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You should meet my partner, Kev. She is undoubtedly the 'Orange Sticker Queen'.

There are no challengers. ;)

Dinner tonight will probably consist of aubergine, fish fingers, kumquat, toothpaste, chilli chicken breasts, shaving foam and a free paper. (Kidding)

Don't get me started on competition wins.

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There exists a truly horrific photo of me in my balaclava and NHS glasses, with my late sister in her NHS glasses, being rather too closely hugged by a very iffy looking Co-op Santa. I've done all I

The Elizabethan Rooms have some good memories for me also, carni. This is a post that I put on the thread where the photo came from. I'd also love to see some photos of the ballroom because it was wh

i was a floorwalker at coop house during the 90s and have wonderful memories of it especially the staff and some offenders,in particular one old lady in her 70s who stole ladies coats at £40 a time,on

Did the closing of the big Co-op coincide with the opening of the 2 shopping centres in Nottingham? Everyone wanted to shop at these new venues and the Co-op was a long way out for a lot of folks. Not for me with my bus terminus right behind it, but all other bus stops weren't anywhere near the Co-op.

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Did the closing of the big Co-op coincide with the opening of the 2 shopping centres in Nottingham? .

Not really as far as I remember, K. Stand to be corrected on that one but the newly built Broadmarsh Centre had a Co-op department store in it as it's flagship shop. Undoubtedly they were a factor though.

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Does anybody remember an infamous incident in the old Co-op on Upper Parliament Street featuring TV presenter Hughie Green of Opportunity Knocks?

It was reported in the local media that Green, who could be famously obnoxious, started verbally laying into his interviewer on-air in the store, who was also Canadian (might have 'Kid' Jensen, then working for a local radio station).

Some comment that Green took exception to with him beginning a rant about Torontonians or Montrealers at his young interviewer? It might have been around 1974 time.

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the newly built Broadmarsh Centre had a Co-op department store in it as it's flagship shop.

You're correct Stu, the early Broad Marsh did have a big Co-op as its main attraction; but that (in the mid 70s) might've been the beginning of the end for the Co-op. The big Co-op lasted until - I think - around the early 90s when that unit was taken over by Allders. They didn't stay long, and it was then occupied by TKMaxx for a few years. That unit has now been boarded up for at least two years.

Apart from the early days, Broad Marsh Centre has never been a success; it now consists almost entirely of pound shops and sub-pound shops. The well-known names who were there in the beginning have all long since moved out; the only survivors in that category are Boots and BHS.

When the Co-op left Broad Marsh, it was around the same time that they closed Parliament Street, so it seems they were getting out of the large store format and just concentrating on the smaller places. But a lot of those have also since closed. They don't seem to have gone the Sainsburys/Tesco/Asda way of having large stores with car parks in the suburbs.

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I well remember in the 90s when the Co-op introduced the dividend card. Overnight you could see the prices rising to pay for the dividend !

Co-op management really thought the shopping public must have been really stupid not to notice.

A great pity, the Co-op were a fine company for many years.

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When the Co-op left Broad Marsh, it was around the same time that they closed Parliament Street, so it seems they were getting out of the large store format and just concentrating on the smaller places. But a lot of those have also since closed. They don't seem to have gone the Sainsburys/Tesco/Asda way of having large stores with car parks in the suburbs.

It's noticeable how many small-ish Co-op stores you see dotted around local villages, suburbs and small towns and I had thought this is where the company saw themselves heading. They seem to have a flawed business plan and a serious lack of forethought at the top of the company though. It's notable that we're drowning in Tesco Expresses and the like - replacing the corner shops that they shut down with er corner shops - yet the Co-op didn't appear to see this market - and only applied it in smaller population areas, very generally speaking.

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:) Next time you're passing by the big, old Co-op (that was) at the top end of Parliament Street, take a look up at the building and you'll notice a set of wonderful relief sculptures - sadly an idiot has taken a pot of paint to some of them!

Why is there this lack of pride in some of Nottingham's historical architecture and its features?

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:) CONGRATS CLIFF TON:

What an absolutely wonderful photograph; I'd say late 50's, early 60's - judging by the cars.

Stunning can only be the word to describe the architecture of the Co-op building - what an immense building.

PS: I could spend ages looking at a photograph as interesting as this.

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So true! OK, I'll rephrase that, ah for the days when the hoity-toity could park their cars anywhere! [hoity toity is underlined so I looked at what the computer suggested instead, it was typhoid]

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Smashing photo, brings back so many memories. Ah for the days when you could park wherever you wanted!

Funnily enough I noticed the parking ! You wouldn't get away with that nowadays with the hired Gestapo on hand.

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