and wheel his display out the front of the shop and didnt mind too much if people handled the fruit to see if it was fresh . Fruits like apples etc.

When there was a potatoe shortage post WW2 and he managed to get spuds in he rationed em to X lbs each customer so was fair shares BUT he knew we were a BIG family and turned a blind eye to several older kiddies lining up in the queue to get the allotted ration of potatoes per customer.

He and his wife knew my mum on a christian name basis , not sure how cos we dont seem to have any family connection , but he was the old type of shopkeeper who looked after his regular customers

Mum used to call him Fred Ollis but since found he was Frederick Hollis .

I think the 'good old fashioned' hardware emporiums have survived, we have a couple of good local ones and often spot them when holidaying around the UK.
There are also a few locally run shops and old family run businesses. If you've got them, use them or lose them!

That's very true . use em or lose em is very apt .

We had a local DIY family run business where you got excellent service and knowledge that you could never find in the big DIY stores that did open up locally.

We havent done any DIY for yonks cos hubby isnt able to now but were sad to see that the store had closed down after 50plus years of trading cos they couldnt compete with the superstore prices locally.

To us saving time an fuel driving to a superstore was a better deal paying the slightly higher price at the family store BUT seems everyone didnt do their sums the same way .

Sad to see local shops pushed out the way for big monopoly company's

Sharon - no we are not more busy than before but Yes I do believe that many people far more 'time poor' than before.

More women now work full time out of necessity not like before for 'pin money'. And more and more people in the workplace put in longer hours and often for no extra monetary gain.

Travelling to work can often take several hours out of everyone's day.

When I worked I left home at 11-11.30am and did not get back home until 11pm. It would take me 1 1/4 hrs both ways, many people are surprised at how busy London's streets are at night. The only time my journey was shortened was during half term (odd even for that time of day!). This was driving. If I wanted to use public transport it would have taken around 10 minutes less, providing the trains connected at the buses at each end were regular!

So housework was done in the mornings, shopping on Saturdays (a nightmare). Whenever I could I would try to do shopping on the way into work to save on Saturday trips.