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More a national company of course and today alot of fuss being made of some new "green" headquarters or whatever with talk of the co ops wanting to become the best supermarkets in the uk, there will have to be vast price reductions in my opinion for that to happen! A typical example being a certain brand of bread at £1.85 at the co op with identical loaves at another well known supermarket only £1

My memories of a certain branch in the late 1950's/early 1960's were of a great youth club above the shop, however looking back realise now such seemed to be a recruiting ground for the labour party at best, maybe even the communist party as I recall visits by some strange "beatnik types" giving talks even lectures re their visits to East Germany and Russia with praise on how good things were there!

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Nothing could beat the Co-op Big Store at the top of Parliament Street: for shopping whether it be groceries, clothes, material, furniture, carpeting - jewellery at one time for a meal or just a c

My dad worked at the co-op until he was old enough to be called up. I laughed at one of the tales he told me. Apparently a very posh lady came in and asked if she could purchase a garden seat with a c

I've never tasted snuff. LOL. But you are right. The Ultra left/communist/Marxist movement try to get into everything. Just about everything of influence in this country has someone from the Left in

The Co-op bleat on about some of their "Fairtrade" products as being the in thing. Well don't buy their coffee, it tastes like snuff.

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I've never tasted snuff. LOL. But you are right. The Ultra left/communist/Marxist movement try to get into everything. Just about everything of influence in this country has someone from the Left in high places - BBC - RSPB just to name 2.

It seems that there is so much trying to destroy or have already destroyed this country. The left wing unions have destroyed our industries by knowingly pricing us out of the international market with strikes and huge pay rises. Grammar schools were the means of getting highly intelligent working class kids up where they should be, running the country's industries. Now clever kids from housing estates are thwarted from the start by having to attend schools where kids are unruly or don't speak English. Law and order has been broken down by politically correct nonsense thus taking away the discipline needed to breed into children the self discipline needed to be successful in life.

The list is endless.

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I well remember a few years ago when they introduced the Divident Card.

You collected points on their own brand products, which could be redeemed again on co-op only products. 10% I think.

What a RIP OFF you could see their prices being inflated to cover the discount.

The Co-op must have thought the public was stupid.

Also Co-op ethical banking, don't make me laugh.

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Since they decided to close their department stores and concentrate on food only, they must be sitting on millions of pounds worth of property which nobody wants.

Thinking of the large stores which are now boarded up, Long Eaton, Ilkeston, Chesterfield and Derby which is four storeys high but so old fashioned inside, it would need a fortune spending on it if anyone were to take it on, which I think is highly unlikely.

In the past, I think the Co-op have been reluctant to dispose of property, even when they've finished using it, for example they still own a large part of Ripley, but what do you do with big town centre shops which nobody wants?

They sold their Mansfield department store to Beales some years ago and it seems to be doing ok. It goes to show it was Co-op management who just weren't up to the task!

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I remember working on the New Co-op Broadmarsh store in the mid 70s.

The day it opened, in the window was a glass topped coffee table with twinkly lights, Price £399.

A lot of money in those days!

Coop management never really have a clue what the public want.

Food prices?

I did view a house for sale by a senior Co-op manager (not Nottm Coop) and spoke to her about being formally employed by them and their now high prices.

Her reply was, "well you pay for convenience of a local store"?... About sums up the attitude of Co-op management. They have the buying power, and could compete easily with Morrisons ASDA etc, and still remain 'Local'

I fear that many Co-ops will disappear in the years to come.

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Co-Ops are really expensive. You're paying over the odds for the convenience of having a local store open till late.

On a side note, the Co-Op used to be everywhere - not just shops. They had lots of land in Nottingham.

I played football for CWS Colts. A Co-Op football team. They had a load of football pitches in Lenton opposite the Three Wheatsheaves pub. Long since built over.

I also worked one summer for the Co-Op electrical servicing department at Oakdale Road, Carlton.

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When I was a schoolkid, my mum used to get her divi and buy our school uniforms with it.

When it changed to stamps it was open to abuse by employees. I should know, I worked at the Co-op garage on Wollaton Vale in the evenings (when I was a Co-op Milkman in the morning) during the 1970s and any stamps not claimed by the customer were shared out.

Co-op used to be a respected name at one time, but it seems to me it is being used for the wrong reasons.

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The Co-operative has abandoned its Christmas payout for seven million members as it struggles with banking debts.

A dividend worth £8m to members ranging from grocery shoppers to current account customers was an expense that could not be justified, the group said.

Instead, members will receive 10pc vouchers that can be used in food stores in the run-up to Christmas.

If a Co-op member spends £30 they will receive a voucher worth £3 between November 18 and December 15.



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Talking of abuse by the employees . I was a non-food buyer for the Co-op in Ripley in the late 70s. Security was fairly lax to non existant.

I remember I had bought , for a promotion , 50 Royal Albert, china tea sets for sale through the 6 department stores in the area and was amazed how quickly they had gone from the warehouse . Yet when I asked at each store how the sales of these items were going , didn't seem to get a great response . This was in pre-computerised days so it would have been a huge job to trace a paper trail through hundreds of delivery dockets to find which store had what . It was just one line in thousands and I forgot about it .

Months after I left , there was quite a big court case . There was collusion between a warehouse manager and one of the local delivery drivers to supply goods off the back of the van .

Seems someone had bought a washing machine from off the van , rather than the store and it had gone wrong . Van driver said tough , so "customer" shopped them to the management and this uncovered a huge swindle . If you wanted something you asked the van driver and he would supply it at half price or whatever and I guess split the money with the warehouse manager . My tea sets were part of that swindle apparently .

To make it worse the van driver was a J.P.

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Mrs C and I were married August 1968, and in the week prior to the wedding we did our first ever grocery shop at the Food Hall in the "Big Co-op" on Parliament Street, and to us it was exciting to be able to put in the trolley items which weren't available in the local Co-op in Ruddington, and we did look on the Food Hall as a poor man's Burtons !

We did use the local Co-op in Ruddington afterwards, along with all the local shops in the village, Wrights butchers, Cox's grocers, Thomas's green grocers, Horspools bakers etc, but gave up the Co-op on acquiring our first car, as we could then get down to GEM, soon to become ASDA, in Bridgford.

Now we tend to use the Co-op for the "forgotten" items from the Supermarket shop, and look out for the bargains in the Co-op which might be on offer when we pop in, which can be worthwhile, though they are on the whole pretty price as most of you state.

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Ah, the good old Co-op!

I worked for them for years, 23 of 'em from about 1962.

I still (as will so any others) remember me 'Dividend Number'.

When they went from Nottingham Cooperative Society to Greater Nottingham Cooperative society, they started to build the food superstores - and yet they had still not paid off their loan to the CWS for financing Bracebridge Drive and Coop house - but they loaned even more for the new stores.

I worked as errand lad, working up to store manager, and remember the old counter stores where we had to wrap 28lb blocks of lard, 60lb tubs of Danish butter, cheeses etc - open the boxes of dried fruits and pack in bags, loved boning and slicing the bacon and cooked meats.

I worked at most of the branches, as for a few years I was on 'Relief duties' when people were on holiday, sick, or new stores were being opened.

One memory that never fades if of the 'new' Castle Donnington store being built. We had to carry the food from the old store (No refrigeration counter store), into a temporary wooden store while the new one was being built. I was emptying the bacon cupboard, and slung a side of bacon over me shoulder, and carried a smoked gammon as I carrried them over the planks to the temporary store - and found maggots from the bacon were happily ensconcing themselves in all me crevices! Haha... memories, I've got so many of the Co-op, some good, some bad, some sad.

Perhaps someone else has some from 1963 to 1985 to share?

Hey-ho.

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Welcome to The Forum TGC, it's good to hear your memories of the old Co-op, you'll find plenty of other memory jogging moments on here.

Keep posting and dig back through the cornucopia of memories on all parts of the site.

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Mega Nottstalgian:

I finished my career with the GNCS at the Food Hall in Co-op House, having had a few stints there in the 60's.

The trade fallen off so much, and it was hard work making the place pay.

Thanks very much for the welcome Sir - I hope to contribute regularly, time and the arthritis allowing of course. I love reading and hearing of others experiences of Nottingham.

Take care all.

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Co-Ops are really expensive. You're paying over the odds for the convenience of having a local store open till late.

On a side note, the Co-Op used to be everywhere - not just shops. They had lots of land in Nottingham.

I played football for CWS Colts. A Co-Op football team. They had a load of football pitches in Lenton opposite the Three Wheatsheaves pub. Long since built over.

I also worked one summer for the Co-Op electrical servicing department at Oakdale Road, Carlton.

By gum more memories prompted here.

I one played (as late substitute/replacement) in an NCS Butchery footy-match against 'Wigfalls' (Radio & Electrical) on one of those pitches.

We lost 3-0, I broke an ankle, and had me wallet stolen that day.

Indeed my happiest period at the Co-op, was at the Greengrocery and Wet Fish store on the corner of Nuthall Road. A rare sucess for me, as I got the sales up 40% - then got demoted to the Food Hall in Co-op House when they opened the Bulwell superstore, and sales forced the closure of all the three stores on that site.

Huh!

All the best midducks!

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Hi TGC, welcome to the forum and let's have more of your reminiscences of Notts.

You'll enjoy you reself here, never a dull moment. A bit heated at times, but that's the whole point !

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My dad worked for Long Eaton Coop from about 1958 to 1968 - and I worked for them as an order boy from about 1966 to 1969. In those days, the Coops were the only "supermarket" around, and were still supplied by their own bakery, dairy and slaughterhouse. Good quality foods at reasonable prices - and, of course, the divi! It seems to me that in the late 70's, as places like Tesco started to appear (the first one I knew in Long Eaton was in 1968), the Coop didn't seem able to adapt to the cut-price model that the new supermarkets offered and, unfortunately, the public always seem to shop price before quality, so the old Coop model was doomed.

Its a pity. The idea, when they were formed, was to give buying power to the lower paid workers for access to good food and services. It was hugely successful and often became the focal point of small towns all across the country - especially the north - providing retail services for almost everything as well as funeral services and, typically, building and house maintenance services. They must have employed hundreds of thousands in the various branches - everything from farm laborers to accountants and office workers.

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