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When I left school I started work at the Listergate store in 1972 until 1974. It was a great time but very hard work. All the stock was ordered from a warehouse based at Castleton. Every item of a vas

Everybody over the age of about 40 remembers Woolworths on Lister Gate, especially its massive cafeteria, which was bigger than most shops. In the 60s they seemed to have stores all over Nottingh

i remember Woollies down bottom of Hockley mam would take me and sister to Sneinton Market going from City Centre up to Thurland St. then down Hockley passed Wigfalls, (pay rental on Telly set), and i

I can remember "little Woolworths" as the Hockley shop was known. Well-worn wooden floorboards, Elf and Safety would have a dickey-fit if they were like that today!

The thing I remember most about that store in the 50`s was the amazing numbers of smells(not unpleasant) from the various counters and the huge selection of sweets.Used to visit each Saturday after visiting Marsdens to pick up the once a week cakes for Saturday tea.(on lower Parliament St.) Funny how trivial things bring back happy memories.

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hi curly99

the LP's with scantily clad ladies in swimwear you refer to, were they the annually released Hot Hits records if so i have about half a dozen of these left behind by my dad when he emigrated in 1988

fhc782c

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Yes Davidw I have heard the same said before, i didnt buy these records myself my dad let them behind when he emigrated 25 years ago and theyve been in a cupboard ever since and never been played

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MFP part of EMI did produce the Hot Hits series that were covers of hits produced by studio artists but also were better known for re-issues of "older" albums by well known EMI artists at a budget price.

I've still got my vinyl LP of Beatles at The Hollywood Bowl that was on MFP and a cassette of Lennons , Mind Games and probably others too if I searched .

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_for_Pleasure_(record_label)

One of the best known artists to do cover versions of hits on the Top Of the Pops series was Elton John , before he was successful in his own right . I met another guy that sang on these at a Brian Wilson concert years ago, called Tony Rivers later of Tony Rivers and The Castaways . He did a lot of Beach Boys covers.

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When Elvis died , I learned of his death from the morning TV news just before going to work at Asda where at the time I was in charge amongst other things of L.P's.(way before CD's).

As many will remember , before his death Elvis wasn't selling that many records and a good number of them were for sale on the budget label Pickwick , for 19/11 pence or whatever .

The Pickwick / Hallmark albums used to be merchandised by a van-salesman who would take away slow sellers and replace them with new stuff .

I happened to know where the rep kept his stock at a lock- up somewhere near the law courts in the Lace Market and getting into work , I persuaded the store manager to let me go and visit him at his depot in town to see if I could bring back some albums to sell....hoping that I would find him there before his daily run .

Luckily he was there but hadn't heard about Elvis' death , so we had a good root round his shelves and dug out 100s of albums , filled up my Cortina and by 11 o clock I was back and had merchandised a huge rolling cage/ dump bin with a mass display and was feeling really proud of myself......feeling didn't last long though .

The first customers seeing all these albums said "Bugger me the b******s couldn't wait for him to die so that they could get rid of all their old albums !!!"

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Ironic, FW Woolworths started in the USA and I don't think there is one single branch over here now. They were still big in Australia when I lived down there, but I think Dick Smith bought them out.

Woolworths is one of the biggest grocery and variety stores in Australia now John.( probably the biggest actually)

They bought out Dick Smith but have now sold it to another company.Probably because it didn't make the millions of dollars that they thought it would make.

Dick Smith now manufactures a yeast extract procuct to rival Vegemite,several conserves and peanut butter.All of these products are on the shelves of Woolworths supermarkets.

Baz :ninja:

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I Remember the one on Hockley didn't it have a wooden floor?

Did all Woolworths have a wood floor? I am pretty sure the one in Bulwell did and the Big one in Nottingham.

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yes you ar right all woolworths had the wooden floors and the same kind of wooden counters with little glass deviders to seperate all the different stock on the top of the counter and you were only surposed to have so much of each thing on the top at one time rest of your stock was in boxes on selfs underneath this was for 2 reasons to display everything and cut down on shoplifting of certain expencive or popular shoplifted items such as makeup or certain stationary items tights and stockings was another onemost of the bars of chockolate and sweets were behind glas so did not get stolen very often at woolworths. the first job in the morning was to take off the dust covers them polish the counter and fill up the stock you had to be on the floor for 8..45 and hope that you were not too busy till about 9.30 when you were expected to have finishedthose jobs and then you check your stock to order fron the wearhouse what you need for under the counterthat had to be ready by 11am if you were not realy busy but if you were you had untill 12noon to get in your orders these would then come up or down from the wearhouse in the afternoon or if you were late getting them in maybe first thing in the morningfor you to get them behind your counter and onto the shelfsif your counter was busy and others werent you used to help out each other by working two counters while they put there stock away but you had to go back to your own counter as soon as you had a customer and serve your customers. and when on the shop floor you were always caled by your sir name never your first name miss mrs mr whatever. the last job at night when the doors closed or if you went busy serving was to sweep out behind your counter and put on the dust sheets sweep round your counter then to a certain point were the cleaning lads came to sweep it all up and then the would mop dry and polish the floors ready for the next day this was a hard job as was said before most of them were very well worn with lots of splinters of wood sticking up every three or four months they were sandedto try and cut back on accidentsthis was always done saturday nights and sunday so the shops could stay open and one of the cleaners had to be there to supervise .

when we polished the wood on the counters we had to use a certain brand of liquid polish smelt realy nice but if you got too much you could end up on a high.took them ages to find out what it was and they eventually changed the polish we used.

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The one in Long Eaton certainly had the well worn wooden floor! I remember it being the major source for Airfix kits. Poorly lit too!

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In my mind Woolies on Hockley will forever be associated with plastic Dalek models. As a Dalek-mad six-year-old I'd pester my mum to make a detour from her usual around town shopping route so we could get another one for my collection.

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Arnold,Sherwood,Hyson Green.

That was Front street Arnold...nearly opposite Winchester street Sherwood....and Hyson Green near the lights on Radford Road...I think Boots took That one over when it closed years ago.

There was one in Hucknall, think it closed down late 70s early 80s. It was split into 2 shops and is now poundstretcher on one half and superdrug the other

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Well remember the Woolies on Listergate. Also remember in the early fifties seeing a branch in the centre of Derby, I think we were enroute to Blackpool possibly changing trains there, not sure. I remember pointing it out to my parents, stating words to the effect "Wow, they've got a Woolworth's here as well". Obviously under the impression that the only one in the world was our shop in Nottingham. Couldn't have been more than six or seven at the time.

Been racking my brain all morning and can't for the life of me think of what we were doing in Derby. Travelled everywhere by train then, Dad was on the railways (LMS) and we got free tickets. With me Mam, Dad and six kids they were worth having. But LMS ran to Manchester and Blackpool, I think. We would change trains in Lincoln (LNER) if going to Skeggie, Cleethorpes or Mablethorpe. But Derby??

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Strange Alison - the Woolworths in Derby town centre (it wasn't a city in those days - nah, nah ni-nah, nah !) was a long walk (or trolleybus ride) from the Midland station, so it wouldn't be a natural place to be when changing trains - unless you were going from Midland (LMS) to Friargate (LNER) - or, of course, changing to a bus for some non-railway connected destination.

Lincoln would be the changing point for Cleethorpes (again change stations - from St Marks [LMS] to Central [LNER]) but Skeggie and Mablethorpe you would normally go from Vic.

My dad also worked on the railway - although in British Railways days. You got one "foreign" pass per year - foreign meaning it could be used on other regions (previously companies) than the one you worked for. We tended to use that for holidays to Cornwall or Scotland. Penzance would be a start from Midland just before midnight on Friday, changing at Derby and Bristol, getting to Pz around 2 o' clock Saturday afternoon - what a marathon.

In addition to free passes you were allowed unlimited quarter fare privilege tickets ("PTs") - although for many years you had to get an order form in advance, made out and authorised by your staff office - and you exchanged this for the tickets at the booking office.

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Yes, if you could see Woolworth's in Derby you must have been going from one station to the other. Surely it would have been from Friargate to Midland, from where you could get to various seaside places - may have been Blackpool, or how about Llandudno?

So would it have been more convenient from where you lived to get a train to Friargate and change stations in Derby rather than go to Nottingham Midland and set off from there simply changing trains as necessary without having to cross Derby town centre?

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In those days you could have got a direct bus from Derby Midland Station to Friargate Station and it would have gone past the old Woolworths.

"But Derby" can understand that, even the luftwaffe didn't like going there

Absolutely! Words cannot describe how awful it is. It may be a city by name but certainly not in stature!

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