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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

Re #25:

I recall the old NCS reopening the small closed down food shops under the name of KrazyKuts (or something similar).

I worked for a few days on relief at the one on Hartley Road. Almost opposite the cinema.

It was hard not to ask the customers for their divi-number when serving them. The range of foods was cheaper, but much more limited.

The manager at the time, found a first world war German helmet in the loft... after the roof fell in.

Rough and ready there. I had to go down in the cellar to stoke the boiler for heating.

They still sold the Wheatsheaf bread, Pelaw soaps etc, a little cheaper.

Years later, when the Co-op trading stamps were issued - it was the devils own job to sort out if the right amount had been issued, and the exact amount left to balance the figures every week.

Re 28#:

I joined nostalgia it seems years ago, but the computer crashed - so like a flash I got a new one 2 years later.

Cheers all.

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My dad joined the CWS in 1958 as a rep for butter,margarine etc, He had a company car and he went to all the smaller CoOp tores from kegness in the east to stafford in the west theYorkshire border in the north and Leicester in the south. When he retired in 1980 he was replaced by 3 reps. He always had a soft spot for the Coop but he stated that when they bought a chief executive in from Fine Fare the rot had set in. His divi number was 33567.

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Presumably the same reason they also closed many of the smaller ones...they just seem to want to run the business down and get rid of as much floor space as possible.

Looking at how empty Broad Marsh Centre is these days, I think the Co-op got out at the right time. If they hadn't closed when they did, they would certainly have done so by now.

I guess Parliament St closed due to the "out of town" change in shopping habits. It's just that the Co-op didn't relocate themselves to a Retail Park somewhere on the outskirts.

Same reason that people like Woolies and Burtons disappeared.

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The Sunday papers and news bulletins are still full of this farce whereby ex Co-Op chairman Paul Flowers was caught buying Coke, Meth and Ketamine.

It turns out that this guy, who was in a position of great responsibility, had no financial experience whatsoever!

How the hell did he end up in charge of a bank holding billions of pounds of people's money ? He was also a Labour member of Bradford Council and a member of the industry and finance board for Labour.

Clearly he knew how to work the system.

Appearing before a committee of MPs earlier this month, Mr Flowers appeared to have "no grasp" of "basic" facts about the Co-Op bank and, in fact, had no experience in finance at all. Facts that were made clear to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) who still went ahead and approved his appointment.

It beggars belief.

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I noticed yesterday, the store at the corner of Melbourne Rd and Nuttall Rd is closed and boarded up.

Sainsburys is opening a local store on Bramcote Lane in the row of shops near the top of Woodbank Drive.

More bloody congestion!!!

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I noticed yesterday, the store at the corner of Melbourne Rd and Nuttall Rd is closed and boarded up.

Sainsburys is opening a local store on Bramcote Lane in the row of shops near the top of Woodbank Drive.

More bloody congestion!!!

Mornin' basfordred. Hope yer okay.

I also managed the Co-op Fruit and wet fish shop on Aspley Lane, near the island for few years. Happy days (Wot wur they eh?)

Congestion seems endemic all over at the moment dunnit?

Cheers

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I worked for the Coop Building and Engineering Department Abbey Street Lenton as an apprentice/electrician, 1968-1975.

I worked on the New Broad Marsh Department Store.

1973-4, There was a plan to build a store on the SW corner of Gregory Blvd/Radford Road.

I believe it was shelved due to the Broad Marsh plan?

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:biggrin: 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 cup of tea in one of their restaurants (one on the top floor, one on the bottom)

for records (a listen before you purchased in a record booth)

a special occasion celebrated in one of their reception rooms: the 'Elizabethan Room'

a Saturday night dancing and watching the latest pop group ('The Merseybeats', 'Herman's Hermits') in an even bigger 'Elizabethan Room'

You even had the chance of marvelling at the impressive Art Deco staircase - is it still there I wonder? - or simply browsing around the vast store was enjoyable.

Glory Days of the Co-op remembered........................ :biggrin: .

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When I was a security guard back in the 90's I loved working at co-ops when the alarms had conked: I got £5 an hour, (before min wage came in) could read all the magazines & papers, nice comfy snap room (usually) & free tea, oh yeah & I had my little portable 7 inch B/W telly to watch (no digital back then so it worked)..

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My mum worked in the accounts office at Co-op house many years ago. She got to know the caretaker and his family who lived in apartments on the premises. She used to tell me about all the little passageways and rooms in that area of co-op house. I wonder if it is all still there.

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One could spend an entire afternoon in the Co-Op Store on Parliament Street. It was an impressive and inviting place.

My Dad took us for a meal once in the top floor restaurant. It was very posh!

My memory of the store is that it was always busy and full of people. We left Nottingham in the late 70's and when I came back to visit years later I was so shocked to see the building almost derelict. Just stood and stared at the place.

Hard to believe that such a popular store had declined to such an extent that they'd had to close it.

As for Broadmarsh...

I'm told that it's mostly boarded up at the moment. The council is apparently going to spend about £50 million on trying to revive it.

I think they'd do better just to knock it down!

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When I was a security guard back in the 90's I loved working at co-ops when the alarms had conked: I got £5 an hour, (before min wage came in) could read all the magazines & papers, nice comfy snap room (usually) & free tea, oh yeah & I had my little portable 7 inch B/W telly to watch (no digital back then so it worked)..

You beat me Sir!

I was at Scan security then, they changed their name to Securex... or had I moved to Sawley security? One of 'em anyway, and the wage was £3.25 an hour.

I've a ton of stories from me security days, ghosts, guns, lose women, accidents, break-ins, the dog I was handling chewing away at me leg etc.... never a dull moment for me. Posted on munitions sites, retail, industrial, colleges, garages, just about everything over the years.

But the 15 hour shifts passed wuickeer for me than the other lads - who never seemed to get a raid, attack or bother when they were on the same sites as wot I wus! Hehe.

TTFN

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